Static integration

[djdub]

A company website wants to provide support forums to it's customers, and also wants to control how certain types of customers view content. vBulletin appears to fit this bill with it's user groups.

What they would like to do, if it is possible, is to make the style of the entire website consistent.
I suppose I have two primary options. Make the non vB pages mimic the style of the vBulletin forums, or make the vBulletin forums mimic the style of the remainder of their website.
What I would like to inquire about is the latter.

So, perhaps I could setup stylized set of theme settings and template formats (particularly header and footer templates) in vBulletin to satisfy the customers need to have it represent the general style of their company.
What would be optimal, then, would be to then use vBulletin through out the remainder of their website so that I could use the company theme and templates in those (non vB forum) pages.

I have done this sort of thing in the past with some of the 'free' forum/Bboard systems that are out there simply by loading their primary header file and authentication file which loaded their templates and themes, but I really dont' want to trust those systems for business use in the quality and support that vBulletin might offer, and also, they don't provide user-group functionality.

So, I recognize that vBulletin does not package itself for the use that I described, but I would like to ask if anyone has done it, and if they can answer some of my questions, because I think it is something I would like to attempt.

1) Can you call (via include/require) a vBulletin file that would give access to showing vBulletin templates & styles on non vBulletin PHP pages?
2) if so, how many queries to the database would this entail for a
(2a) visitor who is not logged in and also for a
(2b) member?
(3) Does this void a vBulletin warranty or terms of use or service? (I understand it is not supported, but is it restricted somehow?)

[Mythotical]

1) Templates are handled in the database, therefore you could integrate your site style with ease. Now when doing non vB pages, there is a tutorial that explains how to include specific features of vB to your non vB page especially the style but it might require you to edit the php file a bit.

2) Queries can be kept to a minimum if you only limit queries to where they are needed or pages they are needed on. With the style, it queries for the templates, each template, style, etc. Maybe 5 queries, might be less, can't remember exactly.

2a & b) Query count remains the same for members, guest viewing is lower count query.

3) No, this is warranted, you can find many tutorials here under articles to help you do this smoothly. There is also a paid request forum so you can hire someone to help you out.

HTH's
Steve

[djdub]

Thank you for the response, Steve M.

I suppose that a query for templates makes perfect sense. Otherwise, they would have to be from files, which doesn't make sense.
So, obviously, even for a guest, in order to show them the contiguous site style on a non forum page, would still require some queries.

You say that integration is easy but I think you mean that it could be done with a custom query and writing my own code to parse out the templates and styles into pages. I think what I was hoping for was to find out if there was a way to simply call out the vB to perform these tasks (as well as checking if they are logged in and other mundane features of vB) for non-vB pages, and if so, how many queries are performed by this.


Here is an example:
A customer comes directly to the website to a non-vBulletin page that I have made to display content to customers. Let's say, for example, a price deal on widgets for those people who are in the mid-west widget wholesaler user group. I'm hoping that, by calling to the vB system, not only do I show that page in the same style as the rest of the site and forums, but also that the page authenticates the user the same way as the forums and rest of the site and I can decide how to display content to them based on their group. I have no idea vB's specific code variable names, but an example would be (in the file after calling the vB system)

if ($user_group == "midwestWholesaler") {
// specific content I provide
} else {
// other content I provide
}

It sounds to me like people have done this, but how custom is it?
I know with some systems I have used in the past, you don't need to do much on those pages except make a few require calls to their system files which handle checking cookies, authenticating, quering for templates and styles and CSS. Then I go on to display my own stuff.

[edit] Ahah!
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=62164
I can't see the code or screencap because I am 'unlicensed', but it looks like the answer I need.

[Mythotical]

In a nutshell, the link you found is what I was referring to. There really is no easy switch to make the integrate happen. Just about every integration requires creation of new files or the inclusion of files. That article you found will help you alot. There should be one more article regarding login on non-vb pages.

[stapler2025]

Perhaps the mod Different Domain Different Style could be used for this?