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.

[Chadi]

I just installed this, but it is not using the default white background. Its purple instead.

http://www.talkjesus.com/view.php?pg=test

Please explain how to go about correcting this.

I also was not able to find where to edit the side column such as the Site Help Pages found here http://www.talkjesus.com/view.php?pg=info_linktous

Thanks.

[Logician]

Originally Posted by chadi

I just installed this, but it is not using the default white background. Its purple instead.

http://www.talkjesus.com/view.php?pg=test

Please explain how to go about correcting this.

It is not the hack, it is somehow related to your CSS files/custom design, I'm not sure how to fix it.

Your forum home page has a
<div class="nav_border_out">
<div class="nav_border_in">

</div>
</div>

section which gives the white background to your site but webtemplate does not have it. This means this section is not part of your default vb header/footer although it should. You should contact your designer to make sure vb header/footer has necessary html codes such as this so that webtemplate can inherit them.

Originally Posted by chadi

I also was not able to find where to edit the side column such as the Site Help Pages found here http://www.talkjesus.com/view.php?pg=info_linktous

You have to edit the theme webtemplate it is using. For this example it is Site Information Pages Template

[Chadi]

Thanks. I can't seem to figure out why the side bar template's <li> has a big margin to the left (or padding)

I got the same results in FF3 and IE7.

I'm also not a CSS pro, but those two div classes you mentioned has to do with the navbit area not background.

The style's main css area has #ffffff as the Page Background background color

[Logician]

Originally Posted by chadi

Thanks. I can't seem to figure out why the side bar template's <li> has a big margin to the left (or padding)

I got the same results in FF3 and IE7.

I'm also not a CSS pro, but those two div classes you mentioned has to do with the navbit area not background.

The style's main css area has #ffffff as the Page Background background color

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....8&postcount=31

[Chadi]

Thanks. One more minor problem.

The spacing on each side is not there as it normally is in the forum globally. See attached.

[ArnyVee]

Admittedly I have not read through all of the materials as of yet. But, before I spend too much time on this wonderful hack, I wanted to make sure that I could do something in particular with it.

What I'm looking to do is to make a sort of 'splash page' for a new domain that I'm starting. It is sort of an 'entry' page where I'm using it as a launch point for three different areas of the site. So, what I'd like to do is keep the overall 'feel' and color scheme of our site, but 'disable' (or make it not show at all) from the header to the navbar.

Therefore, it allows me to keep my header/logo (or put a custom one if I choose) and then the 'main' area with the three different launch points that I wanted to use for the body of the new page.

Is this possible with this hack/mod?

[Logician]

Originally Posted by ArnyVee

Admittedly I have not read through all of the materials as of yet. But, before I spend too much time on this wonderful hack, I wanted to make sure that I could do something in particular with it.

What I'm looking to do is to make a sort of 'splash page' for a new domain that I'm starting. It is sort of an 'entry' page where I'm using it as a launch point for three different areas of the site. So, what I'd like to do is keep the overall 'feel' and color scheme of our site, but 'disable' (or make it not show at all) from the header to the navbar.

Therefore, it allows me to keep my header/logo (or put a custom one if I choose) and then the 'main' area with the three different launch points that I wanted to use for the body of the new page.

Is this possible with this hack/mod?

Yes you can do what you want. After the installation, create a new parent webtemplate which is exact copy of one of the defaults (eg. Default Basic Theme), than edit it and remove sections you don't need (eg. $navbar). If you don't want header or footer as well, you can remove them too or create new webtemplate headers/footers with your changes and use that one in your splash page.

However when you told "a new domain that I'm starting", I hope that forum is also under that same domain. Obviously you can't have forum in domain A and splash page in domain B. Webtemplates will be in the same domain your forum is installed.

[Chadi]

Originally Posted by chadi

Thanks. One more minor problem.

The spacing on each side is not there as it normally is in the forum globally. See attached.

Would appreciate help on this one. Thanks.

I attached a screenshot of my style's stylevar setting

[badham]

Did the upgrade... was smooth as silk... I have loved this hack since it first was released and use it alot... this newest version only enhances it even more.

badham

[Logician]

Originally Posted by chadi

Thanks. One more minor problem.

The spacing on each side is not there as it normally is in the forum globally. See attached.

These problems are really related to the set up of your custom skin file. It is not easy for me to track them down and fix. In a correctly set vb skin structure, there will be no such differences but if you designer changes the vb skin's structure and used some elements in navbar instead of header or viceversa, webtemplates might not follow it.

For instance when I compare source codes of your pages I see your forumhome page is inside a

<div align="center">
<div class="page" style="width:100%; text-align:left">
<div style="padding:0px 15px 0px 15px" align="left">


</div>
</div>
</div>

frame which your webtemplate is not. I don't know where does this structure comes from. In a regular vb skin structure it should be set in header/footer and if it were the case, webtemplate would also acquire it automatically. (provided that you use default vb header/footer in your webtemplate setting!). But say if your designer put this structure inside forumhome template, webtemplate might not inherit it, hence problem.

You can try to use this inside your webtemplate theme and see if it will fix things and if not, I suggest you to contact the skin designer.