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]

Pre-Installation & Post-Installation FAQs:

Webtemplate Pre-Installation FAQ:

1) I still didn't understand what webtemplate is. Can you clarify more?

Webtemplate is a HTML (or php) page. It is different than your other HTML pages in that you can create them in your vbulletin admin cp and you can integrate them with your vbulletin like applying them vb permissions, styles etc.

2) Uh! This hack looks too complicated! I'm a newbie; can I use it?

This hack has powerful features. But it does not mean you have to learn and use all the features. If you are a newbie, you can be pretty happy with its primary feature: Administering your webpages in your vb admin cp and apply vb permissions on them. For this you need no knowledge on anything. Simple copy / paste HTML code of your page, give it a name, enter user/usergroup ID who are banned from this page, click save and you have a webtemplate ready and published automatically. You'll also find a "How to Create your First WebTemplate" document in the ZIP file.

3) Is installation/uninstallation easy?

Yes, can't be easier. Webtemplates is NOT an hack so you don't need to modify any vbulletin files to install webtemplates.

4) Is Webtemplates a portal system?

Umm, no, not exactly! I would define a portal system as a content management system for especially targeting your site home page. I didn't hear a portal which does not replace your site home page. Webtemplates has similiar features like a portal, however it is not designed to replace your site home page. Webtemplates are your "other" site pages but site home.

5) For what can I use this hack?

You can use it to create pages that needs to inherit your vb skin and permissions. For instance you can design pages like "About Us", "Donations" etc.

6) Can I use other portal/vbulletin integrated home page hacks (eg. vbadvanced) with webtemplates?

Yes you can. Webtemplates neither substite/replace any of them, nor touch them.

7) Can I use a webtemplate as my site home page?

It is not designed to act as a site home page. I don't use it as my site home page in my site either. However since the prior version, some hack users always insisted to use this hack as their site home page and they managed to do it too. Basically you can do it in 2 ways:
a) you can create a file named index.php and use this line in it:
<?php include ("http://www.yourdomain.com/forum/view.php?pg=your_template"); ?>
When you upload this file in your site home directory, your site home page will be a webtemplate.

b)You can edit your .htaccess file and make a redirection so that whenever your main page (=index.htm or index.html) is called, server opens your webtemplate. A sample redirection line is that:

Redirect /index.html http://www.yoururl.com/forum/view.php?pg=your_template

Please search keywords ".htaccess+redirect" in google for more info about .htaccess redirection

Although both methods are safe and effective, I neither encourage, nor support site main page webtemplates as the system is not designed this way in the first place.

8) Does it work in all 4.x?

Yes

9) How is the hack performance? Does it affect server load? Does it have a lot of queries?

Webtemplates is coded to perform "very well" even under heavy load. A webtemplate has an average of 12-18 queries per page. How many queries you have, depends on which features you enabled for that webtemplate and how many webqueries you use in it.

However always bear in mind that webtemplates, vbulletin itself, or any other dynamic PHP pages which make connection to MYSQL database can never be as "performance friendly" as static HTML pages. Static HTML pages is not dynamic (so does not change according to different conditions etc.) but much less server intensive. So especially in heavy loaded servers and for heavy traffic pages, you may want to use default static .html pages especially if you are not after having a dynamic content in them.

But if you are ready to use a dynamic script/structure/software/solution then webtemplates is NOT a performance killer, you can enjoy this hack. Its performance and affect on the server load is very similiar to a regular vbulletin page, like vb forum home page.


10) Do you support this hack? Why is it marked s "Unsupported", it seems like it is quite supported to me?

I have way a lot of hacks (most of them are old now but still) and if you check them, all of them are marked as unsupported and this is intentional. As a matter of fact, I do my BEST to give support for all of them, I deal with ALL security related issues (if any), ALL major bugs (if any), MOST of the minor bugs (if any) and reply a lot of questions but I don't like to "make promises" like giving support because this disappoints people if they can't get a reply for a question and I can't promise to answer ALL questions at all times.

So my personal preferrance is to mark my hacks as "unsupported" but then give as much support as I can afford with my time. And this is usually, for the most times and hopefully "a very good support".

However please remember: I can not commit my entire life to support this free hack. If there is any general bugs, problems or security issues in the hack, I'll do my best to fix them ASAP and release new versions in this thread. You are also very welcomed to ask any hack related questions or future requests here in this thread but please excuse me if I can not find time to answer all. I also don't have plans to enhance the hack in the near future so new feature requests are welcomed but should not be expected to be implemented. I also have many other hacks released here that requires my attention and time so webtemplates is not the only project I devote my time. Thanks for understanding.

