Add "Sponsored by" banners to your forum categories

Works with vBulletin v2.2.0!

This hack will allow you to add banners to your categories row (like done on SitePointForum.com - use that as a demo ).
You can add / remove sponsors for any category that exists and also on creation (of category) time.
You can specify the name, banner url and the sponsor's site.
Currently it only supports categories from level 1, and only on forum index. -if you want more please tell and I'll see what I can do.
Umm, that's it I think. Installation is fairly easy (and the hack itself didn't take too much time ), so you shouldn't have any problems.

Feedback from any kind is very appreciated!

First of all, run the following query

ALTER TABLE forum ADD sponsorname VARCHAR(100) not null AFTER cancontainthreads, ADD sponsorimg VARCHAR(100) not null AFTER sponsorname, ADD sponsorurl VARCHAR(255) not null AFTER sponsorimg

For more info about running queries take a look here or here.

Add a custom template, name it forumhome_forumbit_level1_nopost_sponsor and put the following in it:

<tr id="cat">
	<td bgcolor="{categorybackcolor}" colspan="2"><a href="forumdisplay.php?s=$session[sessionhash]&forumid=$forum[forumid]"><normalfont color="{categoryfontcolor}"><b>$forum[title]</b></normalfont></a>
	<br><smallfont color="{categoryfontcolor}">$forum[description]</smallfont></td>
	<td bgcolor="{categorybackcolor}" colspan="4"><a href="$forum[sponsorurl]" target="_blank"><img src="{imagesfolder}/$forum[sponsorimg]" border="0" alt="Proudly sponsored by $forum[sponsorname]"></a></td>
</tr>

(You can tweak this for your tables. Playing around with the colspans should be enough though. This is for the default table structure)

In forum.php (under your admin folder) add

PHP Code:

  maketableheader("Sponsors</b> <i>Only supported by categories</i>","",0);

  makeinputcode("Sponsor name","sponsorname");
  makeinputcode("Sponsor banner file<br>(your default images folder is added, no need in that)","sponsorimg");
  makeinputcode("Sponsor full URL","sponsorurl"); 


right after

PHP Code:

  makeyesnocode("Count posts made in this forum towards user post counts?","countposts",1); 


(around line 121)

Still in forum.php, replace

PHP Code:

  $DB_site->query("INSERT INTO forum
                      (forumid,styleid,title,description,active,displayorder,parentid,
                       parentlist,allowposting,cancontainthreads,daysprune,newpostemail,newthreademail,
                       moderatenew,allowhtml,allowbbcode,allowimages,allowsmilies,allowicons,
                       styleoverride,allowratings,countposts,moderateattach)
                   VALUES
                      (NULL,'$styleset','".addslashes($title)."','".addslashes($description)."','$isactive','$displayorder','$parentid',
                       '','$allowposting','$cancontainthreads','$daysprune','".addslashes($newpostemail)."','".addslashes($newthreademail)."',
                       '$moderatenew','$aallowhtmlcode','$aallowbbcode','$aallowimgcode','$aallowsmilies','$aallowicons',
                       '$styleoverride','$allowratings','$countposts','$moderateattach')"); 


with

PHP Code:

  $DB_site->query("INSERT INTO forum
                      (forumid,styleid,title,description,active,displayorder,parentid,
                       parentlist,allowposting,cancontainthreads,sponsorname,sponsorimg,
                       sponsorurl,daysprune,newpostemail,newthreademail,
                       moderatenew,allowhtml,allowbbcode,allowimages,allowsmilies,allowicons,
                       styleoverride,allowratings,countposts,moderateattach)
                   VALUES
                      (NULL,'$styleset','".addslashes($title)."','".addslashes($description)."','$isactive','$displayorder','$parentid',
                       '','$allowposting','$cancontainthreads','".addslashes($sponsorname)."','".addslashes($sponsorimg)."',
                       '".addslashes($sponsorurl)."','$daysprune','".addslashes($newpostemail)."','".addslashes($newthreademail)."',
                       '$moderatenew','$aallowhtmlcode','$aallowbbcode','$aallowimgcode','$aallowsmilies','$aallowicons',
                       '$styleoverride','$allowratings','$countposts','$moderateattach')"); 


(around lines 136-147)

