vBulletin |
vBulletin® 4.0 Manual
System Requirements |
Note:
vBulletin does not operate on your local computer without special software being installed. Please see a tutorial on
How to run vBulletin on your PC for more information.
How to run vBulletin on your PC for more information.
vBulletin is a web-based application and as such has a few minimum requirements. To run vBulletin, you need a web hosting provider that includes the following things:
- PHP version 5.6.0 through PHP 7.1
- MySQL version 5.5.0 or greater
- A pre-registered domain name
- 200 Megabytes of hard drive space
Recommended Requirements
The following settings and software packages are not required but will make your vBulletin experience more enjoyable. Your hosting provider can tell you whether these are available on your server.
- cURL or OpenSSL support – Allows secure connections to third-party services like Facebook Connect.
- MySQLi support – MySQLi is a more robust software library to connect to the database that vBulletin uses.
- Iconv support – A library that provides extra language and character set support.
- OpCode Cache – An OpCode Cache like APC or XCache will enhance the performance of your vBulletin software. An OpCode Cache is a caching mechanism that can significantly increase the performance of vBulletin by pre-parsing the PHP files and keeping commonly used data in memory for rapid retrieval.
- Rewrite Engine – A rewrite engine is needed to use Friendly URLS. Popular rewrite engines include mod_rewrite on Apache and URL Rewrite for IIS 7 or greater.
Installing vBulletin |
The following documents will take you through this process step-by-step.
Note:
Before installing vBulletin you will need to ensure that your webhost or webserver meet the [url=https://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/system_requirements[/url] for the software.
Downloading the vBulletin Package |
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 /js and /core/clientscript directory in order to reduce the size of the files. Google Closure Compiler is used to do this but you can choose uncompressed JavaScript files using the option described below.
You can choose from the following options:
- PHP File Extension
As a general rule, web servers will use .php as the extension for PHP scripts, but some servers may use a different extension, or you may simply wish to use a different extension out of your own preference. Various extensions are available here for you to choose. - Download File Format
This option allows you to choose the compression format of the package you are about to download. Most people will want to download the .zip package as Windows® has in-built support for zip files. However, if you are downloading the package directly to a Linux server you may prefer to use the tarball (.tar.gz) format. - CGI Shebang
This option will only be of use to you if your server runs PHP as a CGI rather than as a web server module. If your server runs PHP as a CGI and requires a shebang (such as #!/usr/bin/php) then you can enter the required text here and it will automatically be inserted into whichever PHP files in vBulletin require its use. - Download File
Use this option to control the contents of the package you are about to download. For example, if you have previously installed vBulletin you will probably not need to download the images again, so you can use this control to specify that the package you download does not contain the images directory. You can also download the uncompressed JavaScript package with this option.
Preparing the vBulletin Files for 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
- searchshell.php - This file will allow you to rebuild the search index.
- vb_backup.sh - This file will allow you to run a database backup via SSH/Telnet or a scheduled backup through cron.
- tools.php - This file must be uploaded to the admincp folder and allows you to perform certain tasks should your board go down or you accidentally lock yourself out of the Admin Control Panel. This file must be deleted immediately after use or it will cause a SEVERE security problem.
Creating your Database |
cPanel
cPanel provides a MySQL Database Wizard and this is the easiest way to create a database. You can find the instructions for this in the cPanel Documentation here:
https://documentation.cpanel.net/display/76Docs/MySQL+Database+Wizard
cPanel also has functionality for general care and maintanence of your database. You can find that documentation here:
https://documentation.cpanel.net/display/76Docs/cPanel+Features+List#DatabasesTab
Plesk
Another popular web hosting control panel, Plesk aims to provide all database management within a GUI style interface. To create a new database you would follow the instructions here:
http://download1.parallels.com/Plesk/PP11/11.0/Doc/en-US/online/plesk-customer-guide/65157.htm
Webmin
A third popular hosting control panel is Webmin. You can find basic instructions here:
http://linuxconsultant.info/tutorials/webmin-tutorial/webmin.html#mysql
GoDaddy
GoDaddy is a popular hosting service and they have their own unique control panel system. The current instructions on how to create a database on your website is located here:
http://support.godaddy.com/help/article/36/creating-mysql-or-sql-server-databases-for-your-hosting-account
Warning:
GoDaddy servers do not meet the minimum requirements for vBulletin 5 at this time. Also we recommend not using GoDaddy's Windows servers with vBulletin 5.
Editing the vBulletin Configuration Files |
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'.
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'.
$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 Configuration | These 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:
Later versions of vBulletin may not have the ?> at the end. This is to help prevent this kind of error from happening.
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'] = '[email protected]';
// ****** 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 |
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
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
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.
Create a new file in your forums include directory named mysqli.ini. Inside of this file place:
[client] default-character-set=utf8
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';
$config['Mysqli']['ini_file'] = 'c:\program files\apache group\apache\htdocs\forums\includes\mysqli.ini';
Uploading vBulletin Scripts to Your Web Server |
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.
Note:
We do not recommend using the built-in file transfer features in WYSIWYG editors such as Adobe Dreamweaver, Adobe GoLive!, Microsoft Frontpage, or Microsoft Expressions. These programs often add information to vBulletin's files or do not maintain their structure properly which will cause problems while installing or upgrading the software. We also do not recommend using any web-based file managers that your hosting service may provide as a solution. For best performance and reliability you are recommended to use a stand alone FTP client like SmartFTP or Filezilla.
- All text files to be transferred in ASCII mode
- All non-text files to be transferred in Binary mode
The remaining files, which are mostly images, should be transferred to your web server in Binary mode.
Binary file types used in vBulletin include: .gif, .png, .jpg, .ico.
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.
Running the vBulletin Install Script |
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 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.
After entering your customer number, the install wizard will begin. Press Start Install to begin.
The installer from this point is mostly automatic. You will see the progress bar progress as it goes through the steps.
During the install process, the install script will require user input. At this point it will present you with a dialog box and ask for the information. It will ask for information up to four times. The first dialog box looks like the image below.
The first dialog box will ask you information about your forums. This includes the name of the forums, the name of your homepage and the URLs that you would like to use. It will also ask for the webmaster email address. The system will try to pre-fill some of this information for you based on the location of the script and the domain name it is accessed from.
The second dialog box will ask for your cookie path and cookie domain. These are advanced installation parameters. If you do not know what to enter here, leave them as the default suggestions and continue.
The third dialog box will ask for your administrator username, password, and email address. Make sure to keep record of these as there is no way to retrieve the password in the future.
The last dialog box will only occur if you are installing the vBulletin Publishing Suite. This will ask if you want to install the default data for the Content Management System. It is a good idea to do this if you are just getting started. You can delete the data later.
During the installation process, you may opt to have a more detailed output view. You can view each step as it processes by clicking the "Show Details" button while the install wizard is running. It will present you with a view like this:
Once the installation process is 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 directory, and all of its files now as a security precaution. Once you have deleted these files/folders 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 folder.
Cleaning up after the Install |
You should delete all files and subdirectories here as a security precaution. Doing so will not impact vBulletin's operation on your site. 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!
Upgrading vBulletin |
You can upgrade to the latest version of vBulletin 4 from the following vBulletin versions:
- Any previous version of vBulletin 4, from version 4.0.0 Beta 1 to the current version.
- Any version of vBulletin 3 from version 3.6.0 and newer. If your vBulletin version is older than 3.8.7, it is recommended that you upgrade to at least vBulletin 3.8.7 before you can upgrade to vBulletin 4.
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. This will allow you to restore your data should anything happen during the upgrade. The chance of a catastrophic failure is very remote but it can happen.
A document detailing how to back up your database is available in the Technical Documents section of the vBulletin Manual's Appendices, here.
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 |
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
- searchshell.php - This file will allow you to rebuild the search index.
- vb_backup.sh - This file will allow you to run a database backup via SSH/Telnet or a scheduled backup through cron.
- tools.php - This file must be uploaded to the admincp folder and allows you to perform certain tasks should your board go down or you accidentally lock yourself out of the Admin Control Panel. This file must be deleted immediately after use or it will cause a SEVERE security problem.
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.
If you are upgrading from vBulletin 3.5.x to vBulletin 3.6.x or newer you do not need to edit the config.php file.
If you are upgrading from vBulletin 3.5.x to vBulletin 3.6.x or newer you do not need to edit the config.php file.
Updating the vBulletin Scripts on Your Web Server |
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 previous step, you should load up your FTP client of choice. In this example we will use Smart FTP.
Connect to your FTP server and with the new vBulletin files in the local pane and the existing old files in the remote pane, drag the forums directory into the parent directory of your remote vBulletin installation as shown here:You will most likely be prompted by the FTP client at this point to ask if you want to overwrite the existing files. You should confirm this prompt, telling the FTP client that yes, you do want to overwrite the existing files. If the prompt gives you the option to overwrite all existing files without prompting again, use this option.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:
- All text files to be transferred in ASCII mode
All files containing plain text from the vBulletin package should be transferred in ASCII mode.
Text file types you will find in vBulletin are: .html, .php, .js, .xml, .css. - All non-text files to be transferred in Binary mode
The remaining files, which are mostly images, should be transferred to your web server in Binary mode.
Binary file types used in vBulletin include: .gif, .png, .jpg, .ico.
Warning:
It is extremely important that you upload all the files from the latest vBulletin package, including the entire contents of the install directory.
Failure to upload all the files may result in the upgrade script being unable to successfully complete the upgrade process.
Failure to upload all the files may result in the upgrade script being unable to successfully complete the upgrade process.
Upgrading from vBulletin 2 |
Note:
This page applies soley to upgrades from vBulletin 2 to vBulletin 3. If you are already running a version of vBulletin 3 you may skip this section.
There will now be a little maintenance to be done on the files stored on your web server in order to clean up vBulletin 2 files and directories that are no longer used in vBulletin 3.
With the remote forums directory showing in your FTP client, you should delete the following files and directories:
- The admin directory
- The mod directory
- The avatar.php file
- The cp.css file
- The member2.php file
- The vbcode.js file
- The vbcode_language.js file
- All .gif files from root of the the images directory
Please note that depending upon the size of your existing database and the speed of your web server, running the initial phase of the upgrade process to convert your vBulletin 2 database to be compatible with vBulletin 3 may take a long time. A million-post database may take several hours to upgrade.
Running the vBulletin Upgrade Script |
When you have entered your customer number, hit the button and you should be taken to the first step of the install script. If after hitting the 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.
After entering your customer number, the install wizard will begin. Press Start Install to begin.
The installer from this point is almost automatic. You will see the progress bar progress as it goes through the steps.
If the upgrade script needs to retrieve any information from you, it will stop and show a dialog box requesting the information. Follow the instructions on the screen. These dialog boxes will look similar to this -
During the installation process, you may opt to have a more detailed output view. You can view each step as it processes by clicking the "Show Details" button while the install wizard is running. It will present you with a view like this:
Once the installation process is complete, and you will be presented with a link to your Admin Control Panel.
Enter the Admin Control Panel to verify that your settings, content and other details are still correct.
Installing the Mobile Style
Using the Command Line Upgrade |
php -f upgrade.php
sudo -u <user> php -f upgrade.php
Your CLI version of PHP may not have been compiled with or configured to use the same modules as your web version. If you encounter problems in command line mode, switching to the web mode should be able to process through them. You can see your command line configuration by typing:
php -i > phpinfo.txt
Common Issues While Upgrading. |
A. Your CLI version of PHP may not have been compiled with the same modules as your web version. If you are missing mysqli and have set your config.php to use mysqli, you will receive an immediate error. Either add mysqli support to your CLI php or switch to mysql in config.php. You can switch back to mysqli after the upgrade process.
Q. When running the upgrade wizard from the command line, it will not import the standard XML files for the style and languages. What do I do?
A. Your version of PHP may have the default XML support disabled for some reason. Run the upgrade wizard in your browser. It will skip to the XML import steps and import your files for you and complete the upgrade.
Q. I have a lot of posts and rebuilding the search index takes forever. Is there a faster way?
It is recommended that large community sites use our Sphinx Search to index and search their content. This is a fast and robust search solution. If for some reason, you cannot use this search option, you can rebuild your search index from the command line using the searchindex.php in your Do Not Upload folder. You would run the searchindex.php file from the command line using this command:
php searchindex.php
Q. What is the Query Status button that appears in Browser Mode?
A. The "Query Status" button is something that appears after a step has taken more than 20 seconds. Its purpose it to send a query back to the server and retrieve the status of the executing query. It provides a method for the admin to see what is going on with big queries.
Q. I receive an error similar to the following how do I fix it?
Warning: chdir(): SAFE MODE Restriction in effect. The script whose uid is 0 is not allowed to access ./../ owned by uid 10001 in /var/www/vhosts/domain.com/httpdocs/vb/40c/install/upgrade.php on line 16
A. This can appear if the command line configuration of PHP is using safemode. Either disable safemod or run the upgrade wizard in browser mode.
Q. I previously used the Command Line Upgrade and now I receive an error when I try to save my CSS as files. What is wrong?
The permissions on your clientscript/vbulletin_css folder are incorrect. They may be set to 0755 and should be set to 0777. Recursively update the permissions to 0777 using your FTP client or chmod.
Cleaning up after your Upgrade |
You should delete all files and subdirectories here as a security precaution. Doing so will not impact vBulletin's operation on your site. 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!
Checking for Updated Templates |
When a new version of vBulletin is released, it is common for some of the default templates to have been updated to accommodate new features or fix bugs.
If you have not customized any of your templates, this need not concern you, but if you have customized some of the default templates there are a few steps you will need to follow after you have finished running all the appropriate upgrade scripts.
Note:
When running vBulletin upgrade scripts, one of the final steps imports the newest version of the default style.
Any templates that you have not customized will automatically be updated to use the newest versions.
However, any templates that you have customized will not be altered or overwritten by importing the latest style, hence the need for the following steps.
Any templates that you have not customized will automatically be updated to use the newest versions.
However, any templates that you have customized will not be altered or overwritten by importing the latest style, hence the need for the following steps.
1 | Firstly, you should visit the Styles & Templates > Find Updated Templates page to find out which (if any) of your customized templates may have updated default versions. |
2 | If you find that some of your customized templates do have updated default versions, you have three choices. You can either
|
This list will often tell you whether or not the changes made to each template were purely cosmetic, in which case you will have no need to perform the steps above for that template, or if the changes require you to revert or manually edit your customized templates to maintain full working order.
vBulletin Template Diff/Merge System |
Whenever you upgrade, we will automatically look for templates that have changed and see if you customized those templates. If you have, we will automatically try to merge the changes in. If this succeeds, you won't have anything else to do (in most cases). If it fails, your customized template won't be updated--like in vBulletin 3--and you'll have to apply the changes yourself. However, that process is improved as well. More on that later.
Roughly, the merging process goes like this:
[*]Find the differences between the old default and the new default. ("old-new")
[*]Find the differences between the old default and your customized version. ("old-custom")
[*]Start walking through the template. If we find a changed spot in old-new but it's not changed in old-custom, use the old-new version. If we find a change in old-custom but not old-new, use the old-custom version. If neither changed, use either. If both changed, that's a conflict and we can't do the merge.
Most of this happens behind the scenes. However, you'll see some changes to the "Find Update Templates" screen:
The "View Highlighted Changes" link will take you to this page:
This lets you view the 3-way merge results visually. The yellow lines indicate areas changed by merging, while the red blocks indicate conflicts. The conflicting areas show you the values in all 3 versions of the template (old, new, customized) to let you choose how to resolve it.
Of course, trying to do the edit from this page would be a challenge, so if you click the "Edit Merged Text" link, you'll be taken to a normal looking template editor:
However, the text that you're editing is slightly different from the norm. Any unchanged or merged areas are as you'd expect, but the output from a conflict is very different. All 3 possible values for a conflict will be shown, so you can resolve it correct. And don't worry, if you try to save it while there's still a conflict, it will warn you.
It should be noted that the automatic merging is pretty conservative. "Adjacent updates" (when a customized version adds a line immediately after a line that was changed) will trigger a conflict. In some cases, it'd be ok for this merge to go through, but there are other situations where things would break if the change were applied. Regardless, the new conflict management system should allow you to resolve the problem more quickly.
Checking for Updated Phrases |
If you have not customized any of your phrases, this need not concern you, but if you have customized some of the default phrases, there are a few steps you will need to follow after you have finished running all the appropriate upgrade scripts.
Note:
When running vBulletin upgrade scripts, one of the final steps imports the newest version of the default phrases.
Any phrases that you have not customized will automatically be updated to use the newest versions.
However, any phrases that you have customized will not be altered or overwritten by importing the latest phrases, hence the need for the following steps.
Any phrases that you have not customized will automatically be updated to use the newest versions.
However, any phrases that you have customized will not be altered or overwritten by importing the latest phrases, hence the need for the following steps.
1 | Firstly, you should visit the Languages & Phrases > Find Updated Phrases page to find out which (if any) of your customized phrases may have updated default versions. |
2 | If you find that some of your customized phrases do have updated default versions, you can either:
|
How to Patch Your Site |
A patch level release contains fixes for only the most critical issues in the previous release. In most cases, these are released to address a security issue. However they can be released for data integrity issues as well.
A patch level is designed to be installed directly over top of your existing installation, with no other action. You do not need to run any upgrade scripts.
How to Upgrade
This is not a full upgrade. You do not need to run any upgrade scripts to complete the upgrade.
Patch: Download a patch file discussed in this thread and upload them to your web server, overwriting the existing files. All patches are available from the Members' Area patch page.
Patch Packages are cumulative so you only need the latest one available for your version. You cannot use a Patch to upgrade your site.
Full Package: Alternatively you can download the full package in the vBulletin Members Area and again upload the affected files mentioned in the release thread.
Note:
Patch Level Releases are only supported for their targeted version. If you are using a previous version, you will need to perform a complete upgrade for full functionality and support. Patch Levels will only be released for the latest version in an active vBulletin series.
The Admin Control Panel |
Logging-in to the Control Panel |
The first thing you will see when you access the Control Panel is a prompt to log in. You will be presented with this login prompt even if you are already logged into the public area of the board. This is an additional level of security.To log in, simply enter the username and password of a user account with administrator privileges, such as the one you created towards the end of the installation script process.
There are a couple of extra options that can be set on the login form. To see them, click the button to expand the form to its full size.The two options you can set from the login form are:
- Style Choice
vBulletin comes with a selection of styles in which you can view the control panel. Try them out and see which one you like best, or if you are feeling adventurous, create your own! - Save Open Groups Automatically
This option allows you to have the system automatically save your preferences for which options in the Admin CP navigation panel are opened and which are collapsed by default, without you having to manually save the preferences.
Note:
If you changed the value of $admincpdir in the config.php file and have renamed the admincp directory, the location at which you access the control panel will have changed accordingly.
Getting Around the Admin Control Panel |
At the top of the page is a narrow strip that contains information about the vBulletin version you are currently running and the latest version available to download. To the right of the strip are links allowing you to click through to the Forum Home Page (the starting point of the public area of the board), and a link allowing you to log out of the control panel.
To the left of the page is the navigation panel. This long, thin area is the key to getting around the Admin CP. When you first visit the Admin CP, you will notice that all the sections of this panel are in a collapsed state. You can click the gadget on each section to expand it and show its contents, and click the gadget again to collapse that section again. Double-clicking a section's title will also toggle its state and either expand or contract it. | |
You can expand and collapse any sections at any time. You are not limited to having just a single group expanded at any one time. When you have a section or sections expanded, hovering your mouse over the included links will highlight that link. You can then click to open the corresponding page in the main panel. You can use the expanding and contracting sections to build a customized control panel layout for yourself. For example, you may find that you regularly use the 'Styles & Templates' tools, but very infrequently use the FAQ manager. | |
When you have established a set of expanded and collapsed sections that suits your way of working, you can save the state of the sections by clicking the [Save Prefs] link. When you reload the Admin CP, you will find that the sections in the left navigation panel will have automatically expanded and collapsed in the manner that they were when you clicked the [Save Prefs] link. You can expand and collapse any section in your administration session, and at any time you can click the [Revert Prefs] link, which will revert the expanded/collapsed state of all the sections to how they were when you saved your preferences. |
An Introduction to the Admin CP Sections |
vBulletin Options | |
The vBulletin Options section contains a number of switches, toggles and other controls that will alter the behavior of your vBulletin system. One of the most important switches located under the vBulletin Options section is the switch to universally turn your vBulletin on and off. |
Styles & Templates | |
Within the Styles & Templates section you will find all the tools you need to control the appearance of your vBulletin installation. From here you will be able to make all necessary changes, from simple color and font style changes in the CSS editor, right through to editing the underlying XHTML of the templates used to construct the user interface. The style and template editing tools will also enable you to create multiple styles, in order to give your visitors the option to choose the style in which they view the user interface. |
Languages & Phrases | |
In vBulletin 3, any language-dependent text is kept separately from the HTML layout code. This enables you the administrator to create (or download) versions of the user interface translated into multiple languages other than US English, making your board truly multinational and language-independent. |
FAQ | |
The vBulletin FAQ manager allows you to create and maintain a dynamic and searchable document resource, which can be used for any purpose you see fit. By default, vBulletin populates the FAQ with various helpful documents to instruct your users in how to use vBulletin, but you can edit these documents or create entirely new content if you wish. |
Announcements | |
If you need to inform your members of some news, or otherwise want to post something important on the board, you have the option to post it as an announcement. Announcements differ from threads in that they can appear in multiple forums simultaneously, and have a time period in which they are visible, then they disappear from view. |
Forums & Moderators | |
The forum and moderator managers are where you create and edit the various forums that make up your board. The tools here allow you to set up your forums, control user access to each forum at a usergroup level and give specific users Moderator permissions, allowing them to act on your behalf to keep the peace and ensure that your visitors behave themselves in their posts. You can also view a summary of all moderators, and of all permission levels for forum access. |
Calendars & Moderators | |
vBulletin includes a powerful calendar system that can act in many ways, from a personal diary for individual board members to a schedule for forthcoming board events. Using the Calendar Manager you can create a number of different calendars, add specific holidays and events, and create Calendar Moderators to oversee the use of each calendar. In the same way as you can set permissions for forums, you can use the Calendar Manager to set permissions at a usergroup level for individual calendars and calendar types. |
Threads & Posts | |
The threads and posts section contains tools that enable you to manage large groups of threads and posts. You can delete (prune) threads, or move them from forum to forum based on search parameters you specify. You can also remove polls from specified threads, find out who voted in otherwise private polls, and remove all thread subscriptions to a specific thread. |
Moderation | |
The Moderation section is where you will find tools for you or your moderators to check on the various moderation queues that exist in vBulletin. For example, if you have chosen to moderate all posts before they are viewable, the 'Moderate Posts' link will show you the Post Moderation List, where you can approve or reject posts that have been made by your members. |
Attachments | |
vBulletin has the ability to allow your visitors to attach files to their messages, uploading the files to your server. The Attachments Manager allows you to search for attached files, view statistics about all the attachments stored on your server, and configure the parameters for what file types you would like to allow to be posted. |
Users | |
The User Manager contains all the tools required for managing individual users of your board. Tools here include the ability to search for users based on information in their user profile, a form to manually add a new user, a system to send an email to selected users or generate a mailing list and set user-specific forum permissions amongst other functions. You can track down trouble-making users by searching on the IP address that is logged when they make a post, then ban a mischievous user from the board. You can then search for other banned users to manage their ban periods or restore their access to the board. |
Usergroups | |
vBulletin organizes permissions for various functions with a usergroup system. By default there are seven usergroups including Administrators, Super Moderators, Moderators, Registered Users and Guests. You can use the Usergroup Manager to edit the various permissions for each group, or even add new usergroups to create a specialized permissions system unique to your own board. Also under the usergroups section, you will find the necessary tools for setting specific usergroup-based permissions for individual forums, and the all-important Administrator Permissions tool, which allows Super Administrators to limit the powers of their co-administrators. |
User Titles | |
The user title manager allows you to set up a 'ladder' of titles that can be applied to users based on the number of posts they have made. For example, when a user registers he may be given the title 'Junior Member', then when that user has made 100 posts he could be granted the user title 'Senior Member'. The numbers of posts required to climb each 'rung' of the ladder, and the actual titles given are entirely up to you. |
User Ranks | |
User Ranks are similar to User Titles in that they allow users to progress through a number of classes depending upon the number of posts they have made. However, User Ranks are more flexible than User Titles because they can (if desired) be applied to specific usergroups, and can contain images and HTML in the titles. |
User Reputations | |
The User Reputation system allows your board members to leave comments about one anothers' posts, and thereby contribute to their overall 'reputation'. Using the User Reputation manager, you can create titles for a variety of reputation levels, so that users are given a reputation title when they reach a certain reputation level. |
User Profile Fields | |
In addition to the default information you have users enter when they register to be members of your board, you can also define additional profile fields to suit your own board subject. Commonly-used custom fields include 'Location', 'Occupation', 'Interests' etc. |
Subscriptions | |
The vBulletin Subscriptions system allows you to charge your visitors for access to specific areas and services that you may offer. In general, this is achieved by temporarily making a subscribed user into a member of one or more specific usergroups, which have access to the site areas or services for which they have paid. |
Avatars | |
Avatars are small pictures that appear next to or underneath your members' names on their posts etc. Using the Avatar Manager, you can pre-define groups of avatars from which your members can choose one as their own avatar. Also under this section is a tool to control the storage of your members' custom avatars (those which they have uploaded themselves). You may choose to store custom avatars in the database, or as files on the server's file system. |
Post Icons | |
When your members post new threads, posts or private messages, you may also allow them to assign an icon to their message for quick visual identification. The Post Icon manager contains all the tools you will need to upload and modify icons for your members to use. |
Smilies | |
Smilies (also called emoticons in some quarters) are small images used to convey some form of emotion in messages. For example, :) is often translated into an image showing a smiling face. The smilie manager allows you to define the smilies that you would like your members to be able to use in their messages, and the text that is replaced with each image. |
Custom BB Codes | |
BB Code (or vB Code) is a method by which your members can format their messages. Its syntax is similar to HTML, but it has the benefit that you (the administrator) can define exactly what codes are allowable in order to prevent unwanted formatting or malicious use. It is also less prone to break the layout of your forums than raw HTML. The Custom BBCode manager allows you to define new bbcode tags in order to extend the range of formatting available to your members. |
Scheduled Tasks | |
The vBulletin Scheduled Task Manager allows you to add tasks that will be executed at specific intervals, much like the Unix Cron system. You will find a number of tasks already set to run at specific times, and you can edit the intervals for those tasks, or add your own if you have something specific you need done. |
Plugin System | |
vBulletin has an extensive plugin system, allowing new features to be added and functionality to be changed by third-party add-ons, without modifying the core vBulletin code. This section allows you to manage code attached to hooks and any additional products you might have installed. |
Statistics & Logs | |
Within this section you will find links enabling you to view various activity logs kept by the vBulletin system, such as access to the Admin CP or the activities of your moderators. You can also use the Statistics section to query various statistics about your board, such as the number of new member registrations over a specific period of time. |
Maintenance | |
This section of the Admin CP contains various tools for maintaining your board. You will find tools for repairing and optimizing the tables in your database, along with various diagnostic tools useful in tracking down problems you may experience in the running of your board. |
Settings |
Options |
Turn Your vBulletin On and Off |
Only users in the Administrator usergroup will be able to browse the site, visitors will be presented with a closed message which you can set in this setting group.
- Forum Active
From time to time, you may want to turn your forum off to the public while you perform maintenance, update versions, etc.
Selecting 'Yes' will set the forum Active.
Selecting 'No' will set the forum Inactive (turns it off for the public).
When the forum is set Inactive users in the Administrator usergroup will be able to browse the forum. They will see a notice displayed in the header and footer of each page stating that the forum is closed. Visitors who browse any page on the forum will receive a message that states that the forum is temporarily unavailable. You could set a custom message.
Do not forget to set the forum active again when you are done with your maintenance. - Reason For Turning Forum Off
When you have set your forum to inactive, this is the message that a visitor will receive when they browse any page on the forum.Note:This field expects the use of HTML code.
You can not use BBCode here.
Site Name / URL / Contact Details |
After a fresh installation or upgrade, server or site move it is advised to walk through these site details setting group to ensure they are up to date.
- Forum Name - Name of your forum. This appears in the title of every page.
- Forum URL - URL of your forum.
Note: do not add a trailing slash. ("/") - Homepage Name - Name of your homepage. This appears at the bottom of every page.
- Always use Forum URL as Base Path
If this is set to 'Yes' the Forum URL will always be used for links instead of the current URL. This ensures that links are consistent but may not be desirable if you use multiple domains or a mix of http and https. - Show Forum Link in Menu
If this is set to 'Yes' a link to the Forum will be displayed in the navigation menu on every page. - Homepage URL -URL of your home page. This appears at the bottom of every page.
- Contact Us Link - Link for contacting the site admin. To use the built-in email form, specify sendmessage.php otherwise use something such as 'mailto:[email protected]' or your own custom form. This appears at the bottom of every page.
- Allow Unregistered Users to use 'Contact Us' - The last option only applies if you specify 'sendmessage.php' in the previous option. You may require guests to pass Human Verification in order to use this form by enabling the option found in the Human Verification Options.
- Contact Us Options - You may pre-define subjects (and corresponding recipients) for users to pick from when using the default Contact Us form listed above. Please place one subject per line. An 'Other' option will be automatically added to the end when the form is viewed. For more information on how to set this up, view the inline help within the Admin Control Panel
- Webmaster's Email - Email address of the webmaster. This can be different than the technical contact listed in the includes/config.php. This is the person who will receive all emails from vBulletin itself except for database errors.
- Privacy Statement URL - Enter the URL of your privacy statement, if you have one.
For more information on Privacy Policies check out http://www.truste.org. - Copyright Text - Copyright text to insert in the footer of the page.
- Company Name - The name of your company. This is required for COPPA compliance.
- Company Fax - Fax number for your company. COPPA forms will be faxed to this number.
You may wish to check out http://www.efax.com. - Company Address - Address of your company. COPPA forms will be posted to this address.
Content Management |
Here you can set the values for the content management portion of your site. Please note that this section will only appear if you have the Publishing Suite installed.
- CMS URL
Optional URL for your CMS.
If this is specified it will override the Forum URL setting for CMS pages. You may specify an absolute URL or a URL relative to your Forum URL
Examples:
http://www.example.com
http://www.example.com/cms
../Note:This may be specified to change the base URL for all CMS links. This is useful if you run the CMS from a location that differs from your Forum URL.
You may specify an absolute URL such as http://www.example.com/, or a URL relative to your Forum URL. If your forum is in /forum and your CMS is at the root of your webserver then you may use ../. If you use an absolute URL the option Always use Forum URL as Base Path will have no effect for CMS pages, and the CMS url specified will always be used. If you wish to run your CMS from a location other than your Forum URL then you must ensure that the appropriate entry scripts have been set up.
Create the following files. Be sure to replace 'your_forum_path' with the actual path to your vBulletin installation. For example, if your CMS will be at http://www.example.com/ and your forums at http://www.example.com/forums/, then replace 'your_forum_path' with 'forums'.
content.phpeditor.php<?php define(VB_RELATIVE_PATH, 'your_forum_path'); chdir('./' . VB_RELATIVE_PATH); require('content.php');
list.php<?php define(VB_RELATIVE_PATH, 'your_forum_path'); chdir('./' . VB_RELATIVE_PATH); require('editor.php');
widget.php<?php define(VB_RELATIVE_PATH, 'your_forum_path'); chdir('./' . VB_RELATIVE_PATH); require('list.php');
index.php PLEASE NOTE: The index.php file uses require('content.php'), not require('index.php')<?php define(VB_RELATIVE_PATH, 'your_forum_path'); chdir('./' . VB_RELATIVE_PATH); require('widget.php');
<?php define(VB_RELATIVE_PATH, 'your_forum_path'); chdir('./' . VB_RELATIVE_PATH); require('content.php');
- Default Page
If a user visits your CMS site without specifying a page, they will view this page. It should consist of the page number, dash, then the seo url you assigned that page. For example: '1-home-page'. An incorrect value here can prevent CMS from functioning. - CMS Name
Name of your CMS. This appears in the title of every CMS page. - Site Tab URL
The URL used by the CMS Tab in the main navigation menu. - Associated Forum for Comments
The forum to use for CMS item comment threads. Note, if you change this value to a different Forum then you will need to manually move any existing threads to the new forum.
General Settings |
This ranges from meta tags to the use of forumjump, enabling access masks to the display of IM icons.
- Meta Keywords
Enter the meta keywords for all pages. These are used by search engines to index your pages with more relevance.
Meta Keywords are used by some search engines to determine what your pages are about and to rank them. Other search engines such as Google do not take keywords into account.
All keywords you enter here will be put in the keywords meta tag in the header of every page. Separate keywords or phrases with a single comma and no space.
Example: vbulletin,forum,bbs,discussion,jelsoft,bulletin board
- Meta Description
Enter the meta description for all pages. This is used by search engines to index your pages more relevantly.
The Meta Description is used by some search engines to determine what your pages are about and to rank them. Other search engines such as Google do not take the description into account.
Enter a short description of your site here and it will be placed in the meta description tag in the header of every page. Most engines will accept a maximum of 255 characters for the description.
Example: This is a discussion forum powered by vBulletin. To find out about vBulletin, go to http://www.vbulletin.com/ .
- Use Forum Jump Menu
The Forum Jump menu appears by default on most pages and provides a quick jump to any of the forums on your forum as well as several other places (search, private messaging, etc.). While it can have a marginal impact on performance, typically you will only want to disable this if you have an extremely large number of forums as it will generate a large amount of HTML in that case, which will increase the size of pages and bandwidth usage.
Set this option to 'no' if you want to turn it off.
- Number of Pages Visible in Page Navigator
On thread and forum pages, as well as private messaging lists and other places, if there are multiple page number links to be displayed, this setting determines how many are shown on either side of the page currently being viewed. Setting this to 0 will cause all page links to be displayed.
Example: 3
- Enable Access Masks
Access masks allow you to enable or disable access to a particular forum for individual user(s). To use them, you must enable this option. This option also affects whether or not users will be able to see forums they do not have access to on forumhome and forumdisplay. (If this is off, they will see them in forum listings but not be able to enter them. If this is on, they will not see them at all.)
Set this option to 'no' if you want to turn it off.
- Show Instant Messaging Program Icons
Setting this option to yes will show the images for ICQ, AIM, MSN, and Yahoo! Messenger if the user has entered the correct information in his/her profile. These links are shown in various places through out the forum, on posts, who's online, memberlist, profile, etc. When set to no the information will be displayed in their profile in the form of text.
- Add Template Name in HTML Comments
Setting this to 'yes' will add the template name at the beginning and end of every template rendered on any page. This is useful for debugging and analyzing the HTML code, but turn it off to save bandwidth when running in a production environment.
When modifying templates, it is often helpful to have this setting enabled so you can view the source of a page to determine what template(s) control it. In the course of normal usage, however, you will usually want this disabled as it will increase your page sizes and therefore bandwidth usage.
Facebook Options |
- Enable Facebook Platform
Enabling this option will allow users to connect their vBulletin account with their Facebook account. This will also populate your site with Open Graph meta data. Note: users must have Javascript enabled for this feature to work. - Facebook Application ID
Enter the Application ID for your Application (see the Facebook Developer page for more information). - Facebook Secret
Enter the Facebook Secret for your Application (see the Facebook Developer page for more information). - Facebook Usergroup
If you want, you may specify a secondary usergroup for Facebook users. Note: All users who connect with facebook from this point on will be members of this usergroup. This will not be applied retroactively to users who have previously connected to facebook. - Enable Auto-Register
Enabling this option will allow user to skip the registration form, and register through a simplified two-click process. Note: Using this feature will disable Forum Rules Agreement, Coppa registration, email verification, as well as any custom required fields from the registration form. - Image URL
Specify a URL for an image that you want to represent your site. This image will appear next to published content in a user's newsfeed, as well as be used to represent your site in the Open Graph schema. Leave this blank if you do not want to have an image. - Publish to Facebook - New Thread
Enabling this feature will allow users to publish a notification to their Facebook wall when they start a new thread. - Publish to Facebook - Post Reply
Enabling this feature will allow users to publish a notification to their Facebook wall when they reply to a thread. - Publish to Facebook - Blog Entry
Enabling this feature will allow users to publish a notification to their Facebook wall when they post a new blog entry. - Publish to Facebook - Blog Comment
Enabling this feature will allow users to publish a notification to their Facebook wall when they comment on a blog post. - Publish to Facebook - New Article
Enabling this feature will allow users to publish a notification to their Facebook wall when they publish a CMS article. - Publish to Facebook - Article Comment
Enabling this feature will allow users to publish a notification to their Facebook wall when they comment on a CMS article. - Like Button - Threads
Enabling this option will make a "Like" button appear on all threads. Users will then be able to "Like" individual threads. Note: users do not have to have Facebook linked accounts to use this feature. - Like Button - Blog Entries
Enabling this option will make a "Like" button appear on all blog entries. Users will then be able to "Like" individual blog posts. Note: users do not have to have Facebook linked accounts to use this feature. - Like Button - CMS Articles
Enabling this option will make a "Like" button appear on all CMS Articles. Users will then be able to "Like" individual CMS Articles. Note: users do not have to have Facebook linked accounts to use this feature.
Enabling Facebook |
1. Goto: http://developers.facebook.com/apps, and login
2. Click “Create New App” (top-right)
3. Enter an appropriate App Name, click “Continue”
4. Do their Security Check, click “Submit”
5. On the page that comes up, click “Web Site” from the list on the bottom
6. In the “Site URL” input, enter the URL of the forum root for your vB installation. This should be exactly the same as your Forum URL setting in the Admin CP.
7. Click “Save Changes”
8. Make a note of the “Application ID,” and “Application Secret,” we will need these later.
Enable Facebook Connect on your vB installation
1. Goto your vB site, and login to the admincp
2. Goto “Settings”->”Options”->”Facebook Options” and click “Edit Settings"
3. Check “Yes” for “Enable Facebook Connect”
4. Enter “Application ID” and “Facebook Secret” from the Facebook Developer page
5. Click “Save”
6. Facebook should now be enabled and working
Image Settings |
- Allow Image Size Checking Failure
On some servers, calls to getimagesize() to check image dimensions may fail for currently unknown reasons. If you are affected by this, you will want to set this option to 'Yes', otherwise you will not be able to upload images (avatars or attachments). However, users may be able to get around your image dimension limits! - Image Processing Library
vBulletin provides two options for manipulating attachment thumbnails, custom avatars, and profile pictures.
The first is GD, which is bundled with PHP 4.3.0 and later and often available with earlier releases. The GD v2+ library is preferable to the v1+ library so always choose v2 if you're given the opportunity by your host. GD supports the following file types: GIF, JPEG, and PNG.The second supported library is ImageMagick v6 by ImageMagick Studio LLC. ImageMagick is an executable binary that must be installed at the server level to be called by PHP. Only the identify and convert binaries from ImageMagick are required by vBulletin. ImageMagick supports the following file types: GIF, JPEG, PNG, BMP, TIFF, and PSD. ImageMagick also has better support for handling animated GIF.Note:The GD Libraries may have to be manually activated when using PHP installed on Windows.
- Image Verification Library
This is similar to the option above but it chooses the Image Manipulation Library for inline image verification. These verification images can be enabled for registration and the Contact Us forms. ImageMagick requires a valid font to be listed in the option below.
- GD Version
Version of GD installed on your server. You can find the version by searching for 'GD' on your phpinfo() output.
- GD Font
You can specify a true type font for the GD image verification to use. Use the full path to the file if you have problems, including the .ttf extension.
- ImageMagick Binary Path
Path to the ImageMagick 6 binaries (convert and identify). Example:
Unix: /usr/local/bin/
Windows: C:\imagemagick\
- ImageMagick Font
This shows a list of fonts that were identified on your system. . Please choose one font for usage by the Image Verification system. If no fonts are listed, then a list of fonts could not be obtained. Please verify your ImageMagick path in this event.
Note: Not all listed fonts may work so keep choosing a font until you find one you like. ImageMagick must have freetype support compiled in.
- Generate PNG Thumbnails
On some installations, the creation of PNG thumbnails (with GD) will fail due to incompatible libraries.
This only applies if GD is your chosen image library.
Human Verification Options |
- Verify at Registration
New users will be required to pass the Human Verification test during registration. - Verify Guest Posts
Guest posters will be required to pass the Human Verification test before their messages are posted. - Verify Guest Searches
Searches by guests will be required to pass the Human Verification test before searching is executed. - Verify Guest Contact Us
Guests will be required to pass the Human Verification test before leaving feedback. This only applies if sendmessage.php is being used as the Contact Us Link and Guests are allowed to use Contact Us in Site Name / URL / Contact Details
Date and Time Options |
- Datestamp Display Option
This option controls the display of dates throughout your forum
'Normal' uses the date and time formats below this option.
'Yesterday / Today' will show 'Yesterday' and 'Today' for dates that fall in those periods.
'Detailed' will show times such as '1 Minute Ago', '1 Hour Ago', '1 Day Ago', and '1 Week Ago'.
- Default Time Zone Offset
Time zone offset for guests and new users. Do not take DST into consideration, rather use the next option to enable/disable DST.
- Enable Daylight Savings
If Daylight Savings Time is currently in effect for the above time zone, enable this option so that guests will see the correct times on posts and events. This has no effect on registered users as they control their DST options in the User CP. This setting is not automatic and it will need to be changed when the timezone changes twice a year.
- Format For Date
Format in which the date is presented on vBulletin pages.
Examples:
US Format (e.g., 04-25-98): m-d-y
Expanded US Format (e.g., April 25th, 1998): F jS, Y
European Format (e.g., 25-04-98): d-m-y
Expanded European Format (e.g., 25th April 1998): jS F Y
- Format For Time
Format in which the time is presented on all vBulletin pages.
Examples:
AM/PM Time Format (eg, 11:15 PM): h:i A
24-Hour Format Time (eg, 23:15): H:i
- Format For Registration Date
This is used to format dates shown with users' posts. In the left hand column of a topic display, under the username and title, there is some text showing when the user registered.
- Format For Birthdays with Year Specified
Format of date shown in profile when user gives their birth-year.
- Format For Birthdays with Year Unspecified
Format of user's birthday shown on profile when the user does not specify their birth-year. DO NOT put in a code for the year.
- Log Date Format
Format of dates shown in Control Panel logs.
Note:
Date and Time formats follow PHP formatting rules. You can find out more about these rules by visiting the PHP manual.
For information on date and time formats in PHP please visit the following page: http://www.php.net/manual-lookup.php?function=date
For information on date and time formats in PHP please visit the following page: http://www.php.net/manual-lookup.php?function=date
Cookie and HTTP Header Options |
- Time-Out for Cookie
This is the time in seconds that a user must remain inactive before any unread posts are marked read. This setting also controls how long a user will remain on Who's Online after their last activity.
- Path to Save Cookies
The path to which the cookie is saved. If you run more than one forum on the same domain, it will be necessary to set this to the individual directories of the forums. Otherwise, just leave it as / .
Please note that your path should always end in a forward-slash; for example '/forums/', '/vbulletin/' etc.Warning:Entering an invalid setting can leave you unable to login to your forum. Only change this setting if you absolutely need to do so. - Cookie Domain
This option sets the domain on which the cookie is active. The most common reason to change this setting is that you have two different urls to your forum, i.e. example.com and forums.example.com. To allow users to stay logged into the forum if they visit via either url, you would set this to .example.com (note the domain begins with a dot.Warning:You most likely want to leave this setting blank as entering an invalid setting can leave you unable to login to your forum. - GZIP HTML Output
Selecting yes will enable vBulletin to GZIP compress the HTML output of pages, thus reducing bandwidth requirements. This will be only used on clients that support it, and are HTTP 1.1 compliant. There will be a small performance overhead.If you are already using mod_gzip on your server, do not enable this option.Note:This feature requires the ZLIB library.
- GZIP Compression Level
Set the level of GZIP compression that will take place on the output. 0=none; 9=max.
We strongly recommend that you use level 1 for optimum results.
- Add Standard HTTP Headers
This option does not work with some combinations of web server, so is off by default. However, some IIS setups may need it turned on.
It will send the 200 OK HTTP headers if turned on.
- Add No-Cache HTTP Headers
Selecting yes will cause vBulletin to add no-cache HTTP headers. These are very effective, so adding them may cause server load to increase due to an increase in page requests.
