WebTemplates v.0.1 (Old Version)

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Attention: This version of webtemplates is obsolete since new version (2.xx) is released as of 30.June.2003.

If you are new user, please visit new hack's thread and install that one, not this version.

This thread is active for discussing migration issues and will be closed in the future.
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Introduction:
Basically this hack allows you create vbulletin powered non-vb pages within vb admin CP and administer them just like vb templates.

Your "webtemplates" reside inside MYSQL and have the same structure as regular vbulletin templates and you edit/modify/delete them inside your Admin CP. You can create as many as you like and display them like:
http://yoursite URL/yourboard URL/show.php?pg=YOUR_WEBTEMPLATE_NAME.

Features of Your WebTemplates:
* You can easily edit/update your non-vb pages from your vb control panel just like vb templates. No need to FTP or smt.
* Simply backup your vbulletin and your entire site (including your webtemplates) is backed up too.
* You can use some vbulletin variables in your non-vb pages, so eg. address your members with their member names in your entire site.
* Your entire web site can mimic your forum's visual interface. All your fonts/colors etc. are kept in your non-vb. pages too. Besides users' style sets apply for your web templates either. So for instance if you have 2 styles, every user will see your webtemplates in the style and colors they are using in the board.
* This hack allows you to specify usergroups/usernames which can or cannot see the page you designed. So your non-vb pages can inherit vb. access permissions. Every webtemplate can have different display permissions for different users/usergroups.
* You can have counters in your pages and show/trace page visits individually for all your pages. Every webtemplate has its own counter.
* You can have "last visitor's name and visit time" in all your pages.
* You can insert fixed header/footer for all your pages.
* The "conditionals" you can set, allow you to design advanced and dynamic web pages, which change themselves according to the conditions you set. For example you can set different texts/page designs IN THE SAME PAGE for different users and every user will only see the text that is addressed to him.

Webtemplates are very easy to create. Just copy paste the HTML code of your page into the webtemplate box, give it a name, click submit and voila, your webtemplate is up and running! By using this method, you can convert your existing non-vb pages into webtemplates with ease too. It is just a matter of copy/paste its HMTML code. Installation of the hack is easy too and the hack will work any version of vbulletin I know.

For Advanced Users: If you want your webtemplates to get data from your database and display it, you have an advanced feature named "webqueries". WebQueries feature allows you to run SQL queries in your MYSQL database and automatically create sorted tables for you which you can add in any WebTemplates. So your non-vb pages can be dynamic and you can have any kind of SQL results (related with vb or not) in any page you want. Webqueries are optional to use and appeals to people with basic SQL knowledge. You can still create webtemplates very easily without using webqueries if you don't know SQL or don't need to query your database in your webtemplate. If you want to play with webqueries, please read and follow instructions CAREFULLY. This hack gives you advanced tools to create powerful and dynamic web pages, so give yourself sometime and learn how to create these pages. I wrote help pages which you can find in your webtemplates section after installation, so please read them carefully and examine sample page's code before pelting me with questions!

If you installed this hack, share your webquery samples in this thread


Fixes and Add-ons:
* If you have than 1 MYSQL databases, webquery section might not work properly. If you encounter any problems related to that issue, apply the small fix in this post.[/COLOR]
* If you want to display your webtemplates in who is online, apply this small hack .
Also there is a small bug with "conditionals" feature of the hack, if you use more than 1 conditional in 1 webtemplate. I guess very few people use this feature but anyway I fixed it in the new release that is in progress..
* If you want your webtemplates search engine friendly and indexed in google or other search engines, read this tip by Piper.

Current version (BETA v.0.1) is NOT actually a beta anymore, it's proven to be working very well in many people's boards and is stable.

I plan to develop this hack. However to enhance it more, I need to change its algortihm which requires rewriting and I wait for VB3 so that the hack will will be competible with VB3 too. That's why development is pending at the moment.


If you install the hack please click install, thank you.

Regards,
Logician //=^))

[DrkFusion]

I do not understand the concept of using php...I want to use php includes, how would I do it? I read the webtempaltes help, but I do not under stand php operator...please help.

Drk

[DrkFusion]

Sorry, I tried all compinations of those php operators thing, please some help thanks.
Drk

[Logician]

Originally posted by grb123
Webqueries query:

I currently have the last 10 thread titles from my forum on a page. I have the query as follows:

SELECT threadid, title, FROM thread WHERE visible='1' AND forumid='1' ORDER BY title LIMIT 10

which shows the last 10 threads. How can I make the threadtitle no more than 28 characters?

You can use this query:

SELECT threadid, left(title,28) as title1 FROM thread WHERE visible='1' AND forumid='1' ORDER BY title LIMIT 10

Dont forget to use ??title1?? in your tablerow

[Logician]

Originally posted by DrkFusion
I do not understand the concept of using php...I want to use php includes, how would I do it? I read the webtempaltes help, but I do not under stand php operator...please help.

Drk

DrkFusion please give some details about what you are trying to achieve. I have no idea what kind of webtemplate/webquery you are trying to design.

[inetd]

Logician, help me with include webtemplates in php file.

[DrkFusion]

I m desiging my main page, and this has a php inlude, that pulls news from my forums

<?php include ("news.php"); ?>

Somethign like that, but webtemplates is displaying it.

Drk

[Logician]

Originally posted by DrkFusion
I m desiging my main page, and this has a php inlude, that pulls news from my forums

May I suggest using this hack in your main page to pull news instead of webtemplates?

I appreciate your interest in webtemplates hack but as I mentioned a few times before, webtemplates hack is not intended to be "main page" alternative. Yes there are some ways to use it as your site's main page (see above) and yes some users use it in their main pages in different ways but I just dont recommend such a practise although it may be possible. Webtemplates are ideal for ALL your non-vb pages provided that it is not site's main page.

And the hack does not coded to parse PHP includes either, sorry..

@inetd: Pal, my message addresses you too. If you cant make your webtemplate your site's main page, sorry, just give up or try using .htaccess method. If you have another problem, please tell me and lets see if I can help you. However I really have a hard time understanding your English.

[inetd]

Logician, my english = lol
I'm include not webtemplates and all work! But include do not work with Webtemplates 1.0. Please check this.

[Logician]

Originally posted by inetd
Logician, my english = lol
I'm include not webtemplates and all work! But include do not work with Webtemplates 1.0. Please check this.

sorry I really cant understand you. What are you trying to include?

1- If you are trying to include webtemplates inside other webtemplates, this wont work except for header and footer webtemplates.

2- If you are trying to include PHP inside webtemplate, this wont work either.

3- If you are trying to include a webtemplate inside an independent PHP file, this may or may not work according to your server settings as I mentioned before. For example I know that Wildthinks uses this method in his web page but the very same line he used might not work in other users' web pages. Related to server config..

If not either of them, what are you trying to include?

[inetd]

Logician, may be his trouble only in Webtemplates 1.0. I use include on the site and all works normally. But at attempt to insert in php webtemplates, nothing it turns out.