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.

[Logician]

Originally Posted by Gamelobby

Soooo, It kind of worked.. what tweaks might you suggest..?

Most of it looks good except:
Logo & search button color (both are default skin)

I'm guessing since these are both part of the header, that is what i should be looking for, or to add/change.?

Thanks

I really can't say much about this issue. Since hack displays your style fine in your regular style, the problem should be related to your second custom style. I can't suggest tweaking its header template with the help of a designer (its own skin designer if possible).

[deverill2010]

I have a few questions, sorry I can't read through the whole thread as my eyes are starting to hurt (iPad screen).

I have the CMS but think its rubbish and the navigation Ida headache.

Will this mod allow me to easily create pages, at the moment I'm using Lynne's method which is a pain.

How can I get these pages as buttons on the navbar?

And this works ok with the latest version yes?

[Logician]

Originally Posted by deverill2010

How can I get these pages as buttons on the navbar?

And this works ok with the latest version yes?

Hack does not create navbar buttons automatically. It has a sample webtemplate that lists all webtemplates automatically though for easy navigation.

And yes it works with all 4.x including last version.

[Gn_Snake]

Hello Logician,
i have a problem, yesterday i edited a template and i modified the code html. I saved and the system gives me error.
I do not remember exactly why now I'm not in front of the home computer, but he said it could not be sent because the rejected by the server.

For months we did not do any changes to the templates, and everything has always gone well.

P.S.
I installed VB4.1.10

Thanks

[Logician]

Originally Posted by Gn_Snake

but he said it could not be sent because the rejected by the server.

For months we did not do any changes to the templates, and everything has always gone well.

"Rejected by server" are usually related to "mod_security" configuration in the server. Probably your host has recently installed mod_security.

This is NOT related to webtemplates or any application in this regard actually, it is a server related issue. Whenever you try to send such an information to server, mod_security can stop you when it thinks its content is suspicious.

One alternative is to disable it, the other is to disable it only for admincp folder and use admin cp webtemplate edit to edit HTML webtemplates and last alternative is to play with its (mod_security) configuration to whitelist your content.

[Danai]

Thanks, really helpful

[Gn_Snake]

Thanks Logician, now i check a two solution apply.

Bye

[hugh_]

Logician,

Since I upgraded to 4.1.10 some of my webtemplates generated pages but not all are aligning the whole forum left (not just the text). Any thoughts as to what might be wrong? This is happening in every style...

[hugh_]

Correction, this is happening to all pages generated by webtemplates...

[Logician]

Originally Posted by hugh_

Correction, this is happening to all pages generated by webtemplates...

This looks like a style issue to me rather than hack. Is this a custom style? Have you changed anything with it recently? (especially header/headerinclude/footer templates) Is it compatible with that vb version?