- Remove Redirection Message Pages
Enabling this option will remove the update pages that are displayed after a user makes a post, starts a search, etc. These pages provide assurance to the user that their information has been processed by the forum. Disabling these pages will save you bandwidth and may lessen the load of the forum on your server.Note:Some pages will still use the redirection page when cookies are involved to prevent some potential problems.
Server Settings and Optimization Options |
- Public phpinfo() Display Enabled
If you enable this option, anyone can view your phpinfo() page by adding &do=phpinfo to a forum URL. vBulletin Support may ask you to temporarily enable this to help diagnose problems if you request technical support. Otherwise, we recommend turning it off.
- Cached Posts Lifespan
Posts are normally stored with bbcode tags etc. in the same form as the user posted them with so that it may be edited later, and then parsed at display time. By caching them, they are parsed at post time (instead of display time) into the HTML they will be displayed in and stored separately from the pre-parsed posts. This results in a faster display on topics, since the posts do not have to be parsed at display time.
This option determines how long posts are stored. While a post is cached, it will take approximately twice as much storage space since it is essentially being stored twice. If you have a busy site, and topics typically don't last very long, you can probably set this to a lower value such as 10 days. If you have a slower site, and topics typically last longer, 20 to 30 days might be a better choice. If you have the disc space, you can set this to a higher value for better performance.
- Update Thread Views Immediately
If you enable this option, the thread view counter for a thread will be updated in realtime as threads are viewed. Otherwise, they will be stored and updated every hour (by default) en masse. We recommend disabling this option for larger or busier forums as updating them in realtime can have a performance impact.
- Update Attachment Views Immediately
If you enable this option, the attachment view counter for an attachment will be updated in realtime as attachments are viewed. Otherwise, they will be stored and updated every hour (by default) en masse. We recommend disabling this option for larger or busier forums as updating them in realtime can have a performance impact.
- Simultaneous Sessions Limit
Set this to the maximum number of simultaneous sessions that you want to be active at any one time. If this number is exceeded, new users are turned away until the server is less busy.
Set this to 0 to disable this option.
- *NIX Server Load Limit
vBulletin can read the overall load of the server on certain *NIX setups (including Linux).
This allows vBulletin to determine the load on the server and processor, and to turn away further users if the load becomes too high. If you do not want to use this option, set it to 0. A typical level would be 5.00 for a reasonable warning level.
- Safe Mode Upload Enabled
If your server has Safe Mode enabled, you should set this to Yes. You can determine if Safe Mode is enabled by viewing your phpinfo page and searching for Safe Mode.
- Safe Mode Temporary Directory
If your server is running in PHP Safe Mode, you'll need to specify a directory that is CHMOD to 777 that will act as a temporary directory for uploads. All files are removed from this directory after database insertion.Note:Do NOT include the trailing slash ('/') after the directory name. - Duplicate Search Index Information on Topic Copy?
It is not strictly necessary to index a copied topic since the original topic is already indexed. However, you may wish to index copied topics for the sake of completeness. Setting this option to yes will cause search index information to be copied with each post in the topic. This allows the copied version of the topic to be searchable as well. However, on larger boards, this may cause significant delays in copying a topic. If this is a problem for you, we recommend disabling this option.
Friendly URLS |
URL Type
Type | Example |
Standard URLs | showthread.php?t=12345 |
Basic Friendly URLs | showthread.php?1234-Thread-Title |
Advanced Friendly URLs | showthread.php/1234-Thread-Title |
Mod Rewrite Friendly URLs | threads/1234-Thread-Title |
Note:
Note: In order to use the Mod Rewrite Friendly URLs the appropriate rewrite rules must be defined for your server. You can find a basic .htaccess file containing these rules for an Apache 2.X server in htaccess sub-folder within the the Do Not Upload folder of your download package. Upload this file to your forum root.
Enforce Canonical URL
This options defines how canonical URLs are enforced for guest users (including search engines).
If Standard is selected then guest users will be redirected to the correct URL if they request a page using the wrong Friendly URL format.
If Strict is selected then guest users will also be redirected to the correct URL if they request a page using the wrong text. This may also include requesting URLs in the wrong character set.
Default Value: Standard
Enforce Canonical URL for Registered Users
Setting this value to 'Yes' will set the 'Enforce Canonical URL' setting to also apply to registered users. Default Value: Yes
Friendly URL Unicode
This option determines how to handle unicode in URLs.
If your content generally differs from your language charset then converting to UTF-8 may provide the best results while ignoring unicode may result in the majority of your URLs displaying incorrectly.
If the majority of your content matches your language charset then stripping unicode may provide the best results. Ignoring unicode may cause some URLs to display incorrectly.
Default Value: Ignore
NCR Encode UTF-8 URLs for IE
This option determines whether to NCR encode URLs for Internet Explorer when Friendly URL Unicode is set to Convert to UTF-8.
This will ensure that UTF-8 URLs display correctly in Internet Explorer. However it will add some performance overhead and if Enforce Canonical URL is set to Strict may cause guest users to be redirected to a URL that cannot be displayed correctly in Internet Explorer's address bar.
Note: This option can only be used if the mbstring extension is enabled, or if your PCRE has unicode support.
Default Value: No
Standard URL Routing Variable
The variable to use in the URL when using Standard URLs. Ensure that this is not set to a variable used elsewhere by vBulletin. Default Value: r
Style and Language Settings |
Here you can setup the behaviors for the CSS file (store as file), Popup menus (hide or show) and postbit (new or legacy).
Email Options |
Here you can setup:
- Enable and Disable your Email Features as a global switch
- Allow users to Email other Members
- How Email addresses are displayed (public or private)
- Email Flood Control
Sending email via SMTP |
The SMTP server options can be edited via the Email Options in the vBulletin Options, this will be enabled via the SMTP Email switch and then the appropriate settings must be completed.It should be noted that the majority of servers do not require a username and password to send SMTP as they are limited by IP address. Also the use of your ISP email is not recommended as this is usually limited to the network of the ISP and will result in a failure to send email.
Censorship Options |
All message titles and messages will be affected.
Note:
To use the censor feature on your site, don't forget to activate it!
User Registration Options |
Settings > Options > User Registration Options
- Allow New User Registrations - If you would like to temporarily (or permanently) prevent anyone new from registering, you can do so. Anyone attempting to register will be told that you are not accepting new registrations at this time.
- Use COPPA Registration System - Use the COPPA registration system. This complies with the COPPA laws and requires children under the age of 13 to get parental consent before they can post.
For more info about this law, see here: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/coppa.htm - COPPA Registration System Cookie Check - This option will save a cookie onto the user's computer if an age under 13 is entered. Subsequent registration attempts will be failed, no matter what age is entered. This only applies if the previous option is set to either Enable COPPA or Deny registration for users under 13 years.
- Moderate New Members - Allows you to validate new members before they are classified as registered members and are allowed to post.
- Send Welcome Email - Enabling this option will send a welcome email to new users using the email body/subject phrases for 'welcomemail'.
Note: If you require emails to be verified, this email will be sent after the user has activated his or her account. If you moderate new memberships, no welcome mail will be sent as the user will already be receiving an email. - Welcome Private Message - Enabling this option will send a welcome private message to new users. Please input the username of the user that this PM is to be sent from. To alter or translate this message, use the email body/subject phrases for 'welcomepm'.
Note: If you require emails to be verified, this message will be sent after the user has activated his or her account. Also ensure that Receive Private Messages is enabled in the Default Registration Options. - Email Address to Notify About New Members - This email address will receive an email message when a new user signs up. Leave the option blank to disable this function.
- Allow Multiple Registrations Per User - Normally, vBulletin will stop users signing up for multiple names by checking for a cookie on the user's machine. If one exists, then the user may not sign up for additional names. Note: This does not stop users from logging out and then registering new accounts.
If you wish to allow your users to sign up for multiple names, then select yes for this option, and they will not be blocked from registering additional usernames. - Verify Email address in Registration - If you set this option to 'Yes' new members will not be allowed to post messages until they visit a link that is sent to them in an email when they sign up.
If a user's account is not activated by the user visiting the link, it will remain in the 'Users Awaiting Activation' usergroup. - Require Unique Email Addresses - The default option is to require unique email addresses for each registered user. This means that no two users can have the same email address. You can disable this requirement by setting this option to 'No'.
- Minimum Username Length - Enter the minimum number of characters in a valid username, for the purpose of ensuring that new members create valid usernames.
- Maximum Username Length -
Enter the maximum number of characters in a valid username, for the purpose of ensuring that new members create valid usernames. - Illegal User Names - Enter names in here that you do not want people to be able to register. If any of the names here are included within the username, the user will told that there is an error. For example, if you make the name John illegal, the name Johnathan will also be disallowed. Separate names by spaces.
- Username Regular Expression - You may require the username to match a regular expression (PCRE). The admin help provides some examples that may be useful. To disable this function leave the option blank.
- User Referrer - If you enable the User Referrer system, then a user who visits your forum through a link that contains 'referrerid=XXX' will give referral credit to the owner of the referrerid when they register (where XXX is the userid of the referring user).
- Default Registration Options - The user options on the New User creation form in the Admin Control Panel, as well as the New User registration form will default to the following settings.
You can control the following settings:
Receive Admin Emails
Invisible Mode
Display Email
Receive Private Messages
Send Notification Email When a Private Message is Received
Pop up a Notification Box When a Private Message is Received
Enable Visitor Messaging
Limit usage of Visitor Messages to Contacts and Moderators
Allow vCard Download
Display Signatures
Display Avatars
Display Images
Display Reputation
Automatic Thread Subscription Mode
Message Editor Interface
Thread Display Mode
Require Birthday - Username Reuse Delay - When a username is changed, you may wish to prevent users from registering with that name for a certain length of time. Use this setting to determine the time before a deleted or previous username can be reused, or set it to 0 to disable this function.
User Refractions & Post Reporting Options |
- User Infraction Discussion Forum
A discussion thread can be created for each user infraction for moderators to discuss the infraction further. Choose a forum for the discussion threads to be created in.
If you do not wish a discussion thread to be created for user infractions, set this to Select Forum - Require Infraction Message
This option requires that the user sending an infraction include a PM or Email, depending on your forum settings. - Post Reporting Discussion Forum
A discussion thread can be created for each reported post for moderators to discuss the post further. Choose a forum for the discussion threads to be created in.If you do not wish a discussion thread to be created for reported items, set this to Select ForumNote:Reported Visitor Messages, Social Group Messages and Album Pictures & Messages also are posted in the forum set here. - Post Reporting User
Reported post discussion threads default to being posted under the username of the reporter. To have the threads reported under another username, enter an existing username. - Post Reporting Email
This option sends an email to the specified users when a post is reported. It can be sent to moderators, super moderators and administrators, moderators only, or no email sent.Note:If the Post Reporting Email is set to No Email and the Post Reporting Discussion Forum is set to Select Forum then no notifications of any kind will be issued for reported items.
User Profile Options |
Settings > Options > User Profile Options
Enabled User Profile Features
Use this option to globally enable or disable the various user profile-related features. Additional options are available for each feature in their respective sections.
Require Date of Birth
Require users to provide a valid date of birth (1902 to current year).
[note]When this is set to Yes users cannot edit their date of birth once it has been set.
User Title Maximum Characters
This is the maximum number of characters allowed for a user's custom title.
Censored Words for Usertitle
Type all words you want censored in the Usertitle in the field below. Do not use commas to separate words, just use spaces. For example, type "dog cat boy", rather than "dog, cat, boy."
If you type "dog", all words containing the string "dog" would be censored (dogma, for instance, would appear as "***ma"). To censor more accurately, you can require that censors occur only for exact words. You can do this by placing a censor word in curly braces, as in {dog}. Signifying "dog" in the curly braces would mean that dogma would appear as dogma, but dog would appear as "***". Thus your censor list may appear as: cat {dog} {barn} barn
Do not use quotation marks and make sure you use curly braces, not parentheses, when specifying exact words.
Exempt Moderators From Censor
Do you want to exempt your forum Moderators from the censor words? You will want to set this to yes if you censor anything that is part of a moderator's title like 'moderator' as they have custom titles by default and will get censored.
Number of friends to display in the small friends block
The Number of Friends to display in the Small Friends Block on the Users' Profile Pages
Friends Per Page on Full Friends List[b]
The Amount of Friends to show "per page" on the large friends list.
[b]Maximum Visitors to Show on Profile Page
Set an upper limit for the number of recent visitors to show. Recent visitor records are cleaned out on a regular basis, so keep this to a reasonably small number. Somewhere between 5 to 30 is ideal.
Show Last Post on Profile Page
Showing the last post on a member profile can cause large table scans which leads to table locking. This may increase load time on your forums as well as the load of your server. This option should only be enabled for smaller forums.
Signature Soft-Linebreak Character Limit
When counting the number of lines in a signature, this setting controls the number of characters that can be displayed before text wraps in the browser and is displayed as multiple lines. Once this value is surpassed, the run of text will be counted as multiple lines.
The value in this setting should be based on the number of normal-sized characters. Other sized characters will be scaled appropriately to this setting.
Allow Users to 'Ignore' Moderators
Allow users to add Moderators and Administrators to their ignore list?
User Profile: Album Options |
Settings > Options > User Profile: Album Options
Albums Per Page
When listing multiple albums on one page, this controls how many will be displayed before pagination occurs.
Number of Albums to display in the Users Profile
The Maximum Number of Albums to Display on the Users' Profile Pages
Pictures Per Page
When viewing an album, this controls how many pictures are displayed before pagination occurs.
Picture Moderation
When enabled, all new pictures are placed into moderation. This can also be enabled in usergroup permissions.
Album Thumbnail Size
The maximum height and width of thumbnails in the album system. Each picture's aspect ratio will be maintained when it is thumbnailed.
Caption Preview Length
The amount of characters from a picture's caption that will be shown when a user hovers over the picture.
Number of Pictures that can be Uploaded Simultaneously
This controls the number of pictures users can upload simultaneously. They will not be able to violate any album- or usergroup-implied size limits if you set this value too large.
Maximum Pictures per Album
You may choose to limit the number of pictures that a user can have in one album. This is primarily useful for encouraging your users to have albums for smaller topics, but it does have minor performance considerations as well. Setting this to 0 disables the limit.
Enable Picture Comments
Set this option to yes if you would like to enable commenting on album and group pictures. Comments are associated with the picture itself, so comments will be shown anywhere the picture is shown.
Moderate Picture Comments
When enabled, all new picture comments are placed into moderation. This can also be enabled in usergroup permissions.
Default Picture Comments Per-Page
This setting allows you to define the default number of picture comments displayed per-page with a picture.
Maximum Picture Comments Per-Page
This setting allows you to limit the number of picture comments users may display per page with a picture.
Allowed BB Code Tags in Picture Comments
This setting allows you to enable and disable the use of various BB codes in picture comments.
User Profile: Style Customization Options |
Settings > Options > User Profile: Style Customization Options
Allowed Fonts
The list of allowed fonts for profile style customizations. Each font must be on its own line.
Allowed Font Sizes
The list of allowed fonts size for profile style customizations. Put each font size on its own line. You may use any size that is valid in CSS.
Allowed Border Widths
The list of allowed border width sizes for profile style customizations. Put each border width size on its own line.
Allowed Padding
The list of allowed padding sizes for profile style customizations. Put each padding size on its own line.
User Profile: Visitor Messaging Options |
Settings > Options > User Profile: Visitor Messaging Options
Maximum Characters Per Visitor Message
Maximum characters to allow in a visitor message. Set this to 0 for no limit.
Default Visitor Messages Per-Page
This setting allows you to define the default number of messages displayed per-page in the user profiles.
Maximum Visitor Messages Per-Page
This setting allows you to limit the number of messages users may display per page in the user profiles.
Visitor Message Moderation
When enabled, all new visitor messages are placed into moderation. This can also be enabled in usergroup permissions.
Allowed BB Code Tags in Visitor Messages
This setting allows you to enable and disable the use of various BB codes in visitor messages.
Social Group Options |
Settings > Options > Social Group Options
Social Group Name Maximum Length
Enter the maximum number of characters allowed in social group names. Names longer than this limit will be rejected.
Social Group Message Moderation
When enabled, all new group messages are placed into moderation. This can also be enabled in usergroup permissions.
Enable Social Group Messages
If you select this options, members of each group will be able to post messages in the group. Users who are not part of the group will still be able to read the messages.
Allow Groups Owners to Force New Group Messages into Moderation Queue
This option allows a group owner (with the Manage Own Social Groups' Content Permission) to set the group so that all Group Messages are automatically sent to the moderation queue.
Enable Social Group Pictures
If this option is selected, any users with albums will be able to add pictures from an album to groups they belong to.
Allow Join-to-View Groups
When set, this allows the creator of a group the option to only show contents (messages, pictures) of the group to members of that group (or Administrators and Moderators).
Allowed BB Code Tags in Social Group Messages
This setting allows you to enable and disable the use of various BB codes in group messages.
Allow Owners to Delete Social Group if Empty
This option will allow any group owner to delete a Social Group if they are the only member of that group (even if they lack the "Can Delete Own Social Groups" permission)
User Picture Options |
Note:
This is the section for the global switch, use the usergroup permissions to setup the permissions on a usergroup basis.
- Avatars Enabled
Use this option to enable/disable the overall use of avatars.
Avatars are small images chosen by the user and displayed under usernames in thread display and user info pages.
You can enable/disable avatars on a per-usergroup level by disabling their ability to use any avatar categories under Avatars > Avatar Manager. You can enable/disable custom avatars in Usergroups > Usergroup Manager.
Set this option to 'no' to turn it off.
- Avatar Display Width
How many columns of avatars do you wish to display of pre-defined avatars in the User Control Panel to the user when selecting a pre-defined avatar?
Example: 5
- Avatars Per-Page
How many avatars do you want to display per-page on the 'Edit Avatar' page within the profile editor, broken into columns by the Avatar Display Width setting above?
Example: 10
- Profile Pictures Enabled
Use this option to enable/disable the overall use of profile pictures.
Profile pictures are small images (although usually larger than avatars) that users can upload to their profile pages. You can set this per-usergroup with the Can Upload Profile Pictures setting in Usergroup Manager.
Set this option to 'no' to turn it off.
Note:
To manage your pre-defined avatars, or to control the storage of avatars, go to the Avatars section.
User Reputation Options |
- Enable User Reputation system
This is the global switch for the reputation system. If you disable this, users will not be able to rate each other nor will their scores be visible. - Default Reputation
This is the reputation score that new users will start out with. - Number of Reputation Levels to Display
When a user enters their User CP, they will see a list of their most recent reputation ratings. This affects how many of the latest ratings to display. - Administrator's Reputation Power
If you wish to have administrator's wield a certain reputation power independent of their calculated score, enter it here. Otherwise, set this to 0 and they will use the same calculations as everyone else. - Register Date Factor
The number of reputation points that a user is able to give or take is dependant on several factors, with the length they have been registered as one of them. A user's power is first initialized at 1 and then this factor and the factors that follow are used to increase it. For example if you set this to 365, every 365 days that the user has been a member of your forum, they would gain one point. So if they have been a member for five years, they would gain 5 points of power for a total of 6. - Post Count Factor
The amount of posts that a user has can also affect their reputation power. Set this to number of posts that you want to award one point for. For example, set this to 50 and for a user with 500 posts, they would gain 10 points of power. - Reputation Point Factor
The users current reputation score can also affect their reputation power. Set this to 100 and a user with a reputation of 1000 would gain 10 points of reputation power. If you set any of the power factors to 0, that will effectively remove that factor from having an effect on the user's reputation power. - Minimum Post Count
If the reputation system is enabled, anyone will be able to rate a post but only users with a post count above the level you set here will be able to actually give points or take points from another user. - Minimum Reputation Count
As with the post count above, a user must have a reputation above this level to be able to give or take points from another user's score. - Daily Reputation Clicks Limit
This sets how many unique members that a forum user will be able to rate in any 24 hour period. Administrators can rate as many people as they wish. - Reputation User Spread
This setting dictates how many unique members that a user must rate before they are able to rate the same member twice. The goal of this setting is to stop a member from either artificially bumping or dropping a user by repeatedly rating their posts.
User Notes Options |
The Settings > Options > User Notes Options setting group allows you to set up the parsing for a usernote. You can turn on or off the use of BB Code, Smilies, [IMG] tags and usage of HTML.
Note:
The ability to use usernotes, read them, read your own, allow others to reply or manage them is a usergroup setting. Do not forget to walk through each usergroup to set the use and permissions of usernotes correctly.
- Allow vB Code in User Notes
If you want to markup the text with BOLD or ITALIC or other common vBulletin BB Code tags, set this option to Yes.
- Allow Smilies in User Notes
If you want a smilie like :) parsed to an image, set this option to Yes.
- Allow [IMG] Code in User Notes
If you want to allow insertion of images into the usernotes, set this option to Yes.
- Allow HTML in User Notes
If you even want to allow HTML to be used, set this option to Yes.
Warning! If you allow HTML to be inserted, you are open for risks of abuse - it is strongly not recommended.
User Listing Options |
This section of the Admin Control Panel allows you to set options for the Member List including:
- Members List Enabled
This allows users to view all users who belong to those usergroups that have "Viewable on Memberlist" enabled (See Usergroups & Permissions). - Minimum Posts
You can define a minimum post count that a user must reach before they are displayed on the memberlist. - Member List Field Options
Allows you to select which User Profile fields are viewable on the memberlist. - Members Per Page
The number of records per page that will be shown by default in the members list before the results are split over multiple pages. - Allow Advanced Searches
Allow the use of the advanced search tool for the Member List. If turned off, members will only be able to search by username.
User Banning Options |
This section of the Admin Control Panel allows you to set the Banning Options for your forum along with IP bans.
- Enable Banning Options
Banning allows you to stop certain IP addresses and email addresses from registering and posting to the forum. - Banned IP Addresses
Use this option to prevent certain IP addresses from accessing any part of your board.
If you enter a complete IP address (242.21.11.7), only that IP will be banned.
If you enter a partial IP (243.21.11. or 243.21.11), any IPs that begin with the partial IP will be banned. For example, banning 243.21.11 will prevent 243.21.11.7 from accessing your board. However, 243.21.115.7 would still be able to access your board.
You may also use an '*' as a wildcard for increased flexibility. For example, if you enter 243.21.11*, many IPs will be banned including: 243.21.11.7, 243.21.115.7, 243.21.119.225.Warning:Use this option with caution. Entering an incorrect IP can result in banning yourself or other genuine users from your forums. - Banned Email Addresses
Email address ban lists: You may ban any email addresses from registering and posting. Type in the complete email address ([email protected]), or use a partial email address (as in @example.com).
Note that partial email addresses are matched from the end of the address unless you enable 'Aggressive Email Banning' below. Therefore if you ban @example.com you will ban [email protected], but if you ban @example that user will not be banned. If you enable 'Aggressive Email Banning', [email protected] would be banned by @example.
If the email address of a user attempting to register or change their email address matches any of the addresses you specify here will see a no-permission error. For example, if you have banned 'example.com' then a user attempting to use '[email protected]' will be rejected. - Aggressive Email Banning
If this option is enabled, when checking for banned emails, incomplete addresses are matched anywhere in the email address, not just the end.
For example, if this option is enabled 'yahoo' will block any email address with 'yahoo' in it. If this option is disabled, no emails will be banned unless the ban was changed to 'yahoo.com'. - Allow User to Keep Banned Email Addresses
If you ban an email address and a user already uses that address, a problem will occur. Using this option, you can specify whether the user will have to enter a new email address in their profile when they next modify their email address, or whether the user can just keep the email address which you have banned. - Global Ignore
This option allows you to effectively add a user or users to every member's 'Ignore List'. However, users in this list can still see their own posts and threads...
Enter a list of userid numbers, separated by spaces (for example: 4 12 68 102).Note:If you change this option, you need to rebuild thread and then forum information in Maintenance > Update Counters.
BBCode Options |
- Enabled Built-in BB Code Tags
This setting allows you to enable and disable various built-in BB code tags in vBulletin. The BB Codes that can be enabled or disabled here are:
Basic BB Code (Bold, Italic, Underline)
Color BB Code
Size BB Code
Font BB Code
Alignment BB Code
List BB Code
Link BB Code
Code BB Code
PHP BB Code
HTML BB CodeNote:Disabling a BB code tag will prevent it from working anywhere on the forum, including signatures, private messages, user notes etc. - Maximum [CODE] Lines
When a user posts a block of [CODE], [PHP] or [HTML] in one of their messages, the system will place it in a box, which expands to contain their message.
This value controls the number of lines at which the box stops adding height and inserts a scrollbar.
- Allow BB Code in Non Forum Specific Areas
Allow users to include BB code in non-forum-specific areas? (Such as [b], [i] etc.) - Allow Smilies in Non Forum Specific Areas
Allow users to include smilies in Non Forum Specific Areas? - Allow [IMG] Code in Non Forum Specific Areas
Allow users to include [IMG] codes in Non Forum Specific Areas? - Allow HTML in Non Forum Specific Areas
Allow users to include raw HTML code in Non Forum Specific Areas?Warning:Enabling this setting is strongly not recommended.
Message Posting and Editing Options |
- Quick Reply
If you enable Quick Reply, a box will appear on the showthread.php page allowing users to reply to the current thread without needing to load the full newreply.php page.
When Quick Reply is enabled, you may specify whether or not users must click the Quick Reply icon in order to start typing in the Quick Reply editor.
If you choose not to require a click, the system will not know to which post a user is replying, making both the threaded and hybrid display modes nonsensical.Note:We strongly recommend that you set the option to require a click if you use Quick Reply and have Threaded Mode available on your forums. - Quick Edit
By enabling Quick Edit, a click on the Edit button in a post will open an editor within that post via AJAX if the visitor's browser is compatible.
Users may use the full editor by clicking the 'Go Advanced' button in the inline editor. - Multi-Quote Enabled
If this option is enabled, an additional button will appear on posts. A user may click as many of these buttons as they wish. Once they click a reply button, the content of each of the selected posts will be quoted and shown in the reply window. - Multi-Quote Quote Limit
Enter a value to limit the number of quotes that can be created with Multi-Quote, once this limit is reached the user will be unable to add any more quotes.Note:The Quote BB code can still be entered manually, this is not a limit on the number of quotes in a post. - Minimum Characters Per Post
If this number is set to a value greater than 0, users must enter at least that number of characters in each new post.Note:Setting this to 0 will not completely disable the minimum characters per post check. Users must always enter at least 1 character. - Maximum Characters Per Post
Posts that contain more characters than the value specified here will be rejected with a message telling the user to shorten their post.
Set the value to 0 to disable this function. - Maximum Characters Per Thread/Post Title
Thread and post titles will be limited to this number of characters. Please choose a value larger than 0 and less than 251. - Ignore Words in [QUOTE] Tags For Min Chars Check
Setting this option to 'YES' will cause the system to not count words in [QUOTE] tags towards the total number of characters posted.
The primary use for this is to prevent users posting messages with enormous quotes and a single short word of their own. - Automatically Quote Post / Thread Title
Setting this to 'Yes' will automatically fill the title field of new posts with either the thread or the parent post title, prefixed by 'Re: '.
The user may specify their own title if they want to do so. - Maximum Images Per Post
When a new post is submitted or edited vBulletin will check the number of images and smilies in the text and reject it if the number is greater than the value specified here.
Set the value to 0 to disable this function. - Prevent 'SHOUTING'
Prevent your users 'shouting' in their thread titles/message text by changing all-uppercase titles with at least this many characters to capitalization only on the first letters of some words.
Set the value to 0 to disable this function.Note:Disable this for some international forums with different character sets, as this may cause problems. - Minimum Time Between Posts
You may prevent your users from flooding your forum with posts by activating this feature.
By enabling floodcheck, you disallow users from making another post within a given time span of their last posting. In other words, if you set a floodcheck time span of 30 seconds, a user may not post again within 30 seconds of making his last post.Recommended: 30 seconds. Type the number of seconds only. Enter 0 to disable this function.Note:Administrators and moderators are exempt from floodcheck. - Time Limit on Editing of Thread Title
Specify the time-limit (in minutes) within which the thread title may be edited by the user whom started the thread. - Time Limit on Adding a Poll to a Thread
Specify the time-limit (in minutes) within which the thread may have a poll added to it. - Time Limit on Editing of Posts
Time limit (in minutes) to impose on editing of messages. After this time limit only moderators will be able edit or delete the message. 1 day is 1440 minutes.
Set the value to 0 to allow users to edit their posts indefinitely. - Time to Wait Before Starting to Display 'Last Edited by...'
Time limit (in minutes) to allow user to edit the post without the "Last edited by..." message appearing at the bottom of the edited post. - Log IP Addresses
For security reasons, you may wish to display the IP address of the person posting a message. - Post Edit History
Enable this option to log the previous versions of posts when they are edited.
Edits will not be logged if an 'edited by' notice is not displayed or updated. This occurs in the following situations:- The editing user is in a group that does not show edited by notices and no reason for editing is specified.
- The post is edited quickly enough after being posted to trigger the Time to Wait Before Starting to Display 'Last Edited by...' option.
Note:This will increase the amount of disk space used by vBulletin for database storage.
Message Posting Interface Options |
- Enable Clickable Message Formatting Controls
This global switch allows you to set the available message formatting toolbar and clickable smilies for the Full Editor, Quick Reply and Quick Edit individually. The option set for each one here is the maximum toolbar level available for each area.
- Smiliebox Total Smilies
How many smilies should be displayed in the smiliebox before the user is prompted to click for the more smilies popup window?
Set this value to 0 if you would like to hide the clickable smiliebox completely. - Smiliebox Smilies Per Row
If the smiliebox is enabled, how many smilies should be shown per row of the box? - Smilie Menu Total Smilies
Use this option to set the number of smilies that will appear in the WYSIWYG popup smilie menu before the 'show all smilies' link is displayed.
Set this value to 0 if you would like to hide the popup smilie menu completely.
Poll and Thread Rating Options |
- Maximum Poll Options
Maximum number of options a user can select for the poll.
Set this option to 0 to allow any number of options. - Poll Option Length
Maximum length that a poll option can be. - Update Thread Last Post on Poll Vote
If you set this option to 'Yes' the thread's last post time will be updated when a vote is placed, thereby returning it to the top of its parent forum listing.Note:This option can cause confusion. The last post time of a thread will be changed with no visible post. - Required Thread Rating Votes to Show Rating
This option specifies the number of thread rating votes that must be cast of a particular thread before the current rating is displayed on forumdisplay.php and showthread.php. - Allow Thread Rating Vote Changes
Allow users to change their original rating of a thread
Message Searching Options |
- Search Engine Enabled
Allow searching for posts and threads within the forums. This is a relatively server-intensive process so you may want to disable it if you have problems.
- Minimum Time Between Searches
The minimum time (in seconds) that must expire before the user can perform a new search.
Set this to 0 to allow users to search as frequently as they want. - Search Results Posts Per Page
Number of successful search results to display per page. - Maximum Search Results to Return
Any search results over this number will be discarded. - Search Index Minimum Word Length
When using the vBulletin default search, this option limits the size of indexed words. The smaller this number is, the larger your search index, and conversely your database is going to be.Note:When using the Fulltext search, this option limits the size of words that may be searched for. Smaller words take longer to search for as they are more common. MySQL Fulltext has its own minimum word length as well that must be changed at the server level. - Automatic Similar Thread Search
Setting this option will cause a search for similar threads to be automatically done when a new thread is posted. These similar threads are then linked to from the newly posted thread's page. This can have an effect on performance. - Search Result Sharing
In order to conserve resources, vBulletin will allow search results to be shared among users for one hour. The downside of this is that search results can appear out of order if a thread is updated in the interim. - Similar Threads Relevance Threshold
For a post to be matched in a search for similar threads, it must have a score of this number or greater, per searchable word. For more information on how post scores are determined, see the Search Algorithms section. - Words to be excluded from search
If there are special words that are very common for your forum, you may wish to remove them from being searchable. Searching for very common words on a large forum can be server intensive. Separate each word with a space.
Tagging Options |
- Enable Thread Tagging
This is a global option to enable or disable the thread tagging system. You may choose which usergroups can apply tags to threads in the usergroup permissions section. - Tag Minimum Length
The minimum number of characters in a tag name. This can be between 1 and 100. - Tag Maximum Length
The maximum number of characters in a tag name. This can be between 0 and 100. - Thread Tag Banned Words
These words will be checked in addition to those listed in includes/searchwords.php to form a list of words whose use is banned in tagging.
Separate each word with a space or carriage return. - Thread Tag Allowed Words
Words entered here will be allowed as tags, regardless of whether or not their use would be otherwise disallowed due to length, censorship, commonality etc.
If a word is specified in the 'Banned' words group and here, it will be allowed.
Separate each word with a space or carriage return. - Tag Separators
This option allows you to specify additional tag separators. Regardless of the value here, a comma will always be used as a separator.
Separate each tag separators with a space. If you would like to use a space in a tag separator, click the '?' for information on the advanced separator syntax. - Maximum Tags per Thread
The maximum total tags per thread. No users may add more tags than this to an individual thread.
0 disables this. - Maximum Tags Applied by Thread Starter
The maximum number of tags the thread starter can apply. Even if this setting allows it, the number of tags in a thread cannot exceed the "Maximum Tags per Thread" setting.
0 disables this limit. To prevent a user from tagging a thread, use user group permissions. - Maximum Tags Applied by Other Users
The maximum number of tags the users other than the thread starter can apply. Even if this setting allows it, the number of tags in a thread cannot exceed the "Maximum Tags per Thread" setting.
0 disables this limit. To prevent a user from tagging a thread, use user group permissions. - Force Tags to be Lower Case
If you enable this option, "A" through "Z" will be replaced with "a" through "z" in tag names. Other characters will not be changed. - Tag Cloud: Number of Tags
The maximum number of tags to display in the tag cloud. - Tag Cloud: Number of Levels
The number of levels to be shown in the tag cloud.
By default, there are 5 levels named level1 to level5, with the font size growing from its smallest size at level 1 to its largest at level 5.
Increasing this value above 5 requires a template change. - Tag Cloud: Cache Time
Amount of time in minutes before the tag cloud data cache is regenerated.
A value of 0 will generate the tag cloud on each view. - Tag Cloud: Usage History (Days)
The number of days worth of data that should be used to generate the usage-based tag cloud here.
Tags added more than this many days ago will not change the size of the link in the cloud. - Tag Cloud: Build Usergroup
The tag cloud pulls together data from threads in many forums. Users may not be able to see all the threads that make up the tag cloud results. With this option, you can force the tag cloud to be built as if it were viewed by a particular usergroup.
Live permission checking is the most accurate, but disables the above specified caching. - Enable Search Tag Cloud
This option controls whether a tag cloud relating to the frequency of tag searches is shown at the bottom of the advanced search.
A usage-based tag cloud is always shown here. - Search Tag Cloud: History (Days)
Amount of days that the system will keep a record of tag searches for use in the search tag cloud.
0 means to use all data available.
Forum Home Page Options |
- Script Name for Forum Home Page
This option allows you to set the script name of the page that acts as your forum home page. By default this will be 'index' (meaning index.php but you may want to call it 'forum' or whatever else you like for your own purposes.Note:If you change this value you must manually rename the forumhome PHP script to match the new value. - Display Logged in Users?
Displays those users that have been active in the last XXX seconds on the home page, where XXX is the value specified by your Cookie Time-Out option (Default is last 15 minutes). Not recommended for sites with hundreds of simultaneous users. The Alphabetical option requires more resources than the random option. - Display Today's Birthdays?
Displays today's birthdays for those usergroups that have birthday display enabled (see User Groups->Usergroup Manager). - Display Calendar Events?
Choose the number of upcoming days that you wish to display upcoming events from.
Set to 0 to disable upcoming events. - Display Custom Holidays
Display upcoming custom holidays in the above events list? - Upcoming Event Type
Choose the method by which you wish to display the upcoming events if the "Display Calendar Events" option is enabled. - Active Members Time Cut-Off
Enter a number of days here that represents a threshold for 'active' members. If a user has visited the board within the past number of days you specify, they are considered 'active'.
Enter '0' to treat all members as 'active'. - Active Members Options
Using the boxes here, you can choose to show only birthdays for those members considered 'active', and to show or hide the total number of 'active' members.
A member is considered 'active' if they have visited the board within the number of days specified in 'Active Members Time Cut-Off'.
Forum Listings Display Options |
- Depth of Forums - Forum Home
Depth to show forums on forum home forum listings. If you set this value to '2', forum listings will show the current forum level and any child forums one level below (etc.) - Depth of Forums - Forum Display
This setting does the same job as the setting above, but this time for forumdisplay.php pages, rather than forum home. - Depth of Sub-Forums
If you have forums below the depth specified in the 'Depth of Forums' settings above, you can display them as sub-forum links in each forum's display area.
Set this value to 0 if you want to display no sub-forums. - Show Forum Descriptions in Forum Listings
Show forum descriptions below forum titles in forum listings? - Show Private Forums
Select 'No' here will hide private forums from users who are not allowed to access them. Users who do have permission to access them will have to log in before they can see these forums too.
This option applies to any forum listing, including the Forum Jump menu, and Search Results. - Show Lock Icons to Users
Do you wish to have the new post indicators shown on the index page (on.gif and off.gif) be shown with locks to guests and other members who have no permission to post? - Last Thread Title Maximum Displayed Characters
This value will chop the title of the last thread posted down to a specific number of characters for its display on a forum listing.
A value of 0 will not trim the titles at all. - Show Moderator Column
Turns the moderator column on and off for forumhome, forumdisplay and usercp. - Show Thread Prefix in Last Post Column?
You may choose to show a thread's prefix in the last post column, along with the title. This will increase the size of the data included in that column, however.
Forum Display Options (forumdisplay) |
- Enable Forum Description
This option displays the forum description in the navbar. Helps visitors to know what the topic of a forum is, as well as possibly increasing search engine rankings. - Show Users Browsing Forums
Enabling this option will show the current users browsing a particular forum on forumdisplay.php while adding one query. This can have an effect on performance. The Alphabetical option requires more resources than the random option. - Maximum Displayed Threads Before Page Split
The number of threads to display on a forum page before splitting it over multiple pages.
Note: This number must be at least 1. - Show Sticky Threads on All Pages
Select 'Yes' to show sticky threads on every forumdisplay.php page, regardless of page number. Set 'No' to only display them on page one. - Highlight Threads in Which User Has Posted
When this feature is enabled, a logged in user will see an 'arrow' (or whatever graphic you choose) on the folder icons (hot folders, new folders, etc.) next to the threads that they have posted in. - Hot Threads Enabled
Hot threads indicate threads with a lot of activity. - Hot Threads Qualifying Views
If 'Hot Threads' are enabled, threads with the specified number of views or more will be shown as hot. - Hot Threads Qualifying Posts
If 'Hot Threads' are enabled, threads with the specified number of posts or more will be shown as hot. - Multi-Page Thread Links Enabled
Link to individual pages of a thread spanning multiple pages on the forum listing? - Multi-Page Thread Maximum Links
When linking to multiple pages in the forum display, this allows you to set the cut-off point on which long posts stop adding more page numbers and are replaced by 'more...' - Length of Thread Preview Text
This setting allows you to specify how many characters of the first post in a thread to display in the 'title' tag of the thread title on the forumdisplay page.
Set this value to 0 to disable thread previews. - Group Announcements
Combine a forum's announcements into one listing, where the newest announcement is displayed?
Setting this to No lists all active announcements individually in their applicable forums
Thread Display Options |
- Show Users Browsing Threads
Enabling this option will show the current users browsing a particular thread on showthread.php while adding one query. This can have an effect on performance. The Alphabetical option requires more resources than the Random option. - Maximum Displayed Posts Before Page Split
The number of posts to display on a thread page in linear or hybrid mode before splitting it over multiple pages.
Note: This number must be at least 1. - User-Settable Maximum Displayed Posts
If you would like to allow the user to set their own maximum posts per thread then give the options separated by commas. Leave this option blank to force users to use the 'Maximum Displayed Posts Before Page Split' setting above this option.
Example setting: 10,20,30,40 - Show Default Post Icon
If you would like to use a default icon for messages without an icon, enter the path to the image here. - Number of Characters Before Wrapping Text
If you want posts to automatically insert spaces into long words to make them wrap after a certain number of characters, set the number of characters in the box above.
If you do not want this to occur, enter 0.Note:This should be set to 0 with some language sets - Check Thread Rating
If enabled, this option will check if a user voted on a thread and show their vote if they have. Otherwise, they will see the voting options even if they are not able to vote again. This can have an effect on performance. - Check Thread Subscription
If enabled, this option will notify the user that they are subscribed to a thread by displaying a small icon when viewing forumdisplay and search results. It will also change the "Subscribe to this thread" text on showthread to "Unsubscribe from this thread". This can have an effect on performance. - Show Similar Threads?
Set this value to 'Yes' if you would like to see 'similar threads' displayed on the show thread page.Note:This setting will only work if you have 'Automatic Similar Thread Search' enabled in the message searching options section. - Post Elements
There is optional user information that you may display on each post. These options require a bit of processing time to calculate. This information includes Age, Reputation Power and Infractions - Enable Social Bookmarking
Use this switch to quickly disable the display of the bookmarks section of the page, on which links to social bookmarking sites (set up through the Social Bookmarking Manager) are shown.Note:Social bookmarking links will only be displayed in guest-viewable threads.
Threaded / Hybrid Mode Options (showthread) |
- Enable Threaded / Hybrid Mode
Use this setting to enable or completely disable the Threaded and Hybrid thread display modes. - Use Threaded Mode by Default
Set this value to 'Yes' if you would like users (who have not explicitly set a preference) to view threads in the threaded display mode.Note:This setting will have no effect if 'Enable Threaded / Hybrid Mode' is set to 'No'. - Threaded Mode: Posts Depth
When in the threaded display mode, a list of posts within the current thread is displayed at the bottom of the page. This option allows you to set how 'deep' this list displays beyond the currently selected post. - Threaded Mode: Maximum Cached Posts
When in the threaded display mode, a list of posts within the current thread is displayed at the bottom of the page. This option allows you to set how 'deep' into the tree of posts that vBulletin uses the Javascript 'caching' mechanism. This makes the initial download larger, but means that the page does not have to be reloaded for every post that is viewed. - Threaded Mode: Trim Titles
This value will chop the title of the thread titles in the viewing pane down to a specific number of characters. A value of 0 will not trim the titles at all.
Note:
This is a vBulletin 4 Feature and not included in vBulletin 5
Private Messaging Options |
Private Messaging Enabled (yes/no)
Turns the entire private messaging system on and off.
Instant Messaging Support - Check for New Private Messages (yes/no)
Selecting 'Yes' for this option will cause the system to check the private message database every time a user loads a page, and will display a visible prompt if a new message has just been saved.
Maximum Characters Per Private Message (default: 5000)
Maximum characters to allow in a private message.
Set this to 0 for no limit.
Floodcheck - Minimum Time Between Messages (default: 60)
Private Message Flood Checking. Select the minimum time that must pass before a user can send another private message. This is to prevent a single user 'spamming' by sending lots of messages very quickly.
Set this to 0 to disable the option.
Default Messages Per-Page (default: 50)
This setting allows you to define the default number of messages displayed per-page on the private messages listings pages.
Maximum Messages Per-Page (default: 100)
This setting allows you to limit the number of messages users may display per page on the private messages folder view pages.
Allow Message Icons for Private Messages (yes/no)
Allow the use of the standard message icons for private messages.
Allow vB Code in Private Messages (yes/no)
Allow users to include vB Code in their Private Messages? (Such as [b], [i] etc.)
Allow Smilies in Private Messages (yes/no)
Allows users to include smilies in their Private Messages.
Allow [IMG] Code in Private Messages (yes/no)
Allows users to include [IMG] codes in their Private Messages.
Allow HTML in Private Messages (yes/no)
Allow users to include raw HTML code in their Private Messages?
(Strongly not recommended.)
Who's Online Options |
- Who's Online Enabled
This is the master switch for the Who's Online page. If you select no, anyone who tries to access the page will be shown a no permission page.
