WebTemplates v.0.1 (Old Version)

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Attention: This version of webtemplates is obsolete since new version (2.xx) is released as of 30.June.2003.

If you are new user, please visit new hack's thread and install that one, not this version.

This thread is active for discussing migration issues and will be closed in the future.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=




Introduction:
Basically this hack allows you create vbulletin powered non-vb pages within vb admin CP and administer them just like vb templates.

Your "webtemplates" reside inside MYSQL and have the same structure as regular vbulletin templates and you edit/modify/delete them inside your Admin CP. You can create as many as you like and display them like:
http://yoursite URL/yourboard URL/show.php?pg=YOUR_WEBTEMPLATE_NAME.

Features of Your WebTemplates:
* You can easily edit/update your non-vb pages from your vb control panel just like vb templates. No need to FTP or smt.
* Simply backup your vbulletin and your entire site (including your webtemplates) is backed up too.
* You can use some vbulletin variables in your non-vb pages, so eg. address your members with their member names in your entire site.
* Your entire web site can mimic your forum's visual interface. All your fonts/colors etc. are kept in your non-vb. pages too. Besides users' style sets apply for your web templates either. So for instance if you have 2 styles, every user will see your webtemplates in the style and colors they are using in the board.
* This hack allows you to specify usergroups/usernames which can or cannot see the page you designed. So your non-vb pages can inherit vb. access permissions. Every webtemplate can have different display permissions for different users/usergroups.
* You can have counters in your pages and show/trace page visits individually for all your pages. Every webtemplate has its own counter.
* You can have "last visitor's name and visit time" in all your pages.
* You can insert fixed header/footer for all your pages.
* The "conditionals" you can set, allow you to design advanced and dynamic web pages, which change themselves according to the conditions you set. For example you can set different texts/page designs IN THE SAME PAGE for different users and every user will only see the text that is addressed to him.

Webtemplates are very easy to create. Just copy paste the HTML code of your page into the webtemplate box, give it a name, click submit and voila, your webtemplate is up and running! By using this method, you can convert your existing non-vb pages into webtemplates with ease too. It is just a matter of copy/paste its HMTML code. Installation of the hack is easy too and the hack will work any version of vbulletin I know.

For Advanced Users: If you want your webtemplates to get data from your database and display it, you have an advanced feature named "webqueries". WebQueries feature allows you to run SQL queries in your MYSQL database and automatically create sorted tables for you which you can add in any WebTemplates. So your non-vb pages can be dynamic and you can have any kind of SQL results (related with vb or not) in any page you want. Webqueries are optional to use and appeals to people with basic SQL knowledge. You can still create webtemplates very easily without using webqueries if you don't know SQL or don't need to query your database in your webtemplate. If you want to play with webqueries, please read and follow instructions CAREFULLY. This hack gives you advanced tools to create powerful and dynamic web pages, so give yourself sometime and learn how to create these pages. I wrote help pages which you can find in your webtemplates section after installation, so please read them carefully and examine sample page's code before pelting me with questions!

If you installed this hack, share your webquery samples in this thread


Fixes and Add-ons:
* If you have than 1 MYSQL databases, webquery section might not work properly. If you encounter any problems related to that issue, apply the small fix in this post.[/COLOR]
* If you want to display your webtemplates in who is online, apply this small hack .
Also there is a small bug with "conditionals" feature of the hack, if you use more than 1 conditional in 1 webtemplate. I guess very few people use this feature but anyway I fixed it in the new release that is in progress..
* If you want your webtemplates search engine friendly and indexed in google or other search engines, read this tip by Piper.

Current version (BETA v.0.1) is NOT actually a beta anymore, it's proven to be working very well in many people's boards and is stable.

I plan to develop this hack. However to enhance it more, I need to change its algortihm which requires rewriting and I wait for VB3 so that the hack will will be competible with VB3 too. That's why development is pending at the moment.


If you install the hack please click install, thank you.

Regards,
Logician //=^))

[indiamike]

MY GOD...you can have my first born child.

This is amazing!!!!!!

I have a feeling that this is going to explode.

Mike

[snyx]

Originally posted by indiamike
MY GOD...you can have my first born child.

This is amazing!!!!!!

I have a feeling that this is going to explode.

Mike

:surprised: I gotta test this one out...

[ptbyjason]

Oh WOW! I didn't think this was a big deal until I saw your reply to neo. Very nice. Great Job. I will try to install this soon. Now I am going to think about something to do with it as soon as I can.

[snyx]

I installed it, its very cool, but a downside it creates FAR too many calls to show.php in my opinion. This hack is great for the site that is 100% its fourms, you can't really build an entire site around this hack, but easily create a bunch of great little pages. Good hack man! 5 Stars!

[Vivi Ornitier]

Ok... WONDERFUL sounding... but what are the down falls... their is always down falls?

