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Attention: This version of webtemplates is obsolete since new version (2.xx) is released as of 30.June.2003.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

[dano]

05-02-03 at 09:00 AM Logician said this in Post #240
replicate?

After installing the hack, you can simply copy/paste the source code of your page into a webtemplate and your page will be a webtemplate then. Is this what u are asking?

However as mentioned in the hack thread this hack is not coded for "site main page" altough some people use it for their main pages too.

Logician,

Question. Could I use this to create a Welcome Panel on a catagory home page?

I have an all female area of my board with its own url that redirects them to the main catagory page. I would like to have a log in box or welcome panel on that page, can you help?

[Logician]

Yesterday at 10:19 PM Cloudrunner said this in Post #270
before I decide to use this or not, is there a way to have the webtemplate parse php code through some sort of eval?

i.e. can I use php, or adjust it to I can use php or html?

Thanks
)O( Cloudrunner )O(

Not at the moment. Hopefully this feature will be integrated into new version..

Question. Could I use this to create a Welcome Panel on a catagory home page?

I have an all female area of my board with its own url that redirects them to the main catagory page. I would like to have a log in box or welcome panel on that page, can you help?

If it is a HTML page and you don't mind changing its url, yeah that would be ok.

[Logician]

New Version of Webtemplates is coded and about to be ready to release. (For vb 2.x.x)

It has many new and exciting features which will make hack users happy. It is designed to be a powerful vb-integrated content management system and I believe it is useful and handy.

Before the release I want to test it for a few days and it is appreciated if I can get some beta testers to help me test it and find the bugs. So I need people who
a) is already using webtemplates so familiar with its usage
b) can spare time to test the new version
c) can return to me with feedback & bugs and preferrable soon.

If you are interested, please contact me here or via email and let me know your email address so that I can send you the new version (give me a couple of days after you mailed me)..

Thanks,

[reismarktq2]

AWESOME hack.

[high]* reismarktq2 punches the install button [/high]

[Logician]

I'd suggest not to install this version since new one is about to be released..

[reismarktq2]

There will be a upgrade patch set up for it, right? (Because I'm already making use of it for several pages...)

[Logician]

there will not be a upgrade script, you have to move your existing webtemplates manually (by copy/pasting) so I'd say hold on creating new pages for a few days..

[mbaskett]

Logician,

We have been running this hack fro quite some time now.. I remember putting the original version on, then a new beta that you sent me a while back... We made some hacks to your hack to customize it to our site and what we needed out of it. Total excellence!!! I've enjoyed it quite a bit....

I'd like to volunteer to beta your new version on our site, as I've been asked to update that section of our site with "something new" I know I'm not the best about providing feedback promptly, but that's usually because it's running well, and we haven't encountered any problems

Let me know, as our current Webtemplates is down (from tbe upgrade to 2.3.0 and lack of time to re-instate it) and I'm in the middle of making the decision to either re-isntate the old code we currently have, or to try out your newest version as a beta...

Thanks!

Matt Baskett

[Logician]

Today at 07:07 PM mbaskett said this in Post #278
Logician,

We have been running this hack fro quite some time now.. I remember putting the original version on, then a new beta that you sent me a while back... We made some hacks to your hack to customize it to our site and what we needed out of it. Total excellence!!! I've enjoyed it quite a bit....

I'd like to volunteer to beta your new version on our site, as I've been asked to update that section of our site with "something new" I know I'm not the best about providing feedback promptly, but that's usually because it's running well, and we haven't encountered any problems

Let me know, as our current Webtemplates is down (from tbe upgrade to 2.3.0 and lack of time to re-instate it) and I'm in the middle of making the decision to either re-isntate the old code we currently have, or to try out your newest version as a beta...

Thanks!

Matt Baskett

if you don't mind waiting for a few days, you'd better try the new version. If you send me your email, I'll mail it to you so you can decide which one to choose... But frankly, compared to new version, old version is stone age in all respects..

[mbaskett]

Sweet, I'll PM you me e-mail addy...