If you select yes, you may still control usergroup permissions for Who's Online via Usergroups > Usergroup Manager. - Who's Online Refresh Period
If you set this to a value greater than 0, after that many seconds of being on the same page in Who's Online, your browser will automatically refresh the page. - Who's Online Display Guests
Controls whether guests are shown on Who's Online. Browsing registered users are always shown. - Who's Online Resolve IP Addresses
If you have permission to view IP addresses on Who's Online, this controls whether you will be shown a raw IP address or something that has been resolved to a name-based host. The name-based host cannot always be resolved, but when it can additional information about the browsing user can be more easily determined (for example, his or her Internet Service Provider).
Resolving IP addresses to names is a very slow process. If you have problems displaying Who's Online, you should disable this option. - Enable Spider Display
Controls whether spiders are shown as spiders instead of guests on Who's Online. Identification of spiders is controlled via an XML file, which is discussed here.
Identifying Spiders in Who's Online |
The file looks similar to this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <searchspiders> <spider ident="http://www.almaden.ibm.com/cs/crawler"> <name>Almaden Crawler</name> <info>http://www.almaden.ibm.com/cs/crawler/</info> <email>[email protected]</email> </spider> <spider ident="Ask Jeeves"> <name>AskJeeves</name> </spider> <spider ident="Googlebot"> <name>Google</name> </spider> <spider ident="Mediapartners-Google"> <name>Google AdSense</name> <info>https://www.google.com/adsense/faq</info> <email>[email protected]</email> </spider> Place additional spiders here! </searchspiders>
At the minimum, you should provide the ident attribute and the name tag. Other tags are simply for your information and not used. The ident attribute is used to distinguish a regular guest from a spider. The value of this attribute is looked up in the browsing user's user agent (what the user's browser identifies him/her as). If a match is found, the value of the name tag is displayed on Who's Online.
Search Engine Friendly Archive |
Forum Archive Enabled (yes/no)
The Search-Friendly Archive works only under the Apache web server with PHP compiled as a module.
It provides a basic structure that search engines can spider to grab all the content on your site.
Display Simple View of Threads (yes/no)
By default, threads in the Archive are displayed in a simple manner. Set this to no to have the real threads linked from the archive.
Forum Archive Threads Per Page (default: 250)
The number of threads to display per page in the threads listing.
This is done on a per-forum basis.
Forum Archive Posts Per Page (default: 250)
The number of posts to display per page in the thread listing.
Note:
On your own forum you can find the Archive here: http://www.yourforum.com/forumdir/archive/
(live example: http://www.vBulletin.com/forum/archive/)
(live example: http://www.vBulletin.com/forum/archive/)
Admin Control Panel Options |
Control Panel Style Folder
This setting allows you to specify an alternative style for the Admin / Moderator Control Panels, based on a folder contained within the 'cpstyles/' folder. The style you select here will be displayed to all Moderators, and any Administrators who have not expressed their own preference.
Comes default with 5 different Admin Control Panel Styles to choose from. You can set a default here, but upon login one could select the style they prefer.
Folders in the 'cpstyles' folder must contain at least the following:
- controlpanel.css
- cp_logo.gif
- cp_help.gif
Timeout Admin Login (yes/no)
After a period of inactivity, Administrators are logged out of the Admin Control Panel. If this option is set to yes, the inactivity period will be the same as the Cookie Timout setting found in vBulletin Options -> Help Cookies and HTTP Header Options (defaults to 15 minutes). If this option is disabled, then the period will be one hour.
Logins to the admincp are more secure with this enabled.
Control Panel Quick Statistics (yes/no)
Displays the 'Quick Stats' on the main index page of the Admin Control Panel.
Forum Manager Display
There are three options for the display of the Forum Manager:
- Default - Displays all of the forums on one page but may not work on all browsers, especially if you have a large number of forums.
- Collapsible - Allows collapsing/expansion of certain forums within the forum manager. This may reduce the ease of usability of the forum manager, but will prevent rendering problems with the dropdown menus with certain browsers/operating systems.
- Single - Display a single dropdown from which you may choose the forum you wish to modify. This is most useful if you have a large number of forums.
Number of columns to display in user editor. Smaller resolutions will probably want to set this to 1.
External Data Provider |
Here you can select which type can bse turned on/off. You can choose between javascript, rss and/or xml.
- Enable External Javascript
This setting allows you to enable/disable the Javascript content syndication system that allows you to embed vBulletin data in HTML pages.
If you set this option to 'yes', you can call it by going to:
http://www.example.com/forum/external.php?type=js
You could use javascript directly in your html pages to control the returned data.
- Enable RSS Syndication
This setting allows you to enable/disable the RSS content syndication system.
If you set this option to 'yes', you can call it by going to:
http://www.example.com/forum/external.php?type=rss
(example) There is a news-plugin for Trillian which lets you use RSS feeds to get the latest information posted in your Trillian program.
- Enable XML Syndication
This setting allows you to enable/disable the XML content syndication system.
If you set this option to 'yes', you can call it by going to:
http://www.example.com/forum/external.php?type=xml
Implementing the External Data Provider |
Below are examples on how you can control what is shown on these websites.
To syndicate in a Javascript format you would call the following URL from your external site. This will require additional javascript on the external site (an example is listed below).
www.yourdomain.com/forumpath/external.php?type=js
Example Code:
<script src="http://www.yourdomain.com/forumpath/external.php?type=js" type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> <!-- for (i in threads) { document.writeln(threads[i].title + " (" + threads[i].poster + ")<br />"); } //--> </script>
The URLS to access these feeds are:
XML - www.yourdomain.com/forumpath/external.php?type=xml
RSS - www.yourdomain.com/forumpath/external.php?type=rss
RSS 2.0 - www.yourdomain.com/forumpath/external.php?type=rss2
You can refine the listings by specifying forumids in the path. For multiple forums separate them with a comma. This will limit the feed to the specified forums only. (Below example uses xml as type, but it works with rss, rss2, and js too)
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/external.php?type=xml&forumids=1,2,3,4
Error Handling & Logging |
Log Database Errors to a File
If you would like to log all database errors to a file, enter the path to the file here. The file will be saved as {filename}.log.
Note:
Please note that the directory in which this file is to be created must be writable by the web server.
If you would like to log all failed Admin Control Panel login attempts to a file, enter the path to the file here. The file will be saved as {filename}.log
Note:
Please note that the directory in which this file is to be created must be writable by the web server.
If you would like to log all PHP fatal errors to a file, enter the path to the file here. The file will be saved as {filename}.log.
Note:
Please note that the directory in which this file is to be created must be writable by the web server.
If you would like your vBulletin error logs to be rotated when they reach a certain size, enter the maximum file size in bytes here.
1048576 bytes = 1 megabyte.
When a log file reaches this size, it will be renamed as {filename}{unix timestamp}.log and a new file will be created.
Set this value to 0 to disable log rotation.
Disable Database Error Email Sending (yes/no)
If you would like to prevent vBulletin from sending email to the $config['Database']['technicalemail'] address you specified in config.php, set this value to 'Yes'.
- Error reports about database connection errors will still be sent.
- It is not recommended that you set this value to 'Yes' unless you are logging database errors to a file. (see above)
Paid Subscriptions |
Paid Subscription Email Notification
An email will be sent to this email address when a paid subscription is purchased or reversed.
Note:
The main Paid Subscription settings are found at Paid Subscriptions > Paid Subscription Manager. The main manual section relating to Paid Subscriptions can be found here
Plugin/Hook System |
Enable Plugin/Hook System (yes/no)
This setting allows you to globally enable or disable the plugin/hook system.
The plugin/hook systems allows for insertion of arbitrary code into specific locations in the PHP files without having to edit the files (see Plugin Manager). This can be used to extend the functionality of vBulletin without hacking. When upgrading to future versions you do not have to re-apply these modifications to the original vBulletin files, making upgrading an easier task.
By switching the system off, only vBulletin-native code will be run, so it can be used to establish whether errors exist within vBulletin itself or in plugin code.
Note:
You can code these plugins yourself or download existing ones from the official resource community at http://www.vBulletin.org/. Please note that these plugins are unofficial and are not supported by Jelsoft.
Warning:
If you have attempted to import a product or a plugin and run into the problem of being unable to navigate/work with your forum or control panel you might require to update the config.php file with this variable, which will force-disable the hook system. Allowing you to restore your forum and uninstall the bad code/plugin.(Remove from the config.php file when done.)
define('DISABLE_HOOKS', true);
Spam Management |
Anti-Spam Service
Controls the service that is used for scanning supported data. The corresponding API key for the service has to be entered. The current options are Akismet and Typepad Anti-spam.
vBulletin Anti-Spam Key
Enter a vBulletin Anti-Spam service key to enable scanning of user data where supported. You obtain your key from the service selected in the option above. Entering a key, enables this functionality.
Spam Scanning Post Threshold
This setting controls how many of a user's posts will be scanned by the Anti-Spam Service. Once a user's post count exceeds this threshold, his or her posts will not be scanned for spam content. To always scan posts set this value to 0.
Anti-Spam Data Storage Length (Days)
Whenever a post is made, extra anti-spam data is stored. This allows details about false positives and false negatives to be submitted to the chosen anti-spam system to improve it.
This value controls the length of time (in days) for which this data is stored.
XML Sitemap |
Enable Automatic Sitemap Generation
When enabled this tells vBulletin to generate your sitemaps automatically via the Scheduled Task Manager. If you have a large forum, you may want to leave this disabled as it can be a time consuming task. Even if this is enabled, you can always generate your sitemap files manually by clicking on Rebuild Sitemap. Default Value: No
Automatic Sitemap Generation Frequency (Days)
If automatic sitemap generation is enabled, this option controls the number of days between automatic builds. Default Value: 14
Default Sitemap Priority
The default priority for content in the XML Sitemap. This may be configured on a per-content basis in the XML Sitemap group. Only a limited amount of content should be listed in the sitemap as a high priority, so you shouldn't set this value too high. Default Value: 0.5
Automatic Sitemap Search Engine Submission
Allows you to select one or more search engines to submit your sitemap to. Options include Google, Yahoo!, Bing!/Live Search, Ask.com, and Moreover. Default Value: All selected.
Sitemap File Path
XML sitemap data must be written to the filesystem to function. Enter the full path to the directory the files should be written to. Do not include a trailing slash. This directory must be writable by the webserver. It also must be accessible via a web browser. Default Value: <blank>
URLs Per Page
Enter the number of URLs that will be processed per page (and placed in each sitemap file). Note that only one type of content will be written to a file, so it is possible that there will be files that have less URLs than the number specified here.
Enter a value no larger than 50,000. Larger values may cause more performance impact while the sitemap is being generated. Default Value: 30000
Search Type |
In a new installation, there is only one type of search installed. This is called "DB Search" and is an indexed implementation of Fulltext Search allowing you to search all content types marked as "Searchable" when they are created/installed in your system.
You can find alternative search engines from third-party vendors or possibly at http://www.vbulletin.org.
Note:
Changing search implementations will require you to rebuild the search index before the search function will return results. This can be done via Maintenance > Update Counters. Reindex can take a long time for large boards. Some high performance search engines may provide a faster alternate method of doing a full reindex, consult the documentation provided with your search type.
Changing Minimum Search Characters |
[mysqld] ft_min_word_len=3
[mysqld] ft_min_word_len=3 [myisamchk] ft_min_word_len=3
Emptying your search tables will speed up this process. The queries to empty the tables are:
truncate searchcore; truncate searchcore_text; truncate searchgroup; truncate searchgroup_text;
drop index text on searchcore_text; drop index grouptitle on searchgroup_text;
CREATE FULLTEXT INDEX text ON searchcore_text (title, keywordtext); CREATE FULLTEXT INDEX grouptitle ON searchgroup_text (title);
For more on Fulltext Search from MySQL please visit:
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/fulltext-fine-tuning.html
You can also empty these indices in the Update Counters section of Maintenance.
You may want to optimize the postindex and word tables afterwards by going to the Repair / Optimize Tables section of Maintenance.
Changing MySQL's Stopwords. |
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/fulltext-stopwords.html
However on your site, you might have words that are common enough to cause a problem that aren't on the list. For instance if your site is about florists, then flower might be a very common word that you want to restrict searching on. To add to the stop list, you would follow these steps
Create File: e.g. /etc/stopword.txt
* Change permission of this file, so that MySQL can read it.
* Don't put stopword file in /root, because mysql doesn't have permission to access it there.
Edit /etc/my.cnf file
Search for ft_stopword_file
Change Line ft_stopword_file=/etc/stopword.txt
Then run following command to restart MySQL.
service mysqld restart
Run these queries command for immediate effect of this action on the vBulletin search tables.
REPAIR TABLE searchcore_text QUICK;
REPAIR TABLE searchgroup_text QUICK;
You should include the default words in your stopword list for optimal performance.
Human Verification Manager |
An unlimited amount of questions may be specified and each question may have an unspecified amount of answers.
To add a new question, select the button. Existing questions may be deleted, modified or have answers modified by selecting the controls on the right of the question.
Social Bookmarking Manager |
When a user views a publicly accessible thread they will be presented with a set of links at the bottom which allow the addition of the page to admin defined social bookmarking sites.
The Social Bookmarking Manager |
Admin CP -> Settings -> Options -> Thread Display Options (showthread) -> Enable Social Bookmarking -> Yes
The social bookmarking manager is where you create new and edit bookmark sites. Bookmark sites are shown in the order they will actually display in; you can quickly change this order by clicking the arrows next to the text fields or changing the numbers in the fields and clicking "Save".
Adding or Editing a Social Bookmarking Site |
- Title -Title of the Social Bookmarking Site
- Icon - A 16 x 16 icon that will be used to link to the social bookmarking site, this image should be in the miscellaneous images directory which by default is images/misc.
- Link - Link to the add page of the social bookmarking site, you can use {TITLE} and {URL} as replacements for the current page title and link.
- Display Order - The sort order for this social bookmarking site. Lower values will be displayed first.
- Active - If this is set to 'Yes' then the icon will appear at the bottom of the thread template.
vBulletin Options |
When you first enter this section, you will be presented with a screen that allows you to select what settings you wish to display. The select box will look one of two ways:
Unexpanded This is the default view. It will display each setting group. To display a group, double click its name or select it and click . If you wish to display all settings, select [Show All Settings]. | |
Expanded To use this view, click [Expand Setting Groups] on the left-hand side of the screen. This view will display each setting within a group. To display a setting, double click its name or select it and click . |
Once you have changed the all the options you wish to change, click . Changes will take effect immediately.
vBulletin Options |
Turn Your vBulletin On and Off |
Only users in the Administrator usergroup will be able to browse the site, visitors will be presented with a closed message which you can set in this setting group.
- Forum Active
From time to time, you may want to turn your forum off to the public while you perform maintenance, update versions, etc.
Selecting 'Yes' will set the forum Active.
Selecting 'No' will set the forum Inactive (turns it off for the public).
When the forum is set Inactive users in the Administrator usergroup will be able to browse the forum. They will see a notice displayed in the header and footer of each page stating that the forum is closed. Visitors who browse any page on the forum will receive a message that states that the forum is temporarily unavailable. You could set a custom message.
Do not forget to set the forum active again when you are done with your maintenance. - Reason For Turning Forum Off
When you have set your forum to inactive, this is the message that a visitor will receive when they browse any page on the forum.Note:This field expects the use of HTML code.
You can not use BBCode here.
Site Name / URL / Contact Details |
After a fresh installation or upgrade, server or site move it is advised to walk through these site details setting group to ensure they are up to date.
- Forum Name - Name of your forum. This appears in the title of every page.
- Forum URL - URL of your forum.
Note: do not add a trailing slash. ("/") - Homepage Name - Name of your homepage. This appears at the bottom of every page.
- Homepage URL -URL of your home page. This appears at the bottom of every page.
- Contact Us Link - Link for contacting the site admin. To use the built-in email form, specify sendmessage.php otherwise use something such as 'mailto:[email protected]' or your own custom form. This appears at the bottom of every page.
- Allow Unregistered Users to use 'Contact Us' - The last option only applies if you specify 'sendmessage.php' in the previous option. You may require guests to pass Human Verification in order to use this form by enabling the option found in the Human Verification Options.
- Contact Us Options - You may pre-define subjects (and corresponding recipients) for users to pick from when using the default Contact Us form listed above. Please place one subject per line. An 'Other' option will be automatically added to the end when the form is viewed. For more information on how to set this up, view the inline help within the Admin Control Panel
- Webmaster's Email - Email address of the webmaster. This can be different than the technical contact listed in the includes/config.php. This is the person who will receive all emails from vBulletin itself except for database errors.
- Privacy Statement URL - Enter the URL of your privacy statement, if you have one.
For more information on Privacy Policies check out http://www.truste.org. - Copyright Text - Copyright text to insert in the footer of the page.
- Company Name - The name of your company. This is required for COPPA compliance.
- Company Fax - Fax number for your company. COPPA forms will be faxed to this number.
You may wish to check out http://www.efax.com. - Company Address - Address of your company. COPPA forms will be posted to this address.
General Settings |
This ranges from meta tags to the use of forumjump, enabling access masks to the display of IM icons.
- Meta Keywords
Enter the meta keywords for all pages. These are used by search engines to index your pages with more relevance.
Meta Keywords are used by some search engines to determine what your pages are about and to rank them. Other search engines such as Google do not take keywords into account.
All keywords you enter here will be put in the keywords meta tag in the header of every page. Separate keywords or phrases with a single comma and no space.
Example: vbulletin,forum,bbs,discussion,jelsoft,bulletin board
- Meta Description
Enter the meta description for all pages. This is used by search engines to index your pages more relevantly.
The Meta Description is used by some search engines to determine what your pages are about and to rank them. Other search engines such as Google do not take the description into account.
Enter a short description of your site here and it will be placed in the meta description tag in the header of every page. Most engines will accept a maximum of 255 characters for the description.
Example: This is a discussion forum powered by vBulletin. To find out about vBulletin, go to http://www.vbulletin.com/ .
- Use Forum Jump Menu
The Forum Jump menu appears by default on most pages and provides a quick jump to any of the forums on your forum as well as several other places (search, private messaging, etc.). While it can have a marginal impact on performance, typically you will only want to disable this if you have an extremely large number of forums as it will generate a large amount of HTML in that case, which will increase the size of pages and bandwidth usage.
Set this option to 'no' if you want to turn it off.
- Number of Pages Visible in Page Navigator
On thread and forum pages, as well as private messaging lists and other places, if there are multiple page number links to be displayed, this setting determines how many are shown on either side of the page currently being viewed. Setting this to 0 will cause all page links to be displayed.
Example: 3
- Enable Access Masks
Access masks allow you to enable or disable access to a particular forum for individual user(s). To use them, you must enable this option. This option also affects whether or not users will be able to see forums they do not have access to on forumhome and forumdisplay. (If this is off, they will see them in forum listings but not be able to enter them. If this is on, they will not see them at all.)
Set this option to 'no' if you want to turn it off.
- Add Template Name in HTML Comments
Setting this to 'yes' will add the template name at the beginning and end of every template rendered on any page. This is useful for debugging and analyzing the HTML code, but turn it off to save bandwidth when running in a production environment.
When modifying templates, it is often helpful to have this setting enabled so you can view the source of a page to determine what template(s) control it. In the course of normal usage, however, you will usually want this disabled as it will increase your page sizes and therefore bandwidth usage.
- Use Login "Strikes" System
Setting this to 'yes' will enable a system that tracks a user's (with a specific IP address) login attempts. After 5 incorrect login attempts the account is locked from that IP address for 15 minutes. This is to prevent bruteforce login attacks.
- Enable Forum Leaders
Forum Leaders is a listing of your important user groups. The display of assigned forum Moderators on this page is controlled with this option while the display of other groups is controlled via the usergroup manager.
- Post Referrer Whitelist
For security purposes, vBulletin only allows data to be submitted via post from within the domain the board is installed on. If you are submitting post requests from a different domain or subdomain, you must add them here.
- Thread/Forum Read Marking Type
This option controls how threads and forums are marked as read. The options are:
1) Inactivity/Cookie Based - once a user has been inactive for a certain amount of time (the value of the cookie timeout option) all threads and forums are considered read. Individual threads are marked as read within a session via cookies. This option is how all versions of vBulletin before 3.5 functioned.
2) Database (no automatic forum marking) - this option uses the database to store thread and forum read times. This allows accurate read markers to be kept indefinitely. However, in order for a forum to be marked read when all threads are read, the user must view the list of threads for that forum. This option is more space and processor intensive than inactivity-based marking.
3) Database (automatic forum marking) - this option is the same as a previous option, but forums are automatically marked as read when the last new thread is read. This is the most usable option for end users, but most processor intensive.Note:Changing this setting to database marking will mark all threads in the time set in the 'Database Read Marking Limit' as unread - Database Read Marking Limit
The amount of time in days to store the topic and forum read times. All topics or forums without posts in this many days will be considered read.
- Disable AJAX Features
This allows you to disable all AJAX Features or problematic AJAX Features only. Some languages, such as Arabic based languages, require this to be set to Disable Problematic AJAX Features in certain server and database configurations
- Enable Inline Moderation Authentication
Inline moderation actions will require a user to authenticate again prior to being performed. The timeout is based on the admin control panel timeout, or one hour if that option is disabled.
If you do not wish moderators and administrators to authenticate when using inline moderation then you can disable this using this setting.
Image Settings |
- Image Processing Library
vBulletin provides two options for manipulating attachment thumbnails, custom avatars, and profile pictures.
The first is GD, which is bundled with PHP 4.3.0 and later. GD supports the following file types: GIF, JPEG, and PNG.
The second supported library is ImageMagick v6 by ImageMagick Studio LLC. ImageMagick is an executable binary that must be installed at the server level to be called by PHP. Only the identify and convert binaries from ImageMagick are required by vBulletin. ImageMagick supports the following file types: GIF, JPEG, PNG, BMP, TIFF, and PSD. ImageMagick also has better support for handling animated GIF.
- Image Verification Library
This is similar to the option above but it chooses the Image Manipulation Library for inline image verification. These verification images can be enabled for registration and the Contact Us forms. There are two options for GD. The first, "GD (Simple Font)" will use an internal GD font. The second, "GD (True Type Font)" will use the fonts located in the images/regimage/fonts directory of your forum. On some PHP installations the TTF font option will not work. If you have the TTF font option selected and are seeing no fonts, try the Simple Font option.
- Image Verification Options
There are several options that allow you to control the level of difficulty presented by the image verification.
- ImageMagick Binary Path
Path to the ImageMagick 6 binaries (convert and identify). Example:
Unix: /usr/local/bin/
Windows: C:\imagemagick\
Human Verification Options |
- Verify at Registration
New users will be required to pass the Human Verification test during registration. - Verify Guest Posts
Guest posters will be required to pass the Human Verification test before their messages are posted. - Verify Guest Searches
Searches by guests will be required to pass the Human Verification test before searching is executed. - Verify Guest Contact Us
Guests will be required to pass the Human Verification test before leaving feedback. This only applies if sendmessage.php is being used as the Contact Us Link and Guests are allowed to use Contact Us in Site Name / URL / Contact Details
Date and Time Options |
- Datestamp Display Option
This option controls the display of dates throughout your forum
'Normal' uses the date and time formats below this option.
'Yesterday / Today' will show 'Yesterday' and 'Today' for dates that fall in those periods.
'Detailed' will show times such as '1 Minute Ago', '1 Hour Ago', '1 Day Ago', and '1 Week Ago'.
- Default Time Zone Offset
Time zone offset for guests and new users. Do not take DST into consideration, rather use the next option to enable/disable DST.
- Enable Daylight Savings
If Daylight Savings Time is currently in effect for the above time zone, enable this option so that guests will see the correct times on posts and events. This has no effect on registered users as they control their DST options in the User CP. This setting is not automatic and it will need to be changed when the timezone changes twice a year.
- Format For Date
Format in which the date is presented on vBulletin pages.
Examples:
US Format (e.g., 04-25-98): m-d-y
Expanded US Format (e.g., April 25th, 1998): F jS, Y
European Format (e.g., 25-04-98): d-m-y
Expanded European Format (e.g., 25th April 1998): jS F Y
- Format For Time
Format in which the time is presented on all vBulletin pages.
Examples:
AM/PM Time Format (eg, 11:15 PM): h:i A
24-Hour Format Time (eg, 23:15): H:i
- Format For Registration Date
This is used to format dates shown with users' posts. In the left hand column of a topic display, under the username and title, there is some text showing when the user registered.
- Format For Birthdays with Year Specified
Format of date shown in profile when user gives their birth-year.
- Format For Birthdays with Year Unspecified
Format of user's birthday shown on profile when the user does not specify their birth-year. DO NOT put in a code for the year.
- Log Date Format
Format of dates shown in Control Panel logs.
Note:
Date and Time formats follow PHP formatting rules. You can find out more about these rules by visiting the PHP manual.
For information on date and time formats in PHP please visit the following page: http://www.php.net/manual-lookup.php?function=date
For information on date and time formats in PHP please visit the following page: http://www.php.net/manual-lookup.php?function=date
Cookies and HTTP Header Options |
- Session Timeout
This is the time in seconds that a user must remain inactive before any unread posts are marked read. This setting also controls how long a user will remain on Who's Online after their last activity.
- Path to Save Cookies
The path to which the cookie is saved. If you run more than one forum on the same domain, it will be necessary to set this to the individual directories of the forums. Otherwise, just leave it as / .
Please note that your path should always end in a forward-slash; for example '/forums/', '/vbulletin/' etc.Warning:Entering an invalid setting can leave you unable to login to your forum. Only change this setting if you absolutely need to do so. - Cookie Domain
This option sets the domain on which the cookie is active. The most common reason to change this setting is that you have two different urls to your forum, i.e. example.com and forums.example.com. To allow users to stay logged into the forum if they visit via either url, you would set this to .example.com (note the domain begins with a dot.Warning:You most likely want to leave this setting blank as entering an invalid setting can leave you unable to login to your forum. - GZIP HTML Output
Selecting yes will enable vBulletin to GZIP compress the HTML output of pages, thus reducing bandwidth requirements. This will be only used on clients that support it, and are HTTP 1.1 compliant. There will be a small performance overhead.If you are already using mod_gzip on your server, do not enable this option.Note:This feature requires the ZLIB library.
- GZIP Compression Level
Set the level of GZIP compression that will take place on the output. 0=none; 9=max.
We strongly recommend that you use level 1 for optimum results.
- Add Standard HTTP Headers
This option does not work with some combinations of web server, so is off by default. However, some IIS setups may need it turned on.
It will send the 200 OK HTTP headers if turned on.
- Send Internet Explorer 7 Compatibility Header
This option sends an HTTP header that instructs Internet Explorer 8 to render pages as Internet Explorer 7 would do so, rather than enabling full standards-compliance mode, which may result in rendering problems for templates that have not been updated for IE8.
- Add No-Cache HTTP Headers
Selecting yes will cause vBulletin to add no-cache HTTP headers. These are very effective, so adding them may cause server load to increase due to an increase in page requests.
- Remove Redirection Message Pages
Enabling this option will remove the update pages that are displayed after a user makes a post, starts a search, etc. These pages provide assurance to the user that their information has been processed by the forum. Disabling these pages will save you bandwidth and may lessen the load of the forum on your server.Note:Some pages will still use the redirection page when cookies are involved to prevent some potential problems.
Server Settings and Optimization Options |
- Public phpinfo() Display Enabled
If you enable this option, anyone can view your phpinfo() page by adding &do=phpinfo to a forum URL. vBulletin Support may ask you to temporarily enable this to help diagnose problems if you request technical support. Otherwise, we recommend turning it off.
- Cached Posts Lifespan
Posts are normally stored with bbcode tags etc. in the same form as the user posted them with so that it may be edited later, and then parsed at display time. By caching them, they are parsed at post time (instead of display time) into the HTML they will be displayed in and stored separately from the pre-parsed posts. This results in a faster display on topics, since the posts do not have to be parsed at display time.
This option determines how long posts are stored. While a post is cached, it will take approximately twice as much storage space since it is essentially being stored twice. If you have a busy site, and topics typically don't last very long, you can probably set this to a lower value such as 10 days. If you have a slower site, and topics typically last longer, 20 to 30 days might be a better choice. If you have the disc space, you can set this to a higher value for better performance.
- Update Thread Views Immediately
If you enable this option, the thread view counter for a thread will be updated in realtime as threads are viewed. Otherwise, they will be stored and updated every hour (by default) en masse. We recommend disabling this option for larger or busier forums as updating them in realtime can have a performance impact.
- Update Attachment Views Immediately
If you enable this option, the attachment view counter for an attachment will be updated in realtime as attachments are viewed. Otherwise, they will be stored and updated every hour (by default) en masse. We recommend disabling this option for larger or busier forums as updating them in realtime can have a performance impact.
- Simultaneous Sessions Limit
Set this to the maximum number of simultaneous sessions that you want to be active at any one time. If this number is exceeded, new users are turned away until the server is less busy.
Set this to 0 to disable this option.
- *NIX Server Load Limit
vBulletin can read the overall load of the server on certain *NIX setups (including Linux).
This allows vBulletin to determine the load on the server and processor, and to turn away further users if the load becomes too high. If you do not want to use this option, set it to 0. A typical level would be 5.00 for a reasonable warning level.
- Safe Mode Upload Enabled
If your server has Safe Mode enabled, you should set this to Yes. You can determine if Safe Mode is enabled by viewing your phpinfo page and searching for Safe Mode.
- Safe Mode Temporary Directory
If your server is running in PHP Safe Mode, you'll need to specify a directory that is CHMOD to 777 that will act as a temporary directory for uploads. All files are removed from this directory after database insertion.Note:Do NOT include the trailing slash ('/') after the directory name. - Duplicate Search Index Information on Topic Copy?
It is not strictly necessary to index a copied topic since the original topic is already indexed. However, you may wish to index copied topics for the sake of completeness. Setting this option to yes will cause search index information to be copied with each post in the topic. This allows the copied version of the topic to be searchable as well. However, on larger boards, this may cause significant delays in copying a topic. If this is a problem for you, we recommend disabling this option.
- Session IP Octet Length Check
This is used to specify to which octet an IP is verified to during session retrieval. This means that if for some reason an IP changes between requests as long as it is within the allowed length the session will remain. This is most likely to happen when an ISP has transparent proxies such is the case with AOL.
- Use Remote YUI
YUI (Yahoo! User Interface Library) script files, used for some functions in vBulletin, are hosted locally on your server, you may however have them served from Yahoo's own servers, saving you some bandwidth and potentially decreasing load times.
More information about this service can be found here.
Style & Language Settings |
Here you can setup the behaviours for the CSS file (store as file), Popup menus (hide or show) and postbit (new or legacy).
- Default Language - Set the default language for your forums. This language will be used for all guests, and any members who have not expressed a language preference in their options.
- Default Style - Set the default style for your forums. This style will be used for all guests, and any members who have not expressed a style preference in their options, or are attempting to use a style that does not exist or is forbidden.
- Allow Users To Change Styles - This allows users to set their preferred style set on registration or when editing their option. Setting this to 'No' disables that option and will force them to use whatever style has been specified.
- Location of clear.gif - Please enter the path of your clear.gif image, relative to your forum directory. By default, the value of this setting is 'clear.gif', meaning that the image is located in the base directory of your vBulletin installation (in the same folder as forumdisplay.php).
This URL must be relative, NOT beginning with 'http://'. - Store CSS Stylesheets as Files? - If you would like to store the CSS stylesheet for each style as a file, you must ensure that you have a directory called 'vbulletin_css' inside the 'clientscript' folder, and that the web server has permission to write and delete files within that directory.
- Use 'vBMenu' DHTML Popup Menus? - Use dynamic HTML popup menus to reduce screen clutter if user's browser is capable? Please note that disabling this option will also disable some AJAX features, such as user name suggestion.
- Use Legacy (Vertical) Postbit Template - If you prefer the old-style postbit, using two vertical columns rather than the new horizontal layout, you can switch back to using that template with this switch. Please note that if you enable this option and wish to customize the template, you should edit the 'postbit_legacy' template rather than the 'postbit'.
- Show Instant Messaging Program Icons
Setting this option to yes will show the images for ICQ, AIM, MSN, and Yahoo! Messenger if the user has entered the correct information in his/her profile. These links are shown in various places through out the forum, on posts, who's online, memberlist, profile, etc. When set to no the information will be displayed in their profile in the form of text.
- Use SkypeWeb Graphics
If set to 'Yes', load Skype™ icon from the SkypeWeb server in order to show users' online status, otherwise use local (static) graphic.
If set to 'Language Specific', graphics in the language being used by the visiting user will be loaded.
Email Options |
Here you can setup everything related to how your forum sends and handles email.
- Enable Email features? - Enable the following email-sending features: Report Bad Post, 'Contact Us' Link, Email a Member, Email this Page to a Friend, New Post Notifications to Members
You can turn off the 'Send to Friend' feature for individual user groups in the User Permissions area. - Allow Users to Email Other Members - Allow users to send emails to other users. Use the option below to determine how the emails are sent.
- Use Secure Email Sending - If 'Allow Users to Email Other Members' is set to 'Yes', how should members' email addresses be displayed? If this is set to 'Yes', then an online form must be filled in to send a user an email, thus hiding the destination email address. Setting 'No' will mean that the user is just given the email address in order to send email using their email client application.
- Email Flood Check - Specify in seconds how much time must elapse before a user may send consecutive emails. Set to 0 to disable this flood check.
- Use Mailqueue System - When enabled, subscription emails generated by your site will be processed in batches to lessen the load on your server. Account activation, lost passwords and other vital emails are sent instantly regardless of this setting. If your site has low traffic, subscription emails may be delayed.
If you have a large site, you may wish to enable locking. This prevents a rare situation where the same email is sent multiple times. - Number of Emails to Send Per Batch - vBulletin includes a mail queuing system to prevent bottlenecks when sending lots of email. Use this option to specify how many emails will be sent per batch.
- Bounce Email Address - The email address where bounce messages will be directed. If this field is blank, the Webmaster Email address will be used.
This email is used when using an SMTP server, or when the 'Enable -f Parameter' email for sendmail is switched on. - Enable "-f" Parameter - Some sendmail servers may require the "-f" parameter to be sent with email calls from PHP. If you are having problems with users not receiving email, try enabling this option. In all likelihood, your problem will not be caused by this setting.
- SMTP Email - Set this option to yes to use a SMTP server rather than the internal PHP mail() function.
- SMTP Host - If you've enabled SMTP mail, please specify the host here. You may find that specifying an IP Address rather than a domain name, results in better performance. Example: smtp.gmail.com
- SMTP Port - If you've enabled SMTP mail, please specify the port here.[/b]
- SMTP Username - If you've enabled SMTP mail and your server requires authentication, please specify your username here.
- SMTP Password - If you've enabled SMTP mail and your server requires authentication, please specify your password here.
- SMTP Secure Connection - If you've enabled SMTP mail and your server requires a TLS connection, please set this to yes. This requires OpenSSL support to be compiled into PHP.
Warning:
To obtain your SMTP information, you will need to contact your SMTP provider. This is not information that can be obtained through vBulletin or from support staff.
Sending Email via SMTP |
The SMTP server options can be edited via the Email Options in the vBulletin Options, this will be enabled via the SMTP Email switch and then the appropriate settings must be completed.It should be noted that the majority of servers do not require a username and password to send SMTP as they are limited by IP address. Also the use of your ISP email is not recommended as this is usually limited to the network of the ISP and will result in a failure to send email.
Censorship Options |
All message titles and messages will be affected.
Note:
To use the censor feature on your site, don't forget to activate it!
- Censorship Enabled - You may have certain words censored on your forum. Words you choose to censor will be replaced by the character you specify below. All message titles and messages will be affected.
- Character to Replace Censored Words - This character (or characters) will be used to replace censored words. For example, if you have censored the word 'dog' and you set the censor character here to an asterisk (*) then any occurrences of 'dog' in messages will appear as '***'.
- Censored Words - Type all words you want censored in the field below. Do not use commas to separate words, just use spaces. For example, type "dog cat boy", rather than "dog, cat, boy."
If you type "dog", all words containing the string "dog" would be censored (dogma, for instance, would appear as "***ma"). To censor more accurately, you can require that censors occur only for exact words. You can do this by placing a censor word in curly braces, as in {dog}. Signifying "dog" in the curly braces would mean that dogma would appear as dogma, but dog would appear as "***". Thus your censor list may appear as: cat {dog} {barn} barn
Do not use quotation marks and make sure you use curly braces, not parentheses, when specifying exact words. - Blank ASCII Character Stripper - If there are certain raw ASCII characters you would like to strip from posts/usernames etc, enter their ASCII numbers here, separated by spaces.
Please note that stripping raw ASCII characters with this setting may break some double-byte languages. If you are unsure, remove the contents of this setting.Note:If your forum is set up to use UTF-8 character encoding then this setting will need to be emptied.
User Registration Options |
vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > User Registration Options
- Allow New User Registrations - If you would like to temporarily (or permanently) prevent anyone new from registering, you can do so. Anyone attempting to register will be told that you are not accepting new registrations at this time.
- Use COPPA Registration System - Use the COPPA registration system. This complies with the COPPA laws and requires children under the age of 13 to get parental consent before they can post.
For more info about this law, see here: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/coppa.htm - COPPA Registration System Cookie Check - This option will save a cookie onto the user's computer if an age under 13 is entered. Subsequent registration attempts will be failed, no matter what age is entered. This only applies if the previous option is set to either Enable COPPA or Deny registration for users under 13 years.
- Moderate New Members - Allows you to validate new members before they are classified as registered members and are allowed to post.
- Send Welcome Email - Enabling this option will send a welcome email to new users using the email body/subject phrases for 'welcomemail'.
Note: If you require emails to be verified, this email will be sent after the user has activated his or her account. If you moderate new memberships, no welcome mail will be sent as the user will already be receiving an email. - Welcome Private Message - Enabling this option will send a welcome private message to new users. Please input the username of the user that this PM is to be sent from. To alter or translate this message, use the email body/subject phrases for 'welcomepm'.
Note: If you require emails to be verified, this message will be sent after the user has activated his or her account. Also ensure that Receive Private Messages is enabled in the Default Registration Options. - Email Address to Notify About New Members - This email address will receive an email message when a new user signs up. Leave the option blank to disable this function.
- Allow Multiple Registrations Per User - Normally, vBulletin will stop users signing up for multiple names by checking for a cookie on the user's machine. If one exists, then the user may not sign up for additional names. Note: This does not stop users from logging out and then registering new accounts.
If you wish to allow your users to sign up for multiple names, then select yes for this option, and they will not be blocked from registering additional usernames. - Verify Email address in Registration - If you set this option to 'Yes' new members will not be allowed to post messages until they visit a link that is sent to them in an email when they sign up.
If a user's account is not activated by the user visiting the link, it will remain in the 'Users Awaiting Activation' usergroup. - Require Unique Email Addresses - The default option is to require unique email addresses for each registered user. This means that no two users can have the same email address. You can disable this requirement by setting this option to 'No'.
- Minimum Username Length - Enter the minimum number of characters in a valid username, for the purpose of ensuring that new members create valid usernames.
- Maximum Username Length -
Enter the maximum number of characters in a valid username, for the purpose of ensuring that new members create valid usernames. - Illegal User Names - Enter names in here that you do not want people to be able to register. If any of the names here are included within the username, the user will told that there is an error. For example, if you make the name John illegal, the name Johnathan will also be disallowed. Separate names by spaces.
- Username Regular Expression - You may require the username to match a regular expression (PCRE). The admin help provides some examples that may be useful. To disable this function leave the option blank.
- User Referrer - If you enable the User Referrer system, then a user who visits your forum through a link that contains 'referrerid=XXX' will give referral credit to the owner of the referrerid when they register (where XXX is the userid of the referring user).
- Default Registration Options - The user options on the New User creation form in the Admin Control Panel, as well as the New User registration form will default to the following settings.
You can control the following settings:
Receive Admin Emails
Invisible Mode
Display Email
Receive Private Messages
Send Notification Email When a Private Message is Received
Pop up a Notification Box When a Private Message is Received
Enable Visitor Messaging
Limit usage of Visitor Messages to Contacts and Moderators
Allow vCard Download
Display Signatures
Display Avatars
Display Images
Display Reputation
Automatic Thread Subscription Mode
Message Editor Interface
Thread Display Mode
Require Birthday - Username Reuse Delay - When a username is changed, you may wish to prevent users from registering with that name for a certain length of time. Use this setting to determine the time before a deleted or previous username can be reused, or set it to 0 to disable this function.
User Infractions & Post Reporting Options |
- User Infraction Discussion Forum
A discussion thread can be created for each user infraction for moderators to discuss the infraction further. Choose a forum for the discussion threads to be created in.
If you do not wish a discussion thread to be created for user infractions, set this to Select Forum - Require Infraction Message
This option requires that the user sending an infraction include a PM or Email, depending on your forum settings. - Post Reporting Discussion Forum
A discussion thread can be created for each reported post for moderators to discuss the post further. Choose a forum for the discussion threads to be created in.If you do not wish a discussion thread to be created for reported items, set this to Select ForumNote:Reported Visitor Messages, Social Group Messages and Album Pictures & Messages also are posted in the forum set here. - Post Reporting User
Reported post discussion threads default to being posted under the username of the reporter. To have the threads reported under another username, enter an existing username. - Post Reporting Email
This option sends an email to the specified users when a post is reported. It can be sent to moderators, super moderators and administrators, moderators only, or no email sent.Note:If the Post Reporting Email is set to No Email and the Post Reporting Discussion Forum is set to Select Forum then no notifications of any kind will be issued for reported items.
User Profile Options |
vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > User Profile Options
Enabled User Profile Features
Use this option to globally enable or disable the various user profile-related features. Additional options are available for each feature in their respective sections.
Require Date of Birth
Require users to provide a valid date of birth (1902 to current year).
[note]When this is set to Yes users cannot edit their date of birth once it has been set.
User Title Maximum Characters
This is the maximum number of characters allowed for a user's custom title.
Censored Words for Usertitle
Type all words you want censored in the Usertitle in the field below. Do not use commas to separate words, just use spaces. For example, type "dog cat boy", rather than "dog, cat, boy."
If you type "dog", all words containing the string "dog" would be censored (dogma, for instance, would appear as "***ma"). To censor more accurately, you can require that censors occur only for exact words. You can do this by placing a censor word in curly braces, as in {dog}. Signifying "dog" in the curly braces would mean that dogma would appear as dogma, but dog would appear as "***". Thus your censor list may appear as: cat {dog} {barn} barn
Do not use quotation marks and make sure you use curly braces, not parentheses, when specifying exact words.
Exempt Moderators From Censor
Do you want to exempt your forum Moderators from the censor words? You will want to set this to yes if you censor anything that is part of a moderator's title like 'moderator' as they have custom titles by default and will get censored.
Number of friends to display in the small friends block
The Number of Friends to display in the Small Friends Block on the Users' Profile Pages
Friends Per Page on Full Friends List[b]
The Amount of Friends to show "per page" on the large friends list.
[b]Maximum Visitors to Show on Profile Page
Set an upper limit for the number of recent visitors to show. Recent visitor records are cleaned out on a regular basis, so keep this to a reasonably small number. Somewhere between 5 to 30 is ideal.
Show Last Post on Profile Page
Showing the last post on a member profile can cause large table scans which leads to table locking. This may increase load time on your forums as well as the load of your server. This option should only be enabled for smaller forums.
Signature Soft-Linebreak Character Limit
When counting the number of lines in a signature, this setting controls the number of characters that can be displayed before text wraps in the browser and is displayed as multiple lines. Once this value is surpassed, the run of text will be counted as multiple lines.
The value in this setting should be based on the number of normal-sized characters. Other sized characters will be scaled appropriately to this setting.
Allow Users to 'Ignore' Moderators
Allow users to add Moderators and Administrators to their ignore list?
User Profile: Album Options |
vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > User Profile: Album Options
Albums Per Page
When listing multiple albums on one page, this controls how many will be displayed before pagination occurs.
Number of Albums to display in the Users Profile
The Maximum Number of Albums to Display on the Users' Profile Pages
Pictures Per Page
When viewing an album, this controls how many pictures are displayed before pagination occurs.
Picture Moderation
When enabled, all new pictures are placed into moderation. This can also be enabled in usergroup permissions.
Album Thumbnail Size
The maximum height and width of thumbnails in the album system. Each picture's aspect ratio will be maintained when it is thumbnailed.
Caption Preview Length
The amount of characters from a picture's caption that will be shown when a user hovers over the picture.
