vBulletin Manual
 

vBulletin

vBulletin® 3.7 Manual

Installing vBulletin

The first step towards running vBulletin after you have purchased a license is to download the latest vBulletin package, upload it to your web server and run the installer script.

The following documents will take you through this process step-by-step.
Note:
Before installing vBulletin you need to have PHP and MySQL and have created a database within the MySQL engine to hold vBulletin's data.

Downloading the vBulletin Package

The first thing you will need to do when installing vBulletin is to download the latest version from the Members' Area.

You will need to log-in to the Members' Area using the Customer Number and Customer Password that was emailed to you when you purchased your license.

Once logged in, you will see a list of Current Licenses. For each active license that you own, there will be a Download vBulletin link that you can click.

Click the link for the license you want to use and you will be taken to the download page, where you will be given options for how to download the latest vBulletin package.

By default compression is performed on the JavaScript files included within the clientscript directory in order to reduce the size of the files. YUI Compressor is used to do this but you can choose uncompressed JavaScript files using the option described below.

You can choose from the following options:When you have set the download options you can click the Download button to start the download. When the download prompt window appears, you should choose the Save option and choose a directory on your computer in which to save the package.

The package will then be downloaded and saved to the location you specified.

Preparing the vBulletin Files for Upload

To extract the files from the package, open the folder on your computer where you saved the vBulletin package and right-click on its icon, then choose Extract All from the pop-up menu.

This will open a wizard to guide you through the unzipping progress. Accept the default options suggested and the system will decompress the files from the zip package.

When the unzipping progress is complete, you will find that the process has created a new folder called upload and another called do_not_upload.

upload - This folder contains the vBulletin files that need to be uploaded to your web server.

However, before you upload the files you must make some changes to the vBulletin configuration file. This file is located in the includes folder (within the upload folder) and is called config.php.new.

The first thing you must do is to rename this file from config.php.new to config.php (removing the temporary .new extension).

The second folder is do_not_upload - This folder contains tools to perform various tasks on your board

Editing the vBulletin Configuration File

Before uploading the vBulletin files to your web server, you must edit the vBulletin configuration file (includes/config.php) to tell vBulletin how to communicate with your database.

To edit the config.php file, you will need to open the file in a text editor such as Windows® WordPad. (Note that we do not recommend that you use Windows® Notepad to edit config.php, as Notepad has problems displaying the line breaks in some file types.)

Editing the config.php file is one of the few times in vBulletin where you will need to edit raw PHP code. The file is heavily commented in order to help you fill in the necessary information.

Of the settings in this file, only a few need to be edited in order to create a working vBulletin configuration file. These settings are:
$config['Database']['dbname']This value should be altered to state the name of the database that will contain your vBulletin installation on the database server.
$config['Database']['technicalemail']An email address should be entered here. All database error messages will be forwarded to the email address provided.
$config['MasterServer']['servername']This sets the address of your database server. On most installations the database server is located on the same computer as the web server, in which case the address should be set to 'localhost', otherwise use the address of the database server as supplied by your web host.
$config['MasterServer']['username']This variable contains the username provided to you by your host for connecting to your database server.
$config['MasterServer']['password']The password that accompanies the database username should be entered here.
Note:
Please note that Jelsoft / vBulletin Support can not provide the values you require for $config['Database']['dbname'], $config['MasterServer']['servername'], $config['MasterServer']['username'], and $config['MasterServer']['password']. These variables are only available from the web host providing your web/database server.

If you need to create a new database for vBulletin to use, instructions for doing so in a variety of systems are available here.

Also note that you only edit the info to the right of the equal sign. Do NOT edit the names in the brackets to the left of the equal sign. For instance in this line:

$config['MasterServer']['username'] = 'root';

You change 'root' to the appropriate database username and leave everything else as is.

This is correct:

$config['MasterServer']['username'] = 'your_dbusername';

This is NOT correct:

$config['MasterServer']['your_dbusename'] = 'root';

Never edit anything to the left of the equal sign.

