Portal Software - WebTemplates 3.7.x: VB Integrated CMS (Content Management System)

(This hack is for vb version 3.7.x & 3.8.x ONLY. For vb 3.6.x, 3.5.x, 3.0.x and 2.x 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.

VB4 version Update (9.9.2010): Please find 4.x version of WebTemplates4.x in its own thread.


WEBTEMPLATES 3.7.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:
(Some 3.5 and some are 3.0 versions but WebTemplate look and feel didn't change much so both 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://www3.fertilethoughts.com/forums/view.php?pg=acronyms
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)

3.5 version Admin CP screenshot attached to this post. 3.0.x screenshots (here and here) also still applies for this version.

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..

About this 3.7.xx Version: This 3.7.xx version is same as previous 3.6.x version. 3.6.x version was already working in vbulletin 3.7.x except a few minor bugs and these bugs are fixed in this version to make it dedicated solely to vbulletin 3.7.x. Please see "what's new" in the next post for more details.

Version Updates:
29.July.2008 - > Version 3.7.00
* Hack 3.7.00 is released.

[Logician]

Please find vb4.x version of WebTemplates hack in the attached file.

I'm releasing this as a BETA release for users who are waiting it for a long time (Thank you for your patience BTW!). It is FULLY complete (no missing sections at all etc.), yet not tested very long. So if you run into any bugs etc. please let me know and I'll check it out. After we tested it for a few weeks with the community, I'm going to release it in its own dedicated thread.

Usage, look, functionality etc. are all same with 3.x version, still, please let me know if you have any questions (BTW. new user manual revised for this version is also included in the ZIP file).

Fresh installation and upgrade from 3.x version is same for everybody and I believe installation/upgrade is quite simple as always. You can find more info in ZIP file.

[tunamix]

Thanks for the support!

[zelnik]

Brilliant news Logician!!

I've upgraded and followed the upgrade instructions but I'm getting the following error, I know it's not a bug more of how I've got it set up but would appreciate some guidance:

On the site information template I'm getting the following error message "Error: Header Template is Customised"

If memory serves me correctly you kindly logged into my site ages ago and changed the header template as it was causing a conflict of sorts. How do I go about changing it back to default as hopefully now I'm using vb4 it may be ok to use the default header.

PS: Everything else seems to be working great!

[Logician]

Originally Posted by zelnik

On the site information template I'm getting the following error message "Error: Header Template is Customised"

Apparently this is related to Display Unread Posts and Reputation Comments hacks. Please see if this will help:
http://www.vbadvanced.com/forum/showthread.php?t=39555

[klaush]

Thanks a lot! We won?t upgrade any board to 4.x before this fantastic stuff is not working with vb 4.

Originally Posted by Logician

I don't know yet how new content type works in 4.0.4. However I am about to complete 4.x version of WebTemplates and I'll release + support it as planned regardless of what Jelsoft plans for vb. We can consider this later when we see how their static pages work and how does it compare to WebTemplates.

[dartho]

Well done logician - I'm one step closer to making the move to VB4 on a live site ...

[Shanj]

<i>I do not use vb4 so am sticking to this thread.</i>

I want to make a Template which I add text, but my mods can update - I know that's not a problem using usergroup access

But I want PARTS of it to be unavailable to them to edit.
They can view ALL text on the page, mine and each others, but not edit mine.
.
So it's a series of brief paragraphs I put in, then the mods can add notes to update that paragraph of info, based on their work. But they cannot alter the info I put.

It's extremely unlikely they'd be editing at the same time - only 6 people on a small project.

[Logician]

Originally Posted by Shanj

I do not use vb4 so am sticking to this thread.

I want to make a Template which I add text, but my mods can update - I know that's not a problem using usergroup access

But I want PARTS of it to be unavailable to them to edit.
They can view ALL text on the page, mine and each others, but not edit mine.
.
So it's a series of brief paragraphs I put in, then the mods can add notes to update that paragraph of info, based on their work. But they cannot alter the info I put.

It's extremely unlikely they'd be editing at the same time - only 6 people on a small project.

There is no default feature for it in Webtemplates but if the section you want them to edit is all together in a section (eg. in a paragraph or smt), you can do rest of the page a webtemplate theme and make only the part you want them to edit the webtemplate itself. Since editors can't edit theme, they'll be editing only the remaining part you want them to edit in this scenario. Hope this helps.

[Shanj]

Logician thank you that is ingenious.
Problem is I need the admin text and the additional mod notes to alternate.

Admin A
Mods add notes to B.

Admin B
Mods add notes to B.

[Logician]

Originally Posted by Shanj

Logician thank you that is ingenious.
Problem is I need the admin text and the additional mod notes to alternate.

Admin A
Mods add notes to B.

Admin B
Mods add notes to B.

One other alternative would be keeping your content inside a private forum in seperate threads and then display it to users in a webtemplate with webqueries.

Eg. Thread 1 of Forum A : first message Admin message, mods can post replies.
A webquery pull the content of first message in Thread 1 and show it inside a webtemplate. Another webquery pulls replies to it and shows under it.