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!

That's something I've been looking for! I am PHP-phobic though - never installed a hack in my life (I shiver at the thought of upgrading my forums... I always think I'll end up crashing them!).

Firefly, do you provide support by phone for people in your locality I might just need that....

Originally posted by Lordmusic
Don't dis Alaska. I LIVE IN ALASKA. Me = Alaskan Pimp.

Anyways Alaska is cool, and for your info, we don't live in friggin igloos.

MUAHAHA Still laughing man!!

[LuBi]

Everyone who posted in here, the only forum I saw this script on was sitepoint.com did anyone actually install this hack and leave it in?

[amykhar]

I have it running, but I don't show the banners on my main page, just within specific forums. It is still working great though.

I even managed to use this hack to get a sponsor for one of my forums already. It's going to mean extra cash which we can really use right now.


Amy

[Mark Hewitt]

This hack would be cool if it gets sponsors for you too!

[Admin]

Hehe.

[LuBi]

Well I would install it but I don;t want ot have to uninstall it if I don;t like it. How are th sponsor thingys made? Are they pictures because I read over the read me and it didn't say aything about pictures need to be uploaded.

[Mark Hewitt]

You will need to upload pictures yes.

[Admin]

You can add sponsors selectively for each category.
If there is no sponsor, nothing different will be shown.

[LuBi]

Then I'll be installing this hack, thanks guys.