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.

[Gladhatter]

imported_Veronica, I have been hesitant to say anything here in this series of post. I will say this however about helping you. I saw and fell in love with the Logician's stuff and it seems really wonderful. When about to deploy it, the coder( solidsnake@GTI) helping me showed me another solution as well however for my problem. He showed me the VBadvanced free solution that worked for me and my solution flawlessly: http://www.vbadvanced.com/products.p...fo&productid=4 I am not sure it will help anyone here and no offence the the fine product logician offers for sure but this one won my heart with its professional appearance and having exactly what we needed right out of the box and all for free. He had it installed in 10 minutes or so and up and running.

[Voyager-S]

Thank you Gladhatter, I already know and tried vBA. However, I would like to use this system, as it suits my needs better.

[Kihon Kata]

Logician,

Does this need some housekeeping to make it 3.8 compatible?

Thanks

[Saviour]

Logician...

I'm upgrading to vb 3.8. Will I have any issues with this version of your mod?

[redlabour]

Works with 3.8.

[Logician]

I haven't yet tested with 3.8 but I wouldn't expect any problems. So if you want to use it with 3.8, I'd say go on.

[Gladhatter]

Originally Posted by Logician

I haven't yet tested with 3.8 but I wouldn't expect any problems. So if you want to use it with 3.8, I'd say go on.

And I would say that is a rather Bill Gates attitude of allowing the users to do the beta testing all the while assuring them it is fine and if it is not then whom will clean up the mess? Not the Logician as he has a full time career with his current clients and you can see this is NOT a supported product.

A more reasonable answer from a more support oriented and caring person may be that they are not at all sure it works with a version they have not tried and advise all caution if anyone cares to proceed at their own risk.

[father guido]

Originally Posted by Gladhatter

And I would say that is a rather Bill Gates attitude of allowing the users to do the beta testing all the while assuring them it is fine and if it is not then whom will clean up the mess? Not the Logician as he has a full time career with his current clients and you can see this is NOT a supported product.

A more reasonable answer from a more support oriented and caring person may be that they are not at all sure it works with a version they have not tried and advise all caution if anyone cares to proceed at their own risk.

Or maybe he believes that by design this MOD should work but he just hasn't tried - Aren't all of the Mods "at your own risk?" I see no guarantees - I suspect you could get a refund of what you paid for it should it NOT work ........... Oh, but they are free, silly me.

[Gladhatter]

Silly may be a weak term to describe a person that believes anything is free or thinks it would be free to try to get a forum back up and going should it have terrible unforeseen consequences due to upgrading and finding out untested mods have had irreverable effects on it.

I clearly see this is one of those issues that may have opinions of both sides and I will restate my opinion that you should tread lightly and also approach with caution and even clone your current set up on a dev enviroment and then install this for through testing prior to using it in real time. This is the response that any competent developer would advise you to follow and not ask you to blindly trust what they have neglected to test for and assumes should work with no real knowledge to base that opinion on.

[Logician]

Originally Posted by Gladhatter

And I would say that is a rather Bill Gates attitude of allowing the users to do the beta testing all the while assuring them it is fine and if it is not then whom will clean up the mess? Not the Logician as he has a full time career with his current clients and you can see this is NOT a supported product.

A more reasonable answer from a more support oriented and caring person may be that they are not at all sure it works with a version they have not tried and advise all caution if anyone cares to proceed at their own risk.

1- No, there will not be any "terrible unforeseen consequences" or "irreverable effects" of using webtemplates with vb 3.8.x. If this is something I suspected, I'd advise to hold on the upgrade until I test it. If I say "go with it" it means in the very worst scenario, it works but something minor requires a patch. (which is also unexpected)

2- In my own board I still use vb3.5.x and I don't think I'm obligated to upgrade my board for you in the 36th hour of the 3.8.x being released to support a hack I use for my own needs and share with the community for free just for the sake of sharing. If you don't trust my product or unsatisfied with it, please go with another product.

3- I thought you already found the product you need somewhere else and don't even use webtemplates so I appreciate if you don't hijack my hack's thread with irrelevant comments. Thank you.