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Attention: This version of webtemplates is obsolete since new version (2.xx) is released as of 30.June.2003.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

[Ember]

Originally posted by Grendel
Hm. Even if your posting is not against me - I don't think, you're helpful, Logik.

No, he's a prick, there's a difference... I get the feeling he's one of those people who thinks he's better than you.

[Grendel]

What type of "functions" do you have on your homepage?

[Ember]

Basically everything that site uses... I have all my functions defined in one file, such as sql queries, php, all the html... and then I just call them in on the main pages, so I can edit everything in one place.

[Ember]

by functions I mean defining stuff using php:

PHP Code:

<?php
function head()
{
?>
<html>
<head>
<title>Title</title>
</head>
<body bgcolor="#cecece">
<?php
}
?>

and then to put it in the main site I just put:

PHP Code:

<?php
head();
?>

But there is more complex stuff on other pages.. liking viewing a complete story, which usings the post function eg: news.php?id=1 to view news story one...

I am just wondering how to get it to work thats all hehe.

[Grendel]

You could try to load it in an iframe on your homepage. Only netscape-users can't see this.

[Ember]

That might work, i'd have to look up the code to make the iframe transparent as the cell its in has a background image.

[Grendel]

The easiest way: just put your functions into webtemplates. I really played around with wt and you can do a lot of things with it.

[Ember]

Ok, thanks for your help all the same... I may just add a fully fledged welcome bar onto my home page and be done with the whole thing

[Logician]

Originally posted by OrangeCow.net
This may have been covered before, but I am using $user_username like this:

Welcome $user_username

but it is just showing "Unregistered" even if you are logged in... am I doing something wrong?

If Grendal's help solved the problem, ignore me plz.

If you still have the problem, I need some clarification: Can't you make webtemplates work all together or does it work but just $user_username not works? Also please mention if it works if you use it default: ie. you call show.php?pg=template_name directly without PHP includes..

[Ember]

Ok, what I did was:

Create a new webtemplate that contained

PHP Code:

Welcome $user_username 


When I went to the address show.php?pg=welcome - it worked fine and showed Welcome Ember, however when I used php to include show.php?pg=welcome it would only show Welcome Unregistered, I tried including global.php to no effect.

Hope that clears it up!