Number of Pictures that can be Uploaded Simultaneously
This controls the number of pictures users can upload simultaneously. They will not be able to violate any album- or usergroup-implied size limits if you set this value too large.
Maximum Pictures per Album
You may choose to limit the number of pictures that a user can have in one album. This is primarily useful for encouraging your users to have albums for smaller topics, but it does have minor performance considerations as well. Setting this to 0 disables the limit.
Enable Picture Comments
Set this option to yes if you would like to enable commenting on album and group pictures. Comments are associated with the picture itself, so comments will be shown anywhere the picture is shown.
Moderate Picture Comments
When enabled, all new picture comments are placed into moderation. This can also be enabled in usergroup permissions.
Default Picture Comments Per-Page
This setting allows you to define the default number of picture comments displayed per-page with a picture.
Maximum Picture Comments Per-Page
This setting allows you to limit the number of picture comments users may display per page with a picture.
Allowed BB Code Tags in Picture Comments
This setting allows you to enable and disable the use of various BB codes in picture comments.
User Profile: Style Customization Options |
vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > User Profile: Style Customization Options
Allowed Fonts
The list of allowed fonts for profile style customizations. Each font must be on its own line.
Allowed Font Sizes
The list of allowed fonts size for profile style customizations. Put each font size on its own line. You may use any size that is valid in CSS.
Allowed Border Widths
The list of allowed border width sizes for profile style customizations. Put each border width size on its own line.
Allowed Padding
The list of allowed padding sizes for profile style customizations. Put each padding size on its own line.
User Profile: Visitor Messaging Options |
vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > User Profile: Visitor Messaging Options
Maximum Characters Per Visitor Message
Maximum characters to allow in a visitor message. Set this to 0 for no limit.
Default Visitor Messages Per-Page
This setting allows you to define the default number of messages displayed per-page in the user profiles.
Maximum Visitor Messages Per-Page
This setting allows you to limit the number of messages users may display per page in the user profiles.
Visitor Message Moderation
When enabled, all new visitor messages are placed into moderation. This can also be enabled in usergroup permissions.
Allowed BB Code Tags in Visitor Messages
This setting allows you to enable and disable the use of various BB codes in visitor messages.
Social Group Options |
vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > Social Group Options
Social Group Name Maximum Length
Enter the maximum number of characters allowed in social group names. Names longer than this limit will be rejected.
Social Group Message Moderation
When enabled, all new group messages are placed into moderation. This can also be enabled in usergroup permissions.
Enable Social Group Messages
If you select this option, members of each group will be able to post messages in the group. Users who are not part of the group will still be able to read the messages.
Allow Groups Owners to Force New Group Messages into Moderation Queue
This option allows a group owner (with the Manage Own Social Groups' Content Permission) to set the group so that all Group Messages are automatically sent to the moderation queue.
Enable Social Group Pictures
If this option is selected, any users with albums will be able to add pictures from an album to groups they belong to.
Allow Join-to-View Groups
When set, this allows the creator of a group the option to only show contents (messages, pictures) of the group to members of that group (or Administrators and Moderators).
Allowed BB Code Tags in Social Group Messages
This setting allows you to enable and disable the use of various BB codes in group messages.
Allow Owners to Delete Social Group if Empty
This option will allow any group owner to delete a Social Group if they are the only member of that group (even if they lack the "Can Delete Own Social Groups" permission)
User Picture Options |
Note:
This is the section for the global switch, use the usergroup permissions to setup the permissions on a usergroup basis.
- Avatars Enabled
Use this option to enable/disable the overall use of avatars.
Avatars are small images chosen by the user and displayed under usernames in thread display and user info pages.
You can enable/disable avatars on a per-usergroup level by disabling their ability to use any avatar categories under Avatars > Avatar Manager. You can enable/disable custom avatars in Usergroups > Usergroup Manager.
Set this option to 'no' to turn it off.
- Avatar Display Width
How many columns of avatars do you wish to display of pre-defined avatars in the User Control Panel to the user when selecting a pre-defined avatar?
Example: 5
- Avatars Per-Page
How many avatars do you want to display per-page on the 'Edit Avatar' page within the profile editor, broken into columns by the Avatar Display Width setting above?
Example: 10
- Profile Pictures Enabled
Use this option to enable/disable the overall use of profile pictures.
Profile pictures are small images (although usually larger than avatars) that users can upload to their profile pages. You can set this per-usergroup with the Can Upload Profile Pictures setting in Usergroup Manager.
Set this option to 'no' to turn it off.
Note:
To manage your pre-defined avatars, or to control the storage of avatars, go to the Avatars section.
User Reputation |
- Enable User Reputation system
This is the global switch for the reputation system. If you disable this, users will not be able to rate each other nor will their scores be visible. - Default Reputation
This is the reputation score that new users will start out with. - Number of Reputation Levels to Display
When a user enters their User CP, they will see a list of their most recent reputation ratings. This affects how many of the latest ratings to display. - Administrator's Reputation Power
If you wish to have administrator's wield a certain reputation power independent of their calculated score, enter it here. Otherwise, set this to 0 and they will use the same calculations as everyone else. - Register Date Factor
The number of reputation points that a user is able to give or take is dependant on several factors, with the length they have been registered as one of them. A user's power is first initialized at 1 and then this factor and the factors that follow are used to increase it. For example if you set this to 365, every 365 days that the user has been a member of your forum, they would gain one point. So if they have been a member for five years, they would gain 5 points of power for a total of 6. - Post Count Factor
The amount of posts that a user has can also affect their reputation power. Set this to number of posts that you want to award one point for. For example, set this to 50 and for a user with 500 posts, they would gain 10 points of power. - Reputation Point Factor
The users current reputation score can also affect their reputation power. Set this to 100 and a user with a reputation of 1000 would gain 10 points of reputation power. If you set any of the power factors to 0, that will effectively remove that factor from having an effect on the user's reputation power. - Minimum Post Count
If the reputation system is enabled, anyone will be able to rate a post but only users with a post count above the level you set here will be able to actually give points or take points from another user. - Minimum Reputation Count
As with the post count above, a user must have a reputation above this level to be able to give or take points from another user's score. - Daily Reputation Clicks Limit
This sets how many unique members that a forum user will be able to rate in any 24 hour period. Administrators can rate as many people as they wish. - Reputation User Spread
This setting dictates how many unique members that a user must rate before they are able to rate the same member twice. The goal of this setting is to stop a member from either artificially bumping or dropping a user by repeatedly rating their posts.
User Notes Options |
The vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > User Notes Options setting group allows you to set up the parsing for a usernote. You can turn on or off the use of BB Code, Smilies, [IMG] tags and usage of HTML.
Note:
The ability to use usernotes, read them, read your own, allow others to reply or manage them is a usergroup setting. Do not forget to walk through each usergroup to set the use and permissions of usernotes correctly.
- Allow vB Code in User Notes
If you want to markup the text with BOLD or ITALIC or other common vBulletin BB Code tags, set this option to Yes.
- Allow Smilies in User Notes
If you want a smilie like :) parsed to an image, set this option to Yes.
- Allow [IMG] Code in User Notes
If you want to allow insertion of images into the usernotes, set this option to Yes.
- Allow HTML in User Notes
If you even want to allow HTML to be used, set this option to Yes.
Warning! If you allow HTML to be inserted, you are open for risks of abuse - it is strongly not recommended.
User Listing Options |
This section of the Admin Control Panel allows you to set options for the Member List including:
- Members List Enabled
This allows users to view all users who belong to those usergroups that have "Viewable on Memberlist" enabled (See Usergroups & Permissions). - Minimum Posts
You can define a minimum post count that a user must reach before they are displayed on the memberlist. - Member List Field Options
Allows you to select which User Profile fields are viewable on the memberlist. - Members Per Page
The number of records per page that will be shown by default in the members list before the results are split over multiple pages. - Allow Advanced Searches
Allow the use of the advanced search tool for the Member List. If turned off, members will only be able to search by username.
User Banning Options |
This section of the Admin Control Panel allows you to set the Banning Options for your forum along with IP bans.
- Enable Banning Options
Banning allows you to stop certain IP addresses and email addresses from registering and posting to the forum. - Banned IP Addresses
Use this option to prevent certain IP addresses from accessing any part of your board.
If you enter a complete IP address (242.21.11.7), only that IP will be banned.
If you enter a partial IP (243.21.11. or 243.21.11), any IPs that begin with the partial IP will be banned. For example, banning 243.21.11 will prevent 243.21.11.7 from accessing your board. However, 243.21.115.7 would still be able to access your board.
You may also use an '*' as a wildcard for increased flexibility. For example, if you enter 243.21.11*, many IPs will be banned including: 243.21.11.7, 243.21.115.7, 243.21.119.225.Warning:Use this option with caution. Entering an incorrect IP can result in banning yourself or other genuine users from your forums. - Banned Email Addresses
Email address ban lists: You may ban any email addresses from registering and posting. Type in the complete email address ([email protected]), or use a partial email address (as in @example.com).
Note that partial email addresses are matched from the end of the address unless you enable 'Aggressive Email Banning' below. Therefore if you ban @example.com you will ban [email protected], but if you ban @example that user will not be banned. If you enable 'Aggressive Email Banning', [email protected] would be banned by @example.
If the email address of a user attempting to register or change their email address matches any of the addresses you specify here will see a no-permission error. For example, if you have banned 'example.com' then a user attempting to use '[email protected]' will be rejected. - Aggressive Email Banning
If this option is enabled, when checking for banned emails, incomplete addresses are matched anywhere in the email address, not just the end.
For example, if this option is enabled 'yahoo' will block any email address with 'yahoo' in it. If this option is disabled, no emails will be banned unless the ban was changed to 'yahoo.com'. - Allow User to Keep Banned Email Addresses
If you ban an email address and a user already uses that address, a problem will occur. Using this option, you can specify whether the user will have to enter a new email address in their profile when they next modify their email address, or whether the user can just keep the email address which you have banned. - Tachy Goes to Coventry
This option allows you to effectively add a user or users to every member's 'Ignore List'. However, users in this list can still see their own posts and threads...
Enter a list of userid numbers, separated by spaces (for example: 4 12 68 102).Note:If you change this option, you need to rebuild thread and then forum information in Maintenance > Update Counters.
BB Code Settings |
- Enabled Built-in BB Code Tags
This setting allows you to enable and disable various built-in BB code tags in vBulletin. The BB Codes that can be enabled or disabled here are:
Basic BB Code (Bold, Italic, Underline)
Color BB Code
Size BB Code
Font BB Code
Alignment BB Code
List BB Code
Link BB Code
Code BB Code
PHP BB Code
HTML BB CodeNote:Disabling a BB code tag will prevent it from working anywhere on the forum, including signatures, private messages, user notes etc. - Maximum [CODE] Lines
When a user posts a block of [CODE], [PHP] or [HTML] in one of their messages, the system will place it in a box, which expands to contain their message.
This value controls the number of lines at which the box stops adding height and inserts a scrollbar.
- Allow BB Code in Non Forum Specific Areas
Allow users to include BB code in non-forum-specific areas? (Such as [b], [i] etc.) - Allow Smilies in Non Forum Specific Areas
Allow users to include smilies in Non Forum Specific Areas? - Allow [IMG] Code in Non Forum Specific Areas
Allow users to include [IMG] codes in Non Forum Specific Areas? - Allow HTML in Non Forum Specific Areas
Allow users to include raw HTML code in Non Forum Specific Areas?Warning:Enabling this setting is strongly not recommended.
Message Posting and Editing Options |
- Quick Reply
If you enable Quick Reply, a box will appear on the showthread.php page allowing users to reply to the current thread without needing to load the full newreply.php page.
When Quick Reply is enabled, you may specify whether or not users must click the Quick Reply icon in order to start typing in the Quick Reply editor.
If you choose not to require a click, the system will not know to which post a user is replying, making both the threaded and hybrid display modes nonsensical.Note:We strongly recommend that you set the option to require a click if you use Quick Reply and have Threaded Mode available on your forums. - Quick Edit
By enabling Quick Edit, a click on the Edit button in a post will open an editor within that post via AJAX if the visitor's browser is compatible.
Users may use the full editor by clicking the 'Go Advanced' button in the inline editor. - Multi-Quote Enabled
If this option is enabled, an additional button will appear on posts. A user may click as many of these buttons as they wish. Once they click a reply button, the content of each of the selected posts will be quoted and shown in the reply window. - Multi-Quote Quote Limit
Enter a value to limit the number of quotes that can be created with Multi-Quote, once this limit is reached the user will be unable to add any more quotes.Note:The Quote BB code can still be entered manually, this is not a limit on the number of quotes in a post. - Minimum Characters Per Post
If this number is set to a value greater than 0, users must enter at least that number of characters in each new post.Note:Setting this to 0 will not completely disable the minimum characters per post check. Users must always enter at least 1 character. - Maximum Characters Per Post
Posts that contain more characters than the value specified here will be rejected with a message telling the user to shorten their post.
Set the value to 0 to disable this function. - Maximum Characters Per Thread/Post Title
Thread and post titles will be limited to this number of characters. Please choose a value larger than 0 and less than 251. - Ignore Words in [QUOTE] Tags For Min Chars Check
Setting this option to 'YES' will cause the system to not count words in [QUOTE] tags towards the total number of characters posted.
The primary use for this is to prevent users posting messages with enormous quotes and a single short word of their own. - Automatically Quote Post / Thread Title
Setting this to 'Yes' will automatically fill the title field of new posts with either the thread or the parent post title, prefixed by 'Re: '.
The user may specify their own title if they want to do so. - Maximum Images Per Post
When a new post is submitted or edited vBulletin will check the number of images and smilies in the text and reject it if the number is greater than the value specified here.
Set the value to 0 to disable this function. - Prevent 'SHOUTING'
Prevent your users 'shouting' in their thread titles/message text by changing all-uppercase titles with at least this many characters to capitalization only on the first letters of some words.
Set the value to 0 to disable this function.Note:Disable this for some international forums with different character sets, as this may cause problems. - Minimum Time Between Posts
You may prevent your users from flooding your forum with posts by activating this feature.
By enabling floodcheck, you disallow users from making another post within a given time span of their last posting. In other words, if you set a floodcheck time span of 30 seconds, a user may not post again within 30 seconds of making his last post.Recommended: 30 seconds. Type the number of seconds only. Enter 0 to disable this function.Note:Administrators and moderators are exempt from floodcheck. - Time Limit on Editing of Thread Title
Specify the time-limit (in minutes) within which the thread title may be edited by the user whom started the thread. - Time Limit on Adding a Poll to a Thread
Specify the time-limit (in minutes) within which the thread may have a poll added to it. - Time Limit on Editing of Posts
Time limit (in minutes) to impose on editing of messages. After this time limit only moderators will be able edit or delete the message. 1 day is 1440 minutes.
Set the value to 0 to allow users to edit their posts indefinitely. - Time to Wait Before Starting to Display 'Last Edited by...'
Time limit (in minutes) to allow user to edit the post without the "Last edited by..." message appearing at the bottom of the edited post. - Log IP Addresses
For security reasons, you may wish to display the IP address of the person posting a message. - Post Edit History
Enable this option to log the previous versions of posts when they are edited.
Edits will not be logged if an 'edited by' notice is not displayed or updated. This occurs in the following situations:- The editing user is in a group that does not show edited by notices and no reason for editing is specified.
- The post is edited quickly enough after being posted to trigger the Time to Wait Before Starting to Display 'Last Edited by...' option.
Note:This will increase the amount of disk space used by vBulletin for database storage.
Message Posting Interface Options |
- Enable Clickable Message Formatting Controls
This global switch allows you to set the available message formatting toolbar and clickable smilies for the Full Editor, Quick Reply and Quick Edit individually. The option set for each one here is the maximum toolbar level available for each area.
- Smiliebox Total Smilies
How many smilies should be displayed in the smiliebox before the user is prompted to click for the more smilies popup window?
Set this value to 0 if you would like to hide the clickable smiliebox completely. - Smiliebox Smilies Per Row
If the smiliebox is enabled, how many smilies should be shown per row of the box? - Smilie Menu Total Smilies
Use this option to set the number of smilies that will appear in the WYSIWYG popup smilie menu before the 'show all smilies' link is displayed.
Set this value to 0 if you would like to hide the popup smilie menu completely.
Message Attachment Options |
- Limit Space Taken Up By Attachments (Total)
Use this option to limit the total combined amount of disk space in bytes that all attachments can occupy.
Set the option to 0 to have no disk space limit. - Attachments Per Post
Number of files that may be attached to a single post. Set to '0' to have no limit. - Attachment Upload Inputs
This option sets how many attachment upload input boxes are displayed on the upload form. - Attachment URL Inputs
This option sets how many attachment URL input boxes are displayed on the upload form. - Allow Deletion of Attachments Beyond Edit Time Limit
Allow users to delete attachments, even if the post edit time limit has been exceeded? If you have attachment quotas enabled then you will need this option enabled to allow users to delete attachments once they reach their quota. The user will still need permission to edit posts in the forum for this to apply. - Allow Deletion of Attachments in Closed Threads
Allow users to delete attachments from threads that are closed? If you have attachment quotas enabled then you might need this option enabled to allow users to delete attachments once they reach their quota. The user will still need permission to edit posts in the forum for this to apply. If the above option is set to NO then this option will only apply up to the edit time limit setting. - Allow Duplicate Attached Images
This setting only checks for attachments posted by the user that is making the post. - Resize Images
If an image is larger than your maximum allowed dimensions or filesize, an attempt to resize it will be tried. This may fail if the image is too large to be successfully processed or if the image type is not supported for resizing. When this option is enabled, you should limit the Attachment Input options above to one, otherwise the uploading of multiple large images by one user could strain your server. - View Attached Images Inline
If thumbnails are enabled, any image without a thumbnail will be shown as a link, regardless of this setting's status, unless the image size happens to be within the thumbnail size limits.
Set this to 'No' if you want to preserve bandwidth or server processor resources. - Thumbnail Creation
If your version of PHP supports image functions, you may enable the creation of thumbnails for images. This is the master switch to enable/disable thumbnail display. Go to Attachments -> Attachment Manager -> Edit -> Display to choose what image types will be thumbnailed. You will need to go to Maintenance -> Update Counters -> Rebuild Attachment Thumbnails after changing this setting. - Thumbnail Size
Maximum width and height that the thumbnail can have. The image will be proportionately resized so that the longest side is no larger than this setting. If you change this setting, you will need to go to Maintenance -> Update Counters -> Rebuild Attachment Thumbnails. - Thumbnail Quality
Quality of JPG thumbnails. 75 is a good balance between file size and image quality. - Thumbnails Per Row
How many thumbnails do you wish to display per line on user's post, assuming you allow more than one attachment per post? - Thumbnail Color
This setting controls the border and label color in the Thumbnail Creation option above. Please specify the color using standard Web Colors. - Use Image Lightbox
Use the lightbox for quick display of attached image thumbnails rather than instantly loading the full size image on a new page.
Poll and Thread Rating Options |
- Maximum Poll Options
Maximum number of options a user can select for the poll.
Set this option to 0 to allow any number of options. - Poll Option Length
Maximum length that a poll option can be. - Update Thread Last Post on Poll Vote
If you set this option to 'Yes' the thread's last post time will be updated when a vote is placed, thereby returning it to the top of its parent forum listing.Note:This option can cause confusion. The last post time of a thread will be changed with no visible post. - Required Thread Rating Votes to Show Rating
This option specifies the number of thread rating votes that must be cast of a particular thread before the current rating is displayed on forumdisplay.php and showthread.php. - Allow Thread Rating Vote Changes
Allow users to change their original rating of a thread
Message Searching Options |
- Search Engine Enabled
Allow searching for posts and threads within the forums. This is a relatively server-intensive process so you may want to disable it if you have problems.
- Minimum Time Between Searches
The minimum time (in seconds) that must expire before the user can perform a new search.
Set this to 0 to allow users to search as frequently as they want. - Search Results Posts Per Page
Number of successful search results to display per page. - Maximum Search Results to Return
Any search results over this number will be discarded. - Search Index Minimum Word Length
When using the vBulletin default search, this option limits the size of indexed words. The smaller this number is, the larger your search index, and conversely your database is going to be.Note:When using the Fulltext search, this option limits the size of words that may be searched for. Smaller words take longer to search for as they are more common. MySQL Fulltext has its own minimum word length as well that must be changed at the server level. - Automatic Similar Thread Search
Setting this option will cause a search for similar threads to be automatically done when a new thread is posted. These similar threads are then linked to from the newly posted thread's page. This can have an effect on performance. - Search Result Sharing
In order to conserve resources, vBulletin will allow search results to be shared among users for one hour. The downside of this is that search results can appear out of order if a thread is updated in the interim. - Similar Threads Relevance Threshold
For a post to be matched in a search for similar threads, it must have a score of this number or greater, per searchable word. For more information on how post scores are determined, see the Search Algorithms section. - Words to be excluded from search
If there are special words that are very common for your forum, you may wish to remove them from being searchable. Searching for very common words on a large forum can be server intensive. Separate each word with a space.
Message Searching Options (vBulletin Internal Search) |
Words to be Included Despite Character Limit
If there are special words that are important for your forum but are outside the word length limits you specified above, you may enter them here so that they will be included in the search index.
For example, a web-programming forum with a minimum word length of 4 characters might want to include 'PHP' in the search index, even though the word is only 3 characters long.
Separate each word with a space.
Search Index Maximum Word Length
Enter the maximum word length that the search engine is to index. The larger this number is, the larger your search index, and conversely your database is going to be.
Allow Search Wild Cards (yes/no)
Allow users to use a star (*) in searches to match partial words? (Eg: 'bu*' matches 'building' and '*bu*' matches 'vBulletin').
Message Searching Relevance Options (vBulletin Internal Search) |
Note:
These settings only apply if you are using the vBulletin Search Engine. They do not apply if you are using Full Text Search.
- Search Relevance Multi-Word Match Bonus Score
If the search query is for multiple words, this number will be added to the score for the item each time another word from the query is found. - Search Relevance Date Score
The newest item in the result set will score this number, with the score decreasing to 0 for the oldest item in the result set. - Search Relevance Thread Title Score
Score for a word appearing in the thread title. - Search Relevance Post Title Score
Score for a word appearing in the post title. - Search Relevance Reply Score
Amount to multiply the number of replies in a thread to get the score for the thread. - Search Relevance Reply Function
Allows you to specify a function to operate on the number of replies of a thread.
Works like: = func($thread[replies]) * $replyscore - Search Relevance View Score
Amount to multiply the number of views of a thread to get the score for the thread. - Search Relevance Views Function
Allows you to specify a function to operate on the number of views of a thread.
Works like: = func($thread[views]) * $viewscore - Search Relevance Rating Score
Amount to multiply the average rating of a thread to get the score for the thread. - Search Relevance Rating Function
Allows you to specify a function to operate on the average rating of a thread.
Works like: = func($thread[rating]) * $ratingscore
Tagging Options |
- Enable Thread Tagging
This is a global option to enable or disable the thread tagging system. You may choose which usergroups can apply tags to threads in the usergroup permissions section. - Tag Minimum Length
The minimum number of characters in a tag name. This can be between 1 and 100. - Tag Maximum Length
The maximum number of characters in a tag name. This can be between 0 and 100. - Thread Tag Banned Words
These words will be checked in addition to those listed in includes/searchwords.php to form a list of words whose use is banned in tagging.
Separate each word with a space or carriage return. - Thread Tag Allowed Words
Words entered here will be allowed as tags, regardless of whether or not their use would be otherwise disallowed due to length, censorship, commonality etc.
If a word is specified in the 'Banned' words group and here, it will be allowed.
Separate each word with a space or carriage return. - Tag Separators
This option allows you to specify additional tag separators. Regardless of the value here, a comma will always be used as a separator.
Separate each tag separators with a space. If you would like to use a space in a tag separator, click the '?' for information on the advanced separator syntax. - Maximum Tags per Thread
The maximum total tags per thread. No users may add more tags than this to an individual thread.
0 disables this. - Maximum Tags Applied by Thread Starter
The maximum number of tags the thread starter can apply. Even if this setting allows it, the number of tags in a thread cannot exceed the "Maximum Tags per Thread" setting.
0 disables this limit. To prevent a user from tagging a thread, use user group permissions. - Maximum Tags Applied by Other Users
The maximum number of tags the users other than the thread starter can apply. Even if this setting allows it, the number of tags in a thread cannot exceed the "Maximum Tags per Thread" setting.
0 disables this limit. To prevent a user from tagging a thread, use user group permissions. - Force Tags to be Lower Case
If you enable this option, "A" through "Z" will be replaced with "a" through "z" in tag names. Other characters will not be changed. - Tag Cloud: Number of Tags
The maximum number of tags to display in the tag cloud. - Tag Cloud: Number of Levels
The number of levels to be shown in the tag cloud.
By default, there are 5 levels named level1 to level5, with the font size growing from its smallest size at level 1 to its largest at level 5.
Increasing this value above 5 requires a template change. - Tag Cloud: Cache Time
Amount of time in minutes before the tag cloud data cache is regenerated.
A value of 0 will generate the tag cloud on each view. - Tag Cloud: Usage History (Days)
The number of days worth of data that should be used to generate the usage-based tag cloud here.
Tags added more than this many days ago will not change the size of the link in the cloud. - Tag Cloud: Build Usergroup
The tag cloud pulls together data from threads in many forums. Users may not be able to see all the threads that make up the tag cloud results. With this option, you can force the tag cloud to be built as if it were viewed by a particular usergroup.
Live permission checking is the most accurate, but disables the above specified caching. - Enable Search Tag Cloud
This option controls whether a tag cloud relating to the frequency of tag searches is shown at the bottom of the advanced search.
A usage-based tag cloud is always shown here. - Search Tag Cloud: History (Days)
Amount of days that the system will keep a record of tag searches for use in the search tag cloud.
0 means to use all data available.
Forums Home Page Options |
- Script Name for Forum Home Page
This option allows you to set the script name of the page that acts as your forum home page. By default this will be 'index' (meaning index.php but you may want to call it 'forum' or whatever else you like for your own purposes.Note:If you change this value you must manually rename the forumhome PHP script to match the new value. - Display Logged in Users?
Displays those users that have been active in the last XXX seconds on the home page, where XXX is the value specified by your Cookie Time-Out option (Default is last 15 minutes). Not recommended for sites with hundreds of simultaneous users. The Alphabetical option requires more resources than the random option. - Display Today's Birthdays?
Displays today's birthdays for those usergroups that have birthday display enabled (see User Groups->Usergroup Manager). - Display Calendar Events?
Choose the number of upcoming days that you wish to display upcoming events from.
Set to 0 to disable upcoming events. - Display Custom Holidays
Display upcoming custom holidays in the above events list? - Upcoming Event Type
Choose the method by which you wish to display the upcoming events if the "Display Calendar Events" option is enabled. - Active Members Time Cut-Off
Enter a number of days here that represents a threshold for 'active' members. If a user has visited the board within the past number of days you specify, they are considered 'active'.
Enter '0' to treat all members as 'active'. - Active Members Options
Using the boxes here, you can choose to show only birthdays for those members considered 'active', and to show or hide the total number of 'active' members.
A member is considered 'active' if they have visited the board within the number of days specified in 'Active Members Time Cut-Off'.
Forum Listings Display Options |
- Depth of Forums - Forum Home
Depth to show forums on forum home forum listings. If you set this value to '2', forum listings will show the current forum level and any child forums one level below (etc.) - Depth of Forums - Forum Display
This setting does the same job as the setting above, but this time for forumdisplay.php pages, rather than forum home. - Depth of Sub-Forums
If you have forums below the depth specified in the 'Depth of Forums' settings above, you can display them as sub-forum links in each forum's display area.
Set this value to 0 if you want to display no sub-forums. - Show Forum Descriptions in Forum Listings
Show forum descriptions below forum titles in forum listings? - Show Private Forums
Select 'No' here will hide private forums from users who are not allowed to access them. Users who do have permission to access them will have to log in before they can see these forums too.
This option applies to any forum listing, including the Forum Jump menu, and Search Results. - Show Lock Icons to Users
Do you wish to have the new post indicators shown on the index page (on.gif and off.gif) be shown with locks to guests and other members who have no permission to post? - Last Thread Title Maximum Displayed Characters
This value will chop the title of the last thread posted down to a specific number of characters for its display on a forum listing.
A value of 0 will not trim the titles at all. - Show Moderator Column
Turns the moderator column on and off for forumhome, forumdisplay and usercp. - Show Thread Prefix in Last Post Column?
You may choose to show a thread's prefix in the last post column, along with the title. This will increase the size of the data included in that column, however.
Forum Display Options (forumdisplay) |
- Enable Forum Description
This option displays the forum description in the navbar. Helps visitors to know what the topic of a forum is, as well as possibly increasing search engine rankings. - Show Users Browsing Forums
Enabling this option will show the current users browsing a particular forum on forumdisplay.php while adding one query. This can have an effect on performance. The Alphabetical option requires more resources than the random option. - Maximum Displayed Threads Before Page Split
The number of threads to display on a forum page before splitting it over multiple pages.
Note: This number must be at least 1. - Show Sticky Threads on All Pages
Select 'Yes' to show sticky threads on every forumdisplay.php page, regardless of page number. Set 'No' to only display them on page one. - Highlight Threads in Which User Has Posted
When this feature is enabled, a logged in user will see an 'arrow' (or whatever graphic you choose) on the folder icons (hot folders, new folders, etc.) next to the threads that they have posted in. - Hot Threads Enabled
Hot threads indicate threads with a lot of activity. - Hot Threads Qualifying Views
If 'Hot Threads' are enabled, threads with the specified number of views or more will be shown as hot. - Hot Threads Qualifying Posts
If 'Hot Threads' are enabled, threads with the specified number of posts or more will be shown as hot. - Multi-Page Thread Links Enabled
Link to individual pages of a thread spanning multiple pages on the forum listing? - Multi-Page Thread Maximum Links
When linking to multiple pages in the forum display, this allows you to set the cut-off point on which long posts stop adding more page numbers and are replaced by 'more...' - Length of Thread Preview Text
This setting allows you to specify how many characters of the first post in a thread to display in the 'title' tag of the thread title on the forumdisplay page.
Set this value to 0 to disable thread previews. - Group Announcements
Combine a forum's announcements into one listing, where the newest announcement is displayed?
Setting this to No lists all active announcements individually in their applicable forums
Thread Display Options (showthread) |
- Show Users Browsing Threads
Enabling this option will show the current users browsing a particular thread on showthread.php while adding one query. This can have an effect on performance. The Alphabetical option requires more resources than the Random option. - Maximum Displayed Posts Before Page Split
The number of posts to display on a thread page in linear or hybrid mode before splitting it over multiple pages.
Note: This number must be at least 1. - User-Settable Maximum Displayed Posts
If you would like to allow the user to set their own maximum posts per thread then give the options separated by commas. Leave this option blank to force users to use the 'Maximum Displayed Posts Before Page Split' setting above this option.
Example setting: 10,20,30,40 - Show Default Post Icon
If you would like to use a default icon for messages without an icon, enter the path to the image here. - Number of Characters Before Wrapping Text
If you want posts to automatically insert spaces into long words to make them wrap after a certain number of characters, set the number of characters in the box above.
If you do not want this to occur, enter 0.Note:This should be set to 0 with some language sets - Check Thread Rating
If enabled, this option will check if a user voted on a thread and show their vote if they have. Otherwise, they will see the voting options even if they are not able to vote again. This can have an effect on performance. - Check Thread Subscription
If enabled, this option will notify the user that they are subscribed to a thread by displaying a small icon when viewing forumdisplay and search results. It will also change the "Subscribe to this thread" text on showthread to "Unsubscribe from this thread". This can have an effect on performance. - Show Similar Threads?
Set this value to 'Yes' if you would like to see 'similar threads' displayed on the show thread page.Note:This setting will only work if you have 'Automatic Similar Thread Search' enabled in the message searching options section. - Post Elements
There is optional user information that you may display on each post. These options require a bit of processing time to calculate. This information includes Age, Reputation Power and Infractions - Enable Social Bookmarking
Use this switch to quickly disable the display of the bookmarks section of the page, on which links to social bookmarking sites (set up through the Social Bookmarking Manager) are shown.Note:Social bookmarking links will only be displayed in guest-viewable threads.
Threaded / Hybrid Mode Options (showthread) |
- Enable Threaded / Hybrid Mode
Use this setting to enable or completely disable the Threaded and Hybrid thread display modes. - Use Threaded Mode by Default
Set this value to 'Yes' if you would like users (who have not explicitly set a preference) to view threads in the threaded display mode.Note:This setting will have no effect if 'Enable Threaded / Hybrid Mode' is set to 'No'. - Threaded Mode: Posts Depth
When in the threaded display mode, a list of posts within the current thread is displayed at the bottom of the page. This option allows you to set how 'deep' this list displays beyond the currently selected post. - Threaded Mode: Maximum Cached Posts
When in the threaded display mode, a list of posts within the current thread is displayed at the bottom of the page. This option allows you to set how 'deep' into the tree of posts that vBulletin uses the Javascript 'caching' mechanism. This makes the initial download larger, but means that the page does not have to be reloaded for every post that is viewed. - Threaded Mode: Trim Titles
This value will chop the title of the thread titles in the viewing pane down to a specific number of characters. A value of 0 will not trim the titles at all.
Private Messaging Options |
Private Messaging Enabled (yes/no)
Turns the entire private messaging system on and off.
Instant Messaging Support - Check for New Private Messages (yes/no)
Selecting 'Yes' for this option will cause the system to check the private message database every time a user loads a page, and will display a visible prompt if a new message has just been saved.
Maximum Characters Per Private Message (default: 5000)
Maximum characters to allow in a private message.
Set this to 0 for no limit.
Floodcheck - Minimum Time Between Messages (default: 60)
Private Message Flood Checking. Select the minimum time that must pass before a user can send another private message. This is to prevent a single user 'spamming' by sending lots of messages very quickly.
Set this to 0 to disable the option.
Default Messages Per-Page (default: 50)
This setting allows you to define the default number of messages displayed per-page on the private messages listings pages.
Maximum Messages Per-Page (default: 100)
This setting allows you to limit the number of messages users may display per page on the private messages folder view pages.
Allow Message Icons for Private Messages (yes/no)
Allow the use of the standard message icons for private messages.
Allow vB Code in Private Messages (yes/no)
Allow users to include vB Code in their Private Messages? (Such as [b], [i] etc.)
Allow Smilies in Private Messages (yes/no)
Allows users to include smilies in their Private Messages.
Allow [IMG] Code in Private Messages (yes/no)
Allows users to include [IMG] codes in their Private Messages.
Allow HTML in Private Messages (yes/no)
Allow users to include raw HTML code in their Private Messages?
(Strongly not recommended.)
Who's Online Options |
- Who's Online Enabled
This is the master switch for the Who's Online page. If you select no, anyone who tries to access the page will be shown a no permission page.
If you select yes, you may still control usergroup permissions for Who's Online via Usergroups > Usergroup Manager. - Who's Online Refresh Period
If you set this to a value greater than 0, after that many seconds of being on the same page in Who's Online, your browser will automatically refresh the page. - Who's Online Display Guests
Controls whether guests are shown on Who's Online. Browsing registered users are always shown. - Who's Online Resolve IP Addresses
If you have permission to view IP addresses on Who's Online, this controls whether you will be shown a raw IP address or something that has been resolved to a name-based host. The name-based host cannot always be resolved, but when it can additional information about the browsing user can be more easily determined (for example, his or her Internet Service Provider).
Resolving IP addresses to names is a very slow process. If you have problems displaying Who's Online, you should disable this option. - Enable Spider Display
Controls whether spiders are shown as spiders instead of guests on Who's Online. Identification of spiders is controlled via an XML file, which is discussed here.
Identifying Spiders on Who's Online |
The file looks similar to this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <searchspiders> <spider ident="http://www.almaden.ibm.com/cs/crawler"> <name>Almaden Crawler</name> <info>http://www.almaden.ibm.com/cs/crawler/</info> <email>[email protected]</email> </spider> <spider ident="Ask Jeeves"> <name>AskJeeves</name> </spider> <spider ident="Googlebot"> <name>Google</name> </spider> <spider ident="Mediapartners-Google"> <name>Google AdSense</name> <info>https://www.google.com/adsense/faq</info> <email>[email protected]</email> </spider> Place additional spiders here! </searchspiders>
At the minimum, you should provide the ident attribute and the name tag. Other tags are simply for your information and not used. The ident attribute is used to distinguish a regular guest from a spider. The value of this attribute is looked up in the browsing user's user agent (what the user's browser identifies him/her as). If a match is found, the value of the name tag is displayed on Who's Online.
Search Engine Friendly Archive |
Forum Archive Enabled (yes/no)
The Search-Friendly Archive works only under the Apache web server with PHP compiled as a module.
It provides a basic structure that search engines can spider to grab all the content on your site.
Display Simple View of Threads (yes/no)
By default, threads in the Archive are displayed in a simple manner. Set this to no to have the real threads linked from the archive.
Forum Archive Threads Per Page (default: 250)
The number of threads to display per page in the threads listing.
This is done on a per-forum basis.
Forum Archive Posts Per Page (default: 250)
The number of posts to display per page in the thread listing.
Note:
On your own forum you can find the Archive here: http://www.yourforum.com/forumdir/archive/
(live example: http://www.vBulletin.com/forum/archive/)
(live example: http://www.vBulletin.com/forum/archive/)
Admin Control Panel Options |
Control Panel Style Folder
This setting allows you to specify an alternative style for the Admin / Moderator Control Panels, based on a folder contained within the 'cpstyles/' folder. The style you select here will be displayed to all Moderators, and any Administrators who have not expressed their own preference.
Comes default with 5 different Admin Control Panel Styles to choose from. You can set a default here, but upon login one could select the style they prefer.
Folders in the 'cpstyles' folder must contain at least the following:
- controlpanel.css
- cp_logo.gif
- cp_help.gif
Timeout Admin Login (yes/no)
After a period of inactivity, Administrators are logged out of the Admin Control Panel. If this option is set to yes, the inactivity period will be the same as the Cookie Timout setting found in vBulletin Options -> Help Cookies and HTTP Header Options (defaults to 15 minutes). If this option is disabled, then the period will be one hour.
Logins to the admincp are more secure with this enabled.
Control Panel Quick Statistics (yes/no)
Displays the 'Quick Stats' on the main index page of the Admin Control Panel.
Forum Manager Display
There are three options for the display of the Forum Manager:
- Default - Displays all of the forums on one page but may not work on all browsers, especially if you have a large number of forums.
- Collapsible - Allows collapsing/expansion of certain forums within the forum manager. This may reduce the ease of usability of the forum manager, but will prevent rendering problems with the dropdown menus with certain browsers/operating systems.
- Single - Display a single dropdown from which you may choose the forum you wish to modify. This is most useful if you have a large number of forums.
Number of columns to display in user editor. Smaller resolutions will probably want to set this to 1.
External Data Provider |
Here you can select which type can be turned on/off. You can choose between javascript, rss and/or xml.
- Enable External Javascript
This setting allows you to enable/disable the Javascript content syndication system that allows you to embed vBulletin data in HTML pages.
If you set this option to 'yes', you can call it by going to:
http://www.example.com/forum/external.php?type=js
You could use javascript directly in your html pages to control the returned data.
- Enable RSS Syndication
This setting allows you to enable/disable the RSS 0.91, 1.0, and 2.0 content syndication system.
If you set this option to 'yes', you can call it by going to:
http://www.example.com/forum/external.php?type=rss
http://www.example.com/forum/external.php?type=rss1
http://www.example.com/forum/external.php?type=rss2
(example) There is a news-plugin, 'Good News', for Trillian which lets you use RSS feeds to get the latest information posted in your Trillian program.
- Enable Podcasting (RSS Enclosure)
This option includes the first attachment of each thread as an enclosure within RSS 2.0 feeds. If the feed is requested with &lastpost=1 appended to the url then the first attachment of the last post in the thread will be included. This is the method by which Podcasting is enabled for your forum. iTunes specific settings are configures per forum in the Forum Manager.
The iTunes specific features will be only included if a specific forum is specified via the addition of &forumids=X where X is the forumid.
- Enable XML Syndication
This setting allows you to enable/disable the XML content syndication system.
If you set this option to 'yes', you can call it by going to:
http://www.example.com/forum/external.php?type=xml
- Thread Cutoff
This value controls how many days in the past that updated threads will be chosen from. Busy forums will want a smaller number. The smallest valid value is 1 day; the default is 30 days.
- Cache Lifespan
This setting controls how long thread content will be cached. Valid settings are 1 to 1440, anything else will be treated as the default value of 60.
vBulletin uses a an internal cache system as well as a http cache to lessen the load of calls to external.php.
- Maximum External Records
This option limits the maximum amount of records that can be returned by the external data provider. By default 15 records will be returned. This option allows the user to tack on &count=X to their RSS feed to retrieve more records.
Implementing the External Data Provider |
Below are examples on how you can control what is shown on these websites.
To syndicate in a Javascript format you would call the following URL from your external site. This will require additional javascript on the external site (an example is listed below).
www.yourdomain.com/forumpath/external.php?type=js
Example Code:
<script src="http://www.yourdomain.com/forumpath/external.php?type=js" type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> <!-- for (i in threads) { document.writeln(threads[i].title + " (" + threads[i].poster + ")<br />"); } //--> </script>
The URLS to access these feeds are:
XML - www.yourdomain.com/forumpath/external.php?type=xml
RSS - www.yourdomain.com/forumpath/external.php?type=rss
RSS 1.0 - www.yourdomain.com/forumpath/external.php?type=rss1
RSS 2.0 - www.yourdomain.com/forumpath/external.php?type=rss2
You can refine the listings by specifying forumids in the path. For multiple forums separate them with a comma. This will limit the feed to the specified forums only. (Below example uses xml as type, but it works with rss, rss2, and js too)
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/external.php?type=xml&forumids=1,2,3,4
Threads will be returned in descending order based on the date of their creation. Description information will be returned from the first post of the thread.
If &lastpost=1 is added to the feed URL, threads will be returned in descending order based on the date of the last post of the thread. Description information will be returned from the last post of the thread.
If vBulletin Options > External Data Provider > Enable Podcasting is enabled, the first attachment of the post will also be returned within an <enclosure> tag. The enclosure tag is used within iTunes and other RSS aggregates to allow files to be downloaded from the feed.
Error Handling & Logging |
Log Database Errors to a File
If you would like to log all database errors to a file, enter the path to the file here. The file will be saved as {filename}.log.
Note:
Please note that the directory in which this file is to be created must be writable by the web server.
If you would like to log all failed Admin Control Panel login attempts to a file, enter the path to the file here. The file will be saved as {filename}.log
Note:
Please note that the directory in which this file is to be created must be writable by the web server.
If you would like to log all PHP fatal errors to a file, enter the path to the file here. The file will be saved as {filename}.log.
Note:
Please note that the directory in which this file is to be created must be writable by the web server.
If you would like to log all emails to a file, enter the path to the file here. The file will be saved as {filename}.log. You should only enable email logging if you suspect problems with the email system within vBulletin.
Note:
Please note that the directory in which this file is to be created must be writable by the web server.
If you would like your vBulletin error logs to be rotated when they reach a certain size, enter the maximum file size in bytes here.
1048576 bytes = 1 megabyte.
When a log file reaches this size, it will be renamed as {filename}{unix timestamp}.log and a new file will be created.
Set this value to 0 to disable log rotation.
Disable Database Error Email Sending (yes/no)
If you would like to prevent vBulletin from sending email to the $config['Database']['technicalemail'] address you specified in config.php, set this value to 'Yes'.
- Error reports about database connection errors will still be sent.
- It is not recommended that you set this value to 'Yes' unless you are logging database errors to a file. (see above)
Paid Subscriptions |
Paid Subscription Email Notification
An email will be sent to this email address when a paid subscription is purchased or reversed.
Note:
The main Paid Subscription settings are found at Paid Subscriptions > Paid Subscription Manager. The main manual section relating to Paid Subscriptions can be found here
Plugin/Hook System |
Enable Plugin/Hook System (yes/no)
This setting allows you to globally enable or disable the plugin/hook system.
The plugin/hook systems allows for insertion of arbitrary code into specific locations in the PHP files without having to edit the files (see Plugin Manager). This can be used to extend the functionality of vBulletin without hacking. When upgrading to future versions you do not have to re-apply these modifications to the original vBulletin files, making upgrading an easier task.
