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mjames
Mon 6th Nov '00, 8:08pm
Hi all,

How do I "activate" announcements on my boards? I added an announcement for every forum, but it isn't showing up...

Also, how do so many vBulletins have their logo and the vB icons next to a banner ad? The only way I found is by adding my banner ads at the top in the header template, which I don't prefer.

My brand new board is at: http://www.sports-central.org/community/boards/

Help is appreciated!
Wayne Luke
Mon 6th Nov '00, 8:32pm
Hello Mark,

For question #1, make sure that the announcebit template is referenced in your forumdisplay template. Look for $announcebits towards the top of the table.

For Question #2, I ended up moving everything at the top to the $header template and removing it from all templates that referenced that code. If you look through the various templates you will see a table that has $bbtitleimg in one cell and $fivelinks in the other. These are the things you need to eliminate if you move it to the header template.
mjames
Mon 6th Nov '00, 9:48pm
Thanks for the reply, Wayne, but I'm still not following. Please understand I am a complete newbie at vBulletin, so you have to go step-by-step. Thanks!

P.S. I understand question #2, just not #1.
Wayne Luke
Mon 6th Nov '00, 9:56pm
In your control panel there are listed all the templates.

In your ForumDisplay template is all the coding to setup the display of the individual threads on each forum page. In it at about the middle of the code it should have:
<some code>
$announcement
$forumdisplaybits
<more code>

If that $announcement isn't there then your announcements won't show up.

Also double check to make sure that the start and end dates on the announcements are valid.

p.s. Sorry I had named the wrong template ($announcebits) earlier.
mjames
Mon 6th Nov '00, 10:39pm
Thanks! I think I just had the dates messed up.

While I'm at it, I have a question about how I can "activate" some of the other interesting templates. I'm talking about how there are some appealing features I might want to use in there and there isn't a page like the announcements add/remove page for every one. How do I get these to show up? Do I have to manually edit the ForumDisplay?
Wayne Luke
Tue 7th Nov '00, 12:15am
What templates are you talking about? Most of the really neat stuff is in the form of hacks now.

My suggestion is to either cut and paste the templates out or due a database dump on the template table and edit them in your HTML Editor.
mjames
Tue 7th Nov '00, 12:47am
Okay... say I wanted to add the ICQ indicator template. How would I add that?

And as for hacks, can you explain them? Where can I get them and how do I do them?

Thanks.
Wayne Luke
Tue 7th Nov '00, 2:31am
The ICQ, Yahoo and AIM stuff is already in the various templates.. Look in showthread and getinfo specifically. Just remove the HTML comments and they will show up.

As far as Hacks. Look in the Hacking Forum here or look at vBulletin.org.

Each hack has its own rules and ease of install (or lack thereof). The various authors are usually pretty good about helping out if you need it though.
mjames
Tue 7th Nov '00, 9:28am
Originally posted by wluke
Just remove the HTML comments and they will show up.
How do I do this?

Another thing, how do I move the links to quote, profile, web site, e-mail, search, etc. that are now under each post to the top of each post?
Mike Sullivan
Tue 7th Nov '00, 9:55am
For ICQ, you want to look in the postbit template.
Change <!-- $ icq --> to $icq
Whle your in that template, you can move the icons and what not the top.
mjames
Tue 7th Nov '00, 10:07am
Well ICQ wasn't what I wanted to add now, that was just an example of a feature I used.

I am in the forumtemplate, but I don't know how to move those post icons to the top of each post. Care to explain more clearly?
Wayne Luke
Tue 7th Nov '00, 12:21pm
Mark,

I think your thinking about this too hard. All the templates are simple HTML. These pages are made up of HTML for display and $variables for content.

To move the "Profile, Email, WWW..." Group to the top you simply have to cut that table row out and move it up one level.

Other display changes are also done in HTML. You can design your forums in Frontpage, Dreamweaver, Notepad, Homesite or whatever and then copy that code into your templates, placing the $variables where they need to be.

So far I don't think there is a list of all the $variables in vBulletin and there are a lot, but you can keep the default templates as a backup just in case you need them. Just store them in a directory called TemplateBackup on your local drive, which is what I do.
mjames
Tue 7th Nov '00, 2:04pm
The name's Marc. :)

I think you might be right, I may be thinking too hard. Please clarify which template I need to edit to move the post icons to the top of each posts and what I'm looking for in that template to move.

