Using vB Publishing Suite for Just CMS

[Guitar Guy]

Hey all, hope all is well.

This may seem an odd subject, but let me just preface everything before I ask my specific question.
I obtained vB several years back to use as a forum (obviously lol) but the sites did not end up going anywhere and the license ended up sitting around for a number of years.

Recently, there is a new opportunity that has presented itself and I have decided to start a sort of blog- initially, that is. Instead of dealing with Wordpress or one of those other templates, I figured "Hey! I have a license for this really flexible software, so I might as well use it!"

I plan on using the CMS section to publish the articles as blog posts (I know I'm reaaaaallllly underusing the software, but when things catch on, I'll enable the forum section again.

Anyways, so I installed vB (4.2.3) on the new site and disabled the blogs in the products and plugins section of vB and would now like to deactivate the "forum" and "what's new?" sections completely (with the ability to reenable them down the road) for the sake of simplicity. More specifically, I want the only tab available on the website to be the "articles" tab.

So how does one go about doing this? The answer's probably staring me right in the face, so excuse me while I bathe in a pool of ignorance here.

Thanks so much in advance!

[Dragonsys]

You can't actually disable the forum, just kind of hide them, by removing all Categories & Forums, in the Forum manager.

In the ACP Navigation Manager, you can disable the tabs, by unchecking the Active box.

[Guitar Guy]

Okay, that works fine. Thank you very much!

[Guitar Guy]

Okay, so instead of creating a new thread, I figured I'd pose my new questions here!

In line with the goals I stated above, I'd like to remove the yellow guest notification (the one that directs them to a FAQ and to register) from the forum. If I'm using this as a sort of blog initially, I don't want to have an irritating yellow block with text fending potential readers off.

I'd also like to hide the "log in" top link from anyone that is on cms section of the website if they aren't logged in. Seeing as this is the only section that would be publicly linked to and used, I wouldn't want anyone to log in there at all aside from me or the person I am working on this website with (again I do realize I'm severely under-using the software, but I have my reasons lol).

How would I go about doing those two things? Again, please excuse my ignorance and I hope you don't mistake my enthusiasm for being brusque. Oh and here is my website if you're at all curious what it is going to look like. I don't plan on activating the forums until the website builds traffic with the articles.

Regards

[Dragonsys]

1. in ACP under Announcements, just disable/remove the one listed there.
2. You would have to use a plugin or template edit (put in an IF statement), in order to hide the login button

[Guitar Guy]

Thanks for the prompt response! After the tip on disabling the announcement/notification- it took me 5 seconds to find it once you pointed it out.

Okay, so I found the section of code that's in the header, and there is no way I'd be able to create correct code to disable it on on cms (without breaking the internet) and only if you're not logged in (too many conditions for my rudimentary understanding). Saying my skills are basic is almost an understatement lol. At least now I know where to find it; I might see if I can get a coder to figure out something for me on a freelancer site.

Thank you again!

[Dragonsys]

I don't have the full CMS so I do not know what the THIS_SCRIPT is for it, but open the content.php file and at the top look for THIS_SCRIPT. then in the template you found, surround the login button section with the below:

<vb:if condition="$THIS_SCRIPT != '[name]'>
CODE IS HERE
</vb:if>

replace [name] with what you found int he content.php file

[squidsk]

Why would you want just the cms? There are plenty of better pure cms packages available, including free ones, instead of trying to customize a vbulletin install to get cms only.