WebTemplates 2.x: VB Integrated Content Management System

After a long wait, here is the new 2.x version of Webtemplates. First a short introduction for users who are not familiar with the old version:

This hack is a vbulletin integrated content management system. Term "Webtemplates" stands for dynamic webpages that reside in your MYSQL database and administered inside your vbulletin admin control panel. But they are more than regular site pages because they can automatically inherit visual design of your forum, can apply permissions according to your vb usergroup settings, can keep track of page counts, last visitorname/visit time, display page browsers in the page itself and in your whoisonline page etc. So basically webtemplates are dynamic web pages of your site which are powered by vbulletin.


WEBTEMPLATES 2.x FEATURES:
([New] indicates feature that is recently introduced in this 2.x version)

• Easy Installation : Webtemplates can be installed to your board without hacking even a single vbulletin file! It is coded as an add-on, not a hack.
• Conditionals : Webtemplates has built-in support for Logician's advanced templates conditionals so you can design webtemplates which change their display under different conditions. (Even if you don't have that hack installed)
• Private Webtemplates (NEW): With 1 click you can make a webtemplate "private" and it will be displayed to only certain usergroups.
• Apply VB Permissions: You can ban any webtemplate to any user or usergroup according to their userids or usergroupids. 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.
• Draft Webtemplates (NEW): You can put webtemplates in "draft" mode which makes them invisible to all but admins.
• Visitor Logging&Tracking (NEW): You can track certain users (by usergroup or userid) to monitor who visited a webtemplate and when. This is configurable per webtemplate basis.
• Site Contributers (Editor) Support (NEW): 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.
• Categories (NEW): Webtemplates 2.x supports multi-categories for better webtemplate organizations.
• Multi Parsing (NEW): Webtemplates can now parse PHP or HTML or TEXT (=smilie/img tags/bbcode parsing like vb posts)
• 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.
• Outside Variables (NEW): Advanced users can now use outside variables in webtemplates, then webtemplates will accept/use/process user sent variables via HTTP_GET and HTTP_POST methods (eg. a HTML form can post to a webtemplate with this feature)
• Page Counter : Webtemplate has built-in counter and you can display page count to your visitors and you can edit it or turn it OFF or ON per webtemplate basis.
• Page Browsers Display (NEW): Webtemplates can display who is browsing that webtemplate while people is reading them (like default forum browse display of vbulletin)
• Who is Online Display (NEW): Webtemplates can display page visitors in who is online (This is Optional and require a simple hacking in file online.php). You can create private webtemplates which are hidden in who is online too.
• Theme Support (NEW): 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 theme for them, then just insert their content into this theme. If you change theme later, all 20 pages' visual will change automatically.
• Header/Footer Inclusion : Webtemplates can use headers/footers (your default vb header/footer or custom ones)
• PHPINCLUDE per webtemplate (NEW) : Every webtemplate has its own "phpinclude" field which you can run PHP codes before loading the Webtemplate
• Help Documents : The script comes with built-in & detailed help documents (they are webtemplates too).
• Webquery Feature : With advanced "webquery" feature you can now add create dynamic webtemplates which include database query results. For instance you can easily add member count/post count/thread count/last 10 threads forum X etc. to your webtemplates with default webqueries that comes with installation or you can create your custom webqueries with basic SQL knowledge.
• Archieve to Text File (NEW): Webtemplates/Webqueries can be downloaded to a text file with one click for archiving purposes. You can also easily share these text files with other hack users.
• Login/Logout box (NEW): You can insert login/register box to your webtemplate if visitor is a guest and log off box if she is a member.
• Admin Panel in Webtemplates (NEW): 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.
• Better Performance (NEW): Webtemplates 2.x structured so that it performs well even under heavy load conditions and high traffic servers. (See Performance issues below)
• Easy Back up: Simply back up your database (inside vbulletin or externally) and all your webtemplate structure is also backed up automatically.

For screenshots, FAQ, performance issues, migration from old version to new version, see below.

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..


Version Updates:
30.July.2003 - > Version 2.03

* Adds feature to include regular vbtemplates into webtemplates

2.02 users: apply this fix to update.
New users: Get the hack from the first post of this thread (which is the latest version), you don't need to apply this update.

12.July.2003 - > Version 2.02

* Fixes a bug with outside variables.

2.01 users: apply this fix to update.
New users: Get the hack from the first post of this thread (which is the latest version), you don't need to apply this update.