And back to the custom header, to do this, I remove the logo, icons, etc. from where where they are now (in the $forumdisplay template?) and put everything in the header template? Will this leave a big white gap space where the logo, icons, etc. were?

I'm backing up my templates now...
Wayne Luke
Tue 7th Nov '00, 4:30pm
Sorry Marc,

The Profile, Email and WWW icons are in the postbit template.

The code you want to move is:


<tr>
<td align="left valign="middle"> $profile $useremail $homepage
<a href="search.php?action=simplesearch&exactname=yes&searchuser=$searchuser"><img src="images/find.gif" border=0 alt="Find more posts by $username"></a>&nbsp;
<a href="editpost.php?action=editpost&postid=$postid"><img src="images/edit.gif" border=0 alt="Edit/Delete Message"></a>
&nbsp;<a href="newreply.php?action=newreply&postid=$postid"><img src="images/quote.gif" border=0 alt="Reply w/Quote"></a>
&nbsp;<!-- $ icq --> <!-- $ aim --> <!-- $ yahoo --></td>
<td align="right" valign="middle" nowrap width="10%"> <smallfont>$iplogged</smallfont></td>
</tr>


and for you second question, there shouldn't be any whitespace unless you add extra blank linebreaks or paragraphcs in your HTML code.
mjames
Tue 7th Nov '00, 5:25pm
One of my users alerted me that the e-mail post notification he got pointed him to the wrong URL. It pointed him to: http://www.sports-central.org/community/boards/index.php3/showthread.php3?threadid=3 , although it was the correct thread, just wrong URL...

And as for the icons, Wayne, can you get on ICQ so you can directly help me? I'm still a little confused. Thanks.
Freddie Bingham
Tue 7th Nov '00, 5:39pm
Originally posted by M. James
One of my users alerted me that the e-mail post notification he got pointed him to the wrong URL. It pointed him to: http://www.sports-central.org/community/boards/index.php3/showthread.php3?threadid=3 , although it was the correct thread, just wrong URL...

And as for the icons, Wayne, can you get on ICQ so you can directly help me? I'm still a little confused. Thanks.

You must have set the URL to your board in the options section to http://www.sports-central.org/community/boards/index.php3 when it needs to be http://www.sports-central.org/community/boards
mjames
Thu 9th Nov '00, 3:30pm
Please help! I want to move the icons (search, profile, WWW, etc.) that are currently under each posts to above each post. I am looking in the $postbit template, but I have no idea what to move and where to move it.

<table width=100% border=0 cellspacing=1 cellpadding=4>
<tr bgcolor="$backcolor">
<TD width="175" valign="top" nowrap>

<table width="100%" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" border="0">
<tr><td width="100%">
<a name="post$postid"></a>
$firstnewname
<normalfont><B>$username</B></normalfont><br>
<smallfont>$usertitle</smallfont><br><br>
<smallfont>Registered: $userjoindate<br>
Posts: $userpostcount</smallfont>

</td></tr></table>

</td><td valign="top" width="100%">

<table width="100%" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" border="0">
<tr><td width="100%">

$posticon <smallfont><B>$postitle</b></smallfont>
<p><normalfont>$message</normalfont></p>

</td></tr></table>

</td></tr>

<tr bgcolor="$backcolor">
<td width="175" valign="middle" height="16" nowrap>

$foldericon <smallfont>$postdate $posttime</smallfont>
</td><td width="100%" valign="middle" height="16">

<table width="100%" border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0>
<tr><td align="left valign="middle">

$profile $useremail $homepage <a href="search.php3?action=simplesearch&exactname=yes&searchuser=$searchuser"><img src="images/find.gif" border=0 alt="Find more posts by $username"></a> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <a HREF="editpost.php3?action=editpost&postid=$postid"><IMG SRC="images/edit.gif" BORDER=0 ALT="Edit/Delete Message"></A> &nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="newreply.php3?action=newreply&postid=$postid"><IMG SRC="images/quote.gif" BORDER=0 ALT="Reply w/Quote"></A> &nbsp;&nbsp; <!-- $ icq --> <!-- $ aim --> <!-- $ yahoo -->

</td><td align="right" valign="middle" nowrap>
<smallfont>$iplogged</smallfont>
</td></tr>
</table>

</td></tr></table>
Wayne Luke
Thu 9th Nov '00, 3:42pm
Originally posted by M. James
Please help! I want to move the icons (search, profile, WWW, etc.) that are currently under each posts to above each post. I am looking in the $postbit template, but I have no idea what to move and where to move it.

