vbHome (lite) Install Instructions

vbHome (lite) v3.8 Install Instructions By TECK (vBulletin.org Hacker)

INTRODUCTION

This script will create a vBulletin (powered) homepage for your website.

The advantage of this script is that you can interact better your web site with vBulletin.
vbHome (lite) is fully customizable through vBulletin templates, so it's very easy to achieve any look or web design you want.

Please click here to show at vBulletin.org that you installed my script. Thank you for your support.

IMPORTANT
You ARE NOT allowed to REMOVE or MODIFY the copyright text at the bottom of the page.
You ARE NOT allowed to ALTER in any way the URL links listed in the copyright text.
You ARE NOT allowed to DISTRIBUTE the contents of downloaded .zip file.
You ARE NOT allowed to COPY ANY PARTS of the code and use it for distribution.

NOTE
If you upgrade from a lower version, make sure you set again your vbHome (lite) options, since they are reset to default values.
Also, compare your previous performed steps with the new ones, added below.

Read carefully and complete the following steps:

STEP 1

Open template.php file (located in /admin/forum folder) and perform the code change listed below.

FIND:

  $only['getinfo'] = 'User Info Display';

BELOW, ADD:

  $only['home'] = 'Home Page';

Save the file.

STEP 2

Open newthread.php file (located in /forum folder) and perform the code change listed below.

FIND:

      $postid=$DB_site->insert_id();

BELOW, ADD:

      if (in_array($foruminfo['forumid'], 
explode(',', $articleforum))) {

        $DB_site->query("UPDATE thread SET articleid='$postid' WHERE 
threadid='$threadid'");

      }

Save the file.

STEP 3

Open vbHome (lite) global.php file and change the default admin path:
$adminpath = 'forum/admin';

to your actual admin path, for example:
$adminpath = 'board/admin';

Save the file.

STEP 4

Open vBulletin Admin Control Panel and a new {imageshome} replacement variable to your full website URL, like that:
Replacements > Add

and enter the following information:

REPLACEMENT SET

(your choice here)

CODE TO FIND

{imageshome}

CODE TO INSERT

forum/images

Change the code to insert to match your forum location. Save the replacement variable.

STEP 5

Still in your vBulletin Admin Control Panel, create a new forum, called Web Site News (or whatever is more appropriate for your site).

STEP 6

Upload all files onto your folder. The following order is recommended:

[ROOT FOLDER] - upload here your vbHome (lite) index.php and global.php files
---[FORUM] - upload here your vbHome (lite) printarticle.php and vBulletin newthread.php files
------[ADMIN] - upload here your vbHome (lite) vbhlinstall.php, vbhlindex.php (if needed) and vBulletin template.php files
------[IMAGES] - upload here your arrow.gif, articleemail.gif and articleprint.gif files
---------[POLLS] - upload here your bar.gif, bar-bk.gif, bar-l.gif and bar-r.gif files

FINAL STEP

Run the vbHome (lite) vbhlinstall.php script installer.
It will update the database with all needed settings to work together with your vBulletin forum.

NOTE
If you performed an uninstall-install process, your old articles will not show anymore on your vbHome (lite) page.
Simply run the vbHome (lite) vbhlindex.php file, to update them.

Please click here to show at vbulletin.org that you installed my script. Thank you for your support.

CONGRATULATIONS! You are ready to go.
Take a look below to find out what options you have available in your new home (vBulletin powered) page.

IMPORTANT
Don't forget to set your options, right after the install is completed!

VBHOME (LITE) SETTINGS

Now that you finished all the hardcore code and settings, is time for you to tweak your vbHome (lite),
to perform the way you want.
All vbHome (lite) options are located onto your vBulletin Admin Control Panel.
I will explain to you in detail what each option does. Let's start shall we?

First, click on vBulletin Options link. You will see a new group created by the installer, called vbHome Page.
The following options are available:

ARTICLES FORUMS
When you create a new forum, in our case Web Site News, vBulletin automatically assigns a forum ID to it.
In this option, you enter your forum ID from where the articles will be clipped onto the vbHome (lite) front page.
If you want, you can set several forums from where the articles are pulled.

NUMBER OF ARTICLES DISPLAYED
Option Self explanatory. Set to 0 if you want to have unlimited articles displayed.

MAXIMUM CHARACTERS PER ARTICLE
How long the article will be in characters. Set to 0 if you want to have unlimited number of characters.

ENABLE AVATAR IN ARTICLE
Option Self explanatory. You can disable it if you don't want to display avatars in your articles.

