Newbie questions...

[Billy Bandit]

Hello all,

I just joined the vBulletin family and am interested in installing all kinds of hacks. A couple years ago, I spent some time with hacking UBB but I haven't played with any forum software since then. A simple glance at some of the PHP files in vBulletin made me realize how little I know about this system.

Are there any tutorials on how the vB files are set up and which files control what functions? (ie If I want to add a button to the home,forum,register menu buttons where would I start?)

What hack was used to create this part of the vbulletin.org site?
http://www.vbulletin.org/hacks/index...howcat&catid=7
http://www.vbulletin.org/hacks/index...ack&hackid=369

Are there any tips on how to write custom PHP pages that use the vB username and password for authentication?

What portal addons are available for vBulletin? I'm aware of vbPortal 3.0 but are there others that are out there? What is THIS site using for the homepage?

Anyhow, I'd appreciate any direction that can be provided to get me started.

Thanks!

[Darren Lewis]

Hello Billy and welcome to vBulletin.org.

I'm not sure if there are any tutorials on how vBulltin is structured, but there are some useful files on the members area at vBulletin.com, for example there are files explaining the templates and the database structure, as well as a file containing the button graphics.

The index page and the hacks area have been custom written by FireFly (aka Chen). Best to speak with him about them.

vB Portal is a popular front-end for vBulletin, but it is not written by the vBulletin team. People seem to either love it or hate it! There are a few hacks here that will allow you to use infromation from your vBulletin database within your main website (look for hacks that mention non-vB pages), and there are a few portal-type hacks here too (look for vBindex, vBhome and WebTemplates).

I pull infro from my forum onto my website without using any specific portal system - just use a couple of hacks from here and a couple I've either modified or written for my own use. They are mainly pieces of PHP code included amongst the regular HTML code.

Hope that helps to get you started.

Darren.

[Billy Bandit]

Darren,

Thanks for your reply and your welcome. I took a cursory look at the vBulletin docs in the Members area and now have a better understanding of how it works. The whole templates concept is new to me but I'm starting to get the idea. I've also been looking at some of the more simple hacks (Member Profile Quick Find and Quick Reply Box) to see how it all comes together.

I'll be experimenting with vbIndex, vbHome, etc in the next few days. Some of the stuff that I want to implement is similar to what has done with the Hacks section on this site.

Thanks again for getting me started !