Portal Software - WebTemplates 3.7.x: VB Integrated CMS (Content Management System)

(This hack is for vb version 3.7.x & 3.8.x ONLY. For vb 3.6.x, 3.5.x, 3.0.x and 2.x 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.

VB4 version Update (9.9.2010): Please find 4.x version of WebTemplates4.x in its own thread.


WEBTEMPLATES 3.7.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:
(Some 3.5 and some are 3.0 versions but WebTemplate look and feel didn't change much so both 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://www3.fertilethoughts.com/forums/view.php?pg=acronyms
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)

3.5 version Admin CP screenshot attached to this post. 3.0.x screenshots (here and here) also still applies for this version.

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..

About this 3.7.xx Version: This 3.7.xx version is same as previous 3.6.x version. 3.6.x version was already working in vbulletin 3.7.x except a few minor bugs and these bugs are fixed in this version to make it dedicated solely to vbulletin 3.7.x. Please see "what's new" in the next post for more details.

Version Updates:
29.July.2008 - > Version 3.7.00
* Hack 3.7.00 is released.

[PossumX]

Originally Posted by Logician

I can't promise when but yes, eventually it will be ported to vb4.

No need for a promise. The fact that you're planning to is great, as this is one of those excellent "can't live without" mods. Thank you very much for your response.

[CLUB AMPLE]

Originally Posted by Logician

I can't promise when but yes, eventually it will be ported to vb4.

Great to hear... I will be first in line with a donation when its over to vb4

Definitely a Mod of the year candidate!

[Neutral Singh]

Gr8 News! that this monster may be ported over to vB4.

[Budget101]

Are there directions for Uninstalling this mod?? I used the "uninstall" through the Plugin Manager & removed the files from the server, but there are still tables that didn't not uninstall.

[Logician]

Originally Posted by Budget101

Are there directions for Uninstalling this mod?? I used the "uninstall" through the Plugin Manager & removed the files from the server, but there are still tables that didn't not uninstall.

Explained in FAQ

[Shanj]

Logician sorry I didn't realise there are two mod forums and I posted to the older one.

I found the instructions for redirecting user login to a Logician template.
How does this work if there are multiple template pages for different usergroups or different users?

Thank you.

[Logician]

Originally Posted by Shanj

I found the instructions for redirecting user login to a Logician template.
How does this work if there are multiple template pages for different usergroups or different users?

Can you please eloborate on the solution you implemented? What exactly did you do? (link to a solution post or referring the section in manual is ok)

Regarding your pm, please check here.

[Shanj]

Dear Logician

Thank you so much for fast reply.

Pages set to usergroup I knew and have used very happily.
Big discovery just now is page targeted to certain individual users PLUS web editing! you amazing guy- I didn't know all that.

I would dearly love to have users go to an entry page targeted to either their usergroup (mostly) or for a few, targeted individually.
Now you do give a way to make a Logician page replace the forum homepage using .htaccess and that means using a URL for the logon entry like
http://www.yourdomain.com/forum/view...=your_template

How do I deal with it if my usergroup pages are

http://www.yourdomain.com/forum/view...your_template1
http://www.yourdomain.com/forum/view...your_template2
http://www.yourdomain.com/forum/view...your_template3

I suppose the actual login could go to
http://www.yourdomain.com/forum/view...=your_template

which might have a redirect?

(I'm not a coder but I can tweak under instruction)

Shanj

[Logician]

Originally Posted by Shanj

Dear Logician

Thank you so much for fast reply.

Pages set to usergroup I knew and have used very happily.
Big discovery just now is page targeted to certain individual users PLUS web editing! you amazing guy- I didn't know all that.

I would dearly love to have users go to an entry page targeted to either their usergroup (mostly) or for a few, targeted individually.
Now you do give a way to make a Logician page replace the forum homepage using .htaccess and that means using a URL for the logon entry like
http://www.yourdomain.com/forum/view...=your_template

How do I deal with it if my usergroup pages are

http://www.yourdomain.com/forum/view...your_template1
http://www.yourdomain.com/forum/view...your_template2
http://www.yourdomain.com/forum/view...your_template3

I suppose the actual login could go to
http://www.yourdomain.com/forum/view...=your_template

which might have a redirect?

(I'm not a coder but I can tweak under instruction)

Shanj

So if I understand you correctly, you want to take user to its usergroup's specific webtemplate when he logged in, am I correct?

With some code edits I can think this is doable but wouldn't it change the entire vb login system's logic for bad? As you know vb login system is kind of intelligent and it takes you to the previous page you were in when you received "no permission page" when you are not logged in. Eg. when you click reply a thread as a guest and receive no permission page, you can enter your u/p there and after login you are taken directly to the "reply this thread" page and resume your action.

And since webtemplates do not have a seperate login system and basically use default vb login system, hacking the login system to give an forceful entry page would mean breaking this function of the login. Don't you think?

(BTW irrelevant but you don't have to create a different webtemplate for each usergroup if modifications are minor. You can just create one webtemplate for all and then use conditionals to display different content to different usergroups)

[Shanj]

Originally Posted by Logician

So if I understand you correctly, you want to take user to its usergroup's specific webtemplate when he logged in, am I correct?

Exactly.

Originally Posted by Logician

With some code edits I can think this is doable ... And since webtemplates do not have a seperate login system and basically use default vb login system, hacking the login system to give an forceful entry page would mean breaking this function of the login. Don't you think?

I don't have guests, only a small board for members only.
They all belong to usergroups 1, 2, 3, or 4.

But I don't know about the login system. You do. So I accept your advice.

Originally Posted by Logician

(BTW irrelevant but you don't have to create a different webtemplate for each usergroup if modifications are minor. You can just create one webtemplate for all and then use conditionals to display different content to different usergroups)

Depends on what is "minor."
This COULD be exactly what I need.

The differences are the same section of the page has different info. per usergroup.
For example a weekly timetable which is displayed as a table. That is different per usergroup though the layout is the same. Cell text content different and bgcolor different.
One group has a search form that sends data but that is also in a table.

Perhaps if you tell me the limitations on "minor modifications" I could understand what is possible, and do my design to fit the limitations.

I don't know how to do conditionals. But if you tell me where to look I will learn it.


Thank you Logician. You're great.