By switching the system off, only vBulletin-native code will be run, so it can be used to establish whether errors exist within vBulletin itself or in plugin code.
Note:
You can code these plugins yourself or download existing ones from the official resource community at http://www.vBulletin.org/. Please note that these plugins are unofficial and are not supported by Jelsoft.
Warning:
If you have attempted to import a product or a plugin and run into the problem of being unable to navigate/work with your forum or control panel you might require to update the config.php file with this variable, which will force-disable the hook system. Allowing you to restore your forum and uninstall the bad code/plugin.(Remove from the config.php file when done.)
define('DISABLE_HOOKS', true);
Spam Management |
vBulletin Anti-Spam Key Powered by Akismet
Enter a vBulletin Anti-Spam service key to enable scanning of user data where supported.
You can get an anti-spam key here: http://www.akismet.com
Spam Scanning Post Threshold
This setting controls how many of a user's posts will be scanned by the Anti-Spam Service. Once a user's post count exceeds this threshold, his or her posts will not be scanned for spam content. To always scan posts set this value to 0.
Download / Upload Options |
To download options choose Download / Upload Options from the vBulletin Options section of the admin control panel.
From there you can choose the product you wish to download, vBulletin will export a XML file that you can use at a later date to upload.
To upload settings for a product, on the same Download / Upload Options page there is a section to Import Settings XML File, from there you can choose a file to upload.
Backup / Restore Options |
This is useful when backing up a board or moving an install from one site to another, or for replicating a board from a test environment to a live site, or visa versa for testing purposes.
To download and back the settings, choose the product you wish to download from the select list and click backup.
To restore either upload the XML file from your computer or restore the XML file from your server, do that by either locating the file to upload then clicking restore or giving the path to the XML settings file on your local server, then clicking restore.
Blacklisted settings by default are ignore, though you can override that with the option during restore.
Blacklisted options are ignore because they are specific to the server and local settings and will need to be changed when moved so its better to use the local setting of the server you are restoring to, by default the following are blacklisted :
- subscriptionmethods
- attachfile
- attachpath
- usefileavatar
- avatarpath
- avatarurl
- profilepicpath
- profilepicurl
- sigpicpath
- sigpicurl
- fulltextsearch
- cookiepath
- cookiedomain
Search Type |
You set the search type here:
Admin CP -> vBulletin Options -> Search Type
By default, vBulletin will use its internal indexing feature. The results of this indexing process is stored in two tables, word and postindex. This provides a fast search mechanism but can cause problems on larger forums due to the ever increasing size of these tables. Each unique word is indexed in the word table and each occurrence of the word is indexed in the postindex table. To get around the large amount of space these tables can occupy we implemented MySQL Fulltext Search. The search type screen allows you to switch between the two of these. It is a simple toggle so submitting the screen switches between the two modes.
When switching a forum to the fulltext search mode, you will want to consider emptying the indices that the default search engine built. These indices are not used by the fulltext search and consume a large portion of your database. You should be certain that you are going to permanently use the fulltext search before removing these indices since, generally, it takes a lot of time and server load to rebuild these indices. Another consideration is during any time that the fulltext option is enabled, these indices will not be updated by any new posts. Using fulltext search for an extended period of time will leave these indices stale and you may still wish to rebuild them.
Note:
The minimum and maximum length of words to be indexed is defined by the ft_min_word_len and ft_max_word_len system variables (available as of MySQL 4.0.0). The default minimum value is four characters. The default maximum depends on your version of MySQL. If you change either value, you must rebuild your FULLTEXT indexes. For example, if you want three-character words to be searchable, you can set the ft_min_word_len variable by putting the following lines in an option file:
[mysqld]
ft_min_word_len=3
Then restart the server and rebuild your FULLTEXT indexes. Also note particularly the remarks regarding myisamchk in the instructions following this list.
For more on Fulltext Search from MySQL please visit:
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/fulltext-fine-tuning.html
[mysqld]
ft_min_word_len=3
Then restart the server and rebuild your FULLTEXT indexes. Also note particularly the remarks regarding myisamchk in the instructions following this list.
For more on Fulltext Search from MySQL please visit:
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/fulltext-fine-tuning.html
You may want to optimize the postindex and word tables afterwards by going to the Repair / Optimize Tables section of Maintenance.
Human Verification |
This system will not stop spammers who manually spam your forums as there is nothing that can prevent those users. The spammers who uses programs to mass spam are the larger issue and this system goes along way towards foiling them.
An Introduction to Human Verification |
- Image Verification - Image verification presents a series of distorted numbers and letters that the user is required to enter. Either GD2 or ImageMagick support is required from your PHP server in order to use this option. This is the classic option that most users are accustomed to encountering. Disabled users will be blocked with this option.
- Question & Answer Verification - Question & Answer verification employs a random question challenge with a predefined set of appropriate answers. The questions and answers must be defined by the administrator. This allows the questions to be tailored to the forum content as well as preventing a common set of questions from becoming prevalent across a large section of vBulletin forums. Maintaining unique questions is required for this option to be successful. This option should be accessible to any impaired user that is able to use the Internet.
- reCAPTCHA -
reCAPCTHA employs an image verification provided by recaptcha.net. Two obscured words are provided for the user to enter. This feature offers the user the option to choose an audio test.
Image Verification |
The difficulty of the image verification image can be controlled with these settings. The more options that are enabled, the more difficult it will be for your users to identify the text. Enabling a setting will cause that option to be applied to each character.
- Random Font - This option causes each letter and number to be selected from a random font.
- Random Font Size - This options causes each letter and number to be randomly sized.
- Random Slant - This option causes each letter and number to twist at a random angle to the right or the left.
- Random Color - This option causes each letter and number to appear in a random color.
- Random Shapes - This option will add random patterns and lines to the image. This option can make the image extremely difficult to discern.
Image Verification Library
vBulletin provides two options for generating the dynamic image verification image.
The first is GD, which is bundled with PHP 4.3.0 and later. The GD v2+ library is required along with having PHP compiled with freetype2 support. Having PHP compiled with freetype1 will sometimes result in the font not displaying.
The second supported library is ImageMagick v6 by ImageMagick Studio LLC. ImageMagick is an executable binary that must be installed at the server level to be called by PHP. Only the identify and convert binaries from ImageMagick are required by vBulletin. Imagemagick must be compiled with Freetype support in order to display the proper image verification.
If you do not have ImageMagick available, then your Image Verification options will look like this instead of the image at the top of the page:
Question & Answer Verification |
An unlimited amount of questions may be specified and each question may have an unspecified amount of answers.
To add a new question, select the button. Existing questions may be deleted, modified or have answers modified by selecting the controls on the right of the question.
Before adding any questions, the following screen will be shown:
New Questions |
Regular Expression - You may require the answer to match a PCRE-type regular expression. You are not required to provide answers to a question if you choose to define a regular expression as satisfying the answer. You may also offer both a regular expression and a list of answers if you wish.
(Do not start or end the expression with an escape character)
Examples:
^[A-Z]+$ - Characters from A-Z only
^[A-Z ]+$ - Characters from A-Z including space
^[A-Z0-9 ]+$- Alphanumeric characters including space
^[\x20-\x7E]+$ - ASCII characters from 32-127
See PHP.net for more information on regular expressions.
Answers may be added after the question is saved.
Adding Answers
Modifying Questions |
Regular Expression - You may require the answer to match a PCRE-type regular expression. You are not required to provide answers to a question if you choose to define a regular expression as satisfying the answer. You may also offer both a regular expression and a list of answers if you wish.
(Do not start or end the expression with an escape character)
Examples:
^[A-Z]+$ - Characters from A-Z only
^[A-Z ]+$ - Characters from A-Z including space
^[A-Z0-9 ]+$- Alphanumeric characters including space
^[\x20-\x7E]+$ - ASCII characters from 32-127
See PHP.net for more information on regular expressions.
You may add a new answer by selecting the . Existing answers can be modified or deleted by using the controls to the right of the answer.
Modifying Answers |
reCAPTCHA Verification |
Private Key - Acquired from recaptcha.net
Public Key - Acquired from recaptcha.net
Theme - There are three themes, at the time of this writing, for which the recaptcha form will display.
You can also leave the Public and Private keys blank then the default keys will be used. However, this is not recommended if there are multiple vBulletin installations on the same server. If you are leaving the keys blank, the screen will appear as follows:
Social Bookmarking |
When a user views a publicly accessible thread they will be presented with a set of links at the bottom which allow the addition of the page to admin defined social bookmarking sites.
The Social Bookmarking Manager |
Adding or Editing a Social Bookmarking Site |
- Title -Title of the Social Bookmarking Site
- Icon - A 16 x 16 icon that will be used to link to the social bookmarking site, this image should be in the miscellaneous images directory which by default is images/misc.
- Link - Link to the add page of the social bookmarking site, you can use {TITLE} and {URL} as replacements for the current page title and link.
- Display Order - The sort order for this social bookmarking site. Lower values will be displayed first.
- Active - If this is set to 'Yes' then the icon will appear at the bottom of the thread template.
Social Bookmarking Sites
vBulletin Blog |
Blog Moderators |
- Moderator Username – the name of the user that will become the moderator.
- Can Edit Blog Entries – allow blog entries to be edited.
- Can Delete Blog Entries – allow blog entries to be soft deleted.
- Can Remove Blog Entries – allow blog entries to be physically removed from the database.
- Can Moderate Blog Entries – allow blog entries to be approved as well as moderated.
- Can Edit Blog Comments – allow blog comments to be edited.
- Can Delete Blog Comments – allow blog comments to be soft deleted.
- Can Remove Blog Comments – allow blog comments to be physically removed from the database.
- Can Moderate Blog Comments – allow blog comments to be approved as well as moderated.
- Can View IP Addresses – allow IP addresses of blog entries and comments to be viewed.
Update Counters |
There are five counters that can be rebuilt:
- Rebuild Blog Post Information - this will rebuild the total comments, trackbacks and last post information for each blog entry.
- Rebuild Blog User Information - this will rebuild the total entry count for categories as well as the total entries, comments, trackbacks and last post information for each blog.
- Rebuild Blog Counters - this will rebuild the total entry count for categories, total attachments and trackbacks for a blog entry.
- Clear Parsed Text Cache - this will clear the contents of the cached parsed text. Run this if you've added a new custom BBCode or changed BBCode settings and don't want to wait for it to clear in time.
- Rebuild thumbnails - this will rebuild the thumbnails of image attachments. Run this if you did not (or could not) have thumbnails enabled in the past but wish to now or have changed thumbnail dimensions..
Permissions |
When adding / editing a usergroup at Usergroups > Usergroup Manager > Edit Usergroup in the right column you will find the following permissions:
- Can Manage Comments within Own Blog - provides the ability for users to manage their own blog comments, allowing them to both delete, edit and moderate them as they see fit.
- Can Send Pingback/Trackback - allows blog entries to ping other documents.
- Can Receive Pingback/Trackback - allows entries to receive external pingbacks / trackbacks.
- Can Search Blogs - allow blog entries and comments to be searched.
- Can View Own Blog - allow the viewing of a user's own blog.
- Can View Other's Blog - allow the viewing of other user's blog.
- Can Post New Blog Entries - allow users to post new blog entries, the can view own blog permission is required as well.
- Can Edit Own Blog Entries - allow users to edit their own blog entries.
- Can Delete Own Blog Entries - allow entries to be soft deleted.
- Can Remove Own Blog Entries - allow entries to be permanently removed from the database.
- Can Upload Attachments - allow uploading of attachments to entries.
- Can View Attachments - allow the viewing of attachments.
- Follow Blog Moderation Setting - if set to yes all blog entries will follow the global settings, if set to No then all entries will be moderated.
- Allow Smilies - allow entries to contain smilies.
- Allow BB Code - allow entries to contain bbcode.
- Allow [IMG] Code - allow entries to contain the IMG bbcode.
- Allow HTML - allow entries to contain HTML, though this isn't recommended.
- Can Post Comments to Own Blog - allow users to make comments to their own blog entries.
- Can Post Comments to Others' Blog - allow users to make comments to blogs that are not their own.
- Can Edit Own Comments - allow users to edit their own comments after they have been posted.
- Can Delete Own Comments - allow users to delete their own comments.
- Follow Blog Comment Setting - if set to yes the moderation policy will follow the current blog setting, else all comments will be moderated.
- Allow Smilies - allow comments to contain smilies.
- Allow BB Code - allow comments to contain bbcode.
- Allow [IMG] Code - allow comments to contain the IMG bbcode.
- Allow HTML - allow comments to contain HTML, though this isn't recommended.
vBulletin CMS |
Content Manager |
Publishing an article will make it viewable to users. To publish an article, select the checkbox beside the article and click the <Published> button.
Un-publishing an article will make it invisible to users. To un-publish an article, select the checkbox beside the article and click the <Un-publish> button.
To save a number of different changes to different articles, click on the <Save Changes> button.
To move an article from one section to another, select the checkbox beside the article you want to move and click the <Move> button. A popup appears with a list of sections you can move the article to. Click the section you want the article moved to. The article appears in the new section.
To delete an article, select the checkbox beside the article you want to delete and click the <Delete> button. A popup confirmation appears. Click the <Ok> button.
To edit an article and its contents, click on the name of the article. This opens the article form where you can make and save your changes to the article.
To change the order the articles appear in on the main page, select a number from the dropdown menu in the “Order” column.
To view articles in individual sections, click the <Change Section> button. This opens a popup with the name of all the sections. Select a name of the section you want to view. The page will refresh with a list of articles in that section.
- The author of the article appears in the “by” column.
- The date the article was originally written appears in the “Date” column.
- The number of views the article has received appears in the “Views” column.
- The number of comments the articles has received appears in the “Comments” column.
- To allow any user, regardless of individual section permissions, to see previews, select the “Permission Preview” checkbox.
Section Manager |
To navigate to a specific section, click on the name of the section.
To add a new section, click on the green icon with a white plus sign in the middle.
To edit an existing section, click on the pencil icon to the right of the section name.
To make the section visible to users, select the “Published” option from the published dropdown list.
To make a section invisible to users, select the “Unpublish” option from the published dropdown list.
To change the display format of the article previews, select an option from the “Content Columns” dropdown lists. The options you can choose from are:
- 1 column – article previews appear in a single column
- 2 column – article previews appear in two columns
- 3 columns – article previews appear in three columns
- 1x2 columns – a single article appears at the top of the page with two columns beneath
- 2x1 columns – two articles appear side by side at the top of the page with a single column beneath them
- Manual - a moderator sets the order in which the articles appear
- Newest First – the newest articles appears first on a page
- Newest per Section – the newest articles in each sub-section will appear first.
Note:
Note: To set the manual order of your articles, you need to edit the section on the front-end by clicking the yellow pencil icon.
The number of subsections (in a section) is displayed in the “Subsection” column.
The number of articles (in a section) is displayed in the “Content” column.
The number of views each section has received appears in the “View” column.
Category Manager |
To edit the category, click on the pencil icon to the right of the category name.
To add a new category, click on the new category button at the top of the page or the plus icon to the right of the category name. Clicking the plus sign to the right of the category name will create the new category as a subcategory of the selected category.
To delete a category, click on the red minus icon to the right of the category name.
The number of articles assigned to the category is listed in the item count column.
Grid Manager |
Grids control the overall appearance of individual sections, like the number and width of the columns that content is displayed in. To change the location of the different types of content within the grid, click on the “Layout Manager”.
To add a new grid, click on the “Add New Grid” button at the bottom of the list.
To download an existing grid, click on the <Download/Upload Grids> button at the bottom of the list. This takes you a different form.
To upload a grid from your computer, click on the <Download/Upload Grids> button at the bottom of the list. This takes you to a different form.
To edit the properties of a grid, select the “Edit” option from the “Controls” dropdown list to the right of a grid and click the <Go> button.
To edit the grid as CSS, click on the “Flatten Grid” option in the “Controls” dropdown list to the right of a grid. This takes you to a confirmation screen. Click <Yes>. This takes you to the CSS form for the selected grid. You cannot un-flatten a grid once this had been done.
To delete an existing grid, select the “Delete” option from the “Controls” dropdown list to the right of a grid and click the <Go> button.
To create a layout for the grid, select the “Create a Layout” option from the “Controls” dropdown list to the right a grid and click the <Go> button
Download/Upload Grids |
To download a grid to your computer, enter the name of the grid in the “Filename” text field and click the <Download> button.
To clear the “Filename” field, click on the <Reset> button at the bottom of the form.
To import the XML file from your computer, click on the <Choose File> button to the right of the “Either upload the XML file from your computer” text and click on the <Import> button.
To import the XML file from your server, enter the location of the file to the right of the “OR import the XML file from your server” text and click on the <Import> button.
To overwrite an existing grid with an uploaded grid, select the “Yes” radio button to the right of the “Allow overwriting of exiting grids with same name?” text.
To clear the import field, click on the <Reset> button at the bottom of the form.
Note:
-- When you upload a file it must be in XML format.
Clear CMS Cache |
The link to the CMS Cache was removed and the Cache expanded to an overall system cache for better performance.
Layout Manager |
A layout controls the location of different types of content within a grid. The overall structure of a layout is dependent on the grid it’s created for.
The name of the layout is displayed to the left.
The grid the layout is created for is listed in the “Grid” column.
To edit a chosen layout, select the “Edit” option from the “Controls” dropdown list and click the <Go> button. This opens a form containing the selected layout.
To delete a chosen layout, select the “Delete” option from the “Controls” dropdown list and click the <Go> button. This opens a popup confirmation. Click <Ok>. This deletes the selected layout.
Layout Form |
The title of the layout goes in the “Title” text field.
To change the grid the layout is using, select a new grid from the grid dropdown menu.
To add a widget to the grid, select a widget from the scrolling list beneath the “Widget” header and click the >> button to the right. The widget appears in the grid.
To change the position of a widget or the content, click and hold your mouse over the widget or content you want to move. Drag the box to its new location and click <Save>.
Widget Manager |
Widgets are the smaller applications that fill in the layout content. Where the layout content organizes the widgets and orders how they appear, it’s the individual widgets that define what sorts of data are displayed. Widgets can be added, deleted, and edited through the Widget Manager.
You can view, manage and create new widgets here.
The name of the widget appears in the left most column.
The type of widget appears beneath the “Widget Type” column.
To edit a widget, select the <Edit> option in the “Controls” dropdown list and click the <Go>. This opens the widget form. You can only change the name of the widget and the kind of widget it is in this form.
To delete a widget, select the <Delete> option in the “Controls” dropdown list and click the <Go> button. This opens a popup confirmation.
To configure a widget, click on the <Configure> link to the right of the widget you wish to change.
To create a new widget, click on the <Create New Widget> button at the bottom of the list of widgets. Creating a widget only allows you to name a widget and select the kind of widget it is. If you want to define what content the widget displays, you must configure the widget.
Add Widgets |
To change or select the widget type, select an option from the “Widget Type” dropdown list.
To add a description to the widget, enter text in the text field to the right of the “Description” header.
To increase the size of the “Description” text field, click on either the <Large Edit Box> button or the <Increase Size> link beneath the text field.
To decrease the size of the “Description” text field, click on the <Decrease Size> link beneath the text field.
To save your changes, click the <Save> button at the bottom of the form.
Widget Types |
· Category Navigation Widget
The Cateogry Navigation Widget controls how the category menu is formatted.
· General Search
The General Search Widget displays the most recent results for a specific set of search terms that you set.
· My Friends Widget
The My Friends Widget is a general search widget that displays the most recent results for a specific set of search terms that you set made by members of a user’s friendslist.
· Poll Widget
The poll widget allows you to add polls and or poll results to the main page.
· Recent Activity
The Recent Activity Widget displays the most recent activity on your website. You can select what sort of activity you want displayed. This can range from forum posts, to new blog posts, to the latest published articles.
· RSS Feed
The RSS Feed allows you to stream and RSS feed from an off-site location on to your site page.
· Section Navigation Widget
The Section Navigation Widget controls how the section menu is formatted.
· Static HTML
The Static HTML Widget allows you to create a widget that displays a piece of text with HTML markups.
· Static BBcode
The StaticBB code Widget allows you to create a widget that display a piece of text with BBCode markups.
Configure Widgets |
Example: Configuring the General Search widget |
In the [Widget Manager] select the general search widget you want to edit and click the <Configure> button.In the popup form that appears, make the changes you want to modify the search.Click on the <Save> button.
Permissions |
The name of the section you are managing appears in the text field to the right of the “Permissions assigned for section” header.
To give a group the permission to do something, check the appropriate checkbox beneath the permission you want to give them.
The dropdown list beneath the permissions allows you to make mass changes for that permission. You can select all the checkboxes, uncheck all the checkboxes, or invert the selection of checkboxes.
To change the section you are setting permissions for, click on the name of the section in the box beneath the form.
Advertising |
Google Adsense Integration |
To get started, you must create an AdSense account or associate an existing account via the vBulletin Members' Area. Once your account is associated with us, Google AdSense will automatically be available to your forum the next time you download vBulletin.
Warning:
If you have not associated or created an AdSense account with us, the below options will not be shown in your administrator's control panel!
After you have downloaded vBulletin with Google AdSense integrated, you should follow the standard upgrade instructions. After logging into your administrator's control panel, you will see an Advertising block in the left-hand navigation panel. |
- Google AdSense Publisher ID - the AdSense publisher ID that is currently being used. If you ever wish to change the AdSense account that is associated, you can use this value to confirm the publisher ID that is currently in use.
- Change Google AdSense Package - this controls the position of the ads that are shown. Choose No Google AdSense Ads to remove all ads. See below for more details on each specific package.
- Type of Ads to Show - this is used in conjunction with the package to configure the type of ads that are shown. Text ads are less invasive to your users but not as effective. We recommend you select Text and image ads.
Low
| |
High
|
Note: It has been reported that some ad blockers can interfere with setting up Adsense via these instructions. If you have a problem try temporarily disabling your ad blockers.
Manage Ads |
Add New Ad |
The first step is to choose the location. You will see a screen like the one below.Simply click on the highlighted ad location where you want it to show. To change the area, select a new area at the top of the screen. Current areas include Global (Header, Navbar, and Footer), Board (Forum Home), Forum (Forum Display), and Thread (Showthread). Additional areas will come later.
After selecting the location for your advertisement you will be presented with this screen:This will allow you to create a new advertisement. You must fill in the following fields:
- Title - A descriptive title that will allow you to recognize the advertisement on the Manage Ads screen. This will not be shown to users.
- Ad Location - This should be pre-filled with the location you chose in the Ad Selector. If necessary you can change this.
- Ad HTML - The HTML for your advertisement. You cannot use BBCode here but you can use Template Conditionals and vBulletin variables. If you don't know the HTML for an advertisement, contact the advertiser and have them provide it to you.
- Display Order - Sets the advertisement's display order if you have multiple ads in the same location.
- Active - Determines whether the advertisement is shown or not.
Google AdSense Integration |
To get started, you must create an AdSense account or associate an existing account via the vBulletin Members' Area. Once your account is associated with us, Google AdSense will automatically be available to your forum the next time you download vBulletin.
Warning:
If you have not associated or created an AdSense account with us, the below options will not be shown in your administrator's control panel!
After you have downloaded vBulletin with Google AdSense integrated, you should follow the standard upgrade instructions. After logging into your administrator's control panel, you will see an Advertising block in the left-hand navigation panel. |
- Google AdSense Publisher ID - the AdSense publisher ID that is currently being used. If you ever wish to change the AdSense account that is associated, you can use this value to confirm the publisher ID that is currently in use.
- Change Google AdSense Package - this controls the position of the ads that are shown. Choose No Google AdSense Ads to remove all ads. See below for more details on each specific package.
- Type of Ads to Show - this is used in conjunction with the package to configure the type of ads that are shown. Text ads are less invasive to your users but not as effective. We recommend you select Text and image ads.
Low
| |
High
|
Note: It has been reported that some ad blockers can interfere with setting up Adsense via these instructions. If you have a problem try temporarily disabling your ad blockers.
Styles & Templates |
The first part of this section of the vBulletin Manual deals with how the vBulletin style system actually works, and includes a reference guide for various important elements.
vBulletin Style Reference
The second part deals with using the tools provided to you in the Style & Templates area of the Admin CP.
The Style Manager
Note:
To modify the look and feel of your vBulletin forums, a knowledge of XHTML 1.0 and CSS 1.0 is required. To learn the basics of these markup languages please visit W3schools.com. If you have questions please visit our community forums.
vBulletin Style Reference |
A variety of controls are available for your use, allowing you to make both minor changes, such as the font used for the interface, right through to changing the underlying HTML used to generate the board's individual pages.
The look of your board can be altered to your own custom preferences through a simple-to-use interface that allows you to change fonts, colors and images etc. If you want to get down and dirty with the underlying HTML of the board, you can also do this by editing individual templates via the Style Manager.
A vBulletin style comprises several elements that work together to create a complete look for your board.
Those components are as follows:
Templates |
How do Templates Work? |
A simple example template might look like this:
<table class="tborder"> <tr> <td class="tcat" colspan="2">My Table</td> </tr> $tablebits </table>
For example, we may have another template that looks like this:
<tr> <td class="alt1">$username</td> <td class="alt2">$message</td> </tr>
<tr> <td class="alt1">Mister User</td> <td class="alt2">This is my message</td> </tr>
<table class="tborder"> <tr> <td class="tcat" colspan="2">My Table</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="alt1">Mister User</td> <td class="alt2">This is my message</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="alt1">Another Person</td> <td class="alt2">This message is in reply to that posted above.</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="alt1">Mister User</td> <td class="alt2">Hey, thanks for responding to my message!</td> </tr> </table>
Here is the header template from a current version of vBulletin. This shows how a typical template is built in vBulletin.
<div class="above_body"> <!-- closing tag is in template navbar --> <div id="header" class="floatcontainer doc_header"> <vb:if condition="$stylevar['titleimage']"><div><a name="top" href="{vb:link forumhome}" class="logo-image"><img src="{vb:stylevar titleimage}" alt="{vb:rawphrase x_powered_by_vbulletin, {vb:raw vboptions.bbtitle}}" /></a></div></vb:if> <div id="toplinks" class="toplinks"> <vb:if condition="$show['member']"> <ul class="isuser"> <li><a href="login.php?{vb:raw session.sessionurl}do=logout&logouthash={vb:raw bbuserinfo.logouthash}" onclick="return log_out('{vb:rawphrase sure_you_want_to_log_out}')">{vb:rawphrase log_out}</a></li> <vb:if condition="$show['registerbutton']"> <li><a href="register.php{vb:raw session.sessionurl_q}" rel="nofollow">{vb:rawphrase register}</a></li> </vb:if> <li><a href="usercp.php{vb:raw session.sessionurl_q}">{vb:rawphrase user_control_panel}</a></li> <li><a href="{vb:link member, {vb:raw bbuserinfo}}">{vb:rawphrase your_profile}</a></li> <vb:if condition="$notifications_total"> <li class="popupmenu notifications" id="notifications"> <a class="popupctrl" href="usercp.php{vb:raw session.sessionurl_q}">{vb:rawphrase your_notifications}: <span class="notifications-number"><strong>{vb:raw notifications_total}</strong></span></a> <ul class="popupbody popuphover"> {vb:raw notifications_menubits} </ul> </li> <vb:else /> <li class="popupmenu nonotifications" id="nonotifications"> <a class="popupctrl" href="usercp.php{vb:raw session.sessionurl_q}">{vb:rawphrase your_notifications}</a> <ul class="popupbody popuphover"> <li>{vb:rawphrase no_new_messages}</li> <vb:if condition="$show['pmmainlink']"><li><a href="private.php{vb:raw session.sessionurl_q}">{vb:rawphrase inbox}</a></li></vb:if> </ul> </li> </vb:if> <li class="welcomelink">{vb:rawphrase welcome_x_link_y, {vb:raw bbuserinfo.username}, {vb:link member, {vb:raw bbuserinfo}}}</li> <vb:if condition="$vboptions['enablefacebookconnect']"> {vb:raw facebook_header} </vb:if> </ul> {vb:raw template_hook.header_userinfo} <vb:comment><p>{vb:rawphrase last_visited_x_at_y, {vb:raw pmbox.lastvisitdate}, {vb:raw pmbox.lastvisittime}}</p></vb:comment> <vb:else /> <ul class="nouser"> <vb:if condition="$show['registerbutton']"> <li><a href="register.php{vb:raw session.sessionurl_q}" rel="nofollow">{vb:rawphrase register}</a></li> </vb:if> <li><a rel="help" href="faq.php{vb:raw session.sessionurl_q}">{vb:rawphrase help}</a></li> <li> <script type="text/javascript" src="clientscript/vbulletin_md5.js?v={vb:raw vboptions.simpleversion}"></script> <form id="navbar_loginform" action="login.php?{vb:raw session.sessionurl}do=login" method="post" onsubmit="md5hash(vb_login_password, vb_login_md5password, vb_login_md5password_utf, {vb:raw show.nopasswordempty})"> <fieldset id="logindetails" class="logindetails"> <div> <div> <input type="text" class="textbox<vb:if condition="!$username"> default-value</vb:if>" name="vb_login_username" id="navbar_username" size="10" accesskey="u" tabindex="101" value="<vb:if condition="$username">{vb:raw username}<vb:else />{vb:rawphrase username}</vb:if>" /> <input type="password" class="textbox" tabindex="102" name="vb_login_password" id="navbar_password" size="10" /> <input type="text" class="textbox default-value" tabindex="102" name="vb_login_password_hint" id="navbar_password_hint" size="10" value="{vb:rawphrase password}" style="display:none;" /> <input type="submit" class="loginbutton" tabindex="104" value="{vb:rawphrase log_in}" title="{vb:rawphrase enter_username_to_login_or_register}" accesskey="s" /> </div> </div> </fieldset> <div id="remember" class="remember"> <label for="cb_cookieuser_navbar"><input type="checkbox" name="cookieuser" value="1" id="cb_cookieuser_navbar" class="cb_cookieuser_navbar" accesskey="c" tabindex="103" /> {vb:rawphrase remember_me}</label> </div> <input type="hidden" name="s" value="{vb:raw session.sessionhash}" /> <input type="hidden" name="securitytoken" value="{vb:raw bbuserinfo.securitytoken}" /> <input type="hidden" name="do" value="login" /> <input type="hidden" name="vb_login_md5password" /> <input type="hidden" name="vb_login_md5password_utf" /> </form> <script type="text/javascript"> YAHOO.util.Dom.setStyle('navbar_password_hint', "display", "inline"); YAHOO.util.Dom.setStyle('navbar_password', "display", "none"); vB_XHTML_Ready.subscribe(function() { // YAHOO.util.Event.on('navbar_username', "focus", navbar_username_focus); YAHOO.util.Event.on('navbar_username', "blur", navbar_username_blur); YAHOO.util.Event.on('navbar_password_hint', "focus", navbar_password_hint); YAHOO.util.Event.on('navbar_password', "blur", navbar_password); }); function navbar_username_focus(e) { // var textbox = YAHOO.util.Event.getTarget(e); if (textbox.value == '<vb:if condition="$username">{vb:raw username}<vb:else />{vb:rawphrase username}</vb:if>') { // textbox.value=''; textbox.style.color='{vb:stylevar input_color}'; } } function navbar_username_blur(e) { // var textbox = YAHOO.util.Event.getTarget(e); if (textbox.value == '') { // textbox.value='<vb:if condition="$username">{vb:raw username}<vb:else />{vb:rawphrase username}</vb:if>'; textbox.style.color='{vb:stylevar shade_color}'; } } function navbar_password_hint(e) { // var textbox = YAHOO.util.Event.getTarget(e); YAHOO.util.Dom.setStyle('navbar_password_hint', "display", "none"); YAHOO.util.Dom.setStyle('navbar_password', "display", "inline"); YAHOO.util.Dom.get('navbar_password').focus(); } function navbar_password(e) { // var textbox = YAHOO.util.Event.getTarget(e); if (textbox.value == '') { YAHOO.util.Dom.setStyle('navbar_password_hint', "display", "inline"); YAHOO.util.Dom.setStyle('navbar_password', "display", "none"); } } </script> </li> <vb:if condition="$vboptions['enablefacebookconnect']"> {vb:raw facebook_header} </vb:if> </ul> </vb:if> </div> <div class="ad_global_header"> {vb:raw ad_location.global_header1} {vb:raw ad_location.global_header2} </div> <hr /> </div>
Template Syntax |
Variable Access
Variables should be referenced in templates wherever possible using the following syntax:
{vb:var variable}
Variables accessed in this manner are 'made safe' by being run through htmlspecialchars as they are output.
To access array elements, use a dot operator, rather than standard PHP square brackets:
{vb:var variable.foo} // accesses htmlspecialchars($variable['foo'])
{vb:var variable.$varkey} // accesses htmlspecialchars($variable[$varkey])
Raw Variables
To access variables in the normal, pre-vB4 fashion, use the following syntax:
{vb:raw variable}
This is equivalent to simply accessing $variable in the pre-vB4 syntax. No treatment is applied to the variable. The same dot operator is used to access array elements.
Curly-Brace Syntax
The general syntax here is
{vb:method arg1[, arg2...]}
Inside curly braces, variables can be accessed without using a separate set of surrounding braces. For example,
{vb:method {variable}} // unneccessary extra braces
{vb:method variable}
Built-in Methods
phrase
{vb:phrase phrase_name[, arguments for phrase...]}rawphrase
Inserts the specified phrase. If arguments are provided, they will be run through htmlspecialchars.
Example:
{vb:phrase welcome}
{vb:rawphrase phrase_name[, arguments for phrase...]}date
As above, though arguments bypass htmlspecialchars.
Example:
{vb:rawphrase message_by_x_on_y_at_z, {vb:link member, {vb:raw postinfo}}, {vb:raw postinfo.username}, {vb:raw postinfo.postdate}, {vb:raw postinfo.posttime}}
{vb:date timestamp[, format]}time
Formats a UNIX timestamp using the default date format for the active language. A format may also be explicitly specified. Timezone will be corrected for the viewing user.
{vb:time timestamp[, format]}number
As above, though uses the default time format instead of date format.
{vb:number number[, decimals]}raw
Outputs a number having run through vb_number_format for correct locale formatting. Number of decimal places to display can be optionally specified.
{vb:raw variable}escapejs
Outputs the variable raw, without any formatting or escaping.
{vb:escapejs variable}urlencode
Returns the variable prepared for use as a Javascript single-quoted string instead of running htmlspecialchars.
{vb:urlencode variable}if
Escapes the variable using urlencode.
{vb:if condition, true[, false]}link
Use this in instances where the full <vb:if> tag can not be used, such as within HTML tags.
Example:
<div class="{vb:if $forumid==1, forum1, forum}">...</div>
{vb:link type, info[, extra-info]}math
Used to build a hyperlink URL of the specified type and into the correct 'friendly' format.
For more information see: Link Syntax
{vb:math expression}stylevar
Primarily used within CSS, this is used to evaluate the result of the mathematical expression specified.
{vb:stylevar name[.sub-part]}
Used to output a style variable from the style system. No escaping is performed.
Tags
All tags make use of the vb namespace for ease of identification and parsing.
The following tags are available:
literal
<vb:literal>misc code</vb:literal>
Any code inside vb:literal tags will be treated as plain HTML. No curly-brace syntax or vb:tag markup will be evaluated.
if
<vb:if condition="condition">true result</vb:if>
If the expression specified in condition is true, the contents of the vb:if tags will be output, otherwise nothing will be output.
elseif
<vb:elseif condition="condition" />true result
Used in conjunction with vb:if, this allows a secondary condition to be checked and the true result to be output if the condition is met.
else
<vb:else />true result
Used in conjunction with vb:if, the true result will be output if the vb:if condition failed, and so did any vb:elseif checks.
comment
<vb:comment>a comment</vb:comment>
In cases where a comment is necessary but the usual <!-- comment --> syntax is undesirable, the vb:comment tag allows its contents to be completely removed upon compiling, so they will not be delivered to the browser. Useful for internal commenting.
each
<vb:each from="array" key="key" value="value"></vb:each>
This tag will iterate through an existing array, in a similar manner to foreach. See the example use below.
Example Use of vb:each
Array:
// We have an array of users available in PHP.
// It looks like this:
// $users = array(
// 1 => array('username' => 'Adam', 'email' => '[email protected]'),
// 2 => array('username' => 'Ben', 'email' => '[email protected]'),
// 3 => array('username' => 'Chris', 'email' => '[email protected]')
// );
<!-- our template code... --> <vb:each from="users" key="userid" value="userinfo"> <li><a href="member.php?u={vb:var userid}">{vb:var userinfo.username}</a></li> </vb:each>
<!-- will output... --> <li><a href="member.php?u=1">Adam</a></li> <li><a href="member.php?u=2">Ben</a></li> <li><a href="member.php?u=3">Chris</a></li>
Link Syntax |
When you wish to use a url in a template the format is as follows:
{vb:link string, array[, array][, string, string]}
{vb:link [thread|member|forum|blog], {vb:raw threadinfo}[, {vb:raw pageinfo}][, 'id', 'title']}
The first argument is a string that notifies the system which type of URL is to be output. The valid types are thread, forum, and member
The second argument is an array that contains the id and title, as the minimum requirements, of the link to be generated. For thread, this would be threadid and title. For forum this would be forumid and title. For member this would be userid and username.
The third argument is an optional array that contains any arguments that are required to be sent along, such as perpage (pp), page (pagenumber), order, and so on.
The simplest forms are:
{vb:link thread, {vb:raw threadinfo}}
{vb:link forum, {vb:raw foruminfo}}
{vb:link member, {vb:raw userinfo}}
If you have an array containing the id and title but they do not follow the conventional naming conventions, then you may specify their names with the fifth and sixth options. Both must be specified for them to be recognized. For example, you have $post[threadid] and $post[threadtitle] and wish to output a thread url. You would use:
{vb:link thread, {vb:raw post}, null, 'threadid', 'threadtitle'}
null was specified for the $pageinfo argument array since this example had no arguments.
If you wish to output a url that uses & instead of & e.g.: to be used within javascript, append "|js" to your type argument so that thread becomes thread|js, member becomes member|js. If you wish to not output a sessionhash, in any instance, say for a url to be used within an email, append nosession to the type argument, so that thread becomes thread|nosession
Examples:
To output a link to a post, you could use
<a href="{link thread, {vb:raw threadinfo}, {vb:raw pageinfo_lastpost}}#post$lastpostinfo[lastpostid]">$threadinfo[title]</a>
$pageinfo_lastpost would appear like:
$pageinfo_lastpost = array('p' => 1234);
Creating Links in PHP
When creating a link in the code, use the fetch_seo_url function, which accepts the same arguments.
function fetch_seo_url(string, array, array, string, string)
In fact the {vb:link thread, {vb:raw threadinfo}, {vb:raw pageinfo}} syntax is just replaced with fetch_seo_url() when a template is compiled.
Examples:
Infractions tab of a user's profile
$linkinfo = array('postuserid' => 123, 'postusername' => 'freddie');
$pageinfo = array('tab' => 'infractions);
$memberurl = fetch_seo_url('member', $linkinfo, $pageinfo, 'postuserid', 'postusername');
Using the mod rewrite output, $memberurl would be /members/123-freddie?tab=infractions
Please refer to the code for exact examples.
Template Conditionals |
For example you may want to show a different welcome message on the front page of your board to registered users and to guests. The way to know whether or not the person visiting a page is a guest, or a logged-in user is to check the value of $bbuserinfo[userid]. If the value is 0, the visitor is a guest (or not logged-in), otherwise the visitor is a registered member.
This is a simple conditional to show a welcome message to guests only.
<vb:if condition="$bbuserinfo['userid'] == 0"> <p>Welcome to the forum!<br /> If this is your first visit, we hope you enjoy your stay!</p> </vb:if>
This example extends the previous conditional to show a different message to registered members from that shown to guests.
<vb:if condition="$bbuserinfo['userid'] == 0"> <p>Welcome to the forum!<br /> If this is your first visit, we hope you enjoy your stay!</p> <vb:else /> <p>Welcome back, $bbuserinfo[username].<br /> <a href="search.php?do=getnew">Click here to view new posts</a>. </vb:if>
<vb:if condition="$my_variable == 1"> <p>My variable is equal to one.</p> <vb:elseif condition="$my_variable == 2" /> <p>My variable is equal to two.</p> <vb:else /> <p>My variable is equal to neither one nor two.</p> </vb:if>
Perhaps the easiest way to illustrate this is to demonstrate a simple example of PHP code being embedded as a template conditional.
Let us assume for the purposes of this example that we want to have the equivalent of this PHP code in our template:
if ($my_variable == 1)
{
echo "<p>My variable is equal to one.</p>";
}
<vb:if condition="$my_variable == 1"> <p>My variable is equal to one.</p> </vb:if>
if ($my_variable == 1)
{
echo "<p>My variable is equal to one.</p>";
}
else
{
echo "<p>My variable is not equal to one.</p>";
}
<vb:if condition="$my_variable == 1"> <p>My variable is equal to one.</p> <vb:else /> <p>My variable is not equal to one.</p> </vb:if>
if ($my_variable == 1)
{
echo "<p>My variable is equal to one.</p>";
}
else if ($my_variable == 2)
{
echo "<p>My variable is equal to two.</p>";
}
else
{
echo "<p>My variable is equal to neither one nor two.</p>";
}
<vb:if condition="$my_variable == 1"> <p>My variable is equal to one.</p> <vb:elseif condition="$my_variable == 2" /> <p>My variable is equal to two.</p> <vb:else /> <p>My variable is equal to neither one nor two.</p> </vb:if>
Using PHP Functions in Template Conditionals |
This, for example, would be disallowed by the vBulletin template system, as it contains a call to a 'forbidden' function: mysql_query.
<vb:if condition="$my_variable = mysql_query('SELECT * FROM mytable')"> <!-- naughty naughty... --> </vb:if>
- in_array
- is_array
- is_numeric
- isset
- empty
- defined
- array
- can_moderate*
- can_moderate_calendar*
- exec_switch_bg*
- is_browser*
- is_member_of*
Note:
Functions marked * are custom functions defined by vBulletin itself. Each function name is a link that will take you to the documentation for that function. Use of these functions requires knowledge of PHP
<vb:if condition="isset($my_variable) AND is_browser('ie')"> <!-- $my_variable is set and the browser is Internet Explorer --> </vb:if>
Collapsing Elements |
Firstly, you need to decide on a unique identifying name for your collapsing element. The name can use numbers, letters (in upper or lower case) and underscores. Using any other characters in the identifier may cause problems.
Here, we'll call it MyELEMENT.
A collapsible element consists of two parts - a control (usually a button) to control the expanding and collapsing behavior, and the actual content to be expanded and collapsed.
A collapse control looks like this:
<a href="#top" onclick="return toggle_collapse('MyELEMENT')"><img id="collapseimg_MyELEMENT" src="$stylevar[imgdir_button]/collapse_thead$vbcollapse[collapseimg_MyELEMENT].gif" alt="" border="0" /></a>
Note:
In the example, the image being used for the collapse control has a prefix of collapse_thead. This is because the image is designed to blend into the background color of elements using the '.thead' CSS class.
There are also images to blend with the '.tcat' and '.alt1' / '.alt2' CSS classes, with prefixes of collapse_tcat and collapse_alt respectively.
There are also images to blend with the '.tcat' and '.alt1' / '.alt2' CSS classes, with prefixes of collapse_tcat and collapse_alt respectively.
A very simple example of a collapsible element container for MyELEMENT looks like this:
<div id="collapseobj_MyELEMENT" style="$vbcollapse[collapseobj_MyELEMENT]"> <!-- any HTML here will be hidden when the 'MyELEMENT' collapse control is clicked --> </div>
The following example shows a complete collapsing element.
<div class="tborder"> <div class="tcat" style="padding:4px"> <a href="#top" style="float:$stylevar[right]" onclick="return toggle_collapse('MyELEMENT')"><img id="collapseimg_MyELEMENT" src="$stylevar[imgdir_button]/collapse_tcat$vbcollapse[collapseimg_MyELEMENT].gif" alt="" border="0" /></a> Click this button to show/hide the content below: </div> <div id="collapseobj_MyELEMENT" style="$vbcollapse[collapseobj_MyELEMENT]"> <div class="alt1" style="padding:8px"> <p><strong>Hello!</strong> Welcome, $bbuserinfo[username].</p> <p>If you would like to check your private messages, <a href="private.php?$session[sessionurl]">Click here</a>.</p> </div> </div> </div>
Collapsing <table> Rows |
Sometimes you will want to allow your users to collapse individual rows (or groups of rows) within an HTML <table>. In order to be cross-browser compatible, and to ensure that your pages remain XHTML compliant, there are a few additional rules you need to follow.