On Yahoo Small Business Server, $config['MasterServer']['servername'] should be set to 'mysql'.
The remaining variables in config.php do not need to be edited in order to make a working vBulletin configuration. For most, it is recommended that you do not alter them until after the installation process is complete, unless you are confident that you know what you are doing beforehand. A description of these remaining variables follows.
$config['Database']['dbtype']If you are using PHP5 in combination with MySQL 4.1.x you may want to change this variable to 'mysqli' to take advantage of the MySQL Improved engine
$config['Database']['tableprefix']In order to easily identify the tables related to vBulletin in your database, you may prefix the names of all tables with a few letters or a word. For example, if you specify the $config['Database']['tableprefix'] as 'vb_' then all tables will be prefixed with vb_, making vb_forum, vb_user etc.
If you choose to change your $config['Database']['tableprefix'] at some point after you have installed your vBulletin, tools are provided to do this.
$config['Database']['force_sql_mode']New versions of MySQL (4.1+) have introduced some behaviors that are incompatible with vBulletin. These behaviors are enabled by default with MySQL 5. Setting this value to "true" disables those behaviors. You only need to modify this value if vBulletin recommends it.
$config['MasterServer']['usepconnect']Setting this variable to 1 will cause PHP to use persistent connections to the MySQL server. For very large vBulletin installations, using persistent connections may result in a slight performance boost but in most cases leaving it set to 0 (off) is the best option. If you are unsure, leave it set to 0
Slave Database ConfigurationThese variables only apply if you have a Slave Database configured. If you are not sure, you should leave these variables alone. This is an advanced setting!
$config['Misc']['admincpdir']By default, vBulletin will install the files for the Administrators' Control Panel into a folder called admincp, but you may wish to rename this folder this for security purposes. If you rename the folder, enter the new name here. Note that you can only rename the folder, if you move the folder to a new location the system will be unable to function.
$config['Misc']['modcpdir']This variable is similar to the $admincpdir setting, with the exception that $modcpdir refers to the Moderators' Control Panel rather than the Administrators' Control Panel.
$config['Misc']['cookieprefix']When vBulletin sets cookies on users' computers they will all be prefixed with a few characters in order to be easily identified as cookies set by vBulletin. By default this prefix is bb but you can change it to be whatever you like. This option is particularly useful if you have many vBulletin installations running on the same domain.
$config['Misc']['forumpath']Some systems may require a full path to the forum files. If vBulletin does not tell you that you need this, leave this blank.
$config['SpecialUsers']['canviewadminlog']All actions performed in the vBulletin Administrators' Control Panel are logged in the database. This variable controls the permissions for which users are allowed to view this log. The variable takes the form of a list of user IDs separated by commas. For example, if you would like the users with user IDs 1, 15 and 16 to be able to view the Admin Log, this variable would be set like this:
$config['SpecialUsers']['canviewadminlog'] = '1,15,16';
$config['SpecialUsers']['canpruneadminlog']In the same way as $config['SpecialUsers']['canviewadminlog'] controls which users can view the Admin Log, $config['SpecialUsers']['canpruneadminlog'] controls which users are permitted to prune (delete items from) the Admin Log. Use the same user IDs separated with commas system as with the $config['SpecialUsers']['canviewadminlog'] setting.
$config['SpecialUsers']['canrunqueries']The vBulletin Administrators' Control Panel contains a simple interface for running queries directly on the database. This variable contains the IDs of the users with permission to do this. For security reasons you may wish to leave this list totally empty.
$config['SpecialUsers']['undeletableusers']If your vBulletin installation is going to have multiple users with administrative privileges, you may wish to protect certain users from accidental (or even malicious) deletion or editing. Any user IDs entered into this list will not be editable or deletable from the Administrators' Control Panel by anybody.
$config['SpecialUsers']['superadministrators']Any users whose user IDs are specified within the $config['SpecialUsers']['superadministrators'] setting will be automatically granted full access to all vBulletin features, including the ability to set the permission levels of other administrators.
$config['Mysqli']['charset']If you need to set the default connection charset because your database is using a charset other than latin1, you can set the charset here. If you don't set the charset to be the same as your database, you may receive collation errors. Ignore this setting unless you are sure you need to use it.
$config['Mysqli']['ini_file']PHP can be instructed to set connection parameters by reading from the file named in 'ini_file'. Please use a full path to the file. This is generally used to set the connection's default character set. This setting should also be ignored unless you are sure you need to use it.
Note:
The variables $config['SpecialUsers']['canviewadminlog'], $config['SpecialUsers']['canpruneadminlog'], $config['SpecialUsers']['canrunqueries'], $config['SpecialUsers']['undeletableusers'] and $config['SpecialUsers']['superadministrators'] should all contain a single userid number, a comma-separated list of user id numbers, or nothing at all. For example:
$config['SpecialUsers']['canviewadminlog'] = '1,15,16';
$config['SpecialUsers']['canpruneadminlog'] = '1';
$config['SpecialUsers']['canrunqueries'] = '';
$config['SpecialUsers']['undeletableusers'] = '1,15';
$config['SpecialUsers']['superadministrators'] = '1'; 
Note: When editing config.php, make sure there is no whitespace or extra lines either before the <?php or after the ?>. If there are any extra lines or space, you will see an 'Unable to add headers' error when accessing your forums.
Note:
Later versions of vBulletin may not have the ?> at the end. This is to help prevent this kind of error from happening.
Once you have finished editing your config.php file you should save it again and prepare to upload the file to your web server.

