Welcome Panel [Final]

Well, with over 200 downloads and 32 problem free install's, I though it time to take this out of the beta hacks forum (note, there are no changes to the file in the beta forum, so no need to re-download if you already have the hack installed).

I put this together originally as a walkthrough for an admin friend, and thought someone might find it useful. Althouth technically, my contribution is a couple of simple template edits, it does contain hacks posted previously.

Like I said, it's a combination of 2 previously relesed hacks (both credited fully). One by Firefly (avatar hack) and one by MrLister (since your last visit). It combines both of these hacks into a welcome panel at the top of the BB, just like the one here and on a few other sites. I'm pretty much a newbie to vB hacking, and struggled to put this together myself (couldn't find any instructions/hacks etc), but I think I've done an OK job. Maybe this will save a few headaches to others like myself

Anyway, here's a pic to illustrate the hack/edit (or whatever it is )





You can see a working verion of this hack here:

The Genome Collective

Thanks to Firefly and MrLister for providing the PHP hacks in this err, whatever

(BTW, if this is in the wrong forum, please (mods) feel free to move it)

Happy Christmas everyone.

here it is:

edit: updated version number to 2.2.6 because it works There are no changes to the files - it's not a new release. Thanks. /edit

[trilOByte]

Yeah, I'll update it. There are a lot of excellent suggestions for updates from loads of people that can be used. Just waiting for vB3 final to be realeased so we know what templates we are dealing with. I'll see if I can figure out why the avatar code isn't working in the meantime. Though it doesnt surprise me that it doesnt work for vB3 as so much has changed.

[SirSteve]

Oh, I just realized that the "since your last visit" part works on the forum home page but none of the other pages since vb3 has that part on all the other pages now.

[trilOByte]

Yeah, ther's a lot that's changed. Not just the way vB3 handles the call for avatars.

It'll need some thought. Might be an idea to make the navbar with the breadcrumbs and a wel;come panel into one. Not sure if it would be good to see your avatar and all that info on ever page though.

Also... all those "temprary" buttons will likely turn into something or be removed. Another reason for waiting for the final release.

[SirSteve]

Yeah, avatar and the new posts/threads on every page wouldn't be right... I moved the "View New Posts" over next to new posts/threads and made it a text link.

[G.I.JOE?MFA?]

i use vBPortal 3.0b and vB 2.3.0 and wanted the welcome (it worked fine in 2.28 b4 vBPortal was isntalled) it works fine but the avatar isnt being displayed

any fix for that?

VBPortal 3.0b and vB 2.3.0 with welcome panel

heres the site http://dfmafia.net/forums

[G.I.JOE?MFA?]

nm i found it and fixed it

[Oblivion Knight]

[QUOTE]05-01-03 at 07:18 PM eoc_Jason said this in Post #402
Oh yeah, btw.... I was experienceing forum slowdown's, especially during peak time, and it was the worst on the forumhome... well I ran the sql explain stuff and found out that the line:

PHP Code:

$getnewpost=$DB_site->query_first("SELECT count(*) AS posts FROM post WHERE dateline > '$bbuserinfo[lastvisit]'"); 


was causing a major slowdown because there was no index on post.dateline, if you add an index on it (and thread.lastpost for good measure since it has a similar query) you should see a nice speed improvement, especially if you have a good number of posts (my forum is approaching 400,000).

[Courage]

Greate hack.

I modified a lot my Forum Home.

Something useful for you all:

Simple search

On Forumhome template add this whre you want:

	<form action="http://www.softnews.ro/forum/search.php" method="post" target="_blank">
	
		<input type="hidden" name="s" value="$session[sessionhash]">
		<input type="hidden" name="searchdate" value="-1">
		<input type="hidden" name="beforeafter" value="after">
		<input type="hidden" value="0" name="showposts">
		<input type="hidden" name="action" value="simplesearch">
		<input type="text" class="bginput" name="query" onfocus="this.value='';" onblur="if(this.value=='') this.value='username'"> $gobutton<br>
<a href='search.php' target='_blank'>Advanced search</a>
	</form>

Here is the demo:
http://www.softnews.ro/forum/

Also see the attached file

[Cal Poly Forum]

edited. :banana:

Hello,


I have a little problem with this welcome panel..




