How to get this php code into a plugin?

[Gladius2007]

Pretty simple question, but I can't figure it out... the original code is

PHP Code:

  <?php require_once('/home/path/file.php'); ?>
       <?php output_NewestThreads(10,"36"); ?>

I'm using it on a regular php page to display latest threads (properly, not how most hacks do it). I can't seem to get it to work in a plugin though, so that I could use it on the board pages too... I've tried several variants that I could think of, but nothing works (getting blank pages). Can anyone point me in the right direction? Thanks.

[Opserty]

<a href="http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/main/templates_externalfiles" target="_blank">Including External Files</a>

[Gladius2007]

I've seen that, yes, but if you look at the code you'll see that those instructions aren't any help with the output_NewestThreads bit and the code as a whole. This is a bit more complicated...

[Opserty]

PHP Code:

ob_start();
require_once('/home/path/file.php');
output_NewestThreads(10,"36");
$includedphp = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean(); 


Tired that? (use the global_setup_complete hook, global_start is useless when things go wrong).

[Gladius2007]

That's exactly the code I've been trying, but wherever I use it, the page goes blank... I've been using global_start and now tried with global_setup_complete and it was the same thing - completely blank page, i.e. it kills the entire page.

[Opserty]

Hmm, try it on a random page see if it works there. Else put it directly in a vBulletin PHP file temporarily and try it then.

[Gladius2007]

What kind of a random page do you mean?

And which vB file would I be least likely to mess up to test it in? I haven't modified any vB files before and I'm not a coder so...

[Opserty]

Set up a separate test board and develop on there.

(By random page I mean just a normal plain PHP Page)

[Gladius2007]

Ok, I've tried using this code, and I get a blank page on a test page too:

PHP Code:

<?php
ob_start();
require_once('/home/path/file.php');
output_NewestThreads(10,"36");
$includedphp = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean(); 

bla bla $includedphp bla bla
?>

I'm not sure if my code there is as it should be to use on a separate page though.

[Dismounted]

If you want to get the latest threads, you can just query the database.