<table width=100% border=0 cellspacing=1 cellpadding=4>
<tr bgcolor="$backcolor">
<TD width="175" valign="top" nowrap>

<table width="100%" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" border="0">
<tr><td width="100%">
<a name="post$postid"></a>
$firstnewname
<normalfont><B>$username</B></normalfont><br>
<smallfont>$usertitle</smallfont><br><br>
<smallfont>Registered: $userjoindate<br>
Posts: $userpostcount</smallfont>

</td></tr></table>

</td><td valign="top" width="100%">

<table width="100%" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" border="0">
<tr><td width="100%">

$posticon <smallfont><B>$postitle</b></smallfont>
<p><normalfont>$message</normalfont></p>

</td></tr></table>

</td></tr>

<tr bgcolor="$backcolor">
<td width="175" valign="middle" height="16" nowrap>

$foldericon <smallfont>$postdate $posttime</smallfont>
</td><td width="100%" valign="middle" height="16">

<table width="100%" border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0>
<tr><td align="left valign="middle">

$profile $useremail $homepage <a href="search.php3?action=simplesearch&exactname=yes&searchuser=$searchuser"><img src="images/find.gif" border=0 alt="Find more posts by $username"></a> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <a HREF="editpost.php3?action=editpost&postid=$postid"><IMG SRC="images/edit.gif" BORDER=0 ALT="Edit/Delete Message"></A> &nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="newreply.php3?action=newreply&postid=$postid"><IMG SRC="images/quote.gif" BORDER=0 ALT="Reply w/Quote"></A> &nbsp;&nbsp; <!-- $ icq --> <!-- $ aim --> <!-- $ yahoo -->

</td><td align="right" valign="middle" nowrap>
<smallfont>$iplogged</smallfont>
</td></tr>
</table>

</td></tr></table>


Change your code above to:

<table width=100% border=0 cellspacing=1 cellpadding=4>
<tr bgcolor="$backcolor">
<td width="175" valign="middle" height="16" nowrap>

$foldericon <smallfont>$postdate $posttime</smallfont>
</td><td width="100%" valign="middle" height="16">

<table width="100%" border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0>
<tr><td align="left valign="middle">

$profile $useremail $homepage <a href="search.php3?action=simplesearch&exactname=yes&searchuser=$searchuser"><img src="images/find.gif" border=0 alt="Find more posts by $username"></a> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <a HREF="editpost.php3?action=editpost&postid=$postid"><IMG SRC="images/edit.gif" BORDER=0 ALT="Edit/Delete Message"></A> &nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="newreply.php3?action=newreply&postid=$postid"><IMG SRC="images/quote.gif" BORDER=0 ALT="Reply w/Quote"></A> &nbsp;&nbsp; <!-- $ icq --> <!-- $ aim --> <!-- $ yahoo -->

</td><td align="right" valign="middle" nowrap>
<smallfont>$iplogged</smallfont>
</td></tr>
</table>

</td></tr>
<tr bgcolor="$backcolor">
<TD width="175" valign="top" nowrap>

<table width="100%" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" border="0">
<tr><td width="100%">
<a name="post$postid"></a>
$firstnewname
<normalfont><B>$username</B></normalfont><br>
<smallfont>$usertitle</smallfont><br><br>
<smallfont>Registered: $userjoindate<br>
Posts: $userpostcount</smallfont>

</td></tr></table>

</td><td valign="top" width="100%">

<table width="100%" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" border="0">
<tr><td width="100%">

$posticon <smallfont><B>$postitle</b></smallfont>
<p><normalfont>$message</normalfont></p>
</td></tr></table>
</td></tr>
</table>
mjames
Thu 9th Nov '00, 3:55pm
Job complete - thanks for the continued help, Wayne.