[vB3 RC3] Welcome Hack v1.2

Hack Author:
Name: Hwulex
E-Mail: vbhacks[at]hwulex[dot]com
Forums: http://forums.xaprief.com


History:
I'm sure most of us are aware of trilOByte's popular Welcome Hack that was available for vBulletin 2.
I myself had it installed on my vB2 forums, and after upgrading to vBulletin 3 missed it, so, seeing as nobody else had, I decided to make my own version.


Description:
This hack does two things:
1. It alters the look of your forum's index page by reducing the size of the "What's Going On" box to just one line (more if birthdays / calendar events present). This box is also shifted up to the top of the page, beneath the navbar.
2. The information that it strips out of that box is not lost though as it is moved up in to the navbar box at the top of the page. The general statistics are only displayed on the forum homepage, as well as your avatar, and the number of new-posts and active-threads since your last visit. On all other pages, the navbar remains as it was.


Zip Contents:
welcome_hack_vb3_v1_2.zip
|- instructions.html :: Instruction on how to install this hack.
|- forumhome_loggedin.gif :: Shows what your ForumHome will look like after installation with a logged in user.
|- others_in_and_out.gif :: Shows screenshots of the hack in various states, plus a screenie of the vB2 version.
|- noavatar.gif :: Placeholder for those users who don't have an avatar set.
`- guestavatar.gif :: Placeholder avatar for guest viewers.

Testing:
Tested on vBulletin 3 RC 2


Files to Modify:
forumroot/index.php


Templates to Modify:
forumhome
navbar


Phrases to Add:
active_threads
info_forum
info_user
info_visitor
online_now


Phrases to Edit:
$vbphrase[welcome_to_our_newest_member_x]
$vbphrase[last_visited_x_at_y]
$vbphrase[forum_contains_new_posts]
$vbphrase[forum_contains_no_new_posts]
$vbphrase[forum_is_closed_for_posting]
$vbphrase[most_users_ever_online_was_x_y_at_z]
$vbphrase[private_messages]


Images to Upload:
noavatar.gif
guestavatar.gif


Notes:
If you do install this hack, please click on the INSTALL button.
You will receive updates in your e-mail whenever I add new features to it.
Please also post a reply with your comments, they are appreciated.


Updates:
1.1
- Fixed 'X' problem for NewPosts and ActiveThreads.
- Added noavatar.gif, and accompanying instructions, to the package.
1.2
- Made NewPosts and ActiveThreads display on forumhome only.
- Moved queries to index.php reducing per-page queries by two.
- Added guestavatar feature for indexpage.

[MGM]

nice hack!

/me clicks Install

MGM out

[Hwulex]

That's weird, works fine here.

Built using WinRAR 3.20 in WinXP Pro.

<EDiT>
Where'd your post go?

[HiDeo]

Yes very useful

[Zelda-King]

Yes, I've been waiting for a vB3 welcome hack. Two things;

- I personally would just use the index page bit. Sending queries to every page can be server intensive and global.php has two queries to add. If someone tells me two queries to every page makes bugger-all real difference to the server I'll be a happy man.

- Any chance of guest/no-avatar-selected additions like the original vB2 hack? I can see why you've opted not to show the guest one. Room needed for the login section. Hmm... See, I made customised versions of those avatars and the guest avatar made the place much more inviting.

[SB2002]

Hack looks and works great, apart from a couple of little things.

Whenever a member is logged in, where it says new posts and new threads, instead of a number there is just a single black X

When someone is logged in without an avatar, it is looking for an image, with the url insertdomainhere.com/forums/{ imgdir }(without the spaces)/noavatar.gif

(the domain being whatever site it is installed upon)

EDIT: i've rehacked 3 times now, and readded all the templates etc, and it's still doing it, any ideas?

[Hwulex]

Originally Posted by SB2002

Hack looks and works great, apart from a couple of little things.

Whenever a member is logged in, where it says new posts and new threads, instead of a number there is just a single black X

When someone is logged in without an avatar, it is looking for an image, with the url http://www.insertdomainhere.com/foru...e/noavatar.gif (

the domain being whatever site it is installed upon)

EDIT: i've rehacked 3 times now, and readded all the templates etc, and it's still doing it, any ideas?

Thank you for pointing this out, I'd completely forgotten to add the image and accompanying instructions.

I think I know why it's displaying a single black X as well, I will report back in about a half hour with an updated instructions file.

Cheers.

[Hwulex]

Originally Posted by Zelda-King

Yes, I've been waiting for a vB3 welcome hack. Two things;

- I personally would just use the index page bit. Sending queries to every page can be server intensive and global.php has two queries to add. If someone tells me two queries to every page makes bugger-all real difference to the server I'll be a happy man.

- Any chance of guest/no-avatar-selected additions like the original vB2 hack? I can see why you've opted not to show the guest one. Room needed for the login section. Hmm... See, I made customised versions of those avatars and the guest avatar made the place much more inviting.

I had thought abuot this myself; having two extra queries per page in global.php is a bit much.

What I might do now (seeing as I've got to do some other bits anyway) is alter the conditionals so that the New Posts and New Threads only display on the Forum Index.

Any other thoughts on this?


I'm going to look at the template now, see if I can alter it to accommodate a 'guestavatar' option as well.

[Hwulex]

Ok. X problem for NewPosts and ActiveThreads is now sorted. I'd accidently pasted a testing template into the instructions rather than my live version. Apologies.

I have also added noavatar.gif and it's instructions to the package.

Update to 1.1. File in first post updated.

Those of you who would like to sort the above X problem quickly, then update to version 1.1, else, please wait about another half an hour and I will upload 1.2 which reduces the queries (only used in index.php) and also has the guestavatar facility.

Cheers.

[Hwulex]

Version 1.2 uploaded. See original thread for updated zip and changes from last version.


For those of you running versions 1.0 or 1.1, you basically just need to move the queries from global.php into the same place as the other alterations in index.php, upload the two images, and then replace your navbar template with the new one in the instructions file.