Portal Software - WebTemplates 3.7.x: VB Integrated CMS (Content Management System)

(This hack is for vb version 3.7.x & 3.8.x ONLY. For vb 3.6.x, 3.5.x, 3.0.x and 2.x see my profile for relevant threads.)

"WebTemplates" is a vBulletin integrated Content Management System which allows you to create vb integrated "HTML" pages in your vb admin cp very easily. The pages can inherit your vbulletin skin/style, can recognize logged-in user, can be applied permissions per user or usergroup basis, can keep visit logs, hit counts and do many more.

VB4 version Update (9.9.2010): Please find 4.x version of WebTemplates4.x in its own thread.


WEBTEMPLATES 3.7.x BASIC FEATURES:

• Very Easy Installation : Webtemplates can be installed to your board without modifying even a single vbulletin file. It is coded as a vb product and can be imported very easily.
• Apply VB Permissions: You can ban any webtemplate to any user or usergroups easily. So for instance you can design a webtemplate which only members can see while guests can not, or only user A can not see etc.
• Page Counter : Each webtemplate has a built-in counter and you can display page count to your visitors and you can edit it or turn it OFF/ON per webtemplate basis.
• Visitor Logging&Tracking : You can track certain users' (by usergroup or userid) webtemplate visits to see who visited a webtemplate and when. This is configurable per webtemplate basis.
• Site Contributers (Editor) Support : You can grant editing permissions for certain users or usergroups for your webtemplates individually and they will be able to update these webtemplates using their own editor interface. vB's WYSIWYG editor is supported in Editor interface.
• Page Browsers & Who is Online Display: Webtemplates can display who is browsing that webtemplate while visitor is reading them (like default forum browse display of vbulletin). Webtemplate visits can also be monitored in who is online page.
• Header/Footer Inclusion : Webtemplates can automatically use headers/footers (your default vb header/footer or custom ones)
• Help Documents : The script comes with an extensive help document.
• Admin Panel in Webtemplates : Your webtemplates can include an "admin panel" displayed to only admins and by using them you can access many details and stats of your page while you are browsing them.
• SEO friendly URLs: You can make webtemplate URLs seo friendly in vb settings (Requires apache server).
• XML Import/Export : XML Import/Export feature allows you to backup your webtemplates and use other hack users webtemplates in your board.

ADVANCED FEATURES FOR ADVANCED USERS:

• Webquery Feature : With advanced "webquery" feature you can create dynamic webtemplates which include database query results. For instance you can easily add "last 10 threads forum X", "most active users list" etc. to your webtemplates with default webqueries that comes with installation or you can create your custom webqueries with basic SQL knowledge.
• Multi Parsing : Webtemplates can parse PHP or HTML or TEXT (=smilie/img tags/bbcode parsing like vb posts). This means you can design a page just like vb posts (TEXT parsing), standart HTML (HTML parsing) or even in PHP (PHP parsing).
• PHPINCLUDE per webtemplate : Every webtemplate has its own "phpinclude" field which you can run PHP codes before loading the Webtemplate
• Theme Support : Webtemplates support "themes" which are parent webtemplates which include child webtemplates in them. For instance if you have 20 similiar pages which uses the same visual look, you can make a single theme for all of them, then just insert their content into this theme. If you change theme later, all 20 pages' visual will change automatically.
• Conditionals : Webtemplates supports VB3 template conditionals so you can design webtemplates which change their display under different conditions.
• Default variables : You can use/display certain variables in your webtemplates like username of the visitor, visitor email address, last visit time, page creation time, page last edit time, Last visitor name, last visit time etc.

Sample WebTemplates from Sites using this hack:
(Some 3.5 and some are 3.0 versions but WebTemplate look and feel didn't change much so both will give you the idea.)

http://www.worldwideknights.com/view_mission.htm
http://www.theadminzone.com/forums/view.php?pg=aboutus
http://www.hystersisters.com/vb2/view_guidelines.htm
http://www.worldwideknights.com/view_info.htm
http://www.hystersisters.com/vb2/view_books.htm
http://www.worldwideknights.com/view_spread.htm
http://www3.fertilethoughts.com/forums/view.php?pg=acronyms
http://www.makeuptalk.com/forums/view.php?pg=makeuptalk-newsletter
http://www.bklab.com (entire site is designed with Webtemplates only)
(Actually this hack is one of the most popular vb hacks so it is used by hundreds -if not thousands- of vbulletin sites and you can easily find them if you go to google and search "Logician's WebTemplates" WITH quotation marks)

3.5 version Admin CP screenshot attached to this post. 3.0.x screenshots (here and here) also still applies for this version.