It is not possible to arbitrarily collapse every tag in HTML. To collapse rows within a <table>, you must surround those rows with the little-known <tbody> tag.
The original idea of the <tbody> tag was to enable browsers to display the top (head) and bottom (foot) of a table, and then load the body of the table in between the head and foot. Unfortunately, very few browsers can actually make use of this system.
However, the <tbody> tag is very useful to us, as it allows us to define a container for one or more table rows, and we can expand and collapse that container using our collapsible elements system.
There is one caveat. In order to be legal XHTML, we can't just stuff <tbody> tags selectively around arbitrary groups of rows in a table, and leave the other rows without a container. We must include the <thead> tag, and ensure that all rows in the table are enclosed either by the <thead> or a <tbody> tag.
The following code is not XHTML compliant because it does not include the <thead> tag, and there are rows that are not enclosed by <thead>, <tbody> or <tfoot> tags:
<table class="tborder" cellpadding="$stylevar[cellpadding]" width="100%"> <tr><td class="tcat"><strong>Table title</strong></td></tr> <tbody> <tr><td class="alt1">First row of collapsible element</td></tr> <tr><td class="alt2">Second row of collapsible element</td></tr> </tbody> <tr><td class="alt1">Another row</td></tr> </table>
<table class="tborder" cellpadding="$stylevar[cellpadding]" width="100%"> <thead> <tr><td class="tcat"><strong>Table title</strong></td></tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr><td class="alt1">First row of collapsible element</td></tr> <tr><td class="alt2">Second row of collapsible element</td></tr> </tbody> <tbody> <tr><td class="alt1">Another row</td></tr> </tbody> </table>
<table class="tborder" cellpadding="$stylevar[cellpadding]" width="100%"> <thead> <tr><td class="tcat"> <a href="#top" style="float:$stylevar[right]" onclick="return toggle_collapse('MyELEMENT')"><img id="collapseimg_MyELEMENT" src="$stylevar[imgdir_button]/collapse_tcat$vbcollapse[collapseimg_MyELEMENT].gif" alt="" border="0" /></a> <strong>Table title</strong> </td></tr> </thead> <tbody id="collapseobj_MyELEMENT" style="$vbcollapse[collapseobj_MyELEMENT]"> <tr><td class="alt1">First row of collapsible element</td></tr> <tr><td class="alt2">Second row of collapsible element</td></tr> </tbody> <tbody> <tr><td class="alt1">Another row</td></tr> </tbody> </table>
vBMenu Popup Menus |
A vBMenu popup consist of two elements: The popup control, and the popup itself. Any popup can have any number of controls, and clicking any one of the controls will open the popup immediately below the control.
Each vBMenu popup must have a unique identifying name, which will be used by the vBMenu system to distinguish popups from each other and allows popup controls to communicate with their associated popup elements.
For our example, we will call our vBMenu MyMENU.
The HTML code for a vBMenu popup control looks like this:
<td id="MyMENU" class="vbmenu_control"> <a href="#">My vBMenu Example</a> <script type="text/javascript"> vbmenu_register("MyMENU"); </script> </td>
- A block-level tag (<td>, <div> etc.) with an id attribute using the vBMenu identifying name (in this case, MyMENU).
- A hyperlink (the href attribute of which should point somewhere relevant to the menu).
- A Javascript block containing a call to the vbmenu_register() function, using the vBMenu identifying name as the argument to the function.
<script type="text/javascript"> vbmenu_register("MyMENU", true); </script>
<div class="vbmenu_popup" id="MyMENU_menu" style="display:none"> <!-- Any HTML here will be a part of the vBMenu popup identified as 'MyMENU' --> </div>
- Must use the vbmenu_popup CSS class
- Must be identified by 'MenuName_menu' (In our example, 'MyMENU_menu' would be the correct id)
- Must have a style="display:none" CSS attribute
vBMenu Popup Content |
vBMenu popups usually take the form of a <table> with individual rows for separate options on the menu, with a single hyperlink inside each cell, which points to the desired page.As you can see from the image above, each row switches its style when the mouse pointer hovers over it. This mouse-over effect is achieved automatically with the vBMenu system, and makes use of the Popup Menu Option Row (.vbmenu_option) CSS class and its partner, the Popup Menu Highlighted Option (.vbmenu_hilite) CSS class.
An example of content for a vBMenu popup element might look like this:
<table cellpadding="4" cellspacing="1" border="0"> <tr> <td class="thead">This is my example vBMenu</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="vbmenu_option"><a href="index.php">Home Page</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td class="vbmenu_option"><a href="usercp.php">User CP</a></td> </tr> </table>
<tr> <td class="vbmenu_option" title="nohilite"> This row will not hilight on mouse-over. </td> </tr>
Multiple Popup Controls, Single vBMenu Popup |
With a single control, the id attribute of the popup control uses the unique identifier for the vBMenu it controls, like this:
<td id="MyMENU" class="vbmenu_control"> <a href="#">Single Popup Control</a> <script type="text/javascript"> vbmenu_register("MyMENU"); </script> </td>
<td id="MyMENU.first" class="vbmenu_control"> <a href="#">First Multiple Popup Control</a> <script type="text/javascript"> vbmenu_register("MyMENU.first"); </script> </td> <td id="MyMENU.second" class="vbmenu_control"> <a href="#">Second Multiple Popup Control</a> <script type="text/javascript"> vbmenu_register("MyMENU.second"); </script> </td>
The $show['popups'] Conditional |
In order to prevent these browsers from attempting to initialize menus that they can't use, a special template conditional is used.
$show['popups']
By surrounding all vBMenu controls and popups in a conditional that checks the value of $show['popups'], Javascript errors can be avoided, and alternative HTML can be shown to browsers that can't use popups.
For example:
<if condition="$show['popups']"> <!-- content here is for browsers that are able to use the vBMenu system --> <else /> <!-- content here is shown to browsers that are unable to use vBMenu popups --> </if>
Example vBMenu HTML Code |
<if condition="$show['popups']"> <!-- start vBMenu control element --> <table class="tborder" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="1"> <tr> <td id="MyMENU" class="vbmenu_control"> <a href="#">Second Multiple Popup Control</a> <script type="text/javascript"> <!-- vbmenu_register("MyMENU"); //--> </script> </td> </tr> </table> <!-- end vBMenu control element --> <!-- start vBMenu popup element --> <div class="vbmenu_popup" id="MyMENU_menu" style="display:none"> <table cellpadding="4" cellspacing="1" border="0"> <tr> <td class="thead">This is my example vBMenu</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="vbmenu_option"><a href="index.php">Home Page</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td class="vbmenu_option"><a href="usercp.php">User CP</a></td> </tr> </table> </div> <!-- end vBMenu popup element --> <else /> <!-- start alternative, non-vBMenu content --> <table class="tborder" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="1"> <tr> <td class="vbmenu_control"><a href="index.php">Home Page</a></td> <td class="vbmenu_control"><a href="usercp.php">User CP</a></td> </tr> </table> <!-- end alternative content --> </if>
Disabling the vBMenu System |
The Legacy Postbit Template |
New Postbit
Old (Legacy) Postbit
While most people prefer the new layout of the postbit template after using it for a short time, there are others who are less willing to make the change.If you would like to run your board using the old-style postbit template, you can do so by going to vBulletin Options > Style & Language Settings and switching the Use Legacy (Vertical) Postbit Template? setting to Yes.After clicking the button, all your styles will use the Legacy (old style) Postbit.
Note:
If your board is set to use the Legacy Postbit template you should be aware that you will need to make any postbit-related template customizations to the postbit_legacy template instead of the postbit template.
Including External Files |
Warning:
This is considered modifying the code. To get further help and support with including external files you will need to visit http://www.vbulletin.org/.
Note:
The Plugin system must be enabled in vBulletin Options -> Plugin System for plugins to work. It is disabled by default.
1. Create a Plugin for global_start with this code:
$includedhtml = implode('', file('path/to/this/file/myfile.html'));
2. Place {vb:raw includedhtml} in one of your templates, such as header, navbar, FORUMHOME, depending upon where you want the contents of your HTML file to appear.
Including a PHP file:
1. Create a Plug-in for global_start with these contents:
ob_start(); include('path/to/this/file/myfile.php'); $includedphp = ob_get_contents(); ob_end_clean();
2. Place {vb:raw includedphp} in one of your templates, such as header, navbar, FORUMHOME, depending upon where you want the contents of your PHP file to appear.
Warning:
Plugins that contain invalid or malicious code may cause your forum to stop functioning or even lead to data loss. Using Plugins is not supported and you'll be asked to disable them in the event that you request tech support. If a Plugin has made your forum inaccessible, please disable plugins. Troubleshooting errant plugins and products is handled at our sister site, http://www.vBulletin.org.
Most PHP files that you might wish to include in your forum contain echo or other output statements in your PHP file, it will break vBulletin because it is still in the process of initializing when it loads your PHP file. All echo and other output commands must be output buffered using ob_start, ob_clean, etc. commands. The output of your PHP script will be buffered for later use and inserted into a variable. All other statements in the PHP script will execute normally.
A word about variables.
It is very important that any variables initialized in your PHP script do not overlap built-in vBulletin variables or you will get unpredictable results. It may be advisable to create a PHP script just for inclusion in your forum rather than including a larger script used by another part of your website.
Variables are also subject to scope. You may need to access your variable out of the $global array like {vb:raw global.variablename} instead of simply {vb:raw variablename}. You may also need work with a hook location that is more accessible to the template that you wish to alter.
Please see the PHP documentation for more information on variable scope:
http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.variables.scope.php
Registering Variables
In vBulletin 4+, you need to register variables for them to be available in specific templates and usable. You would do this with code like this:
vB_Template::preRegister('FORUMHOME',array('includedphp ' => $includedphp));
Which hook should I use?
The hook used above (global_start) makes your HTML or PHP file available in almost every template on your vBulletin forum. You may wish to include a PHP file or HTML file only on certain pages or parts of your forum. You'll need to select the correct hook where your code should be loaded. To determine which hook you should use, turn on Debug and then make this change to the appropriate functions php file.
How do I turn on debug mode?
Please note that you should not turn on debug mode in a live environment.
Open the config.php file.
At the top, on a new line below <?php
add: $config['Misc']['debug'] = true;
Note:
If you wish to include() multiple PHP files, make sure you use ob_clean() before each include() to reset the buffer.
CSS |
For the most part, vBulletin hides the nitty-gritty of editing CSS from you, instead presenting you with a user-friendly interface in the Style Manager in which to enter values to control the styling of your board. However, in the interest of a knowledge of what is going on behind the scenes in the vBulletin style system, we'll talk a little about CSS here.
CSS is a system designed to allow the style of a web site to be separated from the content itself.
Before CSS, web sites had to include HTML code defining how to display content along with the content itself. For example, to display a page of text using a bold, red, medium-sized font, it was necessary to include <font> tags in the actual content:
<p><font size="2" face="verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif" color="red"> <b>This is my first paragraph.</b> </font></p> <p><font size="2" face="verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif" color="red"> <b>This is my second paragraph.</b> </font></p> <p><font size="2" face="verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif" color="red"> <b>This is my third paragraph.</b> </font></p>
The net result is HTML code that is bloated by display-related code. Worse still, if we decided at a later date that we wanted to change all the text on our site to use an italic, blue font rather than a bold, red font, we would have to edit the HTML code of every page on the site.
CSS allows us to get away from this far-from-ideal situation by allowing us to define style rules, known as classes.
We could set up a class wherein all content with the class applied would appear with our bold, red, medium-sized font. For now, we'll call this 'myclass'.
<p class="myclass">This is my first paragraph.</p> <p class="myclass">This is my second paragraph.</p> <p class="myclass">This is my third paragraph.</p>
The CSS code that defines 'myclass' looks like this:
<style type="text/css"> <!-- .myclass { font: bold 10pt verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: red; } --> </style>
Better still, the class definitions can be kept entirely separate from the HTML code by putting them into a .css file and linking to the file from each HTML page. Therefore, updating a single .css file can change the style of an entire web site, without having to edit a single HTML file.
To demonstrate the extent of use of CSS in vBulletin, here is a comparison of a page from the vBulletin.com web site shown with and without CSS.For a more complete discussion of exactly what CSS is, and how to use it, visit the following sites:The following sections list and explain all the CSS classes and definitions used by vBulletin, so you can edit them with confidence, knowing exactly what they control, where to use them, and how your edits will affect the look of the system.
CSS Templates |
Styles & Templates > Style Manager > Edit Templates (on All Style Options Dropdown)
Once in the template list, double-click on CSS Templates. Then double-click on the template that you want to edit.
Additional.css |
Body |
Applied directly to the <body> tag of every vBulletin page, the Body class is arguably the most important of the CSS classes used by vBulletin.
Its main use is to control the background color of the outermost portion of pages.Unless overridden by subsequent CSS classes, the Body class also sets the color of all text seen on vBulletin pages.
All links in the outermost portion of vBulletin pages, and for that matter, all links unless overridden by subsequent CSS classes, will be controlled by the Body class.
Example of element using this class:
<body> <!-- The BODY tag uses this class --> </body>
Page Background |
The majority of content on vBulletin pages is contained within an inner-block that starts at the end of the header template and finishes at the beginning of the footer template.
In the default vBulletin style, this can be seen as the white surround of the main page content.You may choose to have a blank value for the background color of this class. If you do so, the Page Background block will appear transparent, inheriting the background color of the Body class.Example of element using this class:
<div class="page" style="width:100%; text-align:left"> <!-- The DIV tag above uses this class --> </div>
Table Border |
The Table Border class is applied to the majority of table tags in vBulletin.
It controls the background color of tables, which is usually only seen in the margins between cells (the width of which is controlled by the Inner Border Width StyleVar).
The Table Border class is also often used to create a border around the outside of tables.If the background color of the Table Border class is not specified (or is set as 'transparent'), the color of the borders between cells will appear the same as the background color of the Page Background class.Example of element using this class:
<table class="tborder" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="6"> <tr> <td>The TABLE tag above uses this class</td> </tr> </table>
Category Strips |
The first use of the Category Strips CSS class is to provide the styling for the parts of forum listings that represent a no-posting forum (also known as a category).Additionally, you will find that the top-most title bar of most tables in vBulletin uses the Category Strips class.Generally you will use all the available fields when setting values for this class, including the main background color or image, the text color, size and style, and also specific values for any hyperlinks found inside elements using this class.
Example of element using this class:
<table class="tborder" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="6"> <tr> <td class="tcat">This TD tag uses this class</td> </tr> </table>
Table Header |
Like the Category Strips class, the Table Header class serves multiple purposes.
It primary use is to serve as a control mechanism for column headings in tables of data/results, acting as a label for each column.The Table Header class can also be found acting as a sub-title for tables where a lot of information is displayed, in which case the Table Header class is used to style elements that act as a logical break between sections of the table.Finally, you may also find the Table Header class used as the main title bar for certain small tables, such as the Posting Rules table seen on several pages in vBulletin.Example of element using this class:
<table class="tborder" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="6"> <tr> <td class="thead">This TD tag uses this class</td> </tr> </table>
Table Footer |
Some tables in vBulletin include controls at the bottom of the table, or otherwise require some visual cues to show that the table finishes at a certain point. In these cases, the Table Footer class is used.Like the Category Strips and Table Header classes, you will most likely want to use all the available fields for this class, including background color/image, text style and hyperlink options.
Example of element using this class:
<table class="tborder" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="6"> <tr> <td class="tfoot">This TD tag uses this class</td> </tr> </table>
First / Second Alternating Color |
When presenting data in a table, vBulletin will usually alternate the background color of cells to assist in readability.
The background colors used for these two alternating cells are controlled by the First and Second Alternating Color classes.Generally, you will only want to control the background color field for these classes, although you are free to use all of the available fields to achieve any effect you desire.
Example of element using these classes:
<table class="tborder" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="6"> <tr> <td class="alt1">Tag using the First Alt. Color class</td> <td class="alt2">Tag using the Second Alt. Color class</td> </tr> </table>
Active First / Second Alternating Color |
A special case applies to the Active First and Second Alternating Color classes, which use the CSS selectors .alt1Active and .alt2Active.
The actual styling of the Active classes is taken directly from the styling applied to the First and Second Alternating Color classes.
When enabled in the footer template, these classes respond to the mouse pointer being hovered over them by switching their background color to that of the opposite Alternating Color class. That is, when your mouse hovers over a cell using the Active First Alternating Color class, it will switch to use the Second Alternating Color class, and when your mouse leaves the cell again it will revert to its original class.If the active element is clicked, vBulletin will read the id attribute of that element for special information that will tell it where to link to.
That special information will consist of a letter, followed by a string of digits. The letter indicates the type of the item to which the link will point, and the digits represent the item id of the item in question. For example id="t123" indicates that the item points to thread (t) id 123, so the browser will be redirected to [http://www.example.com/forums/showthread.php?t=123].
The various letters used by vBulletin are listed here:
Letter | Represents | Redirects to |
u | User (userid) | member.php?u=[userid] |
t | Thread (threadid) | showthread.php?t=[threadid] |
p | Post (postid) | showthread.php?p=[postid] |
f | Forum (forumid) | forumdisplay.php?f=[forumid] |
m | Private Message (pmid) | private.php?pmid=[pmid] |
To enable this functionality, you will need to edit the footer template and un-comment the call to the activecells_init() Javascript function by changing this code:
// Initialize 'Active' Table Cells //activecells_init();
// Initialize 'Active' Table Cells activecells_init();
Example of element using these classes:
<table class="tborder" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="6"> <tr> <td class="alt1Active" id="t1138"> Click anywhere inside this cell to be taken to the thread with thread ID 1138. </td> </tr> </table>
WYSIWYG Editor |
The WYSIWYG class is applied to the text input area of the WYSIWYG version of the vBulletin message editor.In order to achieve a fully what-you-see-is-what-you-get message editing system, it is desirable to use the same settings for this class as for the class that controls the area where posted messages appear. The class used in this case is the First Alternating Color class.
Therefore, for the best results, you should duplicate the settings used for the First Alternating Color class here in the WYSIWYG class.Of course, you can use any settings you like for the WYSIWYG class, but you should bear in mind that using dramatically different settings for the WYSIWYG and First Alternating Color classes may result in confusion for you visitors, as colors that may look in the WYSIWYG editor may look very strange against a different background color as specified in the First Alternating Color class.
Example of element using this class:
<div id="htmlbox" class="wysiwyg"> This DIV uses the WYSIWYG class. </div>
Input Fields |
The Input Fields class is applied to text box form elements, including <textarea>, <input type="text" /> and <input type="password" />.It allows you to specify all manner of styling to these elements, including background color, text style, border style and element spacing amongst all other applicable CSS items.
Warning:
If values are omitted from the available fields in this class, the values that will appear on the page will be inherited from the visitor's own PC's system preferences.
This can cause problems if you have specified the background color for the class but not the text color if your visitor has a non-standard color scheme on their computer.
For example, if you specify only the background color, setting it as white, but leave the font color field empty, it may look fine to you, but a visitor using an inverted white-on-black type system color scheme such as the High Contrast Black color scheme available in Windows® will have black text on a black background!
Therefore, if you edit either the background color for this class, make sure you also edit the font color to a suitable value, and vice-versa.
This can cause problems if you have specified the background color for the class but not the text color if your visitor has a non-standard color scheme on their computer.
For example, if you specify only the background color, setting it as white, but leave the font color field empty, it may look fine to you, but a visitor using an inverted white-on-black type system color scheme such as the High Contrast Black color scheme available in Windows® will have black text on a black background!
Therefore, if you edit either the background color for this class, make sure you also edit the font color to a suitable value, and vice-versa.
<div><input type="text" class="bginput" name="myinput" /></div> <div><textarea name="mytextarea" rows="4" cols="60"></textarea></div> <div>The INPUT and TEXTAREA tags above use the Input Fields class.</div>
Buttons |
The Buttons class is used to style all button-type elements within forms in vBulletin. These include <input type="button" />, <input type="submit" /> and <input type="reset" />.As with the Input Fields class, this class will inherit any unspecified settings from the system color scheme. You should read the warning note on the Input Fields class page for full details.
Note:
Under Windows® XP, form buttons will use the 'Luna' theme for their background and borders, unless a background color or a border style is applied. Specifying either one of these attributes will cause buttons to use the classic Windows® styling.
<input type="submit" class="button" value="Save Changes" accesskey="s" /> <br /> The button above uses the 'Button' class.
<select> Menus |
This class is applied to every <select> menu seen in vBulletin.Due to operating system limitations, only certain CSS attributes will be applied to <select> tags, as the majority of their display code is controlled directly by the operating system itself.
You should find that you can set values for background color, font size and font family successfully. However, certain operating systems; most notably Mac OS X on the Apple Macintosh, will completely ignore all CSS applied to <select> tags, choosing instead to use the system themes engine to display the menus.
Example of element using this class:
<select name="myselect"> <option value="1">One</option> <option value="2">Two</option> </select> <div>The SELECT tag above has its style controlled by this class.</div>
Small Font |
The Small Font class is used liberally throughout vBulletin, and does 'exactly what it says on the tin', that being to specify a style for a smaller-than-normal font.For best results, you should usually specify only a font size and a font family for this class.
Example of element using this class:
<p>This text does not use the Small Font class, <span class="smallfont">but this text <strong>does</strong> use the Small Font class!</span></p>
Time Color |
The Time class is applied to (most) elements containing a time in vBulletin.In the default vBulletin style, this class has only the font color specified, although of course you can apply any styles you like to it.
Example of element using this class:
<div>Tuesday, March 9th 2004, <span class="time">5:10pm</span>.</div>
NavBar Text |
The NavBar Text class is applied to all text making up the navigation 'breadcrumb' in the navbar template.The final element in the breadcrumb (in the example above, it is 'This is a new thread') uses the NavBar text class but has certain parts of the class overridden by an inline style definition contained within the navbar template itself.
Example of element using this class:
<span class="navbar">Example Forums</span> <span class="navbar">> Main Category</span> <span class="navbar">> Main Forum</span>
Highlighted Font |
The Highlighted Font class is used primarily to highlight words in messages that match the conditions of a search. For example, if you searched for 'vBulletin' and then clicked to view the matching threads or posts, the word 'vBulletin' would be highlighted in matching posts.This class is also used in the Buddy List to indicate a newly-logged-in buddy.
Example of element using this class:
<p>Only one word of this sentence uses the <span class="highlight">highlight</span> class.</p>
Panel Surround |
The majority of forms in vBulletin appear as a raised panel inside a table.
The Panel Surround class is used to define the style for the thick border that surrounds the panel and includes the submit and reset buttons.Example of element using this class:
<table class="tborder" cellspacing="5" cellspacing="1"> <tr> <td class="panelsurround"> This cell uses the Panel Surround class. </td> </tr> </table>
Panel (Forms) |
Used in conjunction with the Panel Surround class, the Panel class is used to control the style of the raised panel used to house controls on most vBulletin forms.Both the background color of the panel background and the style of the border surrounding it are controlled by this class.
Example of element using this class:
<div class="panel"> This DIV uses the Panel class. </div>
<legend> |
Elements within forms in vBulletin are often grouped inside a <fieldset> tag. The titles of these fieldsets are set inside <legend> tags, which take their styling from the <legend> class.For best results you should usually only specify attributes relating to the text/font for this class, as specifying other attributes such as background color may produce unpredictable results.
Example of element using this class:
<form> <fieldset> <legend>This uses the Legend class</legend> <div>Some form elements here...</div> </fieldset> </form>
Popup Menu Controls |
vBulletin hides complex and infrequently used functionality from immediate view by placing it in vBMenu popup menus.
For the most part, vBMenu popups are controlled by clicking on an element that opens or closes the menu, and these elements' style is controlled with the Popup Menu Controls class.You will most likely need to set attributes for every available field of this class in order to achieve a good result, including background color, font styling and hyperlink styles.
Example of element using this class:
<table class="tborder" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="1"> <tr> <td id="myMenu" class="vbmenu_control"> <a href="#myMenu">The TD tag Uses This Class</a> <script type="text/javascript"> vbmenu_register("myMenu"); </script> </td> </tr> </table>
Popup Menu Body |
When a vBMenu popup menu is opened, its contents are usually bordered by a bounding box, and a color is visible through the margins between individual components of the menu itself.
This border and the color showing through the gaps is controlled by the Popup Menu Body class.In the default vBulletin style, only the background color and foreground color are specified, along with a value for the border, as text and hyperlink styling is handled for the most part by the Popup Menu Option and Popup Menu Highlighted Option classes.
Example of element using this class:
<div class="vbmenu_popup" id="myMenu_menu" style="display:none"> <table cellpadding="4" cellspacing="1" border="0"> <tr> <td class="thead"> The DIV surrounding this table uses the Popup Menu Body class </td> </tr> </table> </div>
Popup Menu Option Row |
Individual elements of a vBMenu popup menu will usually derive their styling from the Popup Menu Option class.
Elements within popup menus usually take the form of a <td> tag within a table.When setting the values to be used for this class, you should bear in mind that when the user's mouse pointer hovers over an element using the class, it will switch its class to use the Popup Menu Highlighted Option class.
Example of element using this class:
<div class="vbmenu_popup" id="myMenu_menu" style="display:none"> <table cellpadding="4" cellspacing="1" border="0"> <tr> <td class="vbmenu_option"> This element within a popup menu uses the Popup Menu Option class. </td> </tr> </table> </div>
Popup Menu Highlighted Option |
The Popup Menu Highlighted Option class is unusual in that it is not actually applied to any elements in the vBulletin templates. Instead, it is applied dynamically via Javascript when a user's mouse pointer hovers over an element with the Popup Menu Option Row class applied, making a rollover effect.For more details about how this class is applied to elements, see the section on creating vBMenu popup menus.
Note:
For best results, you should apply similar settings to this class as you applied to the Popup Menu Option Row class, making only subtle changes such as the background color and the text color. Making extreme changes such as changing the font family or size will result in menus that appear to 'jump around' when rolling over options.
<div class="vbmenu_popup" id="myMenu_menu" style="display:none"> <table cellpadding="4" cellspacing="1" border="0"> <tr> <td class="vbmenu_option"> This element will have the Popup Menu Highlighted Option class applied when the user's mouse pointer hovers over it. </td> </tr> </table> </div>
Forum Jump Menu Classes |
.fjsel | Selected Menu Item | .fjdpth0 | Depth 0 Menu Item |
.fjdpth1 | Depth 1 Menu Item | .fjdpth2 | Depth 2 Menu Item |
.fjdpth3 | Depth 3 Menu Item | .fjdpth4 | Depth 4 Menu Item |
Of the six classes, the first (.fjsel) is applied to whatever <option> tag is currently selected, thereby creating a cue for the user to see where they are in relation to the rest of the board.
The remaining five classes, .fjdpth0 to .fjdpth4 are applied to <option> tags containing forums in the menu, with the depth determined by the level of nesting of each forum.In the example above, you can see that the forum called 1st Depth Two Forum is a child of the 1st Depth One Forum forum, which is in turn a child of the 1st Depth Zero Forum forum. Counting back, this works out as a two-level nested forum, and hence it has the 'Depth 2 Item' forum jump class applied to it.
Note:
As with the <select> Menus class, the Forum Jump Menu classes are applied to <select> and <option> tags, which on non-Windows® operating systems (in particular Macintosh operating systems) can sometimes not be styled.
At most you will be able to style the background color and the text color for these classes, and all other styling will be inherited from the <select> Menus class, if indeed the operating system allows these elements to be styled at all.
At most you will be able to style the background color and the text color for these classes, and all other styling will be inherited from the <select> Menus class, if indeed the operating system allows these elements to be styled at all.
<select name="myselect"> <option class="fjsel" selected="selected">Selected item</option> <option class="fjdpth0">Depth 0 item</option> <option class="fjdpth1">Depth 1 item</option> <option class="fjdpth2">Depth 2 item</option> <option class="fjdpth3">Depth 3 item</option> <option class="fjdpth4">Depth 4 item</option> </select>
Style Variables |
StyleVars are incorporated into CSS and Templates using the {stylevar} syntax. While Stylevars are primarily used within CSS in vBulletin 4, they can be used in XHTML templates as well.
How Style Variables Interact with CSS |
When you look at the CSS templates you will see code like this:
.postbit, .postbitlegacy, .eventbit { margin-bottom: {vb:stylevar padding}; display:block; width: 100%; clear:both; position: relative; float: {vb:stylevar left}; color: {vb:stylevar body_color}; border: {vb:stylevar postbit_border}; }
CSS Math
Primarily used within CSS, this is used to evaluate the result of the mathematical expression specified.
{vb:math expression}
An example of this might look like:
height:{vb:math 8px + {vb:math {vb:stylevar font.fontSize}-1}};
This determines the height of an element based on the font size specified in the font style variable and an extra value of 8 pixels.
Types of Stylevars |
Simple Stylevars
Simple stylevars usually have a single option to set. These include strings, numbers, image paths, image names, colors, and others.
- String - Allows you to specify any string value
- Numeric - Allows you to specify any numeric value
- Url - These stylevars require a valid URL
- Path - Simple relative path here i.e. ./images/
- Color - Allows any valid CSS color value including named colors, RGB, and Hex Values. Provides a color palette tool.
- Image Directory - Allows you to specify a directory where images are located. This will be relative to the directory the software is installed in.
- Image - Allows you to specify a valid image type
- Font List - Specify a list of fonts in comma delimited format for typography
- Size - Set the size of elements. Includes a dropdown for the unit type (pt, px, em, etc...)
Complex Stylevars have a variety of options usually denoting the complex nature of the setting. These stylevars include backgrounds, fonts, text decoration, dimensions, borders, padding and margins.
- Background - Specify the different attributes of a background. This includes image url, color, horizontal/vertical offsets and repeat values.
- Font - Specify the font for elements. Includes font family, size, weight, and transformation.
- Text Decoration - Specify the text decoration of an element, e.g. underline, strike-through, overline.
- Dimension - Sets the dimension of an element. Both horizontal and vertical be set.
- Border - Sets the border of an element including left, right, top, bottom, width, variation and color.
- Padding - Sets the padding around the contents of a block element.
- Margin - Sets the margins of a block element. Note: To automatically center the contents of an element horizontally, set the values for the left and right margins to auto.
Adding Stylevars |
Note:
This is a developer feature
To add a new stylevar, click the "Add New Stylevar" button on the Stylevar Manager. You will be able to define the name, description, variable, group and type of stylevar. You can also assign your stylevar to a specific product for export in a product.xml file.
Stylevar Dictionary |
Ads |
Name | Description |
ad_margin | This stylevar controls the margin of ads. |
ad_padding | This stylevar controls the padding of ads. |
ad_post_maxWidth | This stylevar controls the maximum width of ads in forum posts. |
Album |
Name | Description |
album_content_width | This stylevar controls the width of the user's album column on the main album page. |
albumedit_blockrow_border | This stylevar controls the border of block rows in the edit album picture page. |
albumedit_maineditor_background | This stylevar controls the background of the caption textbox in the edit album picture page. |
albumedit_maineditor_border | This stylevar controls the border of the caption textbox in the edit album picture page. |
albumedit_maineditor_width | This stylevar controls the width of the caption textbox in the edit album picture page. |
albumlist_blockbody_background | This stylevar controls the background of the album list. |
albumlist_entry_background | This stylevar controls the background of the album covers in the album list. |
albumlist_entry_border | This stylevar controls the border of the album covers in the album list. |
albumlist_image_shadow_color | This stylevar controls the shadow color of the album cover pictures in the album list. |
albumtop_margin | This stylevar controls the width of the Picture URL and BB Code fields in the album picture page. |
picture_background | This stylevar controls the background of pictures. |
picture_border | This stylevar controls the border of pictures. |
picturelink_img_shadow_color | This stylevar controls the shadow color of pictures. |
AssetManager |
Name | Description |
assetmanager_attachment_background | This stylevar controls the background of attachments in the asset manager. |
assetmanager_attachment_background_selected | This stylevar controls the background of selected attachments in the asset manager. |
assetmanager_attachment_border | This stylevar controls the border of attachments in the asset manager. |
assetmanager_attachment_color | This stylevar controls the text color of attachments in the asset manager. |
assetmanager_border | This stylevar controls the border of the asset manager. |
assetmanager_panel_background | This stylevar controls the background of panels in the asset manager. |
assetmanager_panel_color | This stylevar controls the text color of panels in the asset manager. |
assetmanager_panel_footer_background | This stylevar controls the background of panel footers in the asset manager. |
assetmanager_panel_footer_color | This stylevar controls the text color of panel footers in the asset manager. |
assetmanager_panel_header_background | This stylevar controls the background of panel headers in the asset manager. |
assetmanager_panel_header_color | This stylevar controls the text color of panel headers in the asset manager. |
assetmanager_resize_background | This stylevar controls the background of the area between the different panels in the asset manager. |
assetmanager_upload_background | This stylevar controls the background of the file list in the advanced uploader. If enabled, the advanced uploader is used in the asset manager and in the Insert Image popup of the editor. |
assetmanager_upload_color | This stylevar controls the text color of the file list in the advanced uploader. If enabled, the advanced uploader is used in the asset manager and in the Insert Image popup of the editor. |
Attachments |
Name | Description |
attachment_box_background | This stylevar controls the background of the box that contains attachments in content that supports them. |
attachment_box_border | This stylevar controls the border of the box that contains attachments in content that supports them. |
attachment_box_fontsize | This stylevar controls the font size of the box that contains attachments in content that supports them. |
attachment_box_padding | This stylevar controls the padding of the box that contains attachments in content that supports them. |
attachment_image_large_max | This stylevar controls the maximum size of inline attached images whose size is set to "Large" in their Image Settings. |
attachment_image_medium_max | This stylevar controls the maximum size of inline attached images whose size is set to "Medium" in their Image Settings. |
attachment_image_thumbnail_max | This stylevar controls the maximum size of inline attached images whose size is set to "Thumbnail" in their Image Settings. |
BBCode |
Name | Description |
bbcode_code_background | This stylevar controls the background of the [code], [html] and [php] BB code blocks. |
bbcode_quote_background | This stylevar controls the background of quotes. |
bbcode_quote_border | This stylevar controls the border of quotes. |
bbcode_quote_font | This stylevar controls the font of quotes. |
bbcode_quote_padding | This stylevar controls the padding of quotes. |
bbcode_quote_postedby_font | This stylevar controls the font of the "Originally Posted by" text of quotes. |
bbcode_table_border | This stylevar controls the border of tables created with BB code. |
Blocks |
Name | Description |
blockbody_background | This stylevar controls the background of the block body. A block body is the central part of a block, which usually contains one ore more block rows. |
blockbody_padding | This stylevar controls the padding of the block body. A block body is the central part of a block, which usually contains one ore more block rows. |
blockfoot_background | This stylevar controls the background of block footers. A block footer is the bottom part of a block, which usually contains action buttons. |
blockfoot_border | This stylevar controls the border of block footers. A block footer is the bottom part of a block, which usually contains action buttons. |
blockfoot_color | This stylevar controls the text color of block footers. A block footer is the bottom part of a block, which usually contains action buttons. |
blockfoot_font | This stylevar controls the font of block footers. A block footer is the bottom part of a block, which usually contains action buttons. |
blockfoot_link_color | This stylevar controls the link color of block footers. A block footer is the bottom part of a block, which usually contains action buttons. |
blockfoot_linkhover_color | This stylevar controls the link hover color of block footers. A block footer is the bottom part of a block, which usually contains action buttons. |
blockfoot_padding | This stylevar controls the padding of block footers. A block footer is the bottom part of a block, which usually contains action buttons. |
blockhead_background | This stylevar controls the background of block headers. A block header is the upper part of a block, which usually contains a title for the block. |
blockhead_border | This stylevar controls the border of block headers. A block header is the upper part of a block, which usually contains a title for the block. |
blockhead_color | This stylevar controls the text color of block headers. A block header is the upper part of a block, which usually contains a title for the block. |
blockhead_font | This stylevar controls the font of block headers. A block header is the upper part of a block, which usually contains a title for the block. |
blockhead_link_color | This stylevar controls the link color of block headers. A block header is the upper part of a block, which usually contains a title for the block. |
blockhead_linkhover_color | This stylevar controls the link hover color of block headers. A block header is the upper part of a block, which usually contains a title for the block. |
blockhead_padding | This stylevar controls the padding of block headers. A block header is the upper part of a block, which usually contains a title for the block. |
blockrow_background | This stylevar controls the background of block rows. A block contains one or more rows, in which data are displayed. |
blockrow_border | This stylevar controls the border of block rows. A block contains one or more rows, in which data are displayed. |
blockrow_color | This stylevar controls the text color of block rows. A block contains one or more rows, in which data are displayed. |
blockrow_font | This stylevar controls the font of block rows. A block contains one or more rows, in which data are displayed. |
blockrow_link_color | This stylevar controls the link color of block rows. A block contains one or more rows, in which data are displayed. |
blockrow_linkhover_color | This stylevar controls the link hover color of block rows. A block contains one or more rows, in which data are displayed. |
blockrow_padding | This stylevar controls the padding of block rows. A block contains one or more rows, in which data are displayed. |
blocksubhead_background | This stylevar controls the background of block sub-headers. A block sub-header is usually located below the block header, containing a descriptive sub-title for the block, or is used to separate multiple block rows within the same block. |
blocksubhead_border | This stylevar controls the border of block sub-headers. A block sub-header is usually located below the block header, containing a descriptive sub-title for the block, or is used to separate multiple block rows within the same block. |
blocksubhead_color | This stylevar controls the text color of block sub-headers. A block sub-header is usually located below the block header, containing a descriptive sub-title for the block, or is used to separate multiple block rows within the same block. |
blocksubhead_font | This stylevar controls the font of block sub-headers. A block sub-header is usually located below the block header, containing a descriptive sub-title for the block, or is used to separate multiple block rows within the same block. |
blocksubhead_link_color | This stylevar controls the link color of block sub-headers. A block sub-header is usually located below the block header, containing a descriptive sub-title for the block, or is used to separate multiple block rows within the same block. |
blocksubhead_linkhover_color | This stylevar controls the link hover color of block sub-headers. A block sub-header is usually located below the block header, containing a descriptive sub-title for the block, or is used to separate multiple block rows within the same block. |
blocksubhead_padding | This stylevar controls the padding of block sub-headers. A block sub-header is usually located below the block header, containing a descriptive sub-title for the block, or is used to separate multiple block rows within the same block. |
Global |
Name | Description |
body_background | This stylevar controls the background of the body. The body is the area below the header, which contains all other elements. |
body_color | This stylevar controls the text color of the body. The body is the area below the header, which contains all other elements. |
body_padding | This stylevar controls the padding of the body. The body is the area below the header, which contains all other elements. |
border_radius | This stylevar controls the radius of borders. |
doc_background | This stylevar controls the background of the document. The document is the outer area, that contains all other elements. |
doc_margin | This stylevar controls the margin of the document. The document is the outer area, that contains all other elements. |
doc_maxWidth | This stylevar controls the maximum width of the document. The document is the outer area, that contains all other elements. |
doc_minWidth | This stylevar controls the minimum width of the document. The document is the outer area, that contains all other elements. |
doc_width | This stylevar controls the width of the document. The document is the outer area, that contains all other elements. |
font | This stylevar controls the font of any element. |
htmldoctype | This stylevar controls the type of the HTML document. |
link_color | This stylevar controls the link color of any element. |
link_textDecoration | This stylevar controls the link text decoration of any element. |
linkhover_color | This stylevar controls the link hover color of any element. |
linkhover_textDecoration | This stylevar controls the link hover text decoration of any element. |
padding | This stylevar controls the padding of any element. |
shade_color | This stylevar controls the text color of shaded text. Shaded text is usually used for option and input field descriptions. |
shadow_color | This stylevar controls the shadow color of any element. |
time_color | This stylevar controls the text color of the time. |
Buttons |
Name | Description |
control_background | This stylevar controls the background of buttons. |
control_border | This stylevar controls the border of buttons. |
control_color | This stylevar controls the text color of buttons. |
control_content_background | This stylevar controls the background of content buttons. A content button is a button used to create new content (such as Post New Thread, Reply to Thread, etc.). |
control_content_border | This stylevar controls the border of content buttons. A content button is a button used to create new content (such as Post New Thread, Reply to Thread, etc.). |
control_content_color | This stylevar controls the text color of content buttons. A content button is a button used to create new content (such as Post New Thread, Reply to Thread, etc.). |
control_content_font | This stylevar controls the font of content buttons. A content button is a button used to create new content (such as Post New Thread, Reply to Thread, etc.). |
control_content_hover_background | This stylevar controls the background of hover content buttons. A content button is a button used to create new content (such as Post New Thread, Reply to Thread, etc.). |
control_content_hover_color | This stylevar controls the text color of hover content buttons. A content button is a button used to create new content (such as Post New Thread, Reply to Thread, etc.). |
control_content_padding | This stylevar controls the padding of content buttons. A content button is a button used to create new content (such as Post New Thread, Reply to Thread, etc.). |
control_content_radius | This stylevar controls the radius of content button borders. A content button is a button used to create new content (such as Post New Thread, Reply to Thread, etc.). |
control_content_shadow_color | This stylevar controls the shadow color of content buttons. A content button is a button used to create new content (such as Post New Thread, Reply to Thread, etc.). |
control_font | This stylevar controls the font of buttons. |
control_hover_background | This stylevar controls the background of hover buttons. |
control_hover_color | This stylevar controls the text color of hover buttons. |
Calendar |
Name | Description |
calendar_addnewcontrols_dt_margin | This stylevar controls the margin of the calendar Add New Event button. |
calendar_events_a_daynum_color | This stylevar controls the link color of day numbers in the calendar monthly view. |
calendar_events_a_daynum_color_hover | This stylevar controls the link hover color of day numbers in the calendar monthly view. |
calendar_events_border | This stylevar controls the border of days in the calendar monthly and weekly views. |
calendar_events_height | This stylevar controls the minimum height of day cells in the calendar monthly view. |
calendar_events_ol_list_margin | This stylevar controls the margin of day cells in the calendar monthly view. |
calendar_events_ol_list_width | This stylevar controls the width of day cells in the calendar monthly view. |
calendar_mini_othermonth_a_border | This stylevar controls the border of other month days in the calendar. |
calendar_othermonth_a_color | This stylevar controls the text color of other month days in the calendar. |
calendar_othermonth_background_color | This stylevar controls the background of other month days in the calendar. |
calendar_sidebar_width | This stylevar controls the width of the calendar sidebar. |
calendar_today_border_color | This stylevar controls the border of the current day cell in the calendar monthly view. |
calendar_week_daynum_font_color | This stylevar controls the text color of day numbers in the calendar weekly view. |
calendar_week_daynum_font_size | This stylevar controls the font size of day numbers in the calendar weekly view. |
calendar_week_eventlist_birthdays_background | This stylevar controls the background of the birthday area in the calendar weekly view. |
calendar_week_eventlist_birthdays_border | This stylevar controls the border of the birthday area in the calendar weekly view. |
calendar_week_eventlist_birthdays_width | This stylevar controls the width of the birthday area in the calendar weekly view. |
eventbit_dl_customfield_color | This stylevar controls the text color of custom field names in calendar events. |
Comments |
Name | Description |
postbit_lite_background | This stylevar controls the background of comments. A comment is a smaller-looking type of message, such as group messages, visitor messages, etc. |
postbitlite_header_background | This stylevar controls the background of comment headers. A comment is a smaller-looking type of message, such as group messages, visitor messages, etc. |
postbitlite_header_border | This stylevar controls the border of comment headers. A comment is a smaller-looking type of message, such as group messages, visitor messages, etc. |
postbitlite_header_color | This stylevar controls the text color of comment headers. A comment is a smaller-looking type of message, such as group messages, visitor messages, etc. |
postbitlite_header_link_color | This stylevar controls the link color of comment headers. A comment is a smaller-looking type of message, such as group messages, visitor messages, etc. |
Common |
Name | Description |
big_fontSize | This stylevar controls the size of big font. |
content_msg_font | This stylevar controls the font of non post content types. A non post content type is any content except forums posts, private messages, forum announcements, calendar events and user notes. |
general_hilite_color | This stylevar controls the background of general highlighted elements. |
giant_fontSize | This stylevar controls the size of giant font. |
heavy_border | This stylevar controls the border of any element that does not have a specific border defined and that needs a border that stands out against nearby elements. |
highlight_background | This stylevar controls the background of highlighted text. The text is usually highlighted by either using the [highlight] BB code or when it matches search keyword(s). |
highlight_color | This stylevar controls the text color of highlighted text. The text is usually highlighted by either using the [highlight] BB code or when it matches search keyword(s). |
image_max_size | This stylevar controls the maximum size of images. |
imodhilite_backgroundColor | This stylevar controls the background of the content selected with inline moderation. |
light_border | This stylevar controls the border of any element that does not have a specific border defined and that needs a border that doesn't stand out against nearby elements. |
line_height | This stylevar controls the height of the lines of most elements. The value of this stylevar is always and only used as part of calculations, and not directly. |
mid_border | This stylevar controls the border of any element that does not have a specific border defined. |
mid_fontSize | This stylevar controls the size of mid font. |
navlinks_background | This stylevar controls the background of the navigation links. |
navlinks_border_top | This stylevar controls the top border of the navigation links. |
navlinks_color | This stylevar controls the text color of the navigation links. |
restore | This stylevar controls the border of table cells. |
restore_padding | This stylevar controls the padding of table cells. |
small_fontSize | This stylevar controls the size of small font. |
tabslight_border | This stylevar controls the border of tabs. This is used by the calendar tabs only. |
tabslight_selected_background | This stylevar controls the background of the selected tab. This is used by the calendar tabs only. |
tabslight_size | This stylevar controls the size of tabs. This is used by the calendar tabs and profile tabs only. |
tiny_fontSize | This stylevar controls the size of tiny font. |
Editor |
Name | Description |
editor_autosave_notice_background | This stylevar controls the background of the editor auto-save notice. |
editor_background | This stylevar controls the background of the editor. |
editor_button_background | This stylevar controls the background of editor buttons. |
editor_button_background_hover | This stylevar controls the background of hover editor buttons. |
editor_button_disabled_opacity | This stylevar controls the opacity of disabled editor buttons. The entered value should be between 0 and 1. |
editor_button_enabled_opacity | This stylevar controls the opacity of enabled editor buttons. The entered value should be between 0 and 1. |
editor_button_selected_background | This stylevar controls the background of selected editor buttons. |
editor_button_selected_background_hover | This stylevar controls the background of hover selected editor buttons. |
editor_popupbody_background | This stylevar controls the background of the editor popups. |
editor_popupbody_color | This stylevar controls the text color of the editor popups. |
editor_popupbody_frame_background | This stylevar controls the background of the editor popup frame. |
editor_popupbody_frame_color | This stylevar controls the text color of the editor popup frame. |
editor_popupbody_tab_background_hover | This stylevar controls the background of the editor popup hover tabs. |
editor_popupbody_tab_color_hover | This stylevar controls the text color of the editor popup hover tabs. |
editor_smiliebox_smiliesize | This stylevar controls the maximum size of smilies in the editor smiliebox. |
editor_text_color | This stylevar controls the text color of the editor. |
editor_toolbar_background | This stylevar controls the background of the editor toolbar. |
editor_wysiwyg_table_border | This stylevar controls the border of tables in the WYSIWYG editor. |
Footer |
Name | Description |
footer_background | This stylevar controls the background of the footer. The footer is the horizontal bar that is displayed at the bottom of every page. |
footer_border | This stylevar controls the border of the footer. The footer is the horizontal bar that is displayed at the bottom of every page. |
footer_color | This stylevar controls the text color of the footer. The footer is the horizontal bar that is displayed at the bottom of every page. |
footer_copyright_color | This stylevar controls the text color of the footer copyright notice. The footer is the horizontal bar that is displayed at the bottom of every page. |
footer_copyright_font | This stylevar controls the font of the footer copyright notice. The footer is the horizontal bar that is displayed at the bottom of every page. |
footer_font | This stylevar controls the font of the footer. The footer is the horizontal bar that is displayed at the bottom of every page. |
footer_link_color | This stylevar controls the link color of the footer. The footer is the horizontal bar that is displayed at the bottom of every page. |
footer_linkhover_color | This stylevar controls the link hover color of the footer. The footer is the horizontal bar that is displayed at the bottom of every page. |
footer_moz_shadow_color | This stylevar controls the shadow color of the footer. The footer is the horizontal bar that is displayed at the bottom of every page. |
footer_padding | This stylevar controls the padding of the footer. The footer is the horizontal bar that is displayed at the bottom of every page. |
footer_time_color | This stylevar controls the text color of the footer time. The footer is the horizontal bar that is displayed at the bottom of every page. |
Forms |
Name | Description |
form_columnleft_width | This stylevar controls the width of the left column in forms. The left column of forms usually contains option and input field names. |
form_columnright_width | This stylevar controls the width of the right column in forms. The right column of forms usually contains option descriptions, the available option settings and input fields. |
form_maxWidth | This stylevar controls the maximum width of forms in new content creation pages. A form is usually contained in a block, and it contains the block body and/or one or more block rows. |
formrow_background | This stylevar controls the background of forms. A form is usually contained in a block body, and may contain one or more block rows. |
formrow_border | This stylevar controls the border of forms. A form is usually contained in a block body, and may contain one or more block rows. |
input_background | This stylevar controls the background of input fields. |
input_border | This stylevar controls the border of input fields. |
input_color | This stylevar controls the text color of input fields. |
input_focus_background | This stylevar controls the background of input fields when they have focus. |
input_font | This stylevar controls the font of input fields. |
input_padding | This stylevar controls the padding of input fields. |
Forums |
Name | Description |
announcement_background | This stylevar controls the background of forum announcements. Announcements are displayed at the top of forumdisplay pages. |
forum_sidebar_width | This stylevar controls the width of the forum sidebar. |
forumbits_border | This stylevar controls the border of forum rows in forum lists. |
forumbits_shadow_color | This stylevar controls the shadow color of forum rows in forum lists. |
forumbits_text_color | This stylevar controls the text color of forum rows in forum lists. |
forumhead_background | This stylevar controls the background of forum list headers. |
forumhead_border | This stylevar controls the border of forum list headers. |
forumhead_color | This stylevar controls the text color of forum list headers. |
forumhead_font | This stylevar controls the font of forum list headers. |
forumhead_top_corner_radius | This stylevar controls the radius of the top corners of forum list headers. |
forumicon_size | This stylevar controls the size of the space forum icons can take in forum lists. |
forumrow_background | This stylevar controls the background of forum rows in forum lists. |
forumrow_firstentry_background | This stylevar controls the background of the first forum row in forum lists. |
Groups |
Name | Description |
groups_row_background | This stylevar controls the background of group rows. |
icon_background | This stylevar controls the background of group icons in the group main page. |
Header |
Name | Description |
header_background | This stylevar controls the background of the header. The header is the horizontal bar that is displayed at the top of every page, which contains the logo. |
header_border | This stylevar controls the border of the header. The header is the horizontal bar that is displayed at the top of every page, which contains the logo. |
header_color | This stylevar controls the text color of the header. The header is the horizontal bar that is displayed at the top of every page, which contains the logo. |
header_font | This stylevar controls the text font of the header. The header is the horizontal bar that is displayed at the top of every page, which contains the logo. |
header_link_color | This stylevar controls the link color of the header. The header is the horizontal bar that is displayed at the top of every page, which contains the logo. |
header_linkhover_color | This stylevar controls the link hover color of the header. The header is the horizontal bar that is displayed at the top of every page, which contains the logo. |
header_margin | This stylevar controls the margin of the header. The header is the horizontal bar that is displayed at the top of every page, which contains the logo. |
header_padding | This stylevar controls the padding of the header. The header is the horizontal bar that is displayed at the top of every page, which contains the logo. |
toplinks_background | This stylevar controls the background of the links in the top right corner of the header. |
toplinks_color | This stylevar controls the text color of the links in the top right corner of the header. |
toplinks_hilite_background | This stylevar controls the highlighted background of the links in the top right corner of the header. |
toplinks_link_color | This stylevar controls the link color of the links in the top right corner of the header. |
toplinks_linkhover_color | This stylevar controls the link hover color of the links in the top right corner of the header. |
ImagePaths |
Name | Description |
imgdir_attach | This stylevar controls the path of the attachment image directory. This folder contains the various icons used to represent different attachment file types. |
imgdir_button | This stylevar controls the path of the button image directory. This folder contains the various images of the buttons that can be clicked to perform actions. |
imgdir_cms | This stylevar controls the path of the CMS image directory. This folder contains the various images used in the vBulletin CMS. |
imgdir_editor | This stylevar controls the path of the editor image directory. This folder contains the button and interface images for the editor. |
imgdir_misc | This stylevar controls the path of the miscellaneous image directory. This folder contains the various images that do not fit into other image categories. |
imgdir_pagination | This stylevar controls the path of the pagination image directory. This folder contains the various images used by the pagination. |
imgdir_rating | This stylevar controls the path of the rating image directory. This folder contains the various images used to illustrate the rating applied to a content (such as threads). |
imgdir_reputation | This stylevar controls the path of the reputation image directory. This folder contains the various images used to display a user's current reputation. |
imgdir_searchresults | This stylevar controls the path of the search result image directory. This folder contains the various images used by different content showed in search results. |
imgdir_siteicons | This stylevar controls the path of the site icon image directory. This folder contains the various common icons used across all the site. |
imgdir_statusicon | This stylevar controls the path of the status icon image directory. This folder contains the various icons representing the status of content (such as forums, threads, etc.). |
titleimage | This stylevar controls the file path of the logo. The logo is the image that is displayed on every page in the top left corner of the header. |
titleimage_padding | This stylevar controls the padding of the logo. The logo is the image that is displayed on every page in the top left corner of the header. |
favicon | This stylevar controls the file path of the favicon. The favicon is the small image displayed in the browser address bar and near browser page title. |
unknownsgicon | This stylevar controls the file path of the icon used as group icon by groups that do not have an icon specified. |
Navbar |
These style variables control the navigation tabs and submenus shown under the Header on every page.