config.php

<?php
/*======================================================================*\
|| #################################################################### ||
|| # vBulletin 3.6.6 - Licence Number 1a2b3c4
|| # ---------------------------------------------------------------- # ||
|| # All PHP code in this file is ©2000-2007 Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd. # ||
|| # This file may not be redistributed in whole or significant part. # ||
|| # ---------------- VBULLETIN IS NOT FREE SOFTWARE ---------------- # ||
|| # http://www.vbulletin.com | http://www.vbulletin.com/license.html # ||
|| #################################################################### ||
\*======================================================================*/

/*-------------------------------------------------------*\
| ****** NOTE REGARDING THE VARIABLES IN THIS FILE ****** |
+---------------------------------------------------------+
| If you get any errors while attempting to connect to    |
| MySQL, you will need to email your webhost because we   |
| cannot tell you the correct values for the variables    |
| in this file.                                           |
\*-------------------------------------------------------*/

    //    ****** DATABASE TYPE ******
    //    This is the type of the database server on which your vBulletin database will be located.
    //    Valid options are mysql and mysqli, for slave support add _slave.  Try to use mysqli if you are using PHP 5 and MySQL 4.1+
    // for slave options just append _slave to your preferred database type.
$config['Database']['dbtype'] = 'mysql';

    //    ****** DATABASE NAME ******
    //    This is the name of the database where your vBulletin will be located.
    //    This must be created by your webhost.
$config['Database']['dbname'] = 'forum';

    //    ****** TABLE PREFIX ******
    //    Prefix that your vBulletin tables have in the database.
$config['Database']['tableprefix'] = '';

    //    ****** TECHNICAL EMAIL ADDRESS ******
    //    If any database errors occur, they will be emailed to the address specified here.
    //    Leave this blank to not send any emails when there is a database error.
$config['Database']['technicalemail'] = 'dbmaster@example.com';

    //    ****** FORCE EMPTY SQL MODE ******
    // New versions of MySQL (4.1+) have introduced some behaviors that are
    // incompatible with vBulletin. Setting this value to "true" disables those
    // behaviors. You only need to modify this value if vBulletin recommends it.
$config['Database']['force_sql_mode'] = false;



    //    ****** MASTER DATABASE SERVER NAME AND PORT ******
    //    This is the hostname or IP address and port of the database server.
    //    If you are unsure of what to put here, leave the default values.
$config['MasterServer']['servername'] = 'localhost';
$config['MasterServer']['port'] = 3306;

    //    ****** MASTER DATABASE USERNAME & PASSWORD ******
    //    This is the username and password you use to access MySQL.
    //    These must be obtained through your webhost.
$config['MasterServer']['username'] = 'root';
$config['MasterServer']['password'] = '';