Still in forum.php, add

PHP Code:

  maketableheader("Sponsors</b> <i>Only supported by categories</i>","",0);

  makeinputcode("Sponsor name","sponsorname",$forum[sponsorname]);
  makeinputcode("Sponsor banner file<br>(your default images folder is added, no need in that)","sponsorimg",$forum[sponsorimg]);
  makeinputcode("Sponsor full URL","sponsorurl",$forum[sponsorurl]); 


right after

PHP Code:

  makeyesnocode("Count posts made in this forum towards user post counts?","countposts",$forum[countposts]); 


(around line 230)

Still in forum.php, replace

PHP Code:

  $DB_site->query("UPDATE forum
                   SET
                     styleid='$styleset', title='".addslashes($title)."', description='".addslashes($description)."',
                     active='$isactive', displayorder='$displayorder', parentid='$parentid', parentlist=$parentlist,
                     allowposting='$allowposting', cancontainthreads='$cancontainthreads', daysprune='$daysprune',
                     newpostemail='".addslashes($newpostemail)."', newthreademail='".addslashes($newthreademail)."',
                     moderatenew='$moderatenew', allowhtml='$aallowhtmlcode', allowbbcode='$aallowbbcode',
                     allowimages='$aallowimgcode', allowsmilies='$aallowsmilies', allowicons='$aallowicons',
                     styleoverride='$styleoverride', allowratings='$allowratings', countposts='$countposts',
                     moderateattach='$moderateattach'
                   WHERE forumid='$forumid'"); 


with

PHP Code:

  $DB_site->query("UPDATE forum
                   SET
                     styleid='$styleset', title='".addslashes($title)."', description='".addslashes($description)."',
                     active='$isactive', displayorder='$displayorder', parentid='$parentid', parentlist=$parentlist,
                     allowposting='$allowposting', cancontainthreads='$cancontainthreads',
                     sponsorname='".addslashes($sponsorname)."',sponsorimg='".addslashes($sponsorimg)."',
                     sponsorurl='".addslashes($sponsorurl)."',daysprune='$daysprune',
                     newpostemail='".addslashes($newpostemail)."', newthreademail='".addslashes($newthreademail)."',
                     moderatenew='$moderatenew', allowhtml='$aallowhtmlcode', allowbbcode='$aallowbbcode',
                     allowimages='$aallowimgcode', allowsmilies='$aallowsmilies', allowicons='$aallowicons',
                     styleoverride='$styleoverride', allowratings='$allowratings', countposts='$countposts',
                     moderateattach='$moderateattach'
                   WHERE forumid='$forumid'"); 


(around lines 261-273)
Save and upload forum.php.

In index.php (the main folder) replace this line

PHP Code:

        eval("\$forumbits .= \"".gettemplate("forumhome_forumbit_level$depth$tempext")."\";"); 


with this code

PHP Code:

        if ($forum['sponsorimg'] && $forum['cancontainthreads']==0 && $depth==1) {
          eval("\$forumbits .= \"".gettemplate("forumhome_forumbit_level1_nopost_sponsor")."\";");
        } else {
          eval("\$forumbits .= \"".gettemplate("forumhome_forumbit_level$depth$tempext")."\";");
        } 


(around line 298)
Save and upload index.php.

That's it.
If you did everything correctly (it wasn't very hard, was it? ) and I didn't do any mistakes (it's tested alright!, but I might have forgot something to post), you can start adding sponsors to your forum!

Ok...so I've got the hack installed, now how do I add the sponsors?

[Admin]

If you want to add sponsors for existing forums, just edit that forum. (Admin CP => Forums and Moderators => Modify => Edit)

Damn your quick! I like your style...thanks

I went into the CP and in to Modify Forums and didn't see anything about sponsors. Did I miss a step somewhere?

[Admin]

This is where you should look.

If it doesn't show up there, make sure you edited forum.php correctly and uploaded it.

Thanks...I got it corrected, but now my server is acting up!!!

Again...another great hack from FireFly

[Thomas P]

Hi FireFly,
awesome, will use it as soon as I found some sponsors
or found a way to use it an other way,
thx and keep up your good work,
-Tom

Check out Comission Junction, you can use affiliate programs for your sponsors. Maybe make some $$$.

[Thomas P]

Thanks for the hint,
am on my way
-Tom

[Admin]

Thanks guys!