WebTemplates v.0.1 (Old Version)

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Attention: This version of webtemplates is obsolete since new version (2.xx) is released as of 30.June.2003.

If you are new user, please visit new hack's thread and install that one, not this version.

This thread is active for discussing migration issues and will be closed in the future.
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Introduction:
Basically this hack allows you create vbulletin powered non-vb pages within vb admin CP and administer them just like vb templates.

Your "webtemplates" reside inside MYSQL and have the same structure as regular vbulletin templates and you edit/modify/delete them inside your Admin CP. You can create as many as you like and display them like:
http://yoursite URL/yourboard URL/show.php?pg=YOUR_WEBTEMPLATE_NAME.

Features of Your WebTemplates:
* You can easily edit/update your non-vb pages from your vb control panel just like vb templates. No need to FTP or smt.
* Simply backup your vbulletin and your entire site (including your webtemplates) is backed up too.
* You can use some vbulletin variables in your non-vb pages, so eg. address your members with their member names in your entire site.
* Your entire web site can mimic your forum's visual interface. All your fonts/colors etc. are kept in your non-vb. pages too. Besides users' style sets apply for your web templates either. So for instance if you have 2 styles, every user will see your webtemplates in the style and colors they are using in the board.
* This hack allows you to specify usergroups/usernames which can or cannot see the page you designed. So your non-vb pages can inherit vb. access permissions. Every webtemplate can have different display permissions for different users/usergroups.
* You can have counters in your pages and show/trace page visits individually for all your pages. Every webtemplate has its own counter.
* You can have "last visitor's name and visit time" in all your pages.
* You can insert fixed header/footer for all your pages.
* The "conditionals" you can set, allow you to design advanced and dynamic web pages, which change themselves according to the conditions you set. For example you can set different texts/page designs IN THE SAME PAGE for different users and every user will only see the text that is addressed to him.

Webtemplates are very easy to create. Just copy paste the HTML code of your page into the webtemplate box, give it a name, click submit and voila, your webtemplate is up and running! By using this method, you can convert your existing non-vb pages into webtemplates with ease too. It is just a matter of copy/paste its HMTML code. Installation of the hack is easy too and the hack will work any version of vbulletin I know.

For Advanced Users: If you want your webtemplates to get data from your database and display it, you have an advanced feature named "webqueries". WebQueries feature allows you to run SQL queries in your MYSQL database and automatically create sorted tables for you which you can add in any WebTemplates. So your non-vb pages can be dynamic and you can have any kind of SQL results (related with vb or not) in any page you want. Webqueries are optional to use and appeals to people with basic SQL knowledge. You can still create webtemplates very easily without using webqueries if you don't know SQL or don't need to query your database in your webtemplate. If you want to play with webqueries, please read and follow instructions CAREFULLY. This hack gives you advanced tools to create powerful and dynamic web pages, so give yourself sometime and learn how to create these pages. I wrote help pages which you can find in your webtemplates section after installation, so please read them carefully and examine sample page's code before pelting me with questions!

If you installed this hack, share your webquery samples in this thread


Fixes and Add-ons:
* If you have than 1 MYSQL databases, webquery section might not work properly. If you encounter any problems related to that issue, apply the small fix in this post.[/COLOR]
* If you want to display your webtemplates in who is online, apply this small hack .
Also there is a small bug with "conditionals" feature of the hack, if you use more than 1 conditional in 1 webtemplate. I guess very few people use this feature but anyway I fixed it in the new release that is in progress..
* If you want your webtemplates search engine friendly and indexed in google or other search engines, read this tip by Piper.

Current version (BETA v.0.1) is NOT actually a beta anymore, it's proven to be working very well in many people's boards and is stable.

I plan to develop this hack. However to enhance it more, I need to change its algortihm which requires rewriting and I wait for VB3 so that the hack will will be competible with VB3 too. That's why development is pending at the moment.


If you install the hack please click install, thank you.

Regards,
Logician //=^))

[Logician]

04-07-03 at 02:04 AM WoodiE said this in Post #219
I get this error:

Parse error: parse error, unexpected ',' in /home/rcnitro/public_html/forum/online.php on line 295

When I use Logician's who' online mod as listed above. I'm using vb 2.2.8

I believe if you read here (especially part ADD AFTER, ADD BEFORE), your problem will be cured..