The online users stuff is messed up


This is my forumhome code

{htmldoctype}
<html>
<head>
	<!-- no cache headers -->
	<meta http-equiv="Pragma" content="no-cache">
	<meta http-equiv="no-cache">
	<meta http-equiv="Expires" content="-1">
	<meta http-equiv="Cache-Control" content="no-cache">
	<!-- end no cache headers -->
	<meta name="keywords" content="vbulletin,forum,bbs,discussion,jelsoft">
	<meta name="description" content="$bbtitle is a discussion forum powered by vBulletin. To visit the forum, go to $bburl/ . To find out about vBulletin, go to http://www.vbulletin.com/ .">
	<title>$bbtitle - powered by vBulletin</title>
	$headinclude
</head>
<body>
$header

<!-- text -->
<table cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="{contenttablewidth}" {tableinvisibleextra} align="center">
<tr valign="top">
	<td><a href="javascript:window.location=window.location"><img src="{imagesfolder}/vb_bullet.gif" border="0" align="middle" alt="$bbtitle : Powered by vBulletin version $templateversion"></a>
	<normalfont><b>$bbtitle</b></normalfont></td>
</tr>
</table>

<table cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="{contenttablewidth}" {tableinvisibleextra} align="center">
<tr valign="bottom">
	<td><smallfont>
	Members: $numbermembers, Threads: $totalthreads, Posts: $totalposts<br>
	Welcome to our newest member, <a href="member.php?s=$session[sessionhash]&action=getinfo&userid=$newuserid">$newusername</a>
	</smallfont></td>
</tr>
</table>
<!-- /text -->
<!-- welcomepanel -->
<table cellpadding="{tableouterborderwidth}" cellspacing="0" border="0" bgcolor="{tablebordercolor}" {tableouterextra} width="{contenttablewidth}" align="center">
<tr>
	<td>
	 <table cellpadding="4" cellspacing="{tableinnerborderwidth}" border="0" {tableinnerextra} width="100%">
<tr id="cat">
	<td bgcolor="{categorybackcolor}" colspan="6"><normalfont color="{categoryfontcolor}"><b>Welcome</b></normalfont></td>
</tr>
<tr>
	<td bgcolor="{secondaltcolor}" align="center" valign="top" width="100">$avatarimage</td>
	<td bgcolor="{firstaltcolor}">
	 <smallfont>
	  $unregwelcomemessage 
	  $welcometext<br>
	  The time now is $timenow.<br>
	  You last visited: $bbuserinfo[lastvisitdate].<br>
	  <b>$newposts</b>
	 </smallfont>
	</td>
	<td bgcolor="{secondaltcolor}" align="center" valign="middle" width="300">
	 $logincode
	</td>
</tr>
	$pminfo
</table>
</td></tr></table>
<!-- /welcomepanel -->
<br>
<!-- begin custom front page tables -->
<table background="{imagesfolder}/cat_back.gif" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"  width="{contenttablewidth}" height="27" align="center">
  <tr id="cat">
    <td width="170" height="27" align="left" valign="top">
    <img border="0" src="{imagesfolder}/firmament_front_table_top_ls.gif" width="170" height="27"></td>
    <td width="100%" height="27" valign="middle">
    <p align="center"><a class="title" href="online.php?s=$session[sessionhash]">
	<smallfont><b>Users Online</b></smallfont></a></td>
     <td width="170" height="27" align="right" valign="top">
    <img border="0" src="{imagesfolder}/firmament_front_table_top_rs.gif" width="170" height="27"></td>
  </tr>
</table>


<!-- main -->
<table cellpadding="{tableouterborderwidth}" cellspacing="0" border="0" bgcolor="{tablebordercolor}" {tableouterextra} width="{contenttablewidth}" align="center"><tr><td>
<table cellpadding="4" cellspacing="{tableinnerborderwidth}" border="0" {tableinnerextra} width="100%">

$forumbits
$loggedinusers
</table>
</td></tr></table>




  <!-- bottom table setup -->
    <table height="14" width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
      <tr>
        <td width="60" height="14" align="left" valign="top">
        <img src="{imagesfolder}/ls_main_table_bottom.gif" width="60" height="14"></td>
        <td height="14" width="100%" background="{imagesfolder}/extended_main_table_bottom.gif"><img src="{imagesfolder}/clear.gif" width="100%" height="14"></td>
        <td width="44" height="14" align="right" valign="top">
            <img border="0" src="{imagesfolder}/rs_main_table_bottom.gif" width="60" height="14"></td>
      </tr>
    </table>
   <!-- End bottom table setup -->

<!-- /main -->

$pminfo
<br>

<!-- timezone/login-->
<table cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="{contenttablewidth}" {tableinvisibleextra} align="center">
<tr valign="top">
  <td><smallfont>$timezone</smallfont></td>
  <td align="right">$logincode</td>
</tr>
</table>
<!-- /timezone/login -->

<br>

<!-- icons -->
<table cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" {tableinvisibleextra} align="center" style="border: 1px solid #0A0E1D; background-color: #161E38;">
<tr>
	<td align="center">
	<img src="{imagesfolder}/on.gif" border="0" alt="On" align="absmiddle">
	<b><smallfont>New posts</smallfont></b>
	&nbsp;&nbsp;
	<img src="{imagesfolder}/off.gif" border="0" alt="Off" align="absmiddle">
	<b><smallfont>No new posts</smallfont></b>
	&nbsp;&nbsp;
	<img src="{imagesfolder}/lock.gif" border="0" alt="Closed Forum" align="absmiddle">
	<b><smallfont>A closed forum</smallfont></b>
	</td>
</tr>
</table>
<!-- /icons -->

$footer
</body>
</html>