How to integrate the forums into a site?

[veritas]

I curious as to how you can modify the templates so that you can stick the forums within the already existing site template (like msxbox.com does with their forum). I would like to do this with my site, but not quite sure where to start.

[Darin]

I'm pretty sure this can be done using SSI (Server Side Includes). Try including the following code in the page where you want your forums to appear:

<!--#include virtual="forums/index.php" -->

Replace the red part with the URL to your forums. Hope this helps :)

[Dark_Wizard]

hmmm...I would add them to your header and footer...this way it follows the forum, showthread...etc... If you need a hand give me a shout...

[veritas]

I'm converting my site to PHP (.php extensions), so I don't think the SSI will work. Is their an easier way to include the forum? Thanks big time for your help!

[Darin]

I'm not sure if you can inlcude the forums now that you are convering to .php extensions for your whole site. I've never tried this, but have seen it around, so try adding the following code:

<!--#include php="forums/index.php" -->

Like I said not very sure, but I have a friend who is a php expert, so I'll ask him about it.

[veritas]

I'll give it a try. I'm going to invest in a good PHP book (PHP 4 Bible or PHP Essentials) so I can get to understanding this all completely. Does anyone know if the book titles I mentioned are as good as they seem? Have they helped you out? Are they worth the money?

[Darin]

I don't know if this will help you get started, but there is an excellent online manual on PHP at the official site. You can find the English version of it right here:http://www.php.net/manual/en/. May not be much, but it sure is something to help you understand PHP.

[veritas]

I tried using <!--#include php="/forums/index.php" --> inside to include the forums on a non-vB page. It doesn't work, all I get is a blank spot.

[Darin]

Hmm...okay. Well this guy I know who is a PHP expert hasn't been on ICQ for a while. As soon as he goes on I'll ask him.

[JamesUS]

Try using:


require("/forums/index.php");

[veritas]

Nope it didn't work. You can see the error message by visiting http://www.iongames.org/html/template.php

[Darin]

Try including the full path to your forums. Not just "forums/index.php". So something like this:

require ("http://www.yoursite.com/forums/index.php");

[veritas]

It works. The only problems now are that:

1) all the images are broken
2) all the forum's links are broken

It keeps trying to access forum .php pages from the /html directory. Of course, vB is not installed under this dir, but under /forums.

[Darin]

Great, the way to fix all the images is to edit your options in vB through the Control Panel and do the same thing. Put the full path to all of your images, instead of just "forums/images/blah-blah.gif".