Portal Software - WebTemplates 4.x: VB Integrated CMS (Content Management System)

(This hack is for vb version 4.x and above. For vb 3.x, version see my profile for relevant threads.)

"WebTemplates" is a vBulletin integrated Content Management System which allows you to create vb integrated "HTML" pages in your vb admin cp very easily. The pages can inherit your vbulletin skin/style, can recognize logged-in user, can be applied permissions per user or usergroup basis, can keep visit logs, hit counts and do many more.


WEBTEMPLATES 4.x BASIC FEATURES:

• Very Easy Installation : Webtemplates can be installed to your board without modifying even a single vbulletin file. It is coded as a vb product and can be imported very easily.
• Apply VB Permissions: You can ban any webtemplate to any user or usergroups easily. So for instance you can design a webtemplate which only members can see while guests can not, or only user A can not see etc.
• Page Counter : Each webtemplate has a built-in counter and you can display page count to your visitors and you can edit it or turn it OFF/ON per webtemplate basis.
• Visitor Logging&Tracking : You can track certain users' (by usergroup or userid) webtemplate visits to see who visited a webtemplate and when. This is configurable per webtemplate basis.
• Site Contributers (Editor) Support : You can grant editing permissions for certain users or usergroups for your webtemplates individually and they will be able to update these webtemplates using their own editor interface. vB's WYSIWYG editor is supported in Editor interface.
• Page Browsers & Who is Online Display: Webtemplates can display who is browsing that webtemplate while visitor is reading them (like default forum browse display of vbulletin). Webtemplate visits can also be monitored in who is online page.
• Header/Footer Inclusion : Webtemplates can automatically use headers/footers (your default vb header/footer or custom ones)
• Help Documents : The script comes with an extensive help document.
• Admin Panel in Webtemplates : Your webtemplates can include an "admin panel" displayed to only admins and by using them you can access many details and stats of your page while you are browsing them.
• SEO friendly URLs: You can make webtemplate URLs seo friendly in vb settings (Requires apache server).
• XML Import/Export : XML Import/Export feature allows you to backup your webtemplates and use other hack users webtemplates in your board.

ADVANCED FEATURES FOR ADVANCED USERS:

• Webquery Feature : With advanced "webquery" feature you can create dynamic webtemplates which include database query results. For instance you can easily add "last 10 threads forum X", "most active users list" etc. to your webtemplates with default webqueries that comes with installation or you can create your custom webqueries with basic SQL knowledge.
• Multi Parsing : Webtemplates can parse PHP or HTML or TEXT (=smilie/img tags/bbcode parsing like vb posts). This means you can design a page just like vb posts (TEXT parsing), standart HTML (HTML parsing) or even in PHP (PHP parsing).
• PHPINCLUDE per webtemplate : Every webtemplate has its own "phpinclude" field which you can run PHP codes before loading the Webtemplate
• Theme Support : Webtemplates support "themes" which are parent webtemplates which include child webtemplates in them. For instance if you have 20 similiar pages which uses the same visual look, you can make a single theme for all of them, then just insert their content into this theme. If you change theme later, all 20 pages' visual will change automatically.
• Conditionals : Webtemplates supports VB3 template conditionals so you can design webtemplates which change their display under different conditions.
• Default variables : You can use/display certain variables in your webtemplates like username of the visitor, visitor email address, last visit time, page creation time, page last edit time, Last visitor name, last visit time etc.

Sample WebTemplates from Sites using this hack:
(Most are from 3.x versions but WebTemplate look and feel didn't change much so all will give you the idea.)

http://www.worldwideknights.com/view_mission.htm
http://www.theadminzone.com/forums/view.php?pg=aboutus
http://www.hystersisters.com/vb2/view_guidelines.htm
http://www.worldwideknights.com/view_info.htm
http://www.hystersisters.com/vb2/view_books.htm
http://www.worldwideknights.com/view_spread.htm
http://www.makeuptalk.com/forums/view.php?pg=makeuptalk-newsletter
http://www.bklab.com (entire site is designed with Webtemplates only)
(Actually this hack is one of the most popular vb hacks so it is used by hundreds -if not thousands- of vbulletin sites and you can easily find them if you go to google and search "Logician's WebTemplates" WITH quotation marks)

If you use the hack, clicking here will make sure you'll know about updates&bug fixes. It will also help me understand how many people is using the hack so please click the install button if you use it. Thank you..

From FAQ 13: Vbulletin already has a CMS now , why would I need this hack?