Name | Description |
navbar_background | This stylevar controls the background of the navigation bar. |
navbar_border | This stylevar controls the border of the navigation bar. |
navbar_color | This stylevar controls the text color of the navigation bar. |
navbar_font | This stylevar controls the font of the navigation bar. |
navbar_link_color | This stylevar controls the link color of the navigation bar. |
navbar_linkhover_color | This stylevar controls the link hover color of the navigation bar. |
navbar_margin | This stylevar controls the margin of the navigation bar. |
navbar_menu_height | This stylevar controls the height of the navigation bar menu. |
navbar_popupmenu_link_background | This stylevar controls the background of the navigation bar popup menu rows. |
navbar_popupmenu_link_color | This stylevar controls the link color of the navigation bar popup menu rows. |
navbar_popupmenu_link_hover_background | This stylevar controls the background of the navigation bar popup menu hover rows. |
navbar_popupmenu_link_hover_color | This stylevar controls the link color of the navigation bar popup menu hover rows. |
navbar_tab_background | This stylevar controls the background of the navigation bar tabs. |
navbar_tab_bevel | This stylevar controls the inner top border of the navigation bar tabs. |
navbar_tab_border | This stylevar controls the border of the navigation bar tabs. |
navbar_tab_color | This stylevar controls the text color of the navigation bar tabs. |
navbar_tab_font | This stylevar controls the font of the navigation bar tabs. |
navbar_tab_padding | This stylevar controls the padding of the navigation bar tabs. |
navbar_tab_selected_background | This stylevar controls the background of the selected navigation bar tabs. |
navbar_tab_selected_color | This stylevar controls the text color of the selected navigation bar tabs. |
navbar_tab_selected_top_height | This stylevar controls the height of the selected navigation bar tabs. This is an extra height added to the normal height of the navigation bar tabs. |
navbar_tab_size | This stylevar controls the size of the navigation bar tabs. |
Notices |
Name | Description |
notices_background | This stylevar controls the background of notices. Notices appear at the top of every page, if their conditions are met. |
notices_shadow_color | This stylevar controls the shadow color of notices. Notices appear at the top of every page, if their conditions are met. |
Mobile |
These style variables only appear in the vBulletin Mobile Style
[table]
Page Title |
Name | Description |
pagetitle_background | This stylevar controls the background of the page title. |
pagetitle_border | This stylevar controls the border of the page title. |
pagetitle_color | This stylevar controls the text color of the page title. |
pagetitle_color | This stylevar controls the text color of the page title description. |
pagetitle_font | This stylevar controls the font of the page title. |
pagetitle_link_color | This stylevar controls the link color of the page title. |
pagetitle_linkhover_color | This stylevar controls the link hover color of the page title. |
pagetitle_padding | This stylevar controls the padding of the page title. |
Pagination |
Name | Description |
pagination_background | This stylevar controls the background of the page navigation. |
pagination_border | This stylevar controls the border of the page navigation. |
pagination_color | This stylevar controls the text color of the page navigation. |
pagination_current_background | This stylevar controls the background of the selected page in the page navigation. |
pagination_current_border | This stylevar controls the border of the selected page in the page navigation. |
pagination_current_color | This stylevar controls the text color of the selected page in the page navigation. |
pagination_font | This stylevar controls the font of the page navigation. |
pagination_hover_border | This stylevar controls the border of the hover pages in the page navigation. |
Polls |
Name | Description |
poll_background | This stylevar controls the background of polls. |
pollbar1_background | This stylevar controls the first background of the poll bars. This background will be used once every six poll options. |
pollbar2_background | This stylevar controls the second background of the poll bars. This background will be used once every six poll options. |
pollbar3_background | This stylevar controls the third background of the poll bars. This background will be used once every six poll options. |
pollbar4_background | This stylevar controls the fourth background of the poll bars. This background will be used once every six poll options. |
pollbar5_background | This stylevar controls the fifth background of the poll bars. This background will be used once every six poll options. |
pollbar6_background | This stylevar controls the sixth background of the poll bars. This background will be used once every six poll options. |
pollbar_border | This stylevar controls the border of the poll bars. |
pollbar_height | This stylevar controls the height of the poll bars. |
pollbars_margin_size | This stylevar controls the margin of the poll bars. |
pollbars_result_bit_width | This stylevar controls the width of the poll result area. |
PopupMenus |
Name | Description |
popup_padding | This stylevar controls the padding of popups. |
popupmenu_background | This stylevar controls the background of popup menu. |
popupmenu_border | This stylevar controls the border of popup menu. |
popupmenu_border_radius | This stylevar controls the radius of popup menu borders. |
popupmenu_color | This stylevar controls the text color of popup menu. |
popupmenu_font | This stylevar controls the font of popup menu. |
popupmenu_height | This stylevar controls the height of popup menu rows. |
popupmenu_link_background | This stylevar controls the background of popup menu rows. |
popupmenu_link_color | This stylevar controls the link color of popup menu rows. |
popupmenu_link_hover_background | This stylevar controls the background of popup menu hover rows. |
popupmenu_link_hover_color | This stylevar controls the link color of popup menu hover rows. |
popupmenu_padding | This stylevar controls the padding of popup menu. |
Postbit |
Name | Description |
diff_add_background | This stylevar controls the background of added text in the post edit history. |
diff_remove_background | This stylevar controls the background of removed text in the post edit history. |
diffadd_color | This stylevar controls the text color of added text in the post edit history. |
diffremove_color | This stylevar controls the text color of removed text in the post edit history. |
post_title_font | This stylevar controls the font of post titles. This includes forums posts, private messages, forum announcements, calendar events and user notes. |
postbit_background | This stylevar controls the background of posts. This includes forums posts, private messages, forum announcements, calendar events and user notes. |
postbit_border | This stylevar controls the border of posts. This includes forums posts, private messages, forum announcements, calendar events and user notes. |
postbit_color | This stylevar controls the text color of posts. This includes forums posts, private messages, forum announcements, calendar events and user notes. |
postbit_control_background | This stylevar controls the background of the post buttons. This includes forums posts, private messages, forum announcements, calendar events and user notes. |
postbit_control_border | This stylevar controls the border of the post buttons. This includes forums posts, private messages, forum announcements, calendar events and user notes. |
postbit_control_color | This stylevar controls the text color of the post buttons. This includes forums posts, private messages, forum announcements, calendar events and user notes. |
postbit_control_font | This stylevar controls the font of the post buttons. This includes forums posts, private messages, forum announcements, calendar events and user notes. |
postbit_control_hover_background | This stylevar controls the background of the hover post buttons. This includes forums posts, private messages, forum announcements, calendar events and user notes. |
postbit_control_hover_border | This stylevar controls the border of the hover post buttons. This includes forums posts, private messages, forum announcements, calendar events and user notes. |
postbit_control_hover_color | This stylevar controls the text color of the hover post buttons. This includes forums posts, private messages, forum announcements, calendar events and user notes. |
postbit_control_padding | This stylevar controls the padding of the post buttons. This includes forums posts, private messages, forum announcements, calendar events and user notes. |
postbit_deleted_background | This stylevar controls the background of soft deleted posts. |
postbit_font | This stylevar controls the font of posts. This includes forums posts, private messages, forum announcements, calendar events and user notes. |
postbit_foot_background | This stylevar controls the background of post footers. This includes forums posts, private messages, forum announcements, calendar events and user notes. |
postbit_foot_separator | This stylevar controls the line between different buttons in post footers. This includes forums posts, private messages, forum announcements, calendar events and user notes. |
postbit_userinfo_background | This stylevar controls the background of the user information area in posts. This includes forums posts, private messages, forum announcements, calendar events and user notes. |
postbit_userinfo_border | This stylevar controls the border of the user information area in posts. This includes forums posts, private messages, forum announcements, calendar events and user notes. |
postbithead_background | This stylevar controls the background of post headers. This includes forums posts, private messages, forum announcements, calendar events and user notes. |
postbithead_border | This stylevar controls the border of post headers. This includes forums posts, private messages, forum announcements, calendar events and user notes. |
postbithead_color | This stylevar controls the text color of post headers. This includes forums posts, private messages, forum announcements, calendar events and user notes. |
postbithead_font | This stylevar controls the font of post headers. This includes forums posts, private messages, forum announcements, calendar events and user notes. |
postbitlegacy_userinfo_width | This stylevar controls the width of the user information area in posts when using the vertical (two column) post model. This includes forums posts, private messages, forum announcements, calendar events and user notes. |
postbittitle_border | This stylevar controls the line between the post title and the post content. This includes forum posts, forum announcements and private messages. |
signature_border | This stylevar controls the line between the signature and the post content. This includes forum posts, forum announcements and private messages. |
Profile |
Name | Description |
profile_content_subsection_border | This stylevar controls the line between each infraction in the user profile infraction tab. |
profile_sidebar_avatar_backgroundColor | This stylevar controls the background of profile pictures in user profiles. |
profile_sidebar_avatar_border | This stylevar controls the border of images in the profile sidebar. This includes profile picture, avatar, friends' avatars, group icons and album covers. |
profile_sidebar_avatar_maxWidth | This stylevar controls the width of images in the profile sidebar. This includes group icons and album covers. |
profile_sidebar_width | This stylevar controls the width of the profile sidebar. |
profile_tiny_avatar | This stylevar controls the size of avatars in the profile sidebar friend block. |
postbit_lite_background | This stylevar controls the background of the left column.Warning: this stylevar also controls the background of Comment areas. | [/td]
SecondaryContent |
Name | Description |
secondarycontent_background | This stylevar controls the background of the "What's Going On?" block on the forum home page and of the blocks at the bottom of forumdisplay and showthread pages. |
secondarycontent_border | This stylevar controls the border of the "What's Going On?" block on the forum home page and of the blocks at the bottom of forumdisplay and showthread pages. |
secondarycontent_color | This stylevar controls the text color of the "What's Going On?" block on the forum home page and of the blocks at the bottom of forumdisplay and showthread pages. |
secondarycontent_font | This stylevar controls the font of the "What's Going On?" block on the forum home page and of the blocks at the bottom of forumdisplay and showthread pages. |
secondarycontent_header_background | This stylevar controls the background of the header of the "What's Going On?" block on the forum home page and of the blocks at the bottom of forumdisplay and showthread pages. |
secondarycontent_header_border | This stylevar controls the border of the header of the "What's Going On?" block on the forum home page and of the blocks at the bottom of forumdisplay and showthread pages. |
secondarycontent_header_color | This stylevar controls the text color of the header of the "What's Going On?" block on the forum home page and of the blocks at the bottom of forumdisplay and showthread pages. |
secondarycontent_header_font | This stylevar controls the font of the header of the "What's Going On?" block on the forum home page and of the blocks at the bottom of forumdisplay and showthread pages. |
secondarycontent_subheader_fontSize | This stylevar controls the font size of the sub-header of the "What's Going On?" block on the forum home page and of the blocks at the bottom of forumdisplay and showthread pages. |
Sidebar |
Name | Description |
sidebar_background | This stylevar controls the background of sidebars. |
sidebar_border | This stylevar controls the border of sidebars. |
sidebar_content_background | This stylevar controls the background of sidebar contents. |
sidebar_content_bevel | This stylevar controls the inner top border of sidebar contents. |
sidebar_content_border | This stylevar controls the border of sidebar contents. |
sidebar_content_color | This stylevar controls the text color of sidebar contents. |
sidebar_content_fontSize | This stylevar controls the font size of sidebar contents. |
sidebar_content_link_color | This stylevar controls the link color of sidebar contents. |
sidebar_content_link_hover_color | This stylevar controls the link hover color of sidebar contents. |
sidebar_content_padding | This stylevar controls the padding of sidebar contents. |
sidebar_contentavatar_width | This stylevar controls the width of sidebar content avatars. |
sidebar_contentlist_separator | This stylevar controls the line between different sidebar contents in the same block. |
sidebar_contentseparator_background | This stylevar controls the background of the sidebar block separator. |
sidebar_contentseparator_height | This stylevar controls the height of the sidebar block separator. |
sidebar_header_color | This stylevar controls the text color of sidebar block headers. |
sidebar_header_fontSize | This stylevar controls the font size of sidebar block headers. |
sidebar_header_link_color | This stylevar controls the link color of sidebar block headers. |
sidebar_postbit_header_font | This stylevar controls the font of sidebar content titles. |
sidebar_postbit_small_fontSize | This stylevar controls the font size of sidebar content details. |
ThreadBit |
Name | Description |
threadbit_alt_background | This stylevar controls the alternating background of thread rows in thread lists. |
threadbit_background | This stylevar controls the background of thread rows in thread lists. |
threadbit_border | This stylevar controls the border of thread rows in thread lists. |
threadbit_deleted_background | This stylevar controls the background of soft deleted thread rows in thread lists. |
threadbit_hilite_background | This stylevar controls the background of sticky thread rows in thread lists. |
threadbit_iconsize | This stylevar controls the size of the space thread icons can take in thread lists. |
threadlisthead_background | This stylevar controls the background of thread list headers. |
threadlisthead_border | This stylevar controls the border of thread list headers. |
threadlisthead_color | This stylevar controls the text color of thread list headers. |
threadlisthead_font | This stylevar controls the font of thread list headers. |
threadlisthead_top_corner_radius | This stylevar controls the radius of the top corners of thread list headers. |
ToolsMenu |
Name | Description |
toolsmenu_background | This stylevar controls the background of tool menu. |
toolsmenu_border | This stylevar controls the border of tool menu. |
toolsmenu_color | This stylevar controls the text color of tool menu. |
toolsmenu_fontSize | This stylevar controls the font size of tool menu. |
toolsmenu_link_color | This stylevar controls the link color of tool menu. |
toolsmenu_linkhover_color | This stylevar controls the link hover color of tool menu. |
UserCP |
Name | Description |
usercp_hr_seperator | This stylevar controls the line between private message/subscription folders and the other private message/subscription links in the navigation column in the setting pages. |
usercp_nav_blockbody_background | This stylevar controls the background of the block body in the navigation column in the setting pages. |
usercp_nav_blockbody_border | This stylevar controls the border of the block body in the navigation column in the setting pages. |
Blog |
Name | Description |
vbblog_bloglist_avatar_width | This stylevar controls the width of avatars in blog entry lists. |
vbblog_bloglist_avatar_width_mobile | This stylevar controls the width of avatars in blog entry lists. |
vbblog_bloglist_avatar_width_name_mobile | Blog Entry List Avatar Width |
vbblog_bloglist_border | This stylevar controls the line between different blog entries in blog entry lists. |
vbblog_bloglist_header_color | This stylevar controls the text color of blog entry titles. |
vbblog_body_background | This stylevar controls the background of the blog body. The body is the area below the header, which contains all other elements. |
vbblog_entry_background | This stylevar controls the background of blog entries. |
vbblog_featured_background | This stylevar controls the background of featured blog entries in blog entry lists. |
vbblog_featured_border | This stylevar controls the border of featured blog entries in blog entry lists. |
vbblog_featured_header_background | This stylevar controls the background of featured blog entry headers in blog entry lists. |
vbblog_featured_header_color | This stylevar controls the text color of featured blog entry headers in blog entry lists. |
vbblog_listrow_background | This stylevar controls the background of rows in blog lists and in blog category lists. |
vbblog_pagetitle_border | This stylevar controls the line between the page title and the rest of the page content in the blog. |
vbblog_pagetitle_color | This stylevar controls the text color of the page title in the blog. |
vbblog_pagetitle_color | This stylevar controls the text color of the page title description in the blog. |
vbblog_pagetitle_font | This stylevar controls the font of the page title description in the blog. |
vbblog_pagetitle_font | This stylevar controls the font of the page title in the blog. |
vbblog_sidebar_avatar_border | This stylevar controls the border of the blog owner avatar in the blog sidebar. |
vbblog_sidebar_tabs_background | This stylevar controls the background of the blog sidebar tabs. |
vbblog_sidebar_tabs_border | This stylevar controls the border of the blog sidebar tabs. |
vbblog_sidebar_tabs_color | This stylevar controls the link color of the blog sidebar tabs. |
vbblog_sidebar_tabs_font | This stylevar controls the font of the blog sidebar tabs. |
vbblog_sidebar_tabs_height | This stylevar controls the height of the blog sidebar tabs. |
vbblog_sidebar_tabs_selected_background | This stylevar controls the background of the selected blog sidebar tab. |
vbblog_sidebar_width | This stylevar controls the width of the blog sidebar. |
vbcms |
Name | Description |
vbcms_article_background | This stylevar controls the background of CMS content. |
vbcms_article_preview_header_font | This stylevar controls the font of titles in CMS content previews. |
vbcms_article_preview_image_border | This stylevar controls the border of CMS content preview images. |
vbcms_article_preview_image_margin | This stylevar controls the margin of CMS content preview images. |
vbcms_article_preview_image_outline | This stylevar controls the outer line of CMS content preview images. |
vbcms_article_preview_object_size | This stylevar controls the maximum size of video in CMS content previews. |
vbcms_body_background | This stylevar controls the background of the CMS body. The body is the area below the header, which contains all other elements. |
vbcms_calendarwidget_day_font | This stylevar controls the font of days in the CMS calendar widget. |
vbcms_calendarwidget_monthnav_background | This stylevar controls the background of the month navigation in the CMS calendar widget. |
vbcms_calendarwidget_monthnav_font | This stylevar controls the font of the month navigation in the CMS calendar widget. |
vbcms_calendarwidget_weekdays_background | This stylevar controls the background of week days in the CMS calendar widget. |
vbcms_calendarwidget_weekdays_border | This stylevar controls the border of week days in the CMS calendar widget. |
vbcms_calendarwidget_weekdays_font | This stylevar controls the font of week days in the CMS calendar widget. |
vbcms_content_separator | This stylevar controls the line between different CMS content in CMS content lists. |
vbcms_header_borderBottom | This stylevar controls the bottom border of CMS content headers. |
vbcms_header_borderTop | This stylevar controls the top border of CMS content headers. |
vbcms_header_color | This stylevar controls the text color of CMS content headers. |
vbcms_header_font | This stylevar controls the font of CMS content headers. |
vbcms_header_margin | This stylevar controls the margin of CMS content headers. |
vbcms_header_padding | This stylevar controls the padding of CMS content headers. |
vbcms_navwidget_menuitem_background | This stylevar controls the background of rows in the CMS navigation widgets. |
vbcms_navwidget_menuitem_bevel | This stylevar controls the inner top border of rows in the CMS navigation widgets. |
vbcms_navwidget_menuitem_border | This stylevar controls the border of rows in the CMS navigation widgets. |
vbcms_navwidget_menuitem_color | This stylevar controls the text color of rows in the CMS navigation widgets. |
vbcms_navwidget_menuitem_font | This stylevar controls the font of rows in the CMS navigation widgets. |
vbcms_navwidget_menuitem_hover_background | This stylevar controls the background of hover rows in the CMS navigation widgets. |
vbcms_navwidget_menuitem_hover_bevel | This stylevar controls the inner top border of hover rows in the CMS navigation widgets. |
vbcms_navwidget_menuitem_hover_border | This stylevar controls the border of hover rows in the CMS navigation widgets. |
vbcms_navwidget_menuitem_hover_color | This stylevar controls the text color of hover rows in the CMS navigation widgets. |
vbcms_widget_block_padding | This stylevar controls the padding of CMS widgets. |
vbcms_widget_header_padding | This stylevar controls the padding of CMS widget headers. |
vbcms_widget_margin | This stylevar controls the margin of CMS widgets. |
Widgets |
HTML Doctype |
The HTML doctype StyleVar controls the first line of the HTML code for every vBulletin page.
It is used to instruct the browser how to render the page, according to a particular type of HTML.
For example, the HTML doctype for XHTML 1.0 Transitional, which is the default for vBulletin 3 is this:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
Note:
You may leave the HTML doctype completely blank, but if you do so, Internet Explorer 6 will use the 'Quirky Rendering' mode as used by previous versions of Internet Explorer.
When attempting to achieve a layout that will look the same between Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Opera and all the other browsers out there, 'Quirky Rendering' mode can be extremely unhelpful!
When attempting to achieve a layout that will look the same between Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Opera and all the other browsers out there, 'Quirky Rendering' mode can be extremely unhelpful!
Main Table Width |
The main table width StyleVar is used to set the overall width of vBulletin pages.
It can accept values both as a percentage of the total page width for a 'liquid' layout, or an explicit value set in pixels to create a fixed layout.
Here you can see examples of the same board with different values for $stylevar[outertablewidth].On the left, the main table width has been set to 760, creating a fixed-width layout that will not resize to become wider or narrower based on the width of the window. On the right is the same board with $stylevar[outertablewidth] set to 100%. As a result, the page content has stretched to fill the available space.
Note:
If you wish to enter a value in pixels, you should enter the number alone, do not add 'px' to the value.
For example: 640.
To set the value as a percentage, simply enter the percentage value, followed by the % symbol.
For example: 85%.
For example: 640.
To set the value as a percentage, simply enter the percentage value, followed by the % symbol.
For example: 85%.
Example of $stylevar[outertablewidth] in use:
<table width="$stylevar[outertablewidth]" align="center"> <tr> <td>This table's width is set by $stylevar[outertablewidth].</td> </tr> </table>
<div style="text-align: center"> <div style="width: $stylevar[outerdivwidth]; text-align: left"> This div's width is being set by $stylevar[outerdivwidth]. </div> </div>
Spacer Size |
The spacer size StyleVar is used to define the width in pixels of the space between the edge of the vBulletin page and the content within it.
The red arrow on this image shows the distance controlled by $stylevar[spacersize].This StyleVar accepts any numeric value, but will not accept a value specified as a percentage.
Note:
Do not add 'px' to the number you specify as the value for $stylevar[spacersize].
Inner Border Width |
The inner border width StyleVar is used as the value for the 'cellspacing' attribute of all tables in vBulletin. It controls the width of the border apparent between table cells.
By setting a value of 1 or greater, a margin will appear between table cells, showing the background color of the underlying table as defined in the .tborder CSS class.
At the default value of 1, a thin, one pixel border is seen between table cells:By increasing the value to 3, the border between cells grows thicker:Setting the value to 0 will result in no margin between cells, so no inner border will appear at all.Example of $stylevar[cellspacing] in use:
<table class="tborder" cellspacing="$stylevar[cellspacing]" cellpadding="5"> <tr> <td class="alt1">First Cell</td> <td class="alt2">Second Cell</td> </tr> </table>
Note:
Do not add 'px' to the value of this StyleVar.
Table Cell Padding |
The table cell padding StyleVar is used as the value for the 'cellpadding' attribute of all tables in vBulletin. It controls the amount of margin shown between the content of a cell and its border.
At the default value of 6, a wide margin is apparent between the content of each cell and its surrounding border.Dropping the value to 3, we can see that the amount of padding around the content of each cell is halved from its width at the default value.By setting the cell padding value all the way down to 0, all padding is lost from cells, and we are left with a rather nasty-looking cluttered table where the cell borders actually touch the content within them.Example of $stylevar[cellpadding] in use:
<table class="tborder" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="$stylevar[cellpadding]"> <tr> <td class="alt1">First Cell</td> <td class="alt2">Second Cell</td> </tr> </table>
Note:
Do not add 'px' to the value of this StyleVar.
Form Element Spacer Size |
The form element spacer size StyleVar defines a distance in pixels between elements of a form in vBulletin. Its purpose is to allow a comfortable distance to be placed between form controls in order to provide a less cluttered appearance to forms.
At the default $stylevar[formspacer] value of 3, a small gap is placed between controls on a form.Increasing the value to 10, a much wider margin is apparent between form elements.This StyleVar will accept any numeric value from 0 upwards. Values between 2 and 10 are probably the most useful for most situations.
Note:
Do not add 'px' to the number you specify as the value for $stylevar[spacersize].
Form Width |
The form width StyleVar is used to set the width of all forms in vBulletin. Its primary function is to restrict the way that forms can stretch to fill all the available space in a window, which can cause form elements and their descriptions to stretch to levels at which the form becomes difficult to manage.
Here, at the default value of 640px, the form elements do not expand with the rest of the page, resulting in an easy-to-manage set of controls located in the center of the page:With the value of $stylevar[formwidth] set to auto, the form elements stretch to fill the entire available space. This results in large empty gaps to the right of the form controls, with the controls themselves stuck to the left side of the window.This StyleVar will accept any value that is a valid entry for CSS width. Examples of valid values include the following:
- 640px (640 pixels, fixed width)
- 75% (75% of available width)
- auto (Expand to fill all available space)
<div style="width:$stylevar[formwidth]"> <form method="index.php" method="post"> <fieldset> <legend>My Form Example</legend> <input type="text" name="mytextfield" value="Hello" /> This is my text field. </fieldset> </form> </div>
Note:
This StyleVar is used as a CSS value. If you enter a width in pixels, you must add 'px' after the number of pixels desired, for example: '500px'.
User CP Form Width |
The user control panel form width StyleVar does exactly the same job as the form width StyleVar $stylevar[formwidth], except that it allows the width of the navigation panel in the User Control Panel to be taken into account.
The red arrow shows the width controlled by $stylevar[formwidth_usercp].For a discussion of the values this StyleVar will accept, see the page relating to the Form Width StyleVar $stylevar[formwidth].
Message Area Width |
The message area with StyleVar controls with width of the text input area used for posting messages etc. in vBulletin.
The red arrow indicates the width controlled by this StyleVar.This StyleVar will accept any value that is a valid entry for CSS width. Examples of valid values include the following:
- 540px (540 pixels, fixed width)
- 75% (75% of available width)
- auto (Expand to fill all available space)
Warning:
While it is possible to use values of 'auto' or a percentage width, testing has shown that many browsers produce unpredictable results when using these methods for the message width StyleVar.
It is therefore recommended that a fixed pixel value such as '540px' be used in this case.
It is therefore recommended that a fixed pixel value such as '540px' be used in this case.
User CP Message Width |
This StyleVar is used to control the width of message input text boxes within the User Control Panel (such as the input area for the Private Message posting page).
Its functionality is identical to that of $stylevar[messagewidth], but it allows the width of the navigation panel in the User Control Panel to be taken into account.
The red arrow indicates the width controlled by this StyleVar:For a discussion of the values this StyleVar will accept, see the page relating to the Message Area Width StyleVar $stylevar[messagewidth].
Code Block Width |
The code block width StyleVar is used to set the width of blocks of code in messages, as defined by the [CODE], [PHP] and [HTML] tags.
The red arrow indicates the width controlled by the $stylevar[codeblockwidth] StyleVar.This StyleVar will accept any value that is a valid entry for CSS width. Examples of valid values include the following:
- 640px (640 pixels, fixed width)
- 75% (75% of available width)
- auto (Expand to fill all available space)
Note:
This StyleVar is used as a CSS value. If you enter a width in pixels, you must add 'px' after the number of pixels desired, for example: '500px'.
Title Image |
The title image StyleVar stores the URL of the main logo image that usually appears in the header template of vBulletin.
Rather than being bunched in with all the other images, the title image is given its own StyleVar in order to make it as easy as possible to make simple customizations to your board, such as changing the colors and the logo image.
The red border indicates the position of the title image at the top-left of a vBulletin page:The value given to this StyleVar can be one of either:
- A complete URL, such as http://www.example.com/forums/images/titleimage.gif
- An absolute path URL such as /forums/images/titleimage.gif
- A file path relative to your forum's URL such as images/titleimage.gif
<img src="$stylevar[titleimage]" border="0" alt="$vboptions[bbtitle]" />
Image Directory Paths |
$stylevar[imgdir_button] | Button Images Folder |
$stylevar[imgdir_status] | Item Status Icon Folder |
$stylevar[imgdir_attach] | Attachment Icons Folder |
$stylevar[imgdir_misc] | Miscellaneous Images Folder |
$stylevar[imgdir_editor] | Text Editor Controls Folder |
$stylevar[imgdir_poll] | Poll Images Folder |
$stylevar[imgdir_rating] | Ratings Images Folder |
$stylevar[imgdir_reputation] | Reputation Images Folder |
The purpose of having several different StyleVars pointing to different image directories is to allow the administrator to choose which images are shared between styles, and which images are unique to each style.
For example, if a board has three different styles called 'Red', 'Green' and 'Blue', where the only difference between the three styles is the color scheme, the administrator may decide that each style will share all of its images, except for the button images, where he has created specially colored versions of the buttons to match the color schemes of the three styles.
In this case, all the image directory StyleVars could point to the same group of directories, with the exception of the $stylevar[imgdir_button] StyleVar, which would have a unique value for each style to point to the appropriate directory containing the colored buttons for each style.
In use, you will find the image directory StyleVars throughout the templates whenever an image is referenced. For example:
<img src="$stylevar[imgdir_button]/newthread.gif" alt="Post New Thread" />
If our 'Red', 'Green' and 'Blue' styles have unique values for the button images folder, we might see that StyleVar being evaluated in the templates in this sort of manner:
'Red' Style
<img src="images/red_buttons/newthread.gif" alt="Post New Thread" />
<img src="images/greenButtons/newthread.gif" alt="Post New Thread" />
<img src="images/buttons_for_blue/newthread.gif" alt="Post New Thread" />
- A complete URL, such as http://www.example.com/forums/images/buttons
- An absolute path URL such as /forums/images/buttons
- A file path relative to your forum's URL such as images/buttons
Warning:
Do not include a trailing slash at the end of your image directory paths.
This is correct:
images/buttons
This is incorrect:
images/buttons/
This is correct:
images/buttons
This is incorrect:
images/buttons/
Style Inheritance |
In essence, this means that you can create an unlimited number of styles in which your board can be viewed, and customizations made in one style will be inherited by all of its 'child' styles.
Inheritance Example |
Many site owners will want to customize the look of their vBulletin installation so that it fits in with the style of the rest of the site. This is normally done by editing the colors used by vBulletin, and by editing the header and footer templates.
Let us imagine that we want to customize your header and footer templates, but we also want to offer three different color schemes for our visitors to choose between. For argument's sake, we'll call these the 'Red', 'Green' and 'Blue' styles.
We could create three new styles, calling one 'Blue', one 'Green' and one 'Red', then customize the header and footer templates in each style. That would be a perfectly valid solution, but has one serious disadvantage, in that should we decide that we want to alter the HTML in the customized header template, we would need to go through and edit the template in each of our three styles individually.A much more manageable solution would be to create a single new style, which we will call 'Custom Header / Footer' and customize the header and footer templates within this style.Now in order to offer site visitors the three color variants we want, we create the 'Red', 'Green' and 'Blue' styles as child styles of the 'Custom Header / Footer' style.
Each of these child styles will inherit the customized header and footer templates from the 'Custom Header / Footer' parent style, so we will not need to edit that template in the child styles, and if we choose to change the HTML of either the header or footer templates at some point in the future, we need only edit those templates in the parent style, and the changes will be automatically inherited by the three child styles.While this is a very simple example, involving only the site color scheme and the header and footer templates, the vBulletin styles system allows you to individually customize every template and every CSS attribute of a style, and each of those customized attributes can be inherited by all child styles.
In the next section we will look into the mechanics behind this system in order to gain a good understanding of how to use vBulletin styles most effectively.
Inheritance Mechanics |
In order to explain this in simple terms, let us assume that a vBulletin style consists of [x] individual elements, those being a background color, a text color, a font style and a few templates. For the purposes of this example, we will represent the contents of a style like this:
Background Color | Text Color | Font Style | Header Template | Footer Template | |
vBulletin Default | #FFFFFF | #000000 | 10pt verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif | <p>This is the default 'header' template!</p> | <div>This is the default 'footer' template!</div> |
Background Color | Text Color | Font Style | Header Template | Footer Template | |
vBulletin Default | #FFFFFF | #000000 | 10pt verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif | <p>This is the default 'header' template!</p> | <div>This is the default 'footer' template!</div> |
Custom Header / Footer | #FFFFFF | #000000 | 10pt verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif | <p>This is my custom 'header' template!</p> | <div>This is my custom 'footer' template!</div> |
We will now add the final branch of the style tree from our previous example, namely the 'Blue' style.
Background Color | Text Color | Font Style | Header Template | Footer Template | |
vBulletin Default | #FFFFFF | #000000 | 10pt verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif | <p>This is the default 'header' template!</p> | <div>This is the default 'footer' template!</div> |
Custom Header / Footer | #FFFFFF | #000000 | 10pt verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif | <p>This is my custom 'header' template!</p> | <div>This is my custom 'footer' template!</div> |
Blue | #0000FF | #FFFFFF | 10pt verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif | <p>This is my custom 'header' template!</p> | <div>This is my custom 'footer' template!</div> |
Furthermore, if we now decided to customize the header template in the 'Blue' style, we would have something like this:
Background Color | Text Color | Font Style | Header Template | Footer Template | |
vBulletin Default | #FFFFFF | #000000 | 10pt verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif | <p>This is the default 'header' template!</p> | <div>This is the default 'footer' template!</div> |
Custom Header / Footer | #FFFFFF | #000000 | 10pt verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif | <p>This is my custom 'header' template!</p> | <div>This is my custom 'footer' template!</div> |
Blue | #0000FF | #FFFF00 | 10pt verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif | <p>This is my special BLUE 'header' template!</p> | <div>This is my custom 'footer' template!</div> |
To illustrate the ability of vBulletin's style system to allow a theoretically infinte level of parent/child relationships between styles, we will now add a child style to the 'Blue' style, in which we will set the font size to be extra large. We will call this style 'Big Font Blue'.In this style, we will customize the font size attribute to be larger than normal, which will result in a style inheritance diagram like this:
Background Color | Text Color | Font Style | Header Template | Footer Template | |
vBulletin Default | #FFFFFF | #000000 | 10pt verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif | <p>This is the default 'header' template!</p> | <div>This is the default 'footer' template!</div> |
Custom Header / Footer | #FFFFFF | #000000 | 10pt verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif | <p>This is my custom 'header' template!</p> | <div>This is my custom 'footer' template!</div> |
Blue | #0000FF | #FFFF00 | 10pt verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif | <p>This is my special BLUE 'header' template!</p> | <div>This is my custom 'footer' template!</div> |
Big Font Blue | #0000FF | #FFFF00 | 14pt verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif | <p>This is my special BLUE 'header' template!</p> | <div>This is my custom 'footer' template!</div> |
Were we to now customize the font style in the 'Custom Header / Footer' style, the change would automatically be inherited by the 'Blue' style, but would not be inherited by the 'Big Font Blue' style, as it has its own customized version.
