vBindex v2.1

[HIGH]vBindex v2.1[/HIGH]

This hack is **NOT** to be re-distributed or placed on website for download unless I give express permission.

Please read this post and the thread before asking questions. You may find that you question has already been answered. I will ignore posts which ask questions that have been asked several times already.

[HIGH]Latest Stable Version: 2.1[/HIGH]

Latest Avalible Version: 2.1 Final

[high]Using vB3?[/high]

Get vBindex 3.0.0 for vB3 Gamma/RC1 and above!


Version 1.x of this hack was done by el3m3nt, since then there have been many updates and fixes and as e3l3mnt is no longer updating this hack he has given me permission to re-release it (see Permisson.txt in the zip).

[HIGH]Features[/HIGH]

• Latest Threads;
• News & Polls (taken from a specified news and a poll forum), with vBcode, Smilies and news posters avatar;
• Quick User CP Links in the menu when logged in;
• Shows online and offline buddies when logged in;
• Very easy to customize, just edit/add templates;
• Intergtared Welcome Panel;
• Capable of operating a multi-paged site;
• Usergroup based viewing permissions;
• Will work 100% outside of your forums directory;
• [HIGH]*NEW*[/HIGH] Fully integrated into the Admin CP, change all options there!
• [HIGH]*NEW*[/HIGH] Fully integrated Shoutbox (this hack is a prerequsit);
• [HIGH]*NEW*[/HIGH] Limit the length of news posts;
• [HIGH]*NEW*[/HIGH] Reduced queries and cleaner code;
• [HIGH]*NEW*[/HIGH] Switch vBindex on and off via the CP.

[HIGH]Demo Site[/HIGH]

A standard demo of vBindex can be found here:

Currently Offline.

A customised demo of vBindex can also be found here:

Currently Offline.

[HIGH]Screenshots From v2.1[/HIGH]

vBindex Home Page
vBindex ACP Options
vBindex Usergroup Options
vBindex Update Counters

[HIGH]vBindex v2.1 Information[/HIGH]

[HIGH]Installation/Upgrade[/HIGH]

Upload vbi_install.php and select the relevent options.
If you wish to use the shoutbox then this hack is a prerequsit, and needs to be installed first, however if you do not require the shoutbox option disable it in the ACP, otherwise you will get DB errors.

[HIGH]Latest Bug Fixes[/HIGH]

None.

[HIGH]Download[/HIGH]

See the attachment on this post.

[HIGH]Credits[/HIGH]

vBindex 1.x by el3m3nt
Shoutbox by TWTCommish
Welcome Panel by trilOByte
News Code based on code by TECK
Poll PHP from vBPortal by wajones

[HIGH]Feature Requests[/HIGH]

If you have any requests for new features please post them in this thread and I will consider integrating them / creating an addon.

[HIGH]Addons[/HIGH]

I will support all addons for vBindex v2 that are either posted by myself or are included in the distribution zip file unless otherwise stated. I cannot guarentee that I can provide support on any other addons.

[HIGH]Support/Feekback[/HIGH]

Please provide me with any feekback you have on this hack, I will be continuing to support this hack here only, unless otherwise arranged. Should you have a question about this hack, please post it in this thread. Support will not be given via PM, Email or IM unless arranged, you will just be ignored.

Please click on the [HIGH]install[/HIGH] button if you use this hack.

French templates have been made for v2.0.1 (Note: vBindex 2.0.1 is no longer avalible), see this post for details.

[mknott]

is there anyway i could get the forum to load in the middle section by clicking a link for the forum?

[NTLDR]

Yes this is posible, I would say it would be easier to get the side bars to appear on the forum pages then the other way around. I posted a addon-earlier in the thread for a menu for the forums, however it proved to be a bit buggy.

[mknott]

thats a shame

i know i need to edit a template to add somthing to the menu on the left...

basicly what im wanting to add is a link to my forums that opens in a new window.

[mccollin]

For the news edit find:

...

OK, I'm probably the first person to get burned FOR reading the thread. I spent the last hour reading back through the thread... got through all but about 25 pages and decided that version was too old, pulled out the code and hacked through it, figured it out, came back here excited to post the solution, and OOOPS... you beat me to it!

Thank you for getting back with the answer, just the same. I will post the solution to multiple forums on multiple pages shortly.

[mccollin]

OK, combining a couple of things here, let me see if this is correct.

Let's use my car example again. I have a main site that deals with all cars. I have various forums for the different types of cars. I want to combine all car news on my home page. I want individual portal pages for the car types that only show news for them... chevy, ford, dodge, etc.

In this example, chevy has one news forum, ford has two, and dodge has one.

I first add the multiple forum hack that was just posted about 5 or 6 posts back. That replaces

PHP Code:

... WHERE forumid = '$newsforum' ... 


with

PHP Code:

... WHERE forumid in ($newsforum) ... 


You can then put multiple forums in the field in the control panel and it will work, but you would get all the forums on all the pages. I want to segregate forums on pages. So.....

I add the following just below the opening comments where it says support is only provided in this forum.

PHP Code:

// Set variables for this page

if ($mode=='') { 
  $newsforum = '3, 5, 8, 9';
} elseif ($mode=='chevy') { 
  $newsforum = '3';
} elseif ($mode=='ford') { 
  $newsforum = '5, 8';
} elseif ($mode=='dodge') { 
  $newsforum = '9';
} else { 
  $newsforum = "$newsforum";  // default to what is in cp
} 


Then you would call the home page using

www.myurl.com/vbindex.php

or chevy with

www.myurl.com/vbindex.php?mode=chevy

etc, etc.