2.July.2003 - > Version 2.01

* Fixes bug that bothers webqueries if "Show Template Name" option enabled in vb admin cp
* Fixes bug in webquery $WQ_mostactivemembers
* Fixes visual look of webtemplate test
* Fixes visual look of admin panel and makes sure it looks ok in dark backgrounded boards too.

2.00 users: update here.
New users: Get the hack from the first post of this thread (which is the latest version), you don't need to apply this update.


Webtemplates 3.x (for vb.3.x) is released here:
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=76422

[Logician]

Webtemplate FAQ:

* I still didn't understand what webtemplate is. Can you clarify more?
Webtemplate is a HTML (or php) page. It is different than your other HTML pages in that you can create them in your vbulletin admin cp and you can integrate them with your vbulletin like applying them vb permissions, styles etc. Now clear enough?

* Uh! this hack looks too complicated, I'm a newbie, can I use it?
This hack has powerful features. But it does not mean you have to learn and use all the features. If you are a newbie, you can be pretty happy with its primary feature: administering your webpages in your vb admin cp and apply vb permissions on them. For this you need no knowledge on anything. Simple copy /paste HTML code of your page, give it a name, enter user/usergroup ID who are banned from this page, click save and you have a webtemplate ready and published automatically.

* Is installation easy?
Yes, I believe so. Webtemplates is NOT an hack so you don't need to modify any vbulletin files to install webtemplates. So installation is easy.

However there is a long list of SQL queries to run and you will need PHPMYADMIN in your server to run them. Since query list is long, other SQL tools might have hard time to run them so PHPMYADMIN is needed. You can get it here for FREE:
http://www.phpmyadmin.net/

* I'm afraid to run SQL queries in my database, what do you say?

Good call. However there is no other way to install such a sophisticated hack, sorry.

I can say one thing to releive you: Webtemplates installation does NOT modify or touch in any vbulletin tables in your database so it is safe. SQL queries needed to create webtemplate database tables and to insert default values in them (like default webtemplates) so that the script can work without bothering your vbulletin tables.


* Is Webtemplates a portal system?

No, not exactly. I would define a portal system as a content management system for especially targeting your site home page. I didn't hear a portal which does not replace your site home page. Webtemplates has similiar features like a portal, however it is not designed to replace your site home page. Webtemplates are your "other" site pages but site home.

* Can I use other portal/vbulletin integrated home page hacks with webtemplates?
Yes you can. Webtemplates neither substite/replace any of them, nor touch them. It is designed as a add-on application and can be installed to your system without your changing even a single vbulletin file so there is no possiblity that it will clash with an other hack including a portal/vb home page hack. Besides as webtemplates is not designed to be your site home page, you are welcomed to use any other site home page script while you use webtemplates.

* Can I use a webtemplate as my site home page?
It is not designed to act as a site home page. I don't use it as my site home page in my site either. However since the prior version, some hack users always insisted to use this hack as their site home page and they managed to do it too. Basically you can do it in 2 ways:
a) you can create a file named index.php and use this line in it:
<?php include ("http://www.yourdomain.com/forum/view.php?pg=your_template"); ?>
When you upload this file in your site home directory, your site home page will be a webtemplate.

b)You can edit your .htaccess file and make a redirection so that whenever your main page (=index.htm or index.html) is called, server opens your webtemplate. A sample redirection line is that:

Redirect /index.html http://www.yoururl.com/forum/view.php?pg=your_template

Please search keywords ".htaccess+redirect" in google for more info about .htaccess redirection

Although both methods are safe and effective, I neither encourage, nor support site main page webtemplates as the system is not designed this way in the first place.

* Does it work in vb.3.x?
No, not now. It is coded for vb 2.x.x. However it does not modify vbulletin scripts or vb database tables but it has its own tables, scripts so it can be (and will be) adapted to vb3 when time comes. But not soon.. I don't plan to migrate to vb3.x until it is stable and I won't recode it for vb.3 until I migrate to vb.3.

* Does it work in all 2.x.x?
Yes I would say. At least any vb version > 2.0.3.

Tested and approved in 2.2.6, 2.2.8, 2.3.0 too.

* Can webtemplates parse PHP code?
Yes, this version can. Besides you are given 2 grounds to run PHP:
a) You can make a webtemplate's marking as PHP and it will be treated as a PHP script.
b) Even if your parsing is HTML or TEXT, you can still have php incode in phpinclude section of the webtemplate which will run before webtemplate is displayed.

* Can I put view.php in a different directory?
Yes. With hacking it is possible but there are many sections to hack in the code, so not suggested or supported by me.

