Adding to $ad_location

[Sarteck]

Right... So there's no template hook right where I really want to add some stuff. There IS, however, a {vb:raw ad_location.global_header1} seated nicely where it would be perfect for me to add what it is I want to add.

What I've been doing for the past few years is just modifying the header template to stick in my own variable[s], but that gets tedious for two reasons: one, when I download a Style that has a modified header template, it doesn't inherit the change from the Parent Style I stick all my styles under, so I have to manually edit it (in addition, I have to do that each time I update the styles, for multiple skins, and it sucks); two, when I update vBulletin, if there's any modifications to the header template, sometimes the template merge will fail, and I'll be stuck with an "old" header template.


Okay, enough with my reasoning, now onto what I want to do, and what trouble I'm having!


I have a plugin on the parse_templates hook (which is where I usually put my plugins that add to the $template_hook variable) that adds my information to the variables I manually stuck into that header template.

I've tried, a few times, to add to the $ad_location variable, with no success in anything actually showing.

PHP Code:

  global $ad_location;
  $ad_location['global_header1'] .= $cba_main; 


It just acts as if I did nothing. :<



Could someone tell me if there's some kind of magic spell I have to recite to use the $ad_location asI would the $template_hook?