welcome/login panel on non-vB page

I've seen a lot of requests for this around here, but no solutions.

Latest version is 1.30
Works with V2.2.9 Should work with earlier version of 2.2.x too.


OVERVIEW
========
This hack/modification is designed to create a welcome panel on your non-vB homepage, so that users are either welcomed back if they are registered, or invited to login/register if they are not.

There are config options to show avatar and/or PM information and/or who's online (with or without usernames) in your welcome panel.

If you want to see a working example, then go to http://www.thebookforum.com The hack installed there does not show all of its features, but gives a general idea. The templates allow complete control over the look of the login/welcome panel.

There is one PHP file (webwelcome.php) to upload, and ten custom VB templates to create.

The templates can be modified to suit the design of your site. The ones that I have included in the zip file are those that I created for my site.

There are options to include the following additional info
- Avatar for guests or user's own avatar if logged in. If no avatar selected, a default one will be shown. Example guest and default avatars included in this release package.
- PM info to logged in users (will not show if user cannot use PMs or has chosen not to)
- Who's online (number of members of guests). Additional option to choose whether to show usernames.


CREDITS
======
This hack also uses some code originally written by several members of vbulletin.org in particular Firefly and MrLister.

Full credit is given in the php file for the relevent bits of code used. I have modified their code slightly to work with this hack.

I have not formally asked their permission due to the open source nature of the hacks at vbulletin.org
If they object I will remove their code from this hack release.


HISTORY
======
V1.30 13 September 2002
Hack creation now very simple. No more copy & paste. I've changed a lot of the original vb code so copy & paste would be nearly impossible.
Added option to include PM info and who's online (with or without usernames) in the welcome panel.
Default templates included in the hack release altered to include these new options.
New templates for the additional info to be shown.

V1.20 11 September 2002
Added option to include user's avatar in the welcome panel.
Default templates included in the hack release altered to include these new options.
Default templates altered to be more generic.

V1.10 13 May 2002
Fixes the bug where the "most users online...." on the forum page keeps reseting to zero.
Removes a lot of the unecessary bloat from the script.
Creation of script simplified. Now just cut and paste.
NB template name change in this version - webwelcome_home is now called webwelcome.

V1.00 07 April 2002
Original release.

[Darren Lewis]

Originally posted by Colon33
...there is no forums folder just the root.

Then you probably don't need the chdir command, just the require global.php part.

I require that file, and the entire login page appears. Is this normal? I try logging in with this new box that shows up and it says directory not found. Ideas?

[Darren Lewis]

OK, let me see if I can work out what is going on. Have you got the script to work and display the welcome bit with the login box (similar to on my website ) If so, and the login box isn't working it may be due to the paths in the template files

Look in the webwelcome_logincode and webwelcome_logoutcode templates and make sure that the paths to member.php are correct. Because you are on a subdomain, you may need to make the paths absolute ie http://forums.yourdomain.com/member.php etc.. You will need to do this with all the templates (I wrote them for my site and haven't gotten around to making them more generic yet). You may be able to just use $bburl/member.php instead?

You will also need to alter the cookie settings in your admin control panel so that it affects the whole domain rather than just your subdomain (see some of the earlier posts about this).

Darren.

[belorofon]

Hello boardies,
I getting the following Error:

Fatal error: Cannot redeclare stripslashesarray() in /homepages/34/d26705199/htdocs/dsluser/forum/global.php on line 31

On the top of the page I have in my code:

PHP Code:

<?php
chdir("../forum/");
require('./global.php');
?>

If I dont paste this code I have sometimes a header error (can not add header...), but only sometimes...
Could ya help me?

[Darren Lewis]

Hi belorofon

Looking at your website in your profile, you have quite a few other scripts on the homepage.

The error message I got was

Warning: Cannot add header information - headers already sent by (output started at /homepages/34/d26705199/htdocs/dsluser/page/home.php:8) in /homepages/34/d26705199/htdocs/dsluser/forum/admin/functions.php on line 1573

Warning: Cannot add header information - headers already sent by (output started at /homepages/34/d26705199/htdocs/dsluser/page/home.php:8) in /homepages/34/d26705199/htdocs/dsluser/forum/admin/functions.php on line 1573

Did you place the require global.php command at the very top of your page before ANY other code? Also make sure that there are no blank spaces before this code.

Darren.

[belorofon]

If I wrote

PHP Code:

<?php require('../forum/global.php');?>

at the beginning of the side, then I get the following answer fromf the server:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=windows-1252"></HEAD>
<BODY></BODY></HTML>

with other words: nothing :cry:

k guys.. this is what happens when i put that code at the top of my forum:

The entire template for the LOGIN screen on VB appears and distorts eveything with broken images. And i have all the new templates made and i have edited the files properly. It cant be that hard to do with a forum thats a sub-domain.

[FrankR310]

I have installed and it seems to be working...only one prob...if i am logged in and i log out (from the homepage or from the forum)...and then i go back to my homepage..it says i am still logged in...if i hit refresh...it refreshes and then it updates with me as a guest.

similarly, if i am not logged in and i log in...then go back to my homepage..it doesnt say i am logged in unless i hit refresh.

one thing, i had to include the full path to the webwelcome.php in the include.

any ideas on how i can fix the logged in/logged out issue?

thank you so much for the hack!

frank

ps i want to use another hack called logician news on the homepage...will this cause any probs with this hack?

ps for those with vb 2.2.6, this is the version i am using and it worked fine other than the issue noted above. the lines referenced in the install instructions are still valid for 2.2.6.

[Darren Lewis]

Hi Frank, I too have this refresh issue. It's cuased by the browser (IE6 in my case) loading the page from it's internal cache. When you click refresh it loads the page from the server and the correct information is shown.

The way to get around it is have some code in the header of the page which tells the browser not to store it in its cache - can;t remember what that code is at the moment (perhaps someone else will enlighten us).

I'm not sure about Logicians hack. I'm running my own news script on my homepage. Only thing to be carefull with is the paths.

Darren.

[FrankR310]

<meta http-equiv="Cache-Control" content="no-cache">

but it still running into the same issue.

so if you dont hit refresh and it says you are still logged in...am i indeed still logged in on the forum? kinda confused about this.

i wonder if the hack to take the user back to the page from which they logged in will work in forcing a reload? what do you think? i would think this would work on login...not so sure about logout..does that hack take the user back back to the page from which they logged out?

anyway, once again thank you for the hack! i went to your site...very nice..seems like you are pulling info from the forums in two diff formats..."Book News" and "Latest Discussions"...i wanted to do this but the other hack doesnt allow this or i dont know how to accomplish it. i did install the logician hack and all i had to do was specify the full path to the config file. is your news hack available on this site?


frank