[LawnDawg]

Oooh man, did he beat Nakkid to the release? =| I recall nakkid working on somethin similiar to this, vBHome I believe.

But nice job nonetheless Whatever benefits the community.

[Logician]

Originally posted by snyx
I installed it, its very cool, but a downside it creates FAR too many calls to show.php in my opinion. This hack is great for the site that is 100% its fourms, you can't really build an entire site around this hack, but easily create a bunch of great little pages. Good hack man! 5 Stars!

Ok it seems that many people got the pros so lets discuss the cons, shall we?

When you create a page (ie webtemplate) with this hack, it will reside in your MYSQL database. This means that everytime this page is called by your users your site have to relate with MYSQL which will create a overhead (CPU usage) compared to static HTML pages.

If you want to have dynamic (ie changing for every user) pages then you have to bear this overhead because server has to interrelate with something to get and process data to create a dynamic page. This can be SQL DB, another file on the server etc. and in our hack that is mySQL.

If you have a informative static page, there is no need to convert it to a webtemplate. It will be safe and reduce the load in your server if you leave it as a HTML page. However if you need to create dynamic pages which derive their strength from your forum db, then this hack gives you the tools you need.

Well, lets see how much overhead it requires:

First go check your forum's main page's overhead:
call this link (YOUR FORUM URL)/index.php?explain=1

Go at the end of the page and see how many queries did your forum's main page requires while loading.In my forum it's 20 which is a quite reasonable number (at least for vb). (FYI for showthread.php this number is much higher)

Now do the same thing for my hack: (after installation of course!)
Call this link (YOUR FORUM URL)/show.php?pg=whoareyou&explain=1

You'll see that while loading the page, server will connect the database only for 10-14 times which is 1/2 of your forum's main page overhead. I think this is quite reasonable. Moreover if you disable page visit ($count variable), reduce the webqueries in your webtemplate you'll lower this number. So on the average a web template with one Webquery in it will only connect to your MYSQL 10-12 times and that is bearable considering the fact that you get a powerful and nice dynamic (fully integrated with your vb) page in return.

I hope this clarifys this hack's performance issues..

Regards,
Logician

[Logician]

Originally posted by snyx
I installed it, its very cool,

I know many people are interested in the hack itself and its features but honestly my primary concern at the moment is how it's working in different user's forums. Hack is BETA so I need any feedbacks about installation and working issues.

So guys if you install this hack, please report how it is doing in your server? Any installation problems? Does sample page (whoareyou) loads as it should be? Do access permissions working ok (eg. page should only allow admin and forum members to load it, guests for example should get "not allowed" remark). Do web queries in that page work? Do you get your last 10 threads and personal calender events?

I appreciate any feedback. Thank you..

Regards,
Logician

[Logician]

Hey there,

Originally posted by TWTCommish
I'm having a little trouble following it's use, but it looks interesting.

Well it's a bit confusing, I agree :knockedout:

Let me give an example of its usage from my own site:

I administer a non-commercial law site which is dedicated and addressed to professional law men. As you can guess our board (vb) has a crucial effect in my web site because it maintains a very efficient communication among law professionals.

In my forum we also have a "newbie legal questions" forum area which stands for non-lawmen visitors' legal questions. We also have a few informative web pages (outside the board) in our site for these non-lawmen visitors.

After installing my board, I decided to include dynamic content to these web pages which are outside the board. I wanted to compile last 10 answered threads from "newbie questions" area and list them in the web page. This would be nice because this web page would only be read by visitors who are not lawmen and they would be highly interested with the answered questions from this specific forum area and I would get them to this area and my board from this web page.

I first planned to create this page with PHP and but then I noticed that I want to have many dynamic pages like this and it would be arduous to code many PHP scripts individually for every page and more arduous to maintain them in the future.

So this hack was born. Instead of coding many PHP scripts all of which in common compile data from vb with SQL queries (=WebQueries), have the same visual design, headers/footers etc., I wrote this hack that gives me the ground to easily administer these pages. (=webtemplates).

Now whenever I need a web page that requires dynamic content and interaction with vbulletin data, I can create a webtemplate/webquery and although this page is a standart HTML page outside the board, I can have any kind of data from vbulletin in this page. Besides visual design of this page is easier any more, because it's automatically handled by the script according to my vbulletin's styles and colors. If I want I can permit/ban access to this page for certain users or usergroups either. I can even insert hidden personal notes for certain users or usergoups inside this page.

So dont think this hack something that extends vbulletin board features. It extends your non-vb web page features and integrates them with your vbulletin board.

I hope this practical usage of this hack can shed a light about its use and features.

Regards,
Logician

[KuraFire]

Very impressive, and a very good idea. It's a pity my sites will be too complex for this to be useful in my particular case, but I can see this becoming one very very popular hack in time, as the possibilities are seemingly endless, and the usefulness is very high! :up: