welcome/login panel on non-vB page

I've seen a lot of requests for this around here, but no solutions.

Latest version is 1.30
Works with V2.2.9 Should work with earlier version of 2.2.x too.


OVERVIEW
========
This hack/modification is designed to create a welcome panel on your non-vB homepage, so that users are either welcomed back if they are registered, or invited to login/register if they are not.

There are config options to show avatar and/or PM information and/or who's online (with or without usernames) in your welcome panel.

If you want to see a working example, then go to http://www.thebookforum.com The hack installed there does not show all of its features, but gives a general idea. The templates allow complete control over the look of the login/welcome panel.

There is one PHP file (webwelcome.php) to upload, and ten custom VB templates to create.

The templates can be modified to suit the design of your site. The ones that I have included in the zip file are those that I created for my site.

There are options to include the following additional info
- Avatar for guests or user's own avatar if logged in. If no avatar selected, a default one will be shown. Example guest and default avatars included in this release package.
- PM info to logged in users (will not show if user cannot use PMs or has chosen not to)
- Who's online (number of members of guests). Additional option to choose whether to show usernames.


CREDITS
======
This hack also uses some code originally written by several members of vbulletin.org in particular Firefly and MrLister.

Full credit is given in the php file for the relevent bits of code used. I have modified their code slightly to work with this hack.

I have not formally asked their permission due to the open source nature of the hacks at vbulletin.org
If they object I will remove their code from this hack release.


HISTORY
======
V1.30 13 September 2002
Hack creation now very simple. No more copy & paste. I've changed a lot of the original vb code so copy & paste would be nearly impossible.
Added option to include PM info and who's online (with or without usernames) in the welcome panel.
Default templates included in the hack release altered to include these new options.
New templates for the additional info to be shown.

V1.20 11 September 2002
Added option to include user's avatar in the welcome panel.
Default templates included in the hack release altered to include these new options.
Default templates altered to be more generic.

V1.10 13 May 2002
Fixes the bug where the "most users online...." on the forum page keeps reseting to zero.
Removes a lot of the unecessary bloat from the script.
Creation of script simplified. Now just cut and paste.
NB template name change in this version - webwelcome_home is now called webwelcome.

V1.00 07 April 2002
Original release.

[wushu]

The login works however I get the same problems as above.

On my non-vb page the login fields appear, I enter my login name and password, it takes me to the forums. When I go back to my non-vb, the login fields are still there! But even when i refresh, the fields still stay.

Vice Versa, if i install the hack when i'm still logged in, the welcome message appears. When I go back to my forums and log out, the welcome message is still there on my non-vb page (even refreshing that page continuously).

I've got my forums on a sub-domain, 2.2.6. Does anyone else have this problem? Any help is appreciated!

[Darren Lewis]

OK, sorry about the slow replies. I've been updating my website quite a bit these last few days.

These are the no cache headers that vbulletin uses. Try these to see if they work.

	<!-- no cache headers -->
	<meta http-equiv="Pragma" content="no-cache">
	<meta http-equiv="no-cache">
	<meta http-equiv="Expires" content="-1">
	<meta http-equiv="Cache-Control" content="no-cache">
	<!-- end no cache headers -->

Frank,

The latest threads on my website's homepage is a slight modification of Tubedog's hack available here.

The other two (the Book News, and the Site News) are ones that I wrote myself. They're basically identical hacks but each one looks to a different forum ID for the info, and use different templates. The book news is a public forum, the site news is a private forum so can't be seen in the forums by guests and members (but it can by me )

In writing them, I used code and ideas from several of the news hacks available here. To cut the title after x charcters, have a look at KuraFire's newsportal and thread overview hack and Tubedog's latest threads hack. To pull forum info to a non-vb page have a look at vbhome or vbindex (look for the news bits in the code).

I suppose if enough people are interested I could release them as a separate hack (when I get a bit more time )

Darren.

[carpman]

Hello, is it possible to split this into two sections?

By this i mean have a webwelcome.php and webwelcome_logout.php.

Why do i want this? well i use VBPotal and already have a
P_themeheader
&
P_themeheader_loggedout

These templates already have menus for logged in and logged out users ie:

logout
register

links.

What i would like to be able to do is to be able to include file or template, in existing templates:

P_themeheader
&
P_themeheader_loggedout

which has welcome panel for a logged in user or logout/not registered user.

any ideas how i could use this hack for such a purpose?

many thanks

[Darren Lewis]

I'm not sure I follow what you want to do. I don't use vbportal, but from the sites I've seen using it, it already has a built in welcome/login feature.

If you want to include bits of the templates from this hack in the vbportal templates that should work OK. If you want to include the php code in the templates that probably won't work. I know that with vbulletin you can't use php code within the templates so I presume the same is true for vbportal (and other systems that use templates).

Darren.

[carpman]

Thanks for reply.

Yes i know VBP has all these feature, but they are in side/center blocks and i want to put them in header section, so need to included them the P_themeheader templates.

Real pain trying to work it out

[Darren Lewis]

A quick update to say that the new V1.20 has been released. I've been meaning to do this for a while but never got around to it. After a few emails about it here it is.

It will allow you to display the user's avatar on the non-vb page. Basically a modification of Firefly's hack.

Any other features people would like?

[Moto]

My forum and my main site are on two different domain names and IP address. Will this hack still work?

[Daderin]

Sorry if it was asked before... but is there any easy modification to apply to this hack to have private messaging information included ?

Thanks in advance.

[Darren Lewis]

My forum and my main site are on two different domain names and IP address. Will this hack still work?

Not sure... If they're with the same host you may just have to enter the full path to the vbulletin global.php file. If not it would require a bit of work to get it working. I'll do some experimenting to see what I can do.

is there any easy modification to apply to this hack to have private messaging information included ?

Should be able to sort something out. Just copying some more bits from the vbulletin index.php file should do the trick with a new template. Would you want something like vb has on the forum home page giving number of PMs and link to the pm folder, but only if the person had permission to use PMs or had enabled them in their CP?

I haven't been applying or bothering with hacks much recently as I'm waiting for VB3 to be released.

[Darren Lewis]

OK, I've nearly finished the next version

New Features Added:-
- Option to show PM info (if user cannot use PM system or has chosen not to use it, the pm info will not be shown for them).
- Option to show who's online and another option within that to show usernames or not (invisible users will show as visible to admin only).
- Both the PM info and Who's Online bits will use the correct grammar. If for example only 1 member is online, it will say "1 member" and not "1 members" or "1 member(s)" but if 2 members are online it will say "2 members". Similar for guests and PM info.

Again, layouts of all of these will be configurable via custom templates.

As I've edited a lot of the vb original code, I'm going to abandon the copy & paste system and release a fully loaded webwelcome.php file.

Hope to have this out by the weekend.

Any other features people want whilst I'm in the mood

Darren.

PS Still haven't tried it on a subdomain or another domain.