If you have CMS license, you might not need Webtemplates. On the other hand, CMS license is paid, webtemplates is free and many forum owners don't have CMS licenses.

Also please note that vb has CMS since 2010. Webtemplates was first released for vb2.x in 2002 and it was around in vb3.x, 3.5.x and above for thousands of vbulletin users who have developed their sites around webtemplates CMS. So regardless of new vb CMS owners might or might not need it, Webtemplates 4.x is still realased and supported as a courtesy to its old users and fans. I personally prefer and use Webtemplates over vb CMS and this hack lives for people who agrees with me.

Version Updates:
12.October.2013 - > Version 4.0.2
* Minor fixes for PHP 5.4.x (Fixes "Deprecated: Assigning the return value of new by reference is deprecated" errors in new PHP versions.
14.July.2012 - > Version 4.0.1
* Vbulletin changed WYSIWYG editor parsing in vb4.2.x so hack's editor.php is updated accordingly.
9.September.2010 - > Version 4.0.00
* Hack 4.00.00 is released.

[halkum]

Tried a complete re-upgrade attempt with the templates. Still same issue tho as seen on the tournaments link above. He's got around 200+ existing pages done, all of which are doing the same thing. Otherwise I'd start it from scratch.

Anybody have any ideas to what could cause it?

[Logician]

Originally Posted by halkum

Yep. That's what's odd. Followed them to a 'T'. Overwrite was marked for installing the web templates and query file. So the hundreds of custom made ones in 3.x still exist in full form, just simply are not showing their content, despite it clearly being there.
Example: http://www.thespoils.com/spoils/view.php?pg=tournaments
All content of the template is there (images/side banners), the data that goes in the center white space is there but not showing regardless what's done.

I'm sure I'm missing something but brain dead here.

Absolutely love WebTemplates though. Wish it was in VB from the start

I believe that this page (pg=tournaments) is using a custom webtemplate theme and you probably did not edit this theme to comply with vb4.x template syntax.

Please see which theme this webtemplate is using in edit webtemplate page, and then edit this very theme and make sure its HTML syntax is compatible with vb4.x.

I strongly believe this is the problem but let me know if this is not the case (eg. if this webtemplate is not using a theme)

[Logician]

Originally Posted by SarahScott

It is a wonderful addon. However i pay all my scripts and addons to be brand free.
Because with all the addons i would have like 50 advertisement lines under my page,
that ain't going to happen. I am willing to use this addon, if i have the option to pay
for a brand free version. But since i can't, i have to uninstall it until a solution comes.
I'll never tolerate any advertisement of any kind at my website,
alltho i'm happy to pay you a fee to thank you for creating the mod,
with the return of a brand free version.
My website has been made for charity for good purpose about different things.

As a thank you gesture, I provide ALL donators with instructions to remove powered by tagline regardless of the donation amount they made.

[halkum]

Hmm, you could be right. Let me check on that in the morning - I didn't start on this site so haven't a clue what all adjustments were made . I just know it took a LONG time to upgrade them to the current vb4 a few days ago

Thanks! - I'll check back later.

[SpikedRocker]

I'm having some issues using this. I installed this for the first time and worked my way through the instructions without problems. When I went to follow the how to create your first one, it said something about headers and footers, this didn't show on my backend. When completed my script it spit out a blank html page. So I just did a plain php script of print 'Hello World.'; and it just spit that out, no other forum elements or anything, it looks as if my vB stuff is getting lost somewhere. Heres the page of hello world: http://www.tns-gaming.com/forum/view.php?pg=expenses

Any thoughts?

[Logician]

Originally Posted by SpikedRocker

it said something about headers and footers, this didn't show on my backend.

What exactly did it say?

[Lostboyfan]

Tagged for later.

[SpikedRocker]

Originally Posted by Logician

What exactly did it say?

From the top,

WebTemplate Name
User Friendly Name
Category
Parse Method
Using a Theme?
Template
Search in Template
Display and SEO
-Meta Keywords
-Meta Discription
Page Security
-The stuff that allows me to select usergroups
Misc
-Page Visits
-Logging things
Advanced Features
-WebQueries
-PHP Include
The the date stuff

No where in my template/page creation is the header and footer stuff.

[Logician]

Originally Posted by SpikedRocker

No where in my template/page creation is the header and footer stuff.

It is ok, 4.x version does not have a special header/footer section, it automatically inherits the active style's header footer for WTs.

[SpikedRocker]

Ok, one thing I didn't take into account for is vB's CMS. The guy that holds our vB licence wants to use it for another project, we are purchasing our own now. Would testing this on a Suite vB cause errors?