Miscellaneous Hacks - Force Style for Selected Usergroups

Please click Mark as Installed if you are using this hack.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: This hack has now been discontinued - this means that while it will remain available for download and use, there will be no further updates as this thread is no longer monitored. I am also not interested in doing paid work requests to update this hack at all.


What Does This Hack Do?[hr]Silver[/hr]
It is a update of my v3.8.x hack available here, designed to work with vBulletin v4.0.x.

This hack allows you to force a style to a usergroup via usergroup permissions, so this means that you can force different usergroups to different styles (previous versions of this hack only allowed you to apply only 1 style to a set of usergroups/users).

Scenario

The setup on my forums is that I use the default style as the parent to all my other styles which makes modifying the templates easy for me, I just edit my default style and the child styles inherit the changes.

I wanted to use a child style as the standard style for visitors and members, but not have them have a choice of the default style at all, but as soon as you logged out you were presented with the default style that you did not want guests to see.

This hack rectifies that. It also allows you to let others use the forum wide default style (selected via Style & Language Settings -> Default Style in the vBulletin Options of the AdminCP) while forcing the usergroup(s) to the one style you selected.


Frequently Asked Questions

Question:

What if you need custom style permissions as well?

Answer:

This question has been asked a few times: What if you need custom style permissions so that you can control which usergroups see/select what styles? The hack I use is Andreas's Restrict Style to Usergroup hack which he released for v3.5.x. It is because of that hack that this one exists, and I have tested it on v3.5.x, v3.6.x, v3.7.x, v3.8.x and v4.0.0 Beta, and it works for all five versions and works fine with my hacks as well.

For instance on my forum I need to use both hacks, as the style I force on my guests and normal members is not selectable nor do I allow them permission to use it, and is also not my default style (all my other styles are child styles of my default one), so without Andreas's hack I would not be able to do this.

But just to let you know that Andreas's hack is unsupported and is not likely to ever be supported (unless it is a proven bug), so if you have problems with it, you are on your own.

vBulletin Version Compatibility[hr]Silver[/hr]
This hack can only be used with v4.0.0 and later versions.

For the v3.8.x version of this hack, which will also work with v3.7.x and v3.6.x - check here.

For the unsupported v3.5.x version of this hack - check here.


Install/Upgrade/Uninstall Instructions[hr]Silver[/hr]
The readme.txt instructions file is included in attached .zip file.


Version History[hr]Silver[/hr]
v4.0.002 - Friday 12th March 2010
-- Final v4.0.x release
-- Released at Wolfshead Solutions on Friday 5th March 2010
-- Fixed: Style not being enforced in vBulletin v4.0.2 and above

v4.0.001 - Saturday 28th November 2009
-- Initial v4.0.x Release
-- Changed: Plugin (removed forcing style on users - does not work at the moment)
-- Changed: Hack name (used to be called "Force Style for Selected Users or Groups")
-- Added: readme.txt file
-- Added: VersionHistory.txt file
-- Removed: 1 phrase
-- Removed: 2 AdminCP settings
-- Removed: 1 Bitfield setting


Thanks[hr]Silver[/hr]
Thanks go out to Paul M who gave me permission to use some of his install code.


Show Your Appreciation [hr]Silver[/hr]
Although not required, if you have enjoyed the benefits of this hack, and would like show your appreciation for my efforts, then please feel free to click on the Support Developer link and donate any amount you feel is appropriate.

[Budget101]

installed it on vb4.0.2 PL1 (on a Clean Installation- new board with NO other mods, btw) - didn't work, uninstalled.

[tafreeh]

i think this should go to graveyard. because it doesnt supported and its not working either... there is no point of having this here.

But this is much needed hack.

[Mosh]

Hi all,

This hack has now been updated this hack to v4.0.002, and is now available to download at Wolfshead Solutions for all vBulletin.org Hacks Support subscribers.

This new version fixes the bug that caused usergroup style enforcement to stop working once people upgrade their sites to vBulletin 4.0.2.

If there are no issues then I will release this update to vBulletin.org on Friday 12th March 2010.

Regards,

Mosh Shigdar, Wolfshead Solutions.

[Mosh]

Update: v4.0.002 - Friday 12th March 2010
-- Released at Wolfshead Solutions on Friday 5th March 2010
-- Fixed: Style not being enforced in vBulletin v4.0.2 and above

[tafreeh]

Thank You, Works like a charm...

[tafreeh]

Actually not.. If you doesnt select any theme for specific usergroup, it will redirect them to a random skin.

[fatal1980]

For me on 4.0.2 I have set it to force unregistered to use a specific skin however once they login and they select any other skin, they only get the one forced for unregistered skin. All the other usergroups have this hack disabled. However one thing that does change is the logo but the colors remain the same... any idea what could be causing this? Maybe caching?

[Bobbo]

Originally Posted by fatal1980

For me on 4.0.2 I have set it to force unregistered to use a specific skin however once they login and they select any other skin, they only get the one forced for unregistered skin. All the other usergroups have this hack disabled. However one thing that does change is the logo but the colors remain the same... any idea what could be causing this? Maybe caching?

I've been having similar problems. One thing I have noticed is that there appears to be some issues around the Primary usergroup versus the Secondary usergroup.

For example, if I have a user and their Primary group is the "Registered Users" group, the style associated with that Primary group is displayed. Even if this user has secondary groups assigned that might have their own forced styles. This makes me assume Primary is used in the determination.

However, if I have a user and their Primary group is the "Other Users" group, it will show the style defined by that group only if "Registered User" is not one of that users Secondary groups. If I add "Registered User" to that users Secondary group, it overrides the style.

BTW, I am using VB 4.0.3

[earnest79]

too bad this finally stopped working on 4.0.8

[madkeen]

Any chance of this being done for 4.1.1?

Is payment needed?
If so I am happy to pay/donate.