11) I was using WebTemplates in 3.5x/3.6.x board and I have custom WebTemplates. Can I keep them in version 4.x ?

Yes, you can. Please see readme file in the hack package.

12) Vbadvanced or WebTemplates? I can't decide.

Actually they are not in the same league: vbadvanced's main focus is your site main page. Webtemplates main focus is your site's other pages like "about us", "donate to us", "our press existence" etc.

So I don't think you have to choose one between these two. If you want to create a vb powered site home page, you should go with vbadvanced and if you want to create vb powered other site pages, you have to go with Webtemplates. If you want to do both, you can use both too.

So why don't you just install both and try each of them, then decide? Both are free, well coded, well documented, well supported and quite easy to install or uninstall.


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 in 2002 and thousands of vbulletin users have developed their sites around webtemplates CMS. So even if new vb CMS owners 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.

[Logician]

Webtemplate Post-Installation FAQ:

1) I have installed the webtemplates but I guess it does not work ok?

Double check you've installed it correctly. Especially make sure you uploaded the files to the correct locations.

If you are sure you installed it correctly, then check the thread to see if someone posted a similiar problem and get an answer. If no, post your problem into the thread but please give details! It does not help me to read "the hack does not work!", I need details like what exactly happens when you visit admin cp, default webtemplates etc., what error messages/screens you get etc.

2) Can webtemplates parse PHP code?

Yes, it can. Besides you are given 2 grounds to run PHP:
a) You can make a webtemplate's marking as PHP and it will be treated as a PHP script.
b) Even if your parsing is HTML or TEXT, you can still have php incode in phpinclude section of the webtemplate which will run before webtemplate is displayed.

However its PHP parsing capability is limited to vbulletin's PHP parsing capability due to its integration with vb. In other words if your PHP code does not work fine in vb pluggin system, it wouldn't work fine as a webtemplate either.

If you want to run an external php application within vbulletin with vb header/footer etc., please see this post (and also reservations there).

3) Can I put view.php in a different directory?

No. This requires too many modifications in the hack code so I don't suggest or support it. Do it by your own risk.

4) Can webtemplates include other webtemplates in it?

Hack supports "themes" which are webtemplates that include other webtemplates in them. So you can make webtemplate B a theme to include webtemplate A in it.

5) I want display login box if visitor is a guest and log off link if visitor is a member, can I do it?

Yes, use variable {vb:raw WT_Login} in your webtemplate

6) You say Webtemplates inherits visual look (colors/fonts) of our forum. This is good but I want to create a webtemplate with a different design, say red background color. Can I do it?

Yes. Simply create your HTML Code and paste it into webtemplate field and you have your red backgrounded page.

Your Webtemplates inherits your visual design when you use vbulletin HTML tags in your webtemplates. (like default vbulletin templates uses). For instance if you use

<div class=normaltext>Hello</div>
in your webtemplates your text "Hello" will be displayed in the default font (color, size, font name etc.) of your board. But if you use:
<font face="Times New Roman" color="#FF0000" size="4">Hello</font>
your webtemplates will display "Hello" in Times New Roman, RED color and size 4.

7) I want to post smilies/bbcode/IMG tags to my webtemplate, can I?

Yes. Simply change your webtemplate parse method as TEXT. In TEXT parsing, webtemplates will display your bbcodes/smilies etc.

After that, if you want to have a page creation enviroment like thread posting (bbcode/smilie boxes are displayed in formation page), design your webtebtemplate in editor interface instead of admin interface.

8) How do I backup my webtemplates?

1- While backing up your database in your admin cp, vbulletin will back up your webtemplate tables too.
2- You can export your webtemplates/webqueries as XML files. You are welcomed to share them here with other hack users.

9) I have more than 1 database. Can webqueries query my other databases?

No. They only query the database your vbulletin resides.

10) Can webtemplate content be searched in Vbulletin search?

No.

11) Do Webtemplates have search engine friendly URLs?

Yes. However it works only in apache servers. See help document for more info.

12) How can I create a webquery that does X?

You are welcomed to ask these questions and I'm hoping that someone will help you with creating custom webtemplates/webqueries but please understand that I can not take time to answer all "how can I create such webquery" questions as there are infinite SQL queries that can be requested. Thanks for understanding.

13) Can I add a vb poll into a webtemplate?

Manually yes.. Simply copy paste its HTML code. Automatically no.

14) Can I use this as a news page by retriving last X posts from forum Y?

It is possible. As a matter of fact I've included a sample webquery to do that into the installation and you can check it in the test2 webtemplate.

15) Can I use vb Phrases in WebTemplates?