ENABLE BB CODE IN ARTICLE
Option Self explanatory. You can disable it if you don't want to display bb code in your articles.

ENABLE SMILIES IN ARTICLE AND POLL QUESTIONS
Option Self explanatory. You can disable it if you don't want to display smilies in your articles.
By disabling this option your web site performance will increase, since you perform 1 query less.

ENABLE RECENT ARTICLES
Option Self explanatory. You can disable it if you don't want to display past articles that are not visible anymore on your front page.
By disabling this option your web site performance will increase, since you perform 1 query less.

MAXIMUM NUMBER OF RECENT ARTICLES
Set the number of recent articles that you want displayed on the front page.

MAXIMUM NUMBER OF LATEST THREADS
vbHome (lite) is wise enough to display the latest threads posted to your forums, ONLY if a user have permissions to view them. If you have a private forum, the latest threads will not be displayed if the logged in user doesn't have permissions to access the forum.
In this option, select the number of threads to display onto your vbHome (lite) page. Set to 0 if you want to have unlimited number of threads.

LATEST THREADS TITLE LENGTH
How long the thread title will be in characters. Set to 0 to unlimited number of characters.

ENABLE NEW THREADS
Option Self explanatory. You can disable it if you don't want to display the number of threads posted since user's last visit.

ENABLE NEW POSTS
Option Self explanatory. You can disable it if you don't want to display the number of posts posted since user's last visit.

ENABLE PRIVATE MESSAGES
Option Self explanatory. You can disable it if you don't have enabled private messages in your forums.
By disabling this option your web site performance will increase, since you perform 1 query less.

ENABLE WEB SITE SEARCH
Option Self explanatory. You can disable it if you don't want to enable search from your vbHome (lite) page.

ENABLE WEB SITE QUICK LINKS
Option Self explanatory. You can disable it if you don't want to enable navigation quick links.

ENABLE ADVERTISEMENTS
Option Self explanatory. You can disable it if you don't want to display advertisements onto your web site.

ENABLE AFFILIATE LINKS
Option Self explanatory. You can disable it if you don't want to display links onto your web site.

ENABLE POLL
Option Self explanatory. You can disable it if you don't want to display polls onto your web site.
By disabling this option your web site performance will increase, since you perform 2 queries less.

ALLOWED FORUMS TO POST POLLS
Option Self explanatory. If you want to to have several forums posting polls, use commas to separate each forum.

ALLOWED USERS TO POST A POLL
What's great about this option is the possibility you have to display polls posted only from specific users.
Since the vBulletin is flexible enough to let you start a poll in any forum, vbHome (lite) will display only the latest poll from a small group of users.
In other words, not everyone who post a poll can have it displayed on the vbHome (lite) page.
Also the poll is based on forum permissions, so if you post a poll onto a private forum, only users who have permissions to view that specific forum will be able to view it onto vbHome (lite) page also.

POLL BAR WIDTH
Set here the width of your graphical poll bar, visible once a user voted.

An interesting idea I came up with is this:
Create a user called THE POLLER and assign it permissions to post polls onto your vbHome (lite) page.
If you want to enable only one user over all your web site, enter the value XX onto the text box, where XX is the user ID assigned by vBulletin.
Example: Allowed Users to post a poll 1

If you want to to have several users posting polls, use commas to separate each user.
Example: Allowed Users to post a poll 1,5,28,582

ENABLE ONLINE USERS
Option Self explanatory. You can disable it if you don't want to display the online users onto your web site.
By disabling this option your web site performance will increase, since you perform 2 queries less.

ENABLE ONLINE USERS NAMES LIST
Option Self explanatory. You can disable it if you don't want to display the user names browsing, onto your web site.

ENABLE PERMISSIONS
This option is useful if you set your news forum (or entire board) as private, based on your usergroup permissions.

ENABLE VIEW NEW POSTS
Option Self explanatory. You can disable it if you don't want to display the numbers of posts, since your member's last visit, onto your web site.
Please note that the option will hide automatically, if there are no new posts.
By disabling this option your web site performance will increase, since you perform 1 query less.

USE SPECIFIC TEMPLATE SET
If you have multiple template sets installed onto your vBulletin and want to use only a specific one, then enter it's ID here.

ENABLE MULTIPLE STYLES
Option Self explanatory. You can disable it if you don't have multiple styles installed in your forums.
By disabling this option your web site performance will increase, since you perform 1 query less.