If you use the hack, clicking here will make sure you'll know about updates&bug fixes. It will also help me understand how many people is using the hack so please click the install button if you use it. Thank you..

About this 3.7.xx Version: This 3.7.xx version is same as previous 3.6.x version. 3.6.x version was already working in vbulletin 3.7.x except a few minor bugs and these bugs are fixed in this version to make it dedicated solely to vbulletin 3.7.x. Please see "what's new" in the next post for more details.

Version Updates:
29.July.2008 - > Version 3.7.00
* Hack 3.7.00 is released.

[Logician]

Originally Posted by sparklywater

I think this mod is good enough to be sold to vBulletin / vBadvanced, they should make Logician a good deal and then support the product themselves. Logician has been doing a phenomenal job on his own but it would be easier on him if there was a team working on it rather than on his own. What do you think Logician?

Thanks for the kudos.

This is asked to me by another hack user long time ago and I told my point of view in vb.com:
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showt...98#post1454598

It was one year ago and my stance didn't change: So if Jelsoft asks to integrate it into default vb package, I'm happy to pass it to them for free. Webtemplates and all my hacks released here are my courtesy to vbulletin community anyway.

But as stated in that message, this is not a usual way of Jelsoft so I would think its happening implausible. And I think you'll agree with me if you consider first release of Webtemplates was on 22.Mar.2002.

[LG Alex]

Wow, thank you. Very useful. Installed!

[TheFocusElf]

Originally Posted by Logician

Assuming you meant VB, not IBP: please see Post number 223.

Ich, yes, VB not IPB. I do work in both settings, but vastly prefer VB and that is obviously what this query was for.

Yes I've cleared the SQL DB, run several fresh installs and always the error. Where might I find the error log, sorry for the newbie question.

[Logician]

Originally Posted by TheFocusElf

Ich, yes, VB not IPB. I do work in both settings, but vastly prefer VB and that is obviously what this query was for.

Yes I've cleared the SQL DB, run several fresh installs and always the error. Where might I find the error log, sorry for the newbie question.

If you are using cpanel, you can log in there and you'll see error log icon. Before clicking on it, just visit the webtemplate page so as to procude a recent error in the log.

[TheFocusElf]

Originally Posted by Logician

If you are using cpanel, you can log in there and you'll see error log icon. Before clicking on it, just visit the webtemplate page so as to procude a recent error in the log.

Bizarre :

[Wed Nov 26 09:30:25 2008] [error] [client 24.226.18.50] File does not exist: /home/accountname/public_html/domainname.com/500.shtml, referer: http://domainname.com/admincp/wt_wt.php?do=webedit&wtid=8

And sure enough the file is there, permissions set to 644. Permissions the culprit?

[Logician]

Originally Posted by TheFocusElf

Bizarre :

[Wed Nov 26 09:30:25 2008] [error] [client 24.226.18.50] File does not exist: /home/accountname/public_html/domainname.com/500.shtml, referer: http://domainname.com/admincp/wt_wt.php?do=webedit&wtid=8

And sure enough the file is there, permissions set to 644. Permissions the culprit?

I can't tell much but it seems it is somehow related to server (maybe a firewall/security/permissions issue?). If you have a server admin, I'm sure he can help you more on this.

[TheLastSuperman]

I use the 3.6 version and LOVE IT!

Thanks for this - I mean it

[Neutral Singh]

With url rewriting can i replace word view_ with any thing more meaningful word like sikhism_ for my forum? How can i achieve this?

[Logician]

Originally Posted by Neutral Singh

With url rewriting can i replace word view_ with any thing more meaningful word like sikhism_ for my forum? How can i achieve this?

Edit wt_include.php, section:

$WT_SEO_url_prefix = 'view_';

And edit your .htaccess file.

[Neutral Singh]

Thank you!! It worked!!

Another request: What if i want the re written url ending ***.html instead of ***.htm ?