    //    ****** MASTER DATABASE PERSISTENT CONNECTIONS ******
    //    This option allows you to turn persistent connections to MySQL on or off.
    //    The difference in performance is negligible for all but the largest boards.
    //    If you are unsure what this should be, leave it off. (0 = off; 1 = on)
$config['MasterServer']['usepconnect'] = 0;



    //    ****** SLAVE DATABASE CONFIGURATION ******
    //    If you have multiple database backends, this is the information for your slave
    //    server. If you are not 100% sure you need to fill in this information,
    //    do not change any of the values here.
$config['SlaveServer']['servername'] = '';
$config['SlaveServer']['port'] = 3306;
$config['SlaveServer']['username'] = '';
$config['SlaveServer']['password'] = '';
$config['SlaveServer']['usepconnect'] = 0;



    //    ****** PATH TO ADMIN & MODERATOR CONTROL PANELS ******
    //    This setting allows you to change the name of the folders that the admin and
    //    moderator control panels reside in. You may wish to do this for security purposes.
    //    Please note that if you change the name of the directory here, you will still need
    //    to manually change the name of the directory on the server.
$config['Misc']['admincpdir'] = 'admincp';
$config['Misc']['modcpdir'] = 'modcp';

    //    Prefix that all vBulletin cookies will have
    //    Keep this short and only use numbers and letters, i.e. 1-9 and a-Z
$config['Misc']['cookieprefix'] = 'bb';

    //    ******** FULL PATH TO FORUMS DIRECTORY ******
    //    On a few systems it may be necessary to input the full path to your forums directory
    //    for vBulletin to function normally. You can ignore this setting unless vBulletin
    //    tells you to fill this in. Do not include a trailing slash!
    //    Example Unix:
    //      $config['Misc']['forumpath'] = '/home/users/public_html/forums';
    //    Example Win32:
    //      $config['Misc']['forumpath'] = 'c:\program files\apache group\apache\htdocs\vb3';
$config['Misc']['forumpath'] = '';



    //    ****** USERS WITH ADMIN LOG VIEWING PERMISSIONS ******
    //    The users specified here will be allowed to view the admin log in the control panel.
    //    Users must be specified by *ID number* here. To obtain a user's ID number,
    //    view their profile via the control panel. If this is a new installation, leave
    //    the first user created will have a user ID of 1. Seperate each userid with a comma.
$config['SpecialUsers']['canviewadminlog'] = '1';

    //    ****** USERS WITH ADMIN LOG PRUNING PERMISSIONS ******
    //    The users specified here will be allowed to remove ("prune") entries from the admin
    //    log. See the above entry for more information on the format.
$config['SpecialUsers']['canpruneadminlog'] = '1';

    //    ****** USERS WITH QUERY RUNNING PERMISSIONS ******
    //    The users specified here will be allowed to run queries from the control panel.
    //    See the above entries for more information on the format.
    //    Please note that the ability to run queries is quite powerful. You may wish
    //    to remove all user IDs from this list for security reasons.
$config['SpecialUsers']['canrunqueries'] = '';

    //    ****** UNDELETABLE / UNALTERABLE USERS ******
    //    The users specified here will not be deletable or alterable from the control panel by any users.
    //    To specify more than one user, separate userids with commas.
$config['SpecialUsers']['undeletableusers'] = '';

    //    ****** SUPER ADMINISTRATORS ******
    //    The users specified below will have permission to access the administrator permissions
    //    page, which controls the permissions of other administrators
$config['SpecialUsers']['superadministrators'] = '1';

    // ****** DATASTORE CACHE CONFIGURATION *****
    // Here you can configure different methods for caching datastore items.
    // vB_Datastore_Filecache  - for using a cache file
// $config['Datastore']['class'] = 'vB_Datastore_Filecache';
    // vB_Datastore_Memcached - for using a Memcache server
    // It is also necessary to specify the hostname or IP address and the port the server is listening on
/*
$config['Datastore']['class'] = 'vB_Datastore_Memcached';
$i = 0;
// First Server
$i++;
$config['Misc']['memcacheserver'][$i]        = '127.0.0.1';
$config['Misc']['memcacheport'][$i]            = 11211;
$config['Misc']['memcachepersistent'][$i]    = true;
$config['Misc']['memcacheweight'][$i]        = 1;
$config['Misc']['memcachetimeout'][$i]        = 1;
$config['Misc']['memcacheretry_interval'][$i] = 15;
*/
// ****** The following options are only needed in special cases ******

