Portal Software - WebTemplates 4.x: VB Integrated CMS (Content Management System)

(This hack is for vb version 4.x and above. For vb 3.x, version 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.


WEBTEMPLATES 4.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:
(Most are from 3.x versions but WebTemplate look and feel didn't change much so all 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://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)

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..

From FAQ 13: Vbulletin already has a CMS now , why would I need this hack?

If you have CMS license, you might not need Webtemplates. On the other hand, CMS license is paid, webtemplates is free and many forum owners don't have CMS licenses.

Also please note that vb has CMS since 2010. Webtemplates was first released for vb2.x in 2002 and it was around in vb3.x, 3.5.x and above for thousands of vbulletin users who have developed their sites around webtemplates CMS. So regardless of new vb CMS owners might or might not need it, Webtemplates 4.x is still realased and supported as a courtesy to its old users and fans. I personally prefer and use Webtemplates over vb CMS and this hack lives for people who agrees with me.

Version Updates:
12.October.2013 - > Version 4.0.2
* Minor fixes for PHP 5.4.x (Fixes "Deprecated: Assigning the return value of new by reference is deprecated" errors in new PHP versions.
14.July.2012 - > Version 4.0.1
* Vbulletin changed WYSIWYG editor parsing in vb4.2.x so hack's editor.php is updated accordingly.
9.September.2010 - > Version 4.0.00
* Hack 4.00.00 is released.

[Alfa1]

Originally Posted by Lionel

Read FAQ 13

I did. It's a bit ambiguous. Basically it says that I might not need it but many prefer it to vbCMS. I wondered if there is a reason why many prefer it.
I assume not then.

[Logician]

Originally Posted by Alfa1

I did. It's a bit ambiguous. Basically it says that I might not need it but many prefer it to vbCMS. I wondered if there is a reason why many prefer it.
I assume not then.

It does not say many prefers it, it says I prefer it and many uses it.

The reason many uses it is because this hack is around since 2002 when vb didn't have a cms by then. So many people built and developed their sites around webtemplates for years (see sample sites in the first post) and they want to keep their pages as is without a need to migrate over to vb cms.

The reason I prefer it is because IMHO it is more simple to use and it is free.

It will be easier for you to decide if you like it or not, if you install it. It is free and takes 10 mins. to install and if you don't like you can just uninstall. So trying yourself and have your own opinion can be more helpful than trying to understand others' opinions.

[midnz]

Originally Posted by Logician

The reason many uses it is because this hack is around since 2002 when vb didn't have a cms by then. So many people built and developed their sites around webtemplates for years (see sample sites in the first post) and they want to keep their pages as is without a need to migrate over to vb cms.

I'm one of those who has used this hack for a few years now. I'm so glad that it's updated for vB4. I've really missed it. Although I've got the publishing suite I've disabled the CMS because in my opinion it's terribly user unfriendly and should be flushed where it belongs.
Thanks for the update Logician . Installed, voted & nominated.

[8thos]

I wish I saw this BEFORE I bought VB4 Publishing Suite.

[bjarne2]

The sparks really well this program, but using other than standard navbar will link in navbar forgotten eg. Wolf Navbar 4.6 does not work with this program but Wolf works with others as Garage and VbGallery.
It appears that the program includes navbar at a slightly different way than others.

[bjarne2]

Have found that are using many styleshet instead additional.css now used to provide extra styles in what I have done.
Since it was put into the Basic Default Theme, it seems like it should

[morrow]

Originally Posted by Logician

Apparently your overwrite didn't go well and you are still running old "view.php". The error about line 59 exists in old view.php, not in new view.php. Please make sure you have successfully overwrote the files. Deleting them first and then reuploding can help.

I'm sorry to say that I've deleted the view.php and uploaded the one provided in the zip. I'm still receiving this error.

[Logician]

Originally Posted by morrow

I'm sorry to say that I've deleted the view.php and uploaded the one provided in the zip. I'm still receiving this error.

Please give me FTP and admin cp access with PM and I'll check. But it really sounds like it is somehow about old view.php's being used. The error message points that because new view.php does not have this command in that line.

[subvertbeats]

Hey Logician

Im about to move to vB4 from vB 3.8

On the 3.8 instance, I use webtemplates for a 'subsite'

After migration of my vB 3.8 to vB 4, is it as simple as just installing this vB4 version of webte,plates and everything should still function with the subsite?

Many thanks

[subvertbeats]

Nevermind - found the readme - my bad