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.

[TECK]

what do you mean: "it involves modifying a copy of the vBulletin index.php file"? and what exacly this hack do?
congrats anyway on your time you spend to make this hack.

[Darren Lewis]

what do you mean: "it involves modifying a copy of the vBulletin index.php file"?

The index.php that vBulletin uses in the www.yourdomain.com/forums directory has to be copied and then modified so that your non-vB webpage can access the info that vBulletin uses.

what exacly this hack do?

On my website, the homepage is not the vBulletin forum page. I want to welcome my members back and let them know how may new posts there have been since their last visit etc... when they visit the front homepage.

If a visitor is not a member, then I want them to see a different message that welcomes them, and encourages them to explore deeper in my website (ie visit and sign up in the forums).

Thanks for the support. The best thing I've done recently was to move off ezboard and buy vBulletin

[TECK]

i understand now.
thanks.

btw i looked at your file and i have to congratulate you.
you gave credit to all hack writers and did an excellent job on explaining all that have to be done to install successfully your hack.

congrats!

[defnot]

thanks !!! it's a cool hack ..

[esoin]

sounds like an awesome hack... But I am getting an error.. check it out

http://www.gopednation.com/index.php

[Lanigironu]

Very good hack. I just needed something similar to this. I was planning on installing a whole bunch of small hacks, but this is even better.

Thanks.

[Darren Lewis]

Thank you all very much for the replies and support.

sounds like an awesome hack... But I am getting an error.. check it out

Thanks. I've had a look at your page and the problem is that your website's index.php file cannot find the webwelcome.php script.

The problems is with the path in the statement

PHP Code:

<?php include ("webwelcome.php"); ?>

Have you got the webwelcome.php file in the same directory as your website's index.php file, ie the root? If you have the above include should work. Some servers can be a bit funny about paths though. You could try changing it to an absolute server path.

I've double checked that the above include statement will work when the webelcome.php file is in the root folder with the index.php file and it does on my server (running Linux).

Hope this helps.

Darren.

[DynamoSupremo]

I'm getting this error, any ideas?

Fatal error: Call to undefined function: getpermissions() in /home/lhbcyouth/webwelcome.php on line 9

Line 9 contains this:

$permissions=getpermissions();

[scsa20]

okey, I got it to let you log in, but won't keep me log in thru. out my site (or, in this case, page)...the page is http://www.simon-soft.com/test/hacktest.php and the forum is loc. at http://forums.simon-soft.com

how can I fix that problem??