    //    ****** MySQLI OPTIONS *****
    // When using MySQL 4.1+, MySQLi should be used to connect to the database.
    // If you need to set the default connection charset because your database
    // is using a charset other than latin1, you can set the charset here.
    // If you don't set the charset to be the same as your database, you
    // may receive collation errors.  Ignore this setting unless you
    // are sure you need to use it.
// $config['Mysqli']['charset'] = 'utf8';

    //    Optionally, PHP can be instructed to set connection parameters by reading from the
    //    file named in 'ini_file'. Please use a full path to the file.
    //    Example:
    //    $config['Mysqli']['ini_file'] = 'c:\program files\MySQL\MySQL Server 4.1\my.ini';
$config['Mysqli']['ini_file'] = '';

// Image Processing Options
    // Images that exceed either dimension below will not be resized by vBulletin. If you need to resize larger images, alter these settings.
$config['Misc']['maxwidth'] = 2592;
$config['Misc']['maxheight'] = 1944;

/*======================================================================*\
|| ####################################################################
|| # Downloaded: 12:00, Sun Nov 26th 2007
|| # CVS: $RCSfile$ - $Revision$
|| ####################################################################
\*======================================================================*/

MySQLi

MySQLi is an improved database layer for PHP 5 and MySQL 4.1+. It is strongly recommended that MySQLi be used if your MySQL server is at version 4.1 or higher.

To enable MySQLi, view Editing the vBulletin Configuration File.

config.php contains two advanced settings that you may need when MySQLi is in use. These settings are to be ignored as long as you are not having issues of the following type:
MySQL Error  : Illegal mix of collations (latin1_swedish_ci,COERCIBLE) and (utf8_general_ci,IMPLICIT) for operation
Generally, this error only happens when your database's character set has been changed from the default of latin1. To begin to resolve this problem, you must first determine what character set is being used for your database.

From the Administrator Control Panel, go to Admin CP->Maintenance->Execute SQL Query. If you receive a no permissions message, please refer back to Editing the vBulletin Configuration File on how to grant the appropriate permissions so that you may execute queries.

Enter the following query in the Manual Query input box and press [Continue]

SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'char%'

The results screen will show your current character set settings:

If the values character_set_database and character_set_connection are different then this can be resolved by continuing this solution.
Note:
If the values are the same, then your problem will not be solved by this solution. Please contact vBulletin Support in this case. You may have tables in your database that are configured to use a different character set than your database is. All of your tables will need to be updated to use the same character set. This condition can be caused by changing the character set of your database after vBulletin has been installed. Upgrades may create tables that are in your new character set, which will cause problems.
Your character_set_connection needs to be updated to be the same as your character_set_database.

Create a new file in your forums include directory named mysqli.ini. Inside of this file place:
[client]
default-character-set=utf8
The value utf8 will need to be the same value that appeared as your character_set_database in the previous step. Generally, this will be utf8 but you may have a special case that requires a different setting.

Edit the vBulletin Configuration File file by following the instructions in the previous section.

Uncomment the following line by removing the two slashes from the beginning
//    $config['Mysqli']['ini_file'] = 'c:\program files\MySQL\MySQL Server 4.1\my.ini';
Change the line to point to the location of the mysqli.ini file that you created in the previous step. Example:
$config['Mysqli']['ini_file'] = 'c:\program files\apache group\apache\htdocs\forums\includes\mysqli.ini';
If you have enabled MySQLi and entered the correct path to your new mysqli.ini file, then this problem should be resolved.

Uploading vBulletin Scripts to Your Web Server

After your config.php file has been edited and saved it is time to upload the vBulletin scripts to your web server ready for installation.

The uploading process should be familiar to anyone who has published pages to a web site before, but a brief description of the process is given here.

Although there are several methods available to transfer the vBulletin files from your computer to your web server, by far the most common method in use is transfer via FTP. Most operating systems have built-in tools for opening FTP connections although they are often limited in their usefulness and many people opt to use a third party FTP client application. For this example we will use Smart FTP.