* Can webtemplates include other webtemplates in it?
a) Webtemplates can include header / footer webtemplates in them. So if you need to include webtemplate A, in webtemplate B, you can make A a header or footer.
b) New version supports "themes" which are webtemplates that includes other webtemplates in them. So you can make webtemplate B a theme to include webtemplate A in it.
c) Other than that webtemplates can not include other webtemplates in them, nor nests loops: (eg A includes B, B includes C etc.)

* I want display login box if visitor is a guest and log off link if visitor is a member, can I do it?
Yes, use variable $WT_Login in your webtemplate

* You say Webtemplates inherits visual look (colors/fonts) of our forum. This is good but I want to create a webtemplate with a different design, say red background color. Can I do it?
Yes. Simply create your HTML Code and paste it into webtemplate field and you have your red backgrounded page.

Your Webtemplates inherits your visual design when you use vbulletin HTML tags in your webtemplates. (like default vbulletin templates uses). For instance if you use
<normaltext>Hello</normaltext>
in your webtemplates your text "Hello" will be displayed in the default font (color, size, font name etc.) of your board. But if you use:
<font face="Times New Roman" color="#FF0000" size="4">Hello</font>
your webtemplates will display "Hello" in Times New Roman, RED color and size 4.

* I want to post smilies/bbcode/IMG tags to my webtemplate, can I?
Yes. Simply change your webtemplate parse method as TEXT. In TEXT parsing, webtemplates will display your bbcodes/smilies etc.

After that, if you want to have a page creation enviroment like thread posting (bbcode/smilie boxes are displayed in formation page), design your webtebtemplate in editor interface instead of admin interface.

* How do I backup my webtemplates?
1- While backing up your database in your admin cp, vbulletin will back up your webtemplate tables too.
2- You can download your webtemplates/webqueries in text files and save it for further use. You are welcomed to share them here with other hack users.

* I have more than 1 database. Can webqueries query my other databases?
No. They only query the database your vbulletin resides.

* Do webtemplates can be searched in Vbulletin search?
No. At least not for now.. (and with NO ETA)

* Does webtemplates has search engine friendly URLs?
No. At least not for now.. (and with NO ETA). However see here for a tip:
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...256#post386256

* How can I create a webquery that does X?
You are welcomed to ask these questions and I'm hoping that someone will help you with creating custom webtemplates/webqueries but please understand that I can not take time to answer all "how can I create such webquery" questions as there are infinite SQL queries that can be requested. Thanks for understanding..

* Can I add a poll into a webtemplate?
Manually yes.. Simply copy paste its HTML code. Automatically no.

* Can I use this as a news page by retriving last X posts from forum Y?
No because of technical restrictions. There is no magic query that gets last 10 threads with their content from a certain board because this would require 2 SQL queries to run. So say you can get last X thread titles/authors/dates etc. in a webtemplate but not the posts itself.

* How can I enable Microstats hack in webtemplates?

If you already have the hack installed, add its tag {getmicrostats} to your webtemplates (preferrably your footer templates.

* Why is this new version in a seperate thread?

Althought this is the new version of already released webtemplates, they are not fully compatible. Besides they can run in the same board at the same time or individually so they are seperate hacks with different features, despite the fact that they have the same name. It would be impossible to support both hacks in the same thread so this one has its own thread.

* How can I use editors feature effectively?

You can assign Editors to your webtemplates who can edit them by using their own editor interface.

If your editors know HTML, that is ok, then you can assign them to any webtemplate you like even the ones with HTML parsing.

However in most cases your site helpers will not know HTML to customize your HTML templates. If this is the case, you can follow this strategy:
1- Create a theme (with HTML parsing) and design it yourself with HTML.
2- Create child webtemplates that uses this theme. Make sure child webtemplates has TEXT parsing (not HTML).
3- Assign your editors to these child webtemplates. Since they are in TEXT parsing, your editors interface will now include smilie box, BBCode box and will look like exactly thread posting interface. They can then design the webtemplate with BBCode, smilies, IMG tags just like they are posting a new thread and without any need to use HTML commands.

[Logician]

PERFORMANCE ISSUES:

New version is coded from the ground to perform "very well" even under heavy load. Bottlenecks of the old version has been cured and although new version has many new and advanced features, it performs much better (upto 2-3 times faster) compared to the old version.

A webtemplate has an average of 12-18 queries per page. How many query you will depends on which features you enabled for that webtemplate and how many webqueries you use in it. However averagely a webtemplate will have around half the queries your default vbulletin thread display page has, so server performance is better even compared to default vbulletin thread display pages. In other words your visitors will be using more server power when they read a vbulletin thread in your site, than they are reading a webtemplate.

