Display custom message to guests

I am trying to display a custom message to guests on the forum I help run...so when they come in, instead of saying "Welcome back..." it will say a customisable message that could be defined from the templates.
I was planning to put some php in the templates to do this but now I remember that you can only parse php code in the header/footer.
Has this ever been done before, or perhaps someone could point me in the right direction?

Thanks in advance!

Are you talking about the "welcometext" template?

Sorry I didn't explain this quite well enough
I would like a different message to be displayed to unregistered users to that showed to normal registered users.
So eg a normal user would get "Welcome back $username. You last visited...." but a guest would get "Welcome to eDevBoards forums. Please register at this link. "
I presume cookies would be needed for this.

Thanks!

Basically you will have to replace the template "welcometext" with PHP code within index.php.

Your code will then have to check if they are a valid user by checking the $bbuserid variable against the database. If they are a valid user then use the default welcometext string. If not use the string you wish for the quests.

I.E.

if ($bbuserid) {

 ...*Check Database Here *...

 $welcometext = "Welcome Back " . $username;
}
else {
 $welcometext = "Your a guest go register please!.!.!"
}

Thanks a lot!
Wayne, recognise me? I'm James from SitePoint

I've adapted it slightly to use templates, so if anyone actually wants the hack let me know and I will release it
But its hardly a hack, only a few lines of code

I've adapted it slightly to use templates, so if anyone actually wants the hack let me know and I will release it

I'd love to see it!

OK here it is:
Tested on 1.1.3 and 1.1.4
Demo location: http://www.eDevBoards.com (only if you haven't registered -- otherwise it wont show up )


Setup Instructions:

• Open up the forum control panel and add a template called "guestmsg". In it type the message you want displayed to unregistered users, along with any formatting. I have used the <smallfont> tags to make it fit better on the page.
  
• Open global.php into your favorite text editor and find the following line:
  eval("\$fivelinks = \"".gettemplate("fivelinks")."\";");
  
• Above it, insert the following code:
  

  if ($bbuserid == "0") {
  	eval("\$guestmsg = \"".gettemplate("guestmsg")."\";");
  }

• Go into your forum control panel again, and find the place you want the guest message to show up. I have mine at the bottom of the fivelinks template. Type "$guestmsg" in the right place.

Not much of a hack, but anyway