Mini Mods - Welcome headers - Improve community registration rates

Exciting Announcement! vBulletin 3.7.0 now includes a built in Welcome Headers System (named "Notices") that easily allows you to add and control your own welcome messages with functionality above what can be found in the traditional welcome headers system. There are some important differences in these systems so please read this thread before upgrading.

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Important: If you are upgrading from the 3.6 or earlier versions and have modified the navbar template you will either need to revert it or add new vBulletin code as shown in https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=152.

Out of the box, your forum isn't personalized to assist or address your visitors. As a result, guests entering on a page other than the homepage (which is most often the case) have no idea what to do or why to register. Additionally, there are no visible status indicators, making it confusing for unconfirmed, unapproved or new members to know what to do or where to begin. But with a little customization, the use of the vBulletin Notices System and Welcome Headers, you can solve these issues in just a few minutes.

What is Welcome Headers?

Welcome Headers is a set of predefined messages and rules designed to help you get started in personalizing your site's notices using the vBulletin notice feature. The default templates are just that, default ? I highly encourage you to modify and add to the language and rules to meet the needs of your actual community environment.

Modifications/ Instructions:

Plugins: 1 (notices entries, rules and phrases)
This template hack should take under 5 minutes to implement and customize.

Installation/ Upgrade Instructions

1 ? Backup any existing welcome header messages (upgrading)
2 ? Remove the default welcome header from your forum home template (new installs)
3 ? Install the attached plugin file
4 ? Now Required: Customize the messages to include your site's name

For detailed instructions on each step please view the install.html file included with this addon.

Support

Please post any enhancement or technical questions you may have and I will do my best to respond in a timely manner. Please note: I can not guarantee an immediate response and am unable to assist with integrating this addon with other addons or with HTML related questions.

Frequently Asked Questions

Please see the second post in the thread for a list of frequently asked questions which is updated periodically.

Older Version Support

While most users are choosing to upgrade to the notices system, there are some advantages to the "old" system mainly in that it does not rely on a rules system and can be configured as designed with code changes. Additionally, the "old" version has automatic interfacing with several other addons which the notices system does not. For this reason, the old version is still supported and remains fully compatible with 3.7.

Updates

- 5/9/2008 :: A small upgrade has been released fixing the typo in the sendmessage.php file

[Southernphuk]

While I'm asking questions, figured I would get in one more.

I run VBCMPS from vbAdvaced. The notice shows up on the front/home page as well and just doesn't sit right with me. Is there any way to remove that? I like having it in the forums, galleries, etc, just don't want it on my front page.

Any help would be appreciated.

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by Southernphuk

While I'm asking questions, figured I would get in one more.

I run VBCMPS from vbAdvaced. The notice shows up on the front/home page as well and just doesn't sit right with me. Is there any way to remove that? I like having it in the forums, galleries, etc, just don't want it on my front page.

You would need to modify the notices template by "wrapping" it in a set of conditionals such that it doesnt appear on whatever page you like...

i.e.

<if condition="THIS_SCRIPT != 'homepage' AND THIS_SCRIPT != 'other page'">
 
current code
 
</if>

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by Southernphuk

I'm going to pull a dingleberry by probably asking an obvious question but ...

I've been on some sites where the guest message travels with the length of the page. Bit of an 'annoyance' factor encouraging you to sign up. How, if at all, would I be able to set something like that up?

This isn't difficult but will require you to find a script and modify your welcome headers/ notices template to integrate it. There's several scripts out there... just google search "dhtml persistent window" or "dhtml floating message" and find the option that suits your needs.

[Mesohu]

Installed .

[nirvana43]

How to remove that notices bar????
please help!!!
please check attached screenshot!

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by nirvana43

How to remove that notices bar????
please help!!!
please check attached screenshot!

Customize your notices template as you see fit. The template is a part of vBulletin's core code and not this addon.

[Kaycee123]

I have installed this - but the welcome headers/notices are not visible on the style I am using. They do show up on the default style.

How do I get them to appear on my current style?

[Kaycee123]

OK - after several hours of fiddling around I finally figured it out:

If your Notices are not showing up on your customized style, you need to add this to your Navbar template wherever you want them to show up

PHP Code:

<if condition="$show['notices']">
    <table class="tborder" cellpadding="$stylevar[cellpadding]" cellspacing="$stylevar[cellspacing]" border="0" width="100%" align="center">
    <tr>
        <td class="thead">$vbphrase[notices]</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td class="alt1">$notices</td>
    </tr>
    </table>
    <br />
</if>
<if condition="$show['forumdesc']">
    <table class="tborder" cellpadding="$stylevar[cellpadding]" cellspacing="$stylevar[cellspacing]" border="0" width="100%" align="center">
    <tr>
        <td class="alt1" width="100%"><strong>$foruminfo[title]</strong> <span class="smallfont">$foruminfo[description]</span></td>
    </tr>
    </table>
    <br />
</if> 


[Kaycee123]

One other question - if a member meets the criteria for TWO different messages to show up, they are all lumped together in the Notices box. Is there a way of splitting the messages apart so it looks a bit neater??

[Ted S]

The notices are a function of vBulletin and something you would need to customize through vBulletin's templates. I've not written up documentation on this yet but will have some out shortly.