However always bear in mind that webtemplates, vbulletin itself, or any other dynamic PHP pages which make connection to MYSQL database can never be as "performance friendly" as static HTML pages. Static HTML pages is not dynamic (so does not change according to different conditions etc.) but much less server intensive. So especially in heavy loaded servers and for heavy traffic pages, you may want to use default static .html pages especially if you are not after having a dynamic content in them.

But if you are ready to use a dynamic script/structure/software/solution then webtemplates is NOT a performance killer, you can enjoy this hack.

If you use it under heavy traffic conditions, there are many performance tips included in the help document webtemplate, I advice you to check it out.

Webtemplates is also 100% compatible with Teck's Microstats hack so you can monitor webtemplate page creation time, thus performance if you are using Microstats hack in your board. Just add {getmicrostats} into your footer webtemplates to display them in your all webtemplates.

[Logician]

MIGRATION FROM OLD VERSION (BETA 0.1):

If you are already a webtemplates user, you are welcomed to use this new version which is more powerful than the old one.

First a few words about compatibility issues:

The hack is recoded from the ground and its technical structure changed dramatically. This is done to add some more features and to improve some bottlenecks the old script had. As a result of this, new version is not fully compatible with the old version. You will notice that many structures have changes so you need to manually move your existing webtemplates to the new version and modify them slightly too.

* If you are using conditionals in your webtemplates, you can leave them as they are. New version supports them fully.
* Same applies to variable names like $user_username etc.
* How you ban/restrict a webtemplate to a usergroup has changed. New system does not use [cansee] [cantsee] tags anymore for performance reasons so you need to delete them from your webtemplates while migrating. Instead you can now set permissions in a seperate field.
* Webquery issues changed too. [templatequeryon] tag is no more supported. You now enter webqueries your webtemplate is using in a special field. (For better performance).
* Webquery structure changed dramatically so you may need to recreate your existing webqueries. I don't think you have many so no big deal I guess. See webquery help file that comes with installation.

Some notes for migration:

* Both versions can be installed in your board at the same time and they will work without bothering eachother. They have their seperate database tables as well. So install the new one, then copy/paste old webtemplates in your new system. (Don't forget to tweak them as mentioned above). This applies only if you are using the old version you downloaded from vb.org thread. There are a very few members who got the old hack directly from me via email as "BETA" and that version can not be installed with this new one at the same time.
* There is no migration script, sorry! You need to do it manually by copy/pasting.
* After you migrated and make sure new webtemplates are working ok, you can remove the old hack from your system. To do it reverse the added code from your scripts and delete the tables named "webtemplates" and "webtemplatequery" from your database. They are no more needed.

Migration Plan:
1- Install new version. This will not bother your old version so you can use both together.
2- Check it is working ok, read its help files and get acquiented with it.
3- If you have webqueries, create them from the ground in the new system
4- Create webtemplates in the new system with the same names that exist in your old system.
5- Copy/Paste their content from the old system to the new system.
6- While pasting, if webtemplate has a [cansee] [cantsee] tag inside, delete it and apply its permission in the new permissions section of the new version.
7- If webtemplate has [templatequeryon] tag in it, delete it and instead enter the webqueries it is using in the webquery section of the new version.
8- Test if your new webtemplates are working ok.
9- Remember to change links to your webtemplates from ".../show.php?pg=name" to ".../view.php?pg=name". (If you want you can rename file view.php as show.php, but in this case remember to edit file "wt_options.php" and tweak the option there.)
10- You are done, enjoy..

[Logician]

Screenshot 1:

Create a new Webtemplate Page:

[Logician]

Screenshot 2:

Webtemplates admin cp:

[Logician]

Screenshot 3:

A Sample Webtemplate (Please notice: Webtemplates are HTML pages so you can design any page in any look you like, so this is just a sample not a mandatory design)

[Wildthinks]

Wow, Logician it's cool man.
I use your WT for a long time...and this version looks like what I need..

[Wildthinks]

Wow, Logician it's cool man.
I use your WT for a long time...and this version looks like what I need..
but can I use it with vb3.x?

I plan to switch to the new version and I afraid, that your very cool WT dont work with version 3.x?

Plan you a release for the vb 3.x?

I dont need VBCMS, when you release your system for vb3.

Have a nice work and day... :squareeyed:

[Dean C]

Another amazing hack by Logician

I'm lost for words ...

- miSt