The easiest way to transfer the files is to upload the entire upload folder to the server. Using Smart FTP we do this by dragging the upload folder from its location on your computer's hard disk to the web publishing folder on the server.

Most FTP client applications will handle the file transfers automatically, but if for some reason your application does not, you should make a note of the following:
Note:
The web publishing folder is usually called public_html, www or htdocs and is located within your home directory. If you are unsure of where to find your own web publishing folder, your host will be able to help you.
Depending upon the speed of your internet connection, uploading all the files could take several minutes to complete. After completion, you should see that the web server now contains a folder called upload containing a perfect copy of the files in the upload folder on your computer's hard disk.

When all the files have been uploaded successfully you should rename the upload folder on the web server to the name you want to use for your forums directory. We will be calling it forums for the purposes of this manual.

If all has gone well, you are now ready to run the installation script to prepare your database to run vBulletin.

Running the vBulletin Install Script

Once all the vBulletin files have been successfully uploaded to your web server, you will need to run the vBulletin Installation Script in order to prepare your database.

The Installer runs as a PHP script using your web browser. To start the installation process, open your browser and type the HTTP address of your forums directory, followed by /install/install.php, then hit the <Enter> key or press the [Go] button to open the script.

The first thing you will see from the install script is a log in prompt, asking you to enter your customer number. This is done to prevent other users from accidentally stumbling across your install script and running it. Only you should know your customer number.
Note:
Your customer number is the string of numbers and letters used as the login user name for the vBulletin Members' Area. You should type your customer number carefully to avoid errors. Note that your customer number is not the same as your vBulletin license number.

When you have entered your customer number, hit the [Enter Installer] button and you should be taken to the first step of the install script. If after hitting the [Enter Installer] button you are brought back to the customer number entry dialog, there was an error verifying your customer number. Please check for mistakes and try again.

The first page of the installer script will greet you and give you some basic instructions relating to what will happen during the rest of the install process.

Having read the information on the welcome page of the installer, you can click the large [Next Step] button at the bottom right of the window to proceed to the next step of the installer.
Warning:
Certain browser plug-ins, most notably the popular Google Toolbar can have an adverse effect up the vBulletin installation and upgrade scripts. We recommend that all browser plugins be disabled while running install and upgrade scripts for vBulletin.
Clicking the [Next Step] button will take you to the first installation step, which tests that your config.php file exists and is readable by the system.

A further click will bring you to step 2, in which the installer attempts to connect to the database. If the connection is made successfully, the installer will ask you if you want to empty the database. If you click this link your database will be totally emptied. All data stored in that database (including any data not related to vBulletin) will be irreversibly erased.
Warning:
Don't click the 'empty database' link unless you are really sure that's what you want to do!
The next few steps offer no choices during the installation process, other than to click the [Next Step] button at the bottom of the page to proceed to the next step.

However, you will soon be present with a page entitled Obtain Some Default Settings. This page does not have a [Next Step] button, as it requires that you fill in a few details about how you are installing vBulletin.

The settings required here are:
BB TitleThis is the title you will give to your vBulletin forums. It appears in the title of every page, and items such as notification emails sent from vBulletin to your members will identify the sender using this name. (BB Title is short for bulletin board title).
Homepage TitleLess important than the BB Title, this setting is used for a link at the bottom of every page which points to the address specified in Home URL (see below). It represents the title of your web site.
BB URLThe BB URL setting is very important. It represents the URL that people should visit in order to find your vBulletin forums. The system will make a best-guess at filling-in this setting automatically, so you should only change it if the given value is definitely wrong. Note that this setting should not end with a slash (/) character.
Home URLThis is the web address of your main web site, and is used in conjunction with the Home Title setting to create a link to your web site from the bottom of each forum page.
Cookie PathWhen cookies are stored on visitors' computers, this setting will be used to define to what location on your server the cookies apply. Unless you have a reason to change this setting it's probably a good idea to leave it at the default value of '/' (meaning that the cookies can be read by the entire site).
Cookie DomainRather like the cookie path setting, this allows you to specify the domain to which cookies belong. Generally speaking this setting can be left empty.
After filling in these values and clicking through the next few screens you will be asked to set yourself up as the forum administrator.

