Template Backup System!

Hi everyone.

Here's my newest hack, called Template Backup System (TBS).
This is a very powerful tool for backing up and restoring your templates, especially good for upgrades.

I know you can do this using vBulletin's buil in style manager, but the beauty in this hack is that it exports only templates, and further more - they are saved to individual files in a folder you choose.

Why you ask? This could help a lot when upgrading to a new version of vBulletin. Just like you can compare files using programs such as Araxis Merge or Beyone Compare, you can now also compare templates, and easily keep track of changes that were done between versions.
After you save all changes to the template files, you use this script again only this time in the opposite directions - restoring the templates back into the system.

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This hack was in testing process for quite some time now, over a week and a half actually.
It has been tested extensively by the magnificent Hooper, and I truly believe it's 99% bug-free.
Most of the features in the hack are actually his ideas, so thanks a lot Rick!

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Before I continue, I need to say the expanding / collapsing feature will only work on Internet Explorer. It was only tested on it really, but I think the style.display thing is only supported by it.

Anyway, let's install this baby.

First of all, we need to edit admin/index.php a little bit.
Find this:

makenavoption("Add Template Set","template.php?action=addset");

and replace it with this:

[high]makenavoption("Add Template Set","template.php?action=addset","<br>");
makenavoption("Template Backup System","tbs.php?action=modify");[/high]

Save admin/index.php and upload back to your server.

Now edit cp.css (in the main forums folder). Now here's a file you don't edit often, huh?
Find this:

.cc { /* custom color */
	COLOR: darkblue;
}

and add this right after it:

[high].rc { /* custom color */
	COLOR: darkred;
} [/high]

Save cp.css and upload back to your server.

And last but not least, download tbs.php (attached to this post) and upload to your admin folder on your server.

That's it, installation is done.

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A few notes.

You can add new groups for template listing by editing tbs.php.
At the top, you will see something like this:

$groups['calendar']='Calendar';
$groups['emailsubject']='Email Subject';

and much more. To add your own group, simply add this:

$groups['[high]template_identifier[/high]']='[high]Group Name[/high]';

[high]template_identifier[/high] is the beginning of each template in this group, and [high]Group Name[/high] is the name of this group.

When saying "Using this requires a minimum amount of RAM." I am not kidding. If you don't have enough memory your browser will simply crash when clicking the Check All box. Trust me.

Make sure the folder you are saving templates into is CHMODed 0777, or PHP will not be able to create files in it. Also, the folder is a relative path to the admin folder, not the forums folder!

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That's all I have to say.
Feedback and feature requests are welcomed as always!

Have fun!

[N!ck]

bump. i want to - have to - use this (it's really neat if it works for me in the end)...help!

[N!ck]

ummmmmmmmmmmmm...well...chmodded 777 and it worked. it didn't work BEFORE on 777 though...my host sucks :P

[Jawelin]

FireFly , I still have some problems with the import feature, as said on post #64 .... :bored:

After upgrading board, i tried to import the just-exported templates (with today's date) were deleted by the upgradeXX.php (we have another thread open about in General Discussion ... Do you remember ? :bandit: )

Well. I put in the import form the exact formatted date I used above to export templates, but as you can see in the attached screenshot, their name wasn't adjusted (truncating the date prefix), but were imported just with their actual filename ...

I saw also a php error at the top of the selection list when I had to choose one or all of them before the import.

Note: as suggested, I used '.htt' filenames ....

What do you think about ?
What could I check in TBS to solve the problem ?

Thanks


P.S.: I solved my problem updating the DB with a query like this:

UPDATE `template` 
SET title = SUBSTRING(title,12,100)
WHERE title LIKE "2002-%"

... but I though better a tbs.php upgrade.... :ermm:

Thank you very much, again.


P.P.S.: comparing the dbs (before and after the above ops), I noticed first those templates were listed in the Default section. After the import (and the db correction) they were listed in the Custom section. Does it mean that, since now, when upgrading again I shouldn't have any more the problem they are deleted by the upgradeXX.php ... Is it true ?

Bye

[Jawelin]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Jawelin
FireFly , I still have some problems with the import feature, [...]
Well. I put in the import form the exact formatted date I used above to export templates, but as you can see in the attached screenshot, their name wasn't adjusted (truncating the date prefix), but were imported just with their actual filename ...

I saw also a php error at the top of the selection list when I had to choose one or all of them before the import.

Note: as suggested, I used '.htt' filenames ....

[Jawelin]

This went too down without an answer !!
Bump!
:bandit:

[Lesane]

Just installed the hack in one minute. Works perfect, thanks.

[Jawelin]

Yes, of course.... Less than 1 minute installing.
But I found that problem in the import feature...
Nobody found the same ?
Is it mine a correct workaround ?
Thnx

[Darren Lewis]

Chen this is a fantastic hack. Installed quickly with clear instructions. Fixed the typo and all is working perfectly.

I can export and import templates without any problems.

[212rikanmofo]

not sure why this isnt working, but i installed this hack on vb 2.2.5, when i hit export it doesnt give me a list like in your screen shot, it just goes back to the main tbs menu and then i check my templates folder and its empty. Im running on windows xp by the way and not unix. this hack use to work for me when i ran vb2.2.1, not sure if its incompatibility problem or what. but i made a templates folder in my root, my forum root and in my admin root folder jus to be safe, and i checked each one, and all empty... =( whats going on... i installed the hack and checked over many times to see if i installed it right and i did....

[GuruXL]

this is a wonderful Hack FireFly...