Mostly. Webtemplate recognizes and parses the vb phrases that are in GLOBAL group and in some other groups which are specified in the begining of "view.php" starting with this line: $phrasegroups = array('

You can edit this line to add more phrase groups to webtemplates pages. Though only basic phrases in these groups are supported, not the advanced ones that includes {1} {2} in it.

16) How can I use "Editors" feature effectively?

You can assign Editors to your webtemplates who can edit them by using their own editor interface.

If your editors know HTML, that is ok, then you can assign them to any webtemplate you like even the ones with HTML parsing.

However in most cases your site helpers will not know HTML to customize your HTML templates. If this is the case, you can follow this strategy:
1- Create a theme (with HTML parsing) and design it yourself with HTML.
2- Create child webtemplates that uses this theme. Make sure child webtemplates has TEXT parsing (not HTML).
3- Assign your editors to these child webtemplates. Since they are in TEXT parsing, your editors interface will now include smilie box, BBCode box and will look like exactly thread posting interface. They can then design the webtemplate with BBCode, smilies, IMG tags just like they are posting a new thread and without any need to use HTML commands.

17) Can link a certain section (paragraph, line etc.) in a webtemplate?

Yes you can:

a) Insert an HTML anchor to the location you want to link (eg. to the very begining of the paragraph) like this : <a name="anchor1"></a>

b) Then you can link this section like this:
http://www.yoururl.com/forum/view.php?pg=your_template#anchor1


18) Can I use vb's WYSIWYG Editor to design Webtemplates?

Yes. However not in your admin interface, but in the editor interface. So create a webtemplate page, then visit it and click "Edit This Page" link you see in stats line which will take you to the editor interface. You'll have WYSIWYG editor in that interface provided that:
a) That is your set bbcode interface in your usercp
b) The webtemplate is a "TEXT" parsed webtemplate.

19) Can Webtemplates run FLASH code in it?

Webtemplates can do anything regular HTML pages can do, so yes, they allow flash too. Just create your flash snippet and add it to your webtemplate just like you are adding in a regular .html page. Make sure your webtemplate's parsing is set as "HTML".

20) How can I uninstall it?

Select "uninstall" in Product Manager and it will automatically uninstall. Uninstalling does not remove database tables so that your custom webtemplates will not be lost when you reinstall. If you want to delete database records too run this query :
DROP TABLE `wt35_query`, `wt35_theme`, `wt35_visitlog`, `wt35_webtemplate`;

21) It is nice to see WebTemplate visits in Who is Online but I have a private WebTemplate which I want to hide from other WOL visitors. Can I do that?

Yes. Rename your webtemplate and make sure its name starts with affix priv_


22) Editor interface of regular users can be improved in many ways to create other hacks around Webtemplates. What do you think?

Please read this : https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost.php?p=880487&postcount=163

23) If I ban a certain usergroup from viewing a webtemplate, anybody who belongs to this usergroup in anyway is banned even if their primary usergroup is different. Can the permission system work differently?

Please read this : https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost.php?p=886907&postcount=180


24) How can I decide which admins can access WebTemplates section in admin cp


WebTemplates admin section checks the permission of "Can Edit Styles" for admins. So you can turn this permission on/off per admin basis to grant/revoke access

25) I put some HTML code into a webtemplate but it is displaying it "as is". Where is my vbulletin skin, header, footer etc.?

Make sure you select a THEME for your webtemplate rather than making it an independant WebTemplate. You can edit the webtemplate and select a theme (eg. Default Basic Theme) for it.

26) I use vbseo. How can I make my webtemplates parsed with vbseo?

Webtemplates has its own seo system as described in help documents. I don't use vbseo myself and I didn't combine them together but you can check this post to read contribution of DaveS about this issue. (thanks DaveS!)

[Neutral Singh]

Thank you, So Much!!

[zelnik]

Hi Logican,

Great news it's officially released now, one of my favourite vb addon!

Can you confirm nothing has changed since the release you attached for vb4 on the 3.8 thread?!

Thanks

[Merjawy]

I like it and I was planning to add a front page to my site... This is it

I also like to amount of info you put in here.. very nice indeed

Thanks

[Logician]

Originally Posted by zelnik

Can you confirm nothing has changed since the release you attached for vb4 on the 3.8 thread?!

Yep, it is the same.

[sulasno]

tagged and thanks

got plenty to read

will wait for release of vBulletin 4.0.7 before installing this mod

[Storyteller69]

This hack is much more than simple great! 5Stars, nominated and donated.

Thanks for this
Storyteller

[Alfa1]

What functions does webtemplates have that vbCMS doesnt have?