OK, that solves the multiple forums problem. But, I want to have different page layout as well... in particular I want to have targeted adds, and a panel of different info at the top of each page that talks about that car type. If I modify the code to this...

PHP Code:

// Set variables for this page

if ($mode=='') { 
  $newsforum = '3, 5, 8, 9';
  $page = ''; 
} elseif ($mode=='chevy') { 
  $newsforum = '3';
  $page = 'chevypage';     
} elseif ($mode=='ford') { 
  $newsforum = '5, 8';
  $page = 'fordpage'; 
} elseif ($mode=='dodge') { 
  $newsforum = '9';
  $page = 'dodgepage'; 
} else { 
  $newsforum = "$newsforum";
  $page = ''; 
} 


I can now have a different template page for each one. These need to be added in the control panel as "home_extra_chevypage", "home_extra_fordpage", and home_extra_dodgepage". No problem, now I have some more control.... but I ran into a problem here... my lack of knowledge on vBulletin.

I want to have other custom templates for the other bits... "home_newsbits", home_header", etc. I tried adding "home_custom_news" and added it to one of the "extra" pages, but I ended up with nothing showing up, telling me that it couldn't find my template. I tried adding the templates in the list at the head of vbindex.php, but that also didn't work. This is probably a basic vB question, but how do I add and call custom templates within the vB template system.

Thanks. (almost done )

[NTLDR]

The $templatesused list at the top contains all the templates that could be used by vBindex, this removes 1 query for each template, so any you add I strongly recomend that you place them in this list.

For the $mode if clause, make sure this goes after the require global.php line otherwise it will not work.

For the custom templates I assume these are based on $mode? If so then I would rename them in the eval lines to variables, for example:

PHP Code:

eval("\$threadbits .= \"".gettemplate('home_threadbit')."\";"); 


to:

PHP Code:

eval("\$threadbits .= \"".gettemplate($home_threads)."\";"); 


and set $home_threads equal to the template you wish to use in the $mode if statement, this seems the easiest way to me.

I may consider making some of these changes standard in v3 as it seems like many people would find it usefull

[mccollin]

Actually, no. I took a left turn on you there. Remember that I'm a phpBB guy and have just been using templates for a few weeks... totally new to me. Assume I'm an idiot with this stuff and may be missing something simple.

In the $mode statement, I've got a new page template for each. Rather than pass two variables in the url, I've just piggy backed on the one you already put there for "page" (it's the last code in vbindex.php at the bottom). So, I'm not passing page... I'm sticking it in there from the $mode conditionals. So, the $page=chevypage is for the template named "home_extra_chevypage" as you've defined in your code.

That works fine. But, it's not enough for me to replace just that home template. I want to let home_extra_chevypage call a different home_news, home_newsbits, home_right, and home_header (than the one that the home page calls).

I created new templates of those names as home_custom_news, etc., then I referenced them in home_extra_chevypage... but they didn't do anything.

The evaluate part of this is probably where I'm missing something. Again, assume I'm an idiot on this. I will keep trying and let you know if I figure it out before you respond. Thanks a ton for your quick responses.

[mccollin]

PHP Code:

// Set variables for this page 

if ($mode=='') { 
  $newsforum = '3, 5, 8, 9'; 
  $page = ''; 
} elseif ($mode=='chevy') { 
  $newsforum = '3'; 
  $page = 'chevypage';     
  eval("\$home_custom_mews = \"".gettemplate('home_custom_news')."\";");
  eval("\$home_custom_mewsbits = \"".gettemplate('home_custom_newsbits')."\";");
 
} elseif ($mode=='ford') { 
  $newsforum = '5, 8'; 
  $page = 'fordpage'; 
} elseif ($mode=='dodge') { 
  $newsforum = '9'; 
  $page = 'dodgepage'; 
} else { 
  $newsforum = "$newsforum"; 
  $page = ''; 
} 


I tried doing this and it still doesn't work. When I call mode=chevy, it does use the home_extra_chevypage template, but the news part is blank.

[mccollin]

OK,

I still need to get an answer on the template question before I can complete my next phase, but I now have my home page moved from phpBB2/Smartor EZPortal/Heavy Hacking, to vBulletin/vBindex/Heavy Templating. You can see it at pdaPhoneHome New Home Page . The old page that is temporarily still online is at pdaPhoneHome Old Home Page .

So, can you recognize that this started two days ago as a standard vBindex page?

I love this thing... very clean and easy to work with.

By the way, is the users online supposed to only show 12 people? If so, what 12 does it show? I usually have a lot more users online than this.

[NTLDR]

Both links go to the same place for me.

Here is how I would suggest doing the templates:

PHP Code:

// Set variables for this page 

if ($mode=='') { 
  $newsforum = '3, 5, 8, 9'; 
  $page = ''; 
} elseif ($mode=='chevy') { 
  $newsforum = '3'; 
  $page = 'chevypage';      
  $news_template = "home_custom_news";
  $newsbits_template = "home_custom_newsbits";

} elseif ($mode=='ford') { 
  $newsforum = '5, 8'; 
  $page = 'fordpage'; 
} elseif ($mode=='dodge') { 
  $newsforum = '9'; 
  $page = 'dodgepage'; 
} else { 
  $newsforum = "$newsforum"; 
  $page = ''; 
  $news_template = "home_news";
  $newsbits_template = "home_newsbits";
} 


Then change the following lines:

PHP Code:

  eval("\$news = \"".gettemplate('home_news')."\";"); 
  eval("\$newsbits .= \"".gettemplate('home_newsbits')."\";"); 


To:

PHP Code:

  eval("\$news = \"".gettemplate($news_template)."\";"); 
  eval("\$newsbits .= \"".gettemplate($newsbits_template)."\";"); 


Hope that makes sense