You will need to provide a username with which you are going to log-in, together with a password and an email address. These will be the details with which you will log in to your installed vBulletin board.
Note:
When choosing a password, we would suggest a combination of letters, numbers and punctuation characters in both upper and lower case, and a length of at least eight characters.
Fill in the required boxes and hit the [Continue] button to proceed with the installation process.

After a few pages the installation process will complete, and you will be presented with a link to your Admin Control Panel. Before clicking this link, you should open up your FTP client application again and browse to the install folder inside your forums directory.

You should delete the install.php and upgrade*.php files now as a security precaution. It is safe to leave the other install directory files intact since they may prove useful in the future. Once you have deleted these files you can return to the installer script and click the link to enter the Administrator Control Panel of your freshly installed vBulletin!
Note:
You will not be able to enter the Admin Control Panel until you have deleted the install.php file.

Upgrading vBulletin

From time to time it will be necessary to upgrade your vBulletin installation to the latest version, either to gain new features or to fix newly discovered bugs in PHP, MySQL or vBulletin itself.

You can upgrade to the latest version of vBulletin 3 from the following vBulletin versions:The upgrade process differs depending upon the version of vBulletin currently installed on your web server. Sites running vBulletin 2 will need to follow slightly different instructions from sites already running vBulletin 3 and upgrading to the latest version.

When upgrading, the first step is always the same, in that you must log in to the vBulletin Members' Area and download the latest vBulletin package available, as described in the installation instructions.
Warning:
We strongly recommend that you back up your database prior to any upgrade.

A document detailing how to back up your database is available in the Technical Documents section of the vBulletin Manual's Appendices, here.

Preparing the vBulletin Files for Upload

After you have successfully downloaded the vBulletin package to your computer you will need to prepare the scripts to be uploaded to your web server.

The first thing to do is to decompress the package into its constituent files. If you downloaded the .zip package and your computer is running a recent version of Windows® all the tools you need to do this are available as part of Windows®. This section will assume that you have downloaded the .zip package and that your computer is running Windows XP.

To extract the files from the package, open the folder on your computer where you saved the vBulletin package and right-click on its icon, then choose Extract All from the pop-up menu.

This will open a wizard to guide you through the unzipping progress. Accept the default options suggested and the system will decompress the files from the zip package.

When the unzipping progress is complete, you will find that the process has created a new folder called upload and another called do_not_upload.

upload - This folder contains the vBulletin files that need to be uploaded to your web server.

You should now rename the 'upload' folder to match whatever name you gave to the directory containing your vBulletin files on your web server. In this example, the folder containing the vBulletin files is called 'forums'.

NOTE: If you have changed the names of the 'admincp' and 'modcp' directories in your config.php file, be sure to make the same change to these subdirectories prior to uploading.

The second folder is do_not_upload - This folder contains tools to perform various tasks on your board
Note:
As you already have a vBulletin installation running on your web server, you should delete the install.php file in the install directory before you proceed to upload the files.
Note:
These instructions are for 3.5.0 and higher. If you are upgrading from vBulletin 3.0.x to 3.5.0, you will also need to recreate your includes/config.php file based on the new version of includes/config.php.new. Please see this page in the installation section on how to edit the config file. This step is not necessary for individual upgrades within the 3.0.x or 3.5.x series.<br />
If you are upgrading from vBulletin 3.5.x to vBulletin 3.6.x you do not need to edit the config.php file.

Updating the vBulletin Scripts on Your Web Server

Having downloaded the latest vBulletin package and unzipped it to a folder, you must now prepare your web server to accept the updated files. Before you do this you should close your forums. This will help eliminate any potential db errors as people attempt to access your forums before the upgrade is complete.

For uploading there are two ways that this can be done.

The first method involves overwriting all the files that were previously uploaded to your web server, while the second method involves deleting all the old files and directories, and then uploading the new scripts. In this tutorial we will use the overwrite method.

Having renamed the upload folder as specified in the pre