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]

Hello Logician,
You were spot on. The existing themes ( a ton ) had to be altered into the right format for vb4 from 3. Once that was done, it started to work on those other pages.
Still got CSS issues, and the forum isn't applied to the theme, but those aren't specific to this mod.
Thanks for the assist!
-Spike

[Logician]

Originally Posted by 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?

vb CMS and Webtemplates are seperate pluggins and they will live fine together provided that you don't try to combine them somehow (eg. try to display a webtemplate inside a CMS page etc.)

[brandon515]

Thanks for this...worked for me too!

Originally Posted by zelnik

Fixed... For anyone using completevb vb4 styles you will need to install the seperate CSS XML file and it will work fine!

[halkum]

Logician,
Question for you. With the changes from Vb3 to 4, are there any requirements to get the php code in the php includes section on the bottom of the web templates editor (html template, not php), to call out properly on the page?

Example, $rnd_navbar used to output a php powered navbar using css, but now it's nothing. Php code is still same as it was for VB3.

I've tried the method of registering the variables as described on a KB article here, but no luck.

Curious if you had any suggestions?

[halkum]

Thought I had it fixed with the well written guide at vbteam but it still wasn't working.

So in a html or txt template, if you have php code in the include (worked in vb3 no issue), and call the variables of the function in the template code itself... it doesn't work. According to VB4 info you have to register these variables first as a template or something.

Anybody have any really helpful information on this? I just have a few pages with custom php code in it for a navigation bar/graphic setup that needs to work on the vb4 templates now.

[Gamelobby]

Seems like this would be a common question, but i dont see it anywhere..

Can you apply a different style to a webtemplate.? (not theme, but style) I see in the first entry in the description it says you can apply permissions, styles, etc but im not sure if that means different from the boards default.

Webtemplate is a HTML (or php) page. It is different than your other HTML pages in that you can create them in your vbulletin admin cp and you can integrate them with your vbulletin like applying them vb permissions, styles etc.

Or would i have to create a new "Theme" to use a different style.?
Jeez, that sounds confusing. lol

Thanks

[Logician]

Originally Posted by Gamelobby

Seems like this would be a common question, but i dont see it anywhere..

Can you apply a different style to a webtemplate.? (not theme, but style) I see in the first entry in the description it says you can apply permissions, styles, etc but im not sure if that means different from the boards default.

Or would i have to create a new "Theme" to use a different style.?
Jeez, that sounds confusing. lol

Thanks

Not really but forcing a webtemplate to use a specific style can be possible by using a code like this in webtemplate's phpinclude section:

PHP Code:

    $styleid = 8;
    $vbulletin->userinfo['styleid'] = $styleid;
    $userselect = true;

$style = $db->query_first_slave("
        SELECT *
        FROM " . TABLE_PREFIX . "style
        WHERE styleid = '$styleid'
            
        
        LIMIT 1
    ");
        $templater = vB_Template::create('headinclude');
            $templater->register('foruminfo', $foruminfo);
            $templater->register('pagenumber', $pagenumber);
            $templater->register('style', $style);
            $templater->register('basepath', $vbulletin->input->fetch_basepath());
        $headinclude = $templater->render();

        $templater = vB_Template::create('header');
            $templater->register('ad_location', $ad_location);
            $templater->register('pmbox', $pmbox);
            $templater->register('notifications_menubits', $notifications_menubits);
            $templater->register('notifications_total', $notifications_total);
            $templater->register('notices', $notices);
            $templater->register('facebook_header', $facebook_header);
        $header = $templater->render();

        $templater = vB_Template::create('footer');
            $templater->register('admincpdir', $admincpdir);
            $templater->register('ad_location', $ad_location);
            $templater->register('cronimage', $cronimage);
            $templater->register('languagechooserbits', $languagechooserbits);
            $templater->register('modcpdir', $modcpdir);
            $templater->register('quickchooserbits', $quickchooserbits);
            $templater->register('template_hook', $template_hook);
            $templater->register('facebook_footer', $facebook_footer);
        $footer = $templater->render(); 


I didn't test it, it might require tweaks.

[Gamelobby]

I'm not the best with "tweaks" lol
But i can add a style id.

Where would this code go..?

[Logician]

Originally Posted by Gamelobby

I'm not the best with "tweaks" lol
But i can add a style id.

Where would this code go..?

PHP Include section of the webtemplate that you want to apply the custom theme.

[CappingTheGame]

I am getting a blank, white screen in Admin CP when trying to import:

webtemplate_export.xml

Actually, all of the options under that category on the left result in a full, blank white screen. I uploaded and double-checked all files accordingly. Thoughts?