Template Backup System!

Hi everyone.

Here's my newest hack, called Template Backup System (TBS).
This is a very powerful tool for backing up and restoring your templates, especially good for upgrades.

I know you can do this using vBulletin's buil in style manager, but the beauty in this hack is that it exports only templates, and further more - they are saved to individual files in a folder you choose.

Why you ask? This could help a lot when upgrading to a new version of vBulletin. Just like you can compare files using programs such as Araxis Merge or Beyone Compare, you can now also compare templates, and easily keep track of changes that were done between versions.
After you save all changes to the template files, you use this script again only this time in the opposite directions - restoring the templates back into the system.

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This hack was in testing process for quite some time now, over a week and a half actually.
It has been tested extensively by the magnificent Hooper, and I truly believe it's 99% bug-free.
Most of the features in the hack are actually his ideas, so thanks a lot Rick!

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Before I continue, I need to say the expanding / collapsing feature will only work on Internet Explorer. It was only tested on it really, but I think the style.display thing is only supported by it.

Anyway, let's install this baby.

First of all, we need to edit admin/index.php a little bit.
Find this:

makenavoption("Add Template Set","template.php?action=addset");

and replace it with this:

[high]makenavoption("Add Template Set","template.php?action=addset","<br>");
makenavoption("Template Backup System","tbs.php?action=modify");[/high]

Save admin/index.php and upload back to your server.

Now edit cp.css (in the main forums folder). Now here's a file you don't edit often, huh?
Find this:

.cc { /* custom color */
	COLOR: darkblue;
}

and add this right after it:

[high].rc { /* custom color */
	COLOR: darkred;
} [/high]

Save cp.css and upload back to your server.

And last but not least, download tbs.php (attached to this post) and upload to your admin folder on your server.

That's it, installation is done.

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A few notes.

You can add new groups for template listing by editing tbs.php.
At the top, you will see something like this:

$groups['calendar']='Calendar';
$groups['emailsubject']='Email Subject';

and much more. To add your own group, simply add this:

$groups['[high]template_identifier[/high]']='[high]Group Name[/high]';

[high]template_identifier[/high] is the beginning of each template in this group, and [high]Group Name[/high] is the name of this group.

When saying "Using this requires a minimum amount of RAM." I am not kidding. If you don't have enough memory your browser will simply crash when clicking the Check All box. Trust me.

Make sure the folder you are saving templates into is CHMODed 0777, or PHP will not be able to create files in it. Also, the folder is a relative path to the admin folder, not the forums folder!

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That's all I have to say.
Feedback and feature requests are welcomed as always!

Have fun!

[Jawelin]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Jawelin
Hi, Chen!
Finally trying to use the 'import' feature after the upgrade, I found a couple of problems:
- Filenames (2002-02-02_.... etc.) aren't correctly managed
- I got an error in the script while trying to replace one existing template
- typo error 'export' instead 'import' in second section near "Choose templates to export selectively?"

Thanks a lot.
Bye

[Wolf42]

Yesterday I used this hack to copy some new templates from one style to an other.

Backup custom templates from one style, import to the other style. Worked fine, no probs.

[Stretchr]

I've used this a number of times with great results and no problems at all. Also, a tip: Read Bira's post earlier in the thread about changing the extension to .htt

This makes it easy to open your backup file in a browser if you need to for previewing mods, etc. HTH

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Jawelin
Has anybody tried the import feature ????
irate: How does it work with the export-date prefix ?
Thanks

[Jawelin]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Stretchr
I've used this a number of times with great results and no problems at all. Also, a tip: Read Bira's post earlier in the thread about changing the extension to .htt

[xug]

FireFly, a super hack, thanks for sharing your talent with us.

[freehtml]

Well .. Installed and backup all my templates..

[Karri]

Oh how cool!!! What a nifty little hack. I haven't installed many hacks yet (ok so this is my second one) but now I have my templates and stuff all backed up just in case.

Firefly you should get a cookie!!!

TTFN

[Tim Wheatley]

Works perfect - thanks. Now I can install 2.2.4

[N!ck]

i always get an error that the directory i want to put the templates in doesn't exist and then an error that it can't be created...:/...any advice?

[Jawelin]

Hi. The same question months ago noone answered...
Well. When I run an upgradeXX.php, all templates upgraded are the default ones, not the modified.
I.e. if I edited someone for hacks or similar, THEY WILL NOT BE UPDATED to the newer release.
Well: how could I manage the differences between the original template branch and the hacked one, to apply these differences by hand for example to the html/htt files coming from this hack ?

Thanks for any answer.
Bye