[amp2000]

This looks like a great hack, has anyone gotten it to work with VB 2.3.0 ??

Thanks
amp2000

EDIT: Nevermind, I tried it and it & it seems to work with 2.3.0

Great work..

amp2000

[ryancooper]

02-26-03 at 05:51 AM Craigr said this in Post #197
Thanks for that, i'll give it a go.

Craig

I get the error when I add the above. . .

Parse error: parse error, unexpected ',' in /home/talkdis/public_html/forums/online.php on line 315

[The Piper]

I've been using Logician's WEBTEMPLATES hack for the longest time for several pages on my website, it's one of the greatest hacks ever developed (along with vbHome (lite) and vbMicroStats, IMHO). However, I've never really liked the format of the URLs with the WEBTEMPLATES hack.

URLs right now look like this: http://www.pinkfloydfan.net/show.php?pg=books

The problem is, search engines, specially Google, don't seem to like URLs with parameters passed through them, such as the "?pg=books" part.

So, after some research, I found out how to use Apache's .htaccess to have search-engine friendly links.

First, make sure your server has the Apache module mod_rewrite installed..

Open .htaccess, and add:

RewriteEngine on 
RewriteRule ^books\.php$ show.php?pg=books [NC]
RewriteRule ^posters\.php$ show.php?pg=posters [NC]

You can change the first part (^books\.php$) to whatever file name you would like your webtemplate to have, including a .html extension, such as ^this_is_my_books_page\.html$. Add as many lines as you wish/need. I have as many lines as webtemplates, so now all of them are search-engine friendly.

Also, make sure that if you already have a "RewriteEngine on" line on your .htaccess, that you don't add a second one.

Check it out for yourself: http://www.pinkfloydfan.net/books.php. It takes you to the same WEBTEMPLATE as the previous URL.

Just thought I'd share this with you. Logician, again, congrats on this great hack. I hope you keep on developing it. One thing I'd like to see that shouldn't be too hard to implement is a "Search" function for WEBTEMPLATES, much like we have for the Templates on VB's Admin CP.

I'm also having problems with the Who's Online hack you just posted a few posts back, much like other users. Would you please be so kind as to double check to see if your instructions are precise? Thanks a lot!

[Craigr]

Thanks The Piper, i will have to add that, i've probably got about 100 templates now, but it will be worth it if they are picked up by google.

Craig

[Logician]

To show webtemplates properly in who is online page:

[Logician]

Just thought I'd share this with you.

Piper thx for the nice tip.. I'll link it in the first post.

hope you keep on developing it.

Yes I have intentions to develop it (actually rewrite it!) after vb3 is released.

I'm also having problems with the Who's Online hack you just posted a few posts back, much like other users. Would you please be so kind as to double check to see if your instructions are precise?

My instructions are correct. I rechecked and it is working ok here. But I believe people are missing some basic hacking rules like when said "add after" or "add before", it means add one line above or below, NOT to the same line.

Anyway to avoid such misunderstandings, I rephrased my instructions and published one post above. It should be clearer now..

Enjoy..

[Craigr]

Today at 02:58 PM Logician said this in Post #227
Yes I have intentions to develop it (actually rewrite it!) after vb3 is released.

Wow, can't wait. I wasn't going to upgrade to vb3 because i would probably lose this hack, 90% of my site is powered by it.

So thank for the good news. :banana:

Craig

[The Piper]

Piper thx for the nice tip.. I'll link it in the first post.

Always a pleasure, never a chore.

Yes I have intentions to develop it (actually rewrite it!) after vb3 is released.

That's great to hear, Logician. One more reason to upgrade to vb3, as several of my main pages are driven by WebTemplates.

My instructions are correct. I rechecked and it is working ok here. But I believe people are missing some basic hacking rules like when said "add after" or "add before", it means add one line above or below, NOT to the same line.

I just used your new instructions, and it is working like a charm! Thanks for that!

[leviw]

Installed easily in about 10 minutes, no problems at all using vb 2.3.0

Playing around with the options now, this has a lot of potential!