I don't see any code that is registering the variables. Cellarius wrote a really good article that you may be interested in - [vB4] Rendering templates and registering variables - a short guide It will show you the code to register your variables for use in the FORUMHOME template.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kh99
You need to calculate $whattoecho in a plugin that's called when the forumhome page is being displayed. It doesn't do any good to have it in an admincp script - you can't register it to a template from there. If you can build $whattoecho in the forumhome_complete plugin, then that's what you want to do. If there's no way to do it from there, then you'd have to figure out a way to save it in the database and read it back in when you need it.
If you do have the value in the forumhome_complete plugin, if you're using a template hook thenyou don't need to register the variable.
thank you both, i managed in the end to do it with both your help