To USE or NOT USE vb's templates...pls help

[stryka]

Ok... so i have outsourced the development of a CMS add-on to VBULLETIN and the CMS will be using VB's user DB.

The design is coming along and coding code be better but its almost done...

HOWEVER, should i be instructing the coder to use VB Templates or should i not do it cuz of the additional lookups/load on the template tables?

Not sure what i should advise the programmer to do. What do you guys regullarly do?

[SEOvB]

For ease of use, it should integrate with vBulletin templates with ease. I dont think having the style integrated will cause any/much additional load

[Opserty]

We are trying to integrate everything into vBulletin at a site I'm developing at. The PHP code is based on vBulletin's and so naturally we use vBulletin's template system as well. Furthermore I find it a lot easier to be able to edit templates on a webpage instead of having to download/upload things over FTP.

I wouldn't say it has much of an impact on performance however I'm no expert.

[stryka]

Opserty... did your developer know vbulletin beforehand? Hmm... editting is definetly easier via the web...

I guess i will have to get me developer up to speed

[Opserty]

We are fairly advanced with PHP and have been coding with vBulletin's code for around 6-12 months.

[MoT3rror]

Well even if you don't use templates, the system still pulls out these templates.

PHP Code:

// templates to be included in every single page...
$globaltemplates = array_merge($globaltemplates, array(
    // the really important ones
    'header',
    'footer',
    'headinclude',
    // ad location templates
    'ad_header_logo',
    'ad_header_end',
    'ad_navbar_below',
    'ad_footer_start',
    'ad_footer_end',
    // new private message script
    'pm_popup_script',
    // navbar construction
    'navbar',
    'navbar_link',
    'navbar_noticebit',
    'navbar_notifications_menubit',
    // forumjump and go button
    'forumjump',
    'gobutton',
    'option',
    // multi-page navigation
    'pagenav',
    'pagenav_curpage',
    'pagenav_pagelink',
    'pagenav_pagelinkrel',
    'threadbit_pagelink',
    // misc useful
    'spacer_open',
    'spacer_close',
    'STANDARD_ERROR',
    'STANDARD_REDIRECT'
    //'board_inactive_warning'
)); 


So even if you do or don't define $globaltemplates, you are still pulling out these templates still calling the query to get them.

[Dismounted]

If coded correctly, all vBulletin applications will only require 1, that's right, one query to fetch all the required templates.