Background Color | Text Color | Font Style | Header Template | Footer Template | |
vBulletin Default | #FFFFFF | #000000 | 10pt verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif | <p>This is the default 'header' template!</p> | <div>This is the default 'footer' template!</div> |
Custom Header / Footer | #FFFFFF | #000000 | 12pt verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif | <p>This is my custom 'header' template!</p> | <div>This is my custom 'footer' template!</div> |
Blue | #0000FF | #FFFF00 | 12pt verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif | <p>This is my special BLUE 'header' template!</p> | <div>This is my custom 'footer' template!</div> |
Big Font Blue | #0000FF | #FFFF00 | 14pt verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif | <p>This is my special BLUE 'header' template!</p> | <div>This is my custom 'footer' template!</div> |
Background Color | Text Color | Font Style | Header Template | Footer Template | |
vBulletin Default | #FFFFFF | #000000 | 10pt verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif | <p>This is the default 'header' template!</p> | <div>This is the default 'footer' template!</div> |
Custom Header / Footer | #FFFFFF | #000000 | 12pt verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif | <p>This is my custom 'header' template!</p> | <div>This is the default 'footer' template!</div> |
Blue | #0000FF | #FFFF00 | 12pt verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif | <p>This is my special BLUE 'header' template!</p> | <div>This is the default 'footer' template!</div> |
Big Font Blue | #0000FF | #FFFF00 | 14pt verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif | <p>This is my special BLUE 'header' template!</p> | <div>This is the default 'footer' template!</div> |
This diagram illustrates the decision system used by vBulletin when loading each element from a style.
The Style Manager |
- The 'Allow User Selection' Checkbox
This checkbox controls whether or not the style will be available for non-administrators to use. If the checkbox for a style is cleared, only administrators will be able to use that style. - The Style Title Hyperlink
The style title is also a hyperlink. Clicking it will open a new window and show the public area of your vBulletin using the style you clicked, even if the public are not able to use that particular style. - The Display Order Text Box
The small text box containing a number controls the display order of a style. Higher numbers will be displayed later in the listing. This value makes absolutely no difference to the content of the style, and is used soley for convenience of display. - The Style Options Menu
This popup menu contains links to make alterations to the style such as changing its title, downloading the style as a style.xml file etc. - The Expand/Collapse Templates List Button
Clicking the button will open or close the list of templates for the current style.
Note:
- Examples of (modified) vBulletin boards: http://www.vBulletin.com/links.php
- Examples of vBulletin style and template modifications here: http://www.vBulletin.org/forum/
Creating New Styles |
This will bring up the Add New Style interface.The controls on this form are as follows:
Parent Style | This menu controls the way that this new style will inherit attributes from other styles that you may have defined. For a complete discussion of vBulletin 3 style inheritance principles, see Style Inheritance. |
Title | Here you should enter the name you have chosen for your new style |
Allow User Selection | This Yes/No choice corresponds to the checkbox next to each style on the main Style Manager interface, and affects whether or not your visitors will be able to use this style to view the board. |
Display Order | This text box expects you to enter a whole number (0, 15, 99, 1007 etc) to affect the position at which this style will appear in any style lists. It corresponds to the display order text box on the main Style Manager interface. |
Creating Child Styles |
You may continue to add further child styles to child styles in order to satisfy any inheritance critera you may require.The image above illustrates the style layout as described in the reference guide to Style Inheritance.
Editing Style Settings |
Note:
If you choose to change the parent style, you should bear in mind the changes to your styles that this alteration will make.
For example, if we were to change the parent of the 'Red' style to 'No Parent', any templates, CSS or StyleVars currently being inherited from the 'Custom Header / Footer' style would no longer be inherited. In practice, this would mean that the customized header and footer templates defined by the 'Custom Header / Footer' style would no longer be used by the 'Red' style.
Consider changes such as this before changing the parent of an existing style.
For example, if we were to change the parent of the 'Red' style to 'No Parent', any templates, CSS or StyleVars currently being inherited from the 'Custom Header / Footer' style would no longer be inherited. In practice, this would mean that the customized header and footer templates defined by the 'Custom Header / Footer' style would no longer be used by the 'Red' style.
Consider changes such as this before changing the parent of an existing style.
Deleting a Style |
Note:
When you delete a style, any customized templates, CSS, StyleVars or replacement variables belonging to that style will be deleted along with the style.
On the other hand, if the style you choose to delete has one or more child styles, an extra step will be added into the deletion process should you choose to continue with the deletion.
Any child styles of the style you delete will not be deleted, but rather they will be attached to the parent style of the style you have deleted.
For example, if you have a style arrangement of
Custom Header / Footer
-- Red
-- Green
-- Blue
---- Big Font Blue
... and you chose to delete the 'Blue' style, then the child style of 'Blue' will be attached to the parent style of 'Blue', resulting in this:
Custom Header / Footer
-- Red
-- Green
-- Big Font Blue
Note:
When deleting styles that have child styles, be aware that any customizations made in the style to be deleted will no longer appear in the child styles after the style has been deleted.
Editing Fonts, Colors etc. |
The values of each item on the following pages will be shown in a different color depending on whether they are using the default value for that item, if they have been customized, or if their values are being inherited from a parent style.
Consult the Color Key at the top of the page to see which color indicates what status:
The Common Templates Editor |
- header
This is the template that appears immediately after the <body> tag at the start of all vBulletin pages. Customizing this template can result in dramatic alterations to the look and feel of your board. - footer
Partnering the header template, this template is included immediately before the </body> tag at the end of all vBulletin pages. The footer footer template is often used to close tags opened in the header template, which affect the entire page. - headinclude
This template is included in the <head> tag of all vBulletin pages, and is often customized to add special Javascripts effects and <meta> tags
When the page reloads, you will see that any customized templates are shown with their text in a different color to indicate its customized status.You may revert to the default or inherited version of any template at any time by checking the Revert checkbox and clicking the button.
If a common template is being inherited from a customization made in a parent style, the text will be shown in a different color again to indicate this.When a common template is shown to be inherited from a parent style, a hyperlink will be shown, which when clicked will tell you the name of the style from which the customization is being inherited.
The StyleVars Editor |
The editor consists of a list of text boxes, each of which contains a single StyleVar, together with its title and a short description.To edit a StyleVar, simply edit its value in the appropriate field and click the button. The new values will be saved to the database, and you will be returned to the StyleVars editor to review your changed settings.
As with the Common Templates Editor, items that have been customized in the current style will be shown in a different color to indicate this.Customized items will also show a checkbox labelled Revert. Checking this box and clicking the button will revert the value of that StyleVar to the default or inherited value.
If the value of a StyleVar is inherited from a parent style, it will be shown in a color to identify it as an inherited value.StyleVars with inherited values will also show a hyperlink, which when clicked will popup a message window telling you from which parent style the item is inheriting its value.
Note:
For a complete list of all StyleVars used in vBulletin, along with an in-depth description of what each StyleVar does and how it is used, see the StyleVars section of the vBulletin 3 Style Reference.
The CSS Editor |
It provides you with a simple interface to edit the individual CSS classes that combine to build the style sheet used by vBulletin.
Note:
For a complete list of all the CSS classes defined by vBulletin, along with descriptions of what they do and how to use them, see the CSS section of the vBulletin 3 Style Reference.
To change the values of any of field, simply click in the field you want to change and type the value you want to use. When you are finished editing, click the button.
Note:
Clicking any of the
buttons, or the button at the bottom of the page will save all values on the page.Fields in the CSS Editor |
Background and Font Color |
Normally this field will contain just a simple color value, but the background CSS attribute also allows items such as a background image to be specified.
Example values:
- #FF0000
- rgb(255,0,0)
- red
- red url(/forums/images/background.gif) repeat-x top left
This field will only accept a simple color value.
Example values:
- #000000
- rgb(0,0,0)
- black
Font Style, Size and Family |
Example values:
- bold
- italic
- bold italic
A size can be defined in many different ways, but the most common methods are to specify the height of the font in points (pt) or pixels (px).
Example values:
- 10pt
- 11px
- 14em
- x-small
Font Family specifies the font face used for text. If you are familiar with appropriate values for the deprecated HTML <font face=""> syntax, any value valid as the 'face' of a <font> tag is valid here.
You may specify a single font, or a list of fonts separated by commas.
Comma separated lists are employed to make sure that visitors to your site whose computers do not have the specific font specified installed will still see a font that is something like what you intended. For example, if you set the font family value to tahoma but a visitor did not have the Tahoma font installed, their browser would show your site using the system default font. On the other hand, if you specified the value as tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif the browser would traverse the list looking for the first font that it can use.
Note that fonts whose names contain spaces must be enclosed in quotes.
Example values:
- verdana
- verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif
- verdana, geneva, lucida, "lucida grande", arial, helvetica, sans-serif
In practice, this means that the following set of values...
Font Style | bold italic |
Font Size | 10pt |
Font Family | verdana, arial, sans-serif |
font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif;
font: bold italic 10pt verdana, arial, sans-serif;
Links CSS |
- When a visitor sees a link for the first time, the link will use the Normal Links group of settings.
Normal Links corresponds to the a:link CSS pseudo class. - After that visitor has clicked a link and visited the page to which the link points, that link will subsequently be displayed using the Visited Links group of settings.
Visited Links corresponds to the a:visited CSS pseudo class). - If the visitor has a compatible web browser, moving the mouse pointer so that it hovers over a hyperlink will cause that link to temporarily switch to using the Hover Links group of settings, until the mouse pointer moves away from the link again, at which time the link will revert to using whatever style settings it was using before.
Hover Links corresponds to the a:hover CSS pseudo class.
The Background field corresponds to the background CSS property, and should be used in the same way as the main background field found in each CSS class.
The Font Color field corresponds to the color CSS attribute, and will accept any color value, in the same way as the main font color field.
The Text Decoration field corresponds to the text-decoration CSS property. Normal practice is to use a value of none or underline here (to specify whether or not links should be underlined), but the field will accept any combination of the following:
- none
- underline
- overline
- line-through
Note:
By default, the vast majority of web browsers will underline hyperlinks. To avoid this, specify none as the Text Decoration value for Normal and Visited links.
If you do this, it is important to distinguish links from plain text to your visitors. This is often done by having links change color when the mouse pointer is over them, and is achieved by simply specifying different values in the Font Color fields for Normal and Hover links.
If you do this, it is important to distinguish links from plain text to your visitors. This is often done by having links change color when the mouse pointer is over them, and is achieved by simply specifying different values in the Font Color fields for Normal and Hover links.
Extra CSS Attributes |
In order to make the main CSS classes defined by vBulletin fully flexible, and to allow advanced administrators to customize their CSS classes to the limits of the abilities of CSS itself, the Extra CSS Attributes field is provided.This input field accepts raw CSS code, and as such allows you to customize whatever CSS properties you want, without being constrained by the fields predefined by vBulletin.
If you so desire, you can leave all the predefined fields empty and make all your CSS customizations using the Extra CSS Attributes field.
Common uses for the Extra CSS Attributes field include specifying border properties, margin properties and other properties not controlled by the predefined input fields, such as white-space handling.
Forum Jump CSS |
The Background field of each class corresponds to the background-color CSS property, which will accept any color value specified as either a hexadecimal number (#00CCFF), an RGB value (rgb(0,128,200)) or a named color (white).
Similarly, the Font Color field of each class also expects a valid color value.
Example values:
- darkslategray
- #483D8B
- rgb(178,34,34)
Note:
Leaving any of the Forum Jump Menu fields blank will result in the corresponding part of the Forum Jump menu inheriting its font and background color from the <select> Menus CSS class.
Additional CSS Definitions |
For a complete discussion of the use of these fields, see the Additional CSS Definitions section of the vBulletin 3 Style Reference.
The Color Picker |
The color picker provides various controls and feedback. The function of each control is listed here:
- Click this button to select transparent as your color choice
- This area shows a swatch of the color currently being used
- This area shows a swatch of the currently selected color in the picker
- This area shows the hexadecimal color value of the currently selected color in the picker
- This button changes the palette of colors displayed in the picker (see below)
- This button closes the color picker without making any changes
To exit the color picker, either select the color you want, or click the close gadget at the top right of the picker.
Store CSS as Files |
One of the beauties of CSS is that the stylesheet can be held in a separate file from the HTML content, allowing web browsers to store the CSS in their cache, negating the need to reload the stylesheet with every page viewed.
vBulletin allows you to have your stylesheets automatically saved to files by the system, resulting in lower bandwidth usage and faster-loading pages for your visitors.
To enable vBulletin to save your stylesheets as files, you must first ensure that your web server has permission to write and delete files within the clientscript/vbulletin_css directory.
You should then go to vBulletin Options > Style & Language Settings and switch the Store CSS Stylesheets as Files? setting to Yes.After pressing the , your stylesheets will be converted to files and saved into the clientscript/vbulletin_css directory.
Whenever you make a change to your styles that alters the CSS, the stored files will automatically be updated.
The Replacement Variable Editor |
Note:
The default vBulletin style does not use any replacement variables, so the list will appear empty on a fresh vBulletin installation.
As with the StyleVars Editor and CSS Editor, replacement variables customized in the current style will be shown in a different color, along with a Revert checkbox. To delete a customization, click the checkbox and hit the button.
When a replacement variable's value is being inherited from a parent style, another different color will be used, and a hyperlink will be shown.When clicked, this hyperlink will tell you the style from which the value of the replacement variable is being inherited.
The Toolbar Options Editor |
The Background field corresponds to the background CSS property, and can be used in the same way as the Background attribute of the main vBulletin CSS classes.
Example values:
- #FF0000
- rgb(255,0,0)
- red
- red url(/forums/images/background.gif) repeat-x top left
Example values:
- #000000
- rgb(0,0,0)
- black
Example values:
- 1px
- 1px 2px 1px 2px
Example values:
- 1px solid #316AC5
- thin outset
- 4px ridge
Editing the Templates |
- Add New Template – this takes you to the form to add a new template not based on any existing template.
- Revert all Templates – this will automatically remove all templates that have been customized in this style. The templates in this style will become equivalent to the templates of its parent style.
- Customize – if a template has yet to be edited in this style, click this button to edit it.
- Expand/Collapse – this button expands or collapses a specific template group.
- Edit – if a template has already been edited in this style, click this button to edit it further. This is effectively the same action as Customize.
- View Original – if the selected template has been edited in this style, clicking this button will show you the original version of the template.
- Revert – this button allows you to revert a template to the version that is being used in the parent style (or the original if there is no parent style). If the template being reverted is a custom template with no corresponding original/default then it will be deleted.
Templates are color coded as follows:
- Black – this template is unmodified in this style or any parent styles. The version included with vBulletin will be used.
- Orange – this template has been modified in a parent style, but not in this style. The modified template will be used.
- Red – this template has been modified in this style. The customized version will be used.
Note:
The template manager will look significantly different in browsers other than Internet Explorer. However, the functionality is the same.
Adding or Editing a Single Template |
- Product - the name of the product which introduced this template. By default this will be vBulletin.
- Style – the name of the style that this template is in or will be inserted into.
- Title – the title of the template. This is what is used to identify a template, so it must be unique. Generally, only a-z, A-Z, 0-9, and _ are used. If there is more than one template revision stored an additional link of [View History] will be shown. This link will allow you to compare the current template with previous versions.
- Template – this is the actual body of the template. The [Show Default] link will show you the unmodified version of the template.
- Search in Template – the text box and
This row also contains several additional options:
Copy – this automatically copies the context of the Template box to your clipboard.
View QuickRef – this displays the language quick reference.
allow you to search within the template text. Please note that this is not available in all browsers. - Save in Template History - This row allows you to save your template revision for future comparison if needed. You can add a comment to help you remember what was changed.
Comparing Templates |
- Status - This will tell you if the template is the currently active template, a historical revision or the current default.
- Last Modified - When the template was last modified and who edited it.
- Version - The version of vBulletin in which the template was modified.
- View - Simply allows you to view the template by itself.
- Old/New - Allows you to select the template revisions for comparison. Old is showed on the left side of the resulting screen and New is shown on the right.
Once you select two templates to compare, click on the Compare Versions button. The result will be similar to the image below and show where differences between the two versions occur using color highlights and using View Side-By-Side modeThe default mode is a diff format (or View Inline mode) which will look similar to the image below
Mobile Style |
Installing the vBulletin Mobile Style |
If you're doing a new install, or are upgrading an existing install that didn't have a mobile style, a "Default Mobile Style" will be created in the mobile style list, and it will be automatically set as both 'Default Style for Old Mobile Browsers' and 'Default Style for Modern Mobile Browsers' (in Admin CP -> Settings -> Options -> Style & Language Settings).
Mobile Style Upgrade
If you're upgrading an existing install, that had a mobile style, from 4.1.10 (or lower) to 4.1.11 (or higher), a "Default Mobile Style" will be created in the mobile style list, and any style that was set as either Default Style for Old Mobile Browsers or Default Style for Modern Mobile Browsers (in Admin CP -> Settings -> Options -> Style & Language Settings) will be moved to the mobile style list, effectively becoming a mobile style.
Note: that if you were previously using the normal Mobile Style provided by vBulletin, you need to revert all its templates after it is moved to the mobile style list, or they will all show as customized and never be updated automatically during upgrades.
Rather than the above, you may also just delete the Mobile Style you had since before the upgrade, and use instead the "Default Mobile Style" added by the upgrade (also setting it as 'Default Style for Old Mobile Browsers' and 'Default Style for Modern Mobile Browsers'), but it is not recommended to do so as it may cause some oddities to your mobile users until they clear their cookies.
Any upgrade from 4.1.11 to an higher version will not require any intervention on your part for the mobile style upgrade.
Disabling the Mobile Style |
- Admin CP -> Settings -> Options -> Style & Language Settings -> Default Style for Old Mobile Browsers. Set 'None'.
- Admin CP -> Settings -> Options -> Style & Language Settings -> Default Style for Modern Mobile Browsers. Set 'None'.
- Admin CP -> Styles & Templates -> Style Manager. Edit any style in the mobile style list and set "Allow User Selection" to No.
Enabling the Mobile Style |
- Admin CP -> Settings -> Options -> Style & Language Settings -> Default Style for Old Mobile Browsers. Select 'None' from the Dropdown menu.
- Admin CP -> Settings -> Options -> Style & Language Settings -> Default Style for Modern Mobile Browsers. Set 'Default Mobile Style' from the dropdown menu.
- Admin CP -> Styles & Templates -> Style Manager. Edit any style in the mobile style list and set "Allow User Selection" to Yes.
Note:
Note: Not all Old Mobile Browsers will be able to use the Default Mobile Style. For the purposes of these older browsers, you may be able to find a style available at www.vbulletin.org.
Frequently Asked Questions |
This is because it is based off a secondary Master Style.
What are the benefits of basing the Mobile Style off a secondary Master Style?
It allows the Mobile Style to work like the Default Style. This helps with installation, upgrades and customizations. Plus you can create multiple mobile styles and save customization between versions and upgrades.
My users are saying the Mobile Style doesn't work properly
The Mobile Style is based on the jQuery Mobile Module. As such it requires that Javascript and Cookies are enabled on the device. If they are using an iOS Device, they will either need to turn off Private Browsing or delete their cache due to issues with the Safari Browser.
What devices are supported by the Mobile Browser?
The vBulletin Mobile Browser is based on the jQuery Mobile module. It should support all devices that jQuery Mobile supports. You can see a list of devices here:
http://jquerymobile.com/demos/1.1.0-rc.1/docs/about/platforms.html
Are you going to add more devices?
We do not intend to add devices not on the above list at this time.
Does the mobile browser support RTL languages like Hebrew or Arabic?
No, it does not at this time.
Search in Templates |
Search Templates |
- Search in Style
Select the style in which you want to search. You can select to search in all the styles or just one.
- Search for Text
Enter the string of text you want to search for. This search string is case sensitive. The search will find any words / phrases containing the string you enter here. For example, if you search for "bullet" the search will find "vbulletin", "bullets", etc.
Additionally you could select the if you have a chunk of text which you would like to have an overview on while entering.
- Search Titles Only
Select yes if you want to search only through the template titles and not through the actual content of the templates.
Note:
Use the Styles & Templates > Search in Templates > Find and Replace in Templates feature if you have a lot of templates in one or more styles that has text that you wish to have replaced. This could save you quite some time.
Find and Replace in Templates |
Warning:
Replacing strings in templates could result in errors if you do not know what you are doing. This is an action that can not be undone, so please be aware that you should look twice before applying a find and replace on templates. Adviced is to run a test first.
- Search in Style
Select the style in which you want to search. You can select to search in all the styles or just one.
- Search for Text
Enter the string of text you want to search for. This search string is case sensitive. The search will find any words / phrases containing the string you enter here. For example, if you search for "bullet" the search will find "vbulletin", "bullets", etc.
- Replace with Text
Enter a replacement string here. This string will be substituted in for all instances of the search string above.
For example, if you search for "bullet" and your replacement string is "carrot" then "vbulletin" would become "vcarrotin".
- Test Replacement Only
Select no if you are really sure you wish to replace found strings in a template. It is adviced to run a test replacement first. Running a test replacement first will show the result of doing this find/replace, without actually updating the templates.
- Use Regular Expressions
The regular expression option is for advanced users only! Setting this option to 'yes' will use preg_replace() instead of str_replace() for your find/replace operation. Do not use this option if you are not sure how to use PCRE regular expressions!
Replacement Variable Manager |
Note:
To learn more about Replacement Variables, please read the Replacement Variables Introduction
Add New Replacement Variable |
On the Add New Replacement Variable page, you will find a form in which you can specify the style to which you want to add a new replacement variable, along with two text fields.The first text field is for the text you want the replacement variable to find, and the second field should contain the text with which to replace the find text.
Note:
The find text is not case sensitive, meaning that dog will match DOG, DoG, dOG etc.
Customizing a Replacement Variable |
To customize a replacement variable, simply click the [Customize] link next to any replacement variable on the main page.
This will load the Replacement Variable Customization form, which looks almost identical to the Add New Replacement Variable interface, and works in exactly the same way.After making your changes, the new value will be automatically inherited by any child styles.
Download / Upload Styles |
Downloading styles is handy when you want to make a backup of your templates and options, or share your work with other forum administrators.
Uploading styles is handy to revert to a backup or applying the same style to several boards. You can use this option to import a style that someone has given you.
Make sure you read and understand all the options to avoid incomplete style downloads / uploads.
Note:
When you upload or download a style, the process will not transfer any image files. Your image files should be managed with an FTP client.
Downloading a Style |
Both of these actions are catered for by the Style Download system, which allows you to download all the customized StyleVars, CSS, Replacement Variables and Templates into a single XML file.The Style Download form is relatively simple, with only a few controls to manipulate.
Style | Use this menu to pick the style you want to download |
Title | By default, the downloaded XML file will contain the title of the style as it exists on your web server. If you would like the XML file to store a different name for the style you are downloading, enter it here. |
Filename | This field allows you to specify the name of the XML file vBulletin will send to your web browser when you click the | button. However, most browsers allow you to rename a file as you download it, so this field may be irrelevant to you.
Options | The options give you a choice of two types of style download. If you choose to Get customizations made only in this style, then the style XML file you download will contain only items that are customized specifically in the style you are downloading. Items that are inherited from parent styles will not be included. On the other hand, if you choose to Get customizations made in this style and all parent styles, the style XML file will contain not only items customized specifically in the style you are downloading, but also any items that have been customized in a parent style. |
Note:
The XML file you download can not contain any image files. If your style includes custom images, you should download these separately using an FTP client.
Uploading a Style |
This system will read an XML file, convert the data inside it into StyleVars, CSS, Replacement Variables and Templates and write the data into your database.
Either Upload XML File from your computer | If the XML style file you want to import is located on your own computer, use this control to find the file and upload it. |
Or Import XML file from your server | If the XML style file you want to import is located on your web server, enter the file path to the file here. |
Merge Into Style | If you are restoring a style backup, you will probably want to import the XML file over the top of the style of which it is a backup. To do this, select the style you want to merge into from the list provided. If no style is chosen from the list, a new style will be created and the data in the XML file will be imported into this style. |
Ignore Style Version | When a style file is downloaded from vBulletin, the version number of the vBulletin exporting the file is included. If the version number included in the style file you are importing does not match the version number of the vBulletin doing the import a warning will be shown to alert you to possible incompatabilities. If you are confident that no errors will occur as a result of importing a style from a different version of vBulletin, use this control to force vBulletin to accept the file regardless of the stored version number. |
Title for Uploaded Style | If you chose to create a new style rather than overwrite an existing style, vBulletin will use the style title included in the XML file as the title for the new style unless you specify an alternative title using this control. |
Parent Style / Display Order / Allow User Selection | These controls are only applicable when creating a new style rather than overwriting an existing style. Their function is identical to that described in the section dealing with adding a new style. |
Note:
XML style files can not contain image files, so no images will be imported when using this system. If the style you are importing requires special images, you will need to upload them to your web server using an FTP client.
Find Updated Templates |
You can choose to modify or revert a template if it is listed.
Note:
The Find Updated Templates system is primarily of use to check for modified templates after running an upgrade script.
Languages and Phrases |
This enables you the administrator to create (or download) versions of the user interface translated into multiple languages other than US English, making your board truly multinational and language-independent.
An Introduction to Languages and Phrases |
The 'Master Language' and 'Custom Master Language' |
The Master Language is where all of vBulletin’s untranslated, default phrases exist. This allows an original copy of a phrase to exist at all times for reference purposes. You will never be able to edit this language directly.
The Custom Master Language is similar to the Master Language. However, the only phrases that will be inserted here are any custom phrases that you have created. This allows every language to have access to the phrase as if it were in the Master Language.
Phrase Syntax |
Let’s consider an example. Suppose you are working with phrase showing_avatars_x_to_y_of_z. By default, its text is:
Showing Avatars {1} to {2} of {3}
At run time, this may take on a value such as:
Showing Avatars 10 to 20 of 24
Notice that {1}, {2}, and {3} have been replaced with specific values.
Now, suppose you wanted the output to look like this:
24 Avatars Total. Displaying 10 – 20.
You could accomplish this by changing the phrase text to:
{3} Avatars Total. Displaying {1} – {2}.
The order of the numbers does not matter. All that matters is that you reference the correct number for what you want.
Using Phrases in Templates |
When referencing a phrase in a template, there are two things you have to know.
- The phrase name (phrase_name) – this is what uniquely identifies a phrase and how phrases are referenced. Generally, the phrase name reflects the phrase text directly; for example, the phrase with variable name poll_timeout has the text of Poll Timeout.
- The phrase group – if the phrase is in a group, you will only be able to access it on pages that load that group. For example, the Polls group is only loaded in poll.php, so if you try to reference poll_timeout in a template that’s loaded on another page, you won’t get any output.
phrase
{vb:phrase phrase_name[, arguments for phrase...]}
Inserts the specified phrase. If arguments are provided, they will be run through htmlspecialchars.
Example:
{vb:phrase welcome}
rawphrase
{vb:rawphrase phrase_name[, arguments for phrase...]}
As above, though arguments bypass htmlspecialchars.
Example:
{vb:rawphrase message_by_x_on_y_at_z, {vb:link member, {vb:raw postinfo}}, {vb:raw postinfo.username}, {vb:raw postinfo.postdate}, {vb:raw postinfo.posttime}}
For more information on the template syntax please see: Template Syntax
Managing Languages |
Adding or Editing a Language |
General Settings
- Title – the name of your language. This will be displayed to users when they are selecting a language.
- Allow User Selection – determines whether users can select the language. If this is set to no, the language is effectively disabled.
- Text Direction – direction of the text in the language. English is left to right, while Hebrew is right to left.
- Language Code – the abbreviation for the language. This will not have any effect on the displayed text, but it may be used by programs such as screen readers.
- HTML Character Set – this indicates the encoding of the characters that are displayed on the page. Setting this to an incorrect value may prevent some characters from being displayed. If you are unsure what to put here, enter UTF-8, as it will likely contain the characters you need.
- Image Folder Override – this allows you to specify the path to button images, relative to the main forum directory, that contains translated text. This will replace the button images folder, which defaults to images/buttons. If you wish to specify a specific button directory for each style, you may use <#>. At runtime, this will be replaced with the ID number of the style that the user is using.
This section allows you to specify specific date and time options. Locale represents a special code that allows dates and times to be automatically translated into a specific language. All the other settings in this group allow you to override the default date and time formatting with one that is more appropriate for your language. For example, English (US) would use the mm/dd/yy format, while English (UK) would use the dd/mm/yy format. These formats are represented by %m/%d/%y and %d/%m/%y, respectively.
Number Formatting
- Decimal Separator – represents the character that separates the integer and decimal parts of a number.
- Thousands Separator – represents the character that separates and groups thousands in a number.
Translating a Language |
Once you have translated a page, simply click . Any phrases which have changed will be saved and used in this language. To do a complete translation, repeat this process for each page of every phrase group.
Language Quick Reference |
At the bottom, you can change the language and phrase group being viewed.
Rebuilding All Languages |
Note:
Running this option, even when unnecessary, will not harm your forum.
Managing Phrases |
Clicking Languages & Phrases > Phrase Manager will lead you to a page that looks like this:Phrases that are checked have a translation in that language; unchecked, empty circles are using the default value.
From here, you can add or edit and search for orphaned phrases.
Adding or Editing a Phrase |
- Phrase Type – the type (or group) that this phrase will be put it. It will only be loaded by pages that load that group.
- Varname – the variable name of the phrase that will be used to identify the phrase in code. You may only use a-z, A-Z, 0-9, and _ in the name.
- Text – the default text of the phrase. You may use {1}, {2}, etc to represent variable parts of a phrase.
Note:
When editing a phrase, the options listed above may not be available. You will have to delete and recreate the phrase and translations to change these values.
Note:
To delete a translation, simply remove the text in the translation box.
Orphan Phrases |
When you search for orphan phrases, you will see a screen like this:
Note:
If you do not have any orphaned phrases, you will see a message stating this.
Search in Phrases |
- Search for Text – the text used to do the search. It will search for this string exactly; what comes before and after it does not matter. Therefore, a search for I will return every phrase with an I in it, not just those with the word I.
- Search in ... – allows you to select where to search. In most cases, Phrase Text Only will be the most useful option.
- Case-Sensitive – allows you to choose whether the search is case sensitive.
Downloading and Uploading Languages |
Note:
Only translated phrases will be in a downloaded language.
- Language Source – the first two options represent the source of the language, a file you upload or a file that is already on the server. If you do not specify a file to upload, it will assume that you are importing the file off the server.
- Overwrite Language – if you select a language here, that language will be overwritten with the uploaded language. Otherwise, a new language will be created. This is useful if you are importing a newer version of an existing language.
- Title for Uploaded Language – if you are creating a new language, you may specify a title for it here. You may leave this option blank to use the title in the language file.
- Ignore Language Version – if you leave this at no, then an error message will be displayed and the language will not be imported if it was created for a different version of vBulletin. Set this to yes to disable this error checking.Warning:Language data generally changes from version to version. Thus, if you are importing a language from an older version, these differences may cause problems.
Data Format |
Note:
The <phrase> tags here are very different from the <phrase> tags used in templates.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <language name="English (US)" vbversion="3.0.0"> <phrasetype name="GLOBAL"> <phrase name="1_day_ago"><![CDATA[1 Day Ago]]></phrase> <phrase name="1_hour_ago"><![CDATA[1 Hour Ago]]></phrase> </phrasetype> <phrasetype name="Control Panel Global"> <phrase name="access"><![CDATA[Access]]></phrase> <phrase name="access_masks"><![CDATA[Access Masks]]></phrase> <phrase name="add"><![CDATA[Add]]></phrase> </phrasetype> </language>
Find Updated Phrases |
You can choose to modify a phrase if it is listed by clicking the "Edit" link. From this page, you may also remove your customized version.
Note:
The Find Updated Phrases system is primarily of use to check for modified phrases after running an upgrade script.
Frequently Asked Questions |
By default, vBulletin populates the FAQ with various helpful documents to instruct your users in how to use vBulletin, but you can edit these documents or create entirely new content if you wish.
Each entry for a FAQ-item can be translated into other languages that are installed on your board.
Introduction to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) |
FAQ entries can have an infinite amount of nesting, similar to regular forums.
FAQ Manager |
To edit an entry’s text and translations, click [Edit].
To add a child entry with a specific FAQ entry as its parent, click [Add Child FAQ Item].
To delete an entry and any child entries, click [Delete].
Like forums, FAQ entries also have a display order; the lowest display orders within a level are displayed first.
Adding or Editing a FAQ Item |
- Varname – the variable name of the FAQ entry. This is used to uniquely identify an entry and can be linked to directly. You may only use a-z, A-Z, 0-9, and _.
- Parent FAQ Item – parent FAQ entry. This item will be displayed under its parent.
- Title – FAQ title. This is often the question it answers.
- Text – the actual text of the FAQ entry. You may use HTML and $variables.
- Display Order – controls when an entry is displayed within a level.
Notices |
The criteria available make this a powerful system for notifying users about a variety of conditions.
Notices appear by default in the navbar template, in a box underneath the main board links.
Each notice is displayed wrapped in the navbar_noticebit template, which allows the administrator to change the way notices are displayed.They are shown on every page that includes the navbar, with the exception of error pages.
The Notices Manager |
The Notices Manager is the central interface for working with notices. It lists all notices created by administrators for your board, and allows you to see at a glance the active status and display order of all notices.To add a new notice, click the button.
When you have one or more notices defined in your system, you will see each of them listed in the manager.At the top of the list is a Toggle Active Status for All checkbox that allows you to toggle the 'Active' status of all notices with one click.
To edit a notice, click its title. To delete a notice, there is a 'Delete' link at the end of each notice's row in the manager.
Each notice is displayed with two checkboxes and a text box containing a number. These represent the Active status, the Persistent nature of the notice, and the notice's Display Order.
If a notice is not active, it will not be displayed to visitors under any circumstances.
A notice that is not persistent will be displayed the first time a user visits the board and will then disappear until they visit again (it is displayed once per browser-session).
The display order text box controls the order in which the notice is shown, both in the notices manager and to visitors. Display order also controls the order in which notices are checked, so it's important for the 'Notice x has not already been displayed' condition.
After using the Active, Persistent and Display Order controls, you need to click the 'Save' button to commit your changes.
You may make quick changes to display orders by using the arrow buttons either side of the display order text boxes.
Adding and Editing Notices |
The notice editor provides controls to create and edit notices for your board, and to set up criteria for when each notice should appear.
The top part of the editor deals primarily with the actual HTML of the notice, while the bottom of the editor sets up display criteria.
- Title - This is a convenience for management only. The title is used only on the notices manager to assist in identifying notices. It is never shown to visiting users. You can add multple translations of the title text using the Translations link.
- Notice HTML - The notice HTML textbox contains the raw HTML of the notice that will be displayed on the front-end to users when criteria are met.In addition, you may use the special variables {userid}, {username}, {musername} and {sessionurl} in the HTML to personalize the notice text. For example,Warning:You may use any HTML so be careful about potentially breaking your layout or including code that can be abused.will be replaced with
Hello, {username}, how are you?
when John Doe is viewing the notice.Hello, John Doe, how are you?
A more complex example, making use of the {sessionurl} variable to make links within the board work properly follows:Hello, {musername}.<br /> <a href="member.php?{sessionurl}u={userid}">View Your Profile</a>
- Display Order - The display order text box controls the order in which the notice is shown, both in the notices manager and to visitors. Display order also controls the order in which notices are checked, so it's important for the 'Notice x has not already been displayed' condition.
- Active - If a notice is not active, it will not be displayed to visitors under any circumstances. It is a useful control to use when you want to temporarily disable a notice without actually deleting it completely.
- Persistent - A notice that is not persistent will be displayed the first time a user visits the board and will then disappear until they visit again (it is displayed once per browser-session).
You may activate as many criteria as you like, but if any of the active criteria are not satisfied, the notice will not show.
Value is between [ x ] and [ y ] criteria
These criteria, such as User has between [ x ] and [ y ] reputation points or User's private message storage is between [ x ]% and [ y ]% full can be used in several ways.
- x = number, y = greater number - This is the standard use of the fields. If the value is equal to or greater than the lower number, but equal to or less than the higher number, the criteria are fulfilled.
Example: x = 10, y = 100 - x = number, y = number - This method can be used to specify an exact number for which to check. If you wanted to check for a value of exactly 10, enter 10 into both boxes.
Example: x = 10, y = 10 - x = number, y = (empty) - This configuration is used to set up a greater-than-or-equal-to check. By leaving the second box empty, only the first box is checked, so you can set up checks such as value is greater than or equal to 10, with no upper limit.
Example: x = 10, y = (empty) - x = (empty), y = number - The inverse of the previous configuration, by leaving the first box empty it is possible to set up a less-than-or-equal-to-check, with no lower limit.
Example: x = (empty), y = 100
Announcements |
Announcements differ from threads in that they can appear in multiple forums simultaneously, and have a time period in which they are visible, then they disappear from view.
The latest announcement will be listed when there are multlple announcements. Clicking on one to read it will also list any other announcement for that forum.
Announcement Manager |
To edit existing announcements, go to the announcement manager at Announcements > Announcement Manager.This page is divided up into two sections. At the top you will see Global Announcements, if you have any. These announcements will be displayed at the top of every forum. Click to add a global announcement.
Below this, you will see a list of each forum. If you have any Forum-Specific Announcements, they will be displayed next to the appropriate forum. These announcements will be displayed in this forum and its child forums. Click to create an announcement for just this forum.
The information displayed with each announcement is its title, the user who posted it, edit/delete controls, and the timeframe that it will be displayed for.
Adding or Editing an Announcement |
- Forum – the forum which this announcement will be displayed in. All Forums makes this a global announcement. Note that if you select a specific forum, the announcement will also be displayed in its child forums.
- Title – the title of the announcement. This will be displayed on the thread listing and is what users will see before they are displayed the text of the announcement.
- Start Date – the date when the announcement will begin to be displayed.
- End Date – the date when the announcement will stop being displayed.
- Text – the body of the announcement. You may use smilies, BB code, and HTML, provided you have set the appropriate option below.
- Reset Read Status – The read status determines if an announcement is displayed on the "New Posts" and "Today's Posts" searches. Once an active announcement is viewed, it no longer will display on these searches for the user. When this option is set to yes, it resets the status of the announcement for all users so that they will see it as a new announcement again. This option is only available when editing an existing announcement.
- Allow BB Code – set this to yes if you want your announcement to be parsed similar to posts. Not only will this allow you to use BB code tags such as [b] and [img], but all line breaks will automatically be converted to HTML line breaks. If you set this to no, then you must enable HTML and use <br /> for line breaks.
- Allow Smilies – setting this to yes will cause smilies such as :) to be parsed into the appropriate images.
- Allow HTML – setting this to yes will allow you to use any HTML in your announcement. Note that if you have set Allow BB Code to yes, then any line breaks (even within HTML markup) will be automatically replaced with <br />. If you enable this option, it is recommended that you disable Allow BB Code and simply use straight HTML.
Forums & Moderators |
The tools here allow you to set up your forums, control user access to each forum at a usergroup level and give specific users Moderator permissions, allowing them to act on your behalf to keep the peace and ensure that your visitors behave themselves in their posts.
You can also view a summary of all moderators, and of all permission levels for forum access.
An Introduction to Forums |
Some of the most common ways to setup individual forums include:
- Category – this is a forum that people cannot post in; it is just used for grouping other forums. Act as Forum must be set to no.
- 'Normal' Forum – this is simply a regular forum that people can post in. You will need Act as Forum, Forum is Active, and Forum is Open set to yes.
- 'Sub' Forum – this is a regular forum that people can post in and is a subset of a 'Normal' Forum. You will need Parent Forum set to the name of the Forum this will fall under, Act as Forum, Forum is Active, and Forum is Open set to yes.
- Link Forum – this really is not a forum at all. It is just a link to another web page; it could be another forum, or it could be an entirely different site. To create this type of forum, specify a URL in the Forum Link option.
- Archive Forum – this forum was once a 'Normal Forum', but is now just used as an archive for old information. Set Forum is Open to no.
Forum Manager |
The next column, Controls, allows you to:
- Edit Forum – this takes you to a page where you can edit each of this forum’s settings.
- View Forum – this displays the forum on the front end, allowing you to see threads that have been posted in it.
- Delete Forum – this allows you to remove the forum from the database. If this forum has any child forums, they will also be removed.
- Add Child Forum – takes you to the Add New Forum page with this forum automatically selected as the new forum’s parent.
- Add Moderator – allows you to specify a new moderator for this forum.
- Add Announcement – allows you to create a new announcement to be displayed at the top of the forum.
- View Permissions – displays the Forum Permissions Manager and scrolls to this
forum - Podcast Settings – configure podcast settings for this forum when used via the External Data Provider.
- Moderators (x) – this simply displays the number of moderators for this forum. It is not a clickable link.
- List of Current Moderators – following this will be a list of the forum’s current moderators. Selecting one allows you to edit him or her.
Adding or Editing a Moderator |
- Forum – the forum that this user will moderate. He or she will also be able to moderate any child forums.
- Moderator Username – the name of the user that will become the moderator.
- Change Moderator’s Primary Usergroup to – if you wish to change the user’s usergroup when the become a moderator, you may do so here. The most common setup is to put all moderators into a Moderators usergroup that will then have access to a special forum.
- Make Moderator a Member of – if you do not wish to move the moderator to a different usergroup but instead wish to add that user to one or more groups, making them a secondary user in those groups, you may do so here.
Adding or Editing a Forum |
- Title – the title of the forum. This will be displayed on the forum list, in the nav bar, and in the forum jump.
- Description – the description of the forum that will be displayed below the forum title in the forum list.
- Forum Link – if you want this forum to be a link to somewhere else, enter that URL here. Be sure to include http:// at the beginning!
- Display Order – the ordering of the forums within a level. Lower numbers are displayed first and a display order of 0 causes the forum to not be displayed in the forum list. However, it is still accessible if the direct URL is known.
- Parent Forum – the name of this forum’s parent. Use this to group forums into logical groups.
- Default View Age – default amount of time that threads are shown for when a user views the forum. Users may manually override this in their profile or by clicking on the drop down when viewing the forum.
- Default Sort Field - the default field to sort on. This will be used unless a user explicitly overrides the sort order using the controls at the bottom of a list of threads. You may sort on a number of fields, including thread title and number of replies. This is set to last post time by default.
- Default Sort Order - the default direction a list of threads is sorted using.
- Show Private Forum - this controls the behavior of this forum when a user does not have permission to it. The options have the following meaning:
- Use Default - uses the value of the global setting 'Show Private Forums'.
- No - users without permission to view this forum will not see it anywhere. This is often useful for forums that only administrators and moderators can see.
- Yes - Hide Post Counts - users without permission to view this forum will see it in the forum list, but they will not be able to see the number of posts in the forum.
- Yes - Display Post Counts - users without permission to view this forum will see it in the forum list and will even see the number of posts in the forum. However, they will not see the last post information until they have permission to view the forum. This is useful if have a forum that only paying users can access and you wish to entice users to purchase a subscription.
- Email Addresses to Notify When there is a New Post – a list of email addresses to send an email to when a new post is made in this forum; this includes new threads. Separate each with a space. Any email addresses you enter here will also receive emails when a new post is made in a subforum.
- Email Addresses to Notify When there is a New Thread – a list of email addresses to send an email to when a new thread is made in this forum. Separate each with a space. Any email addresses you enter here will also receive emails when a new post is made in a subforum.
- Moderate Posts – requires an admin or moderator to validate posts before they are displayed. This refers only to replies to threads.
- Moderate Threads – requires an admin or moderator to validate new threads before they are displayed.
- Moderate Attachments – requires an admin or moderator to validate attachments before they are displayed.
- Warn Administrators – causes the 'report post' feature to send its messages to administrators in addition to moderators of the forum.
- Custom Style for this Forum – use this to specify a specific style for the forum. If a user has not specified a custom style in his or her profile or cookies, he or she will always see this style.
- Override Users’ Style Choice – if you have specified a custom style for the forum and wish to ensure that all users see this style, regardless of the style set in their profile or cookies, set this to yes.
- Prefix for Forum Status Images - Forum Status images are usually shown alongside the forum in the forum listings. This allows you to specify a prefix for the status images on a per-forum basis, allowing you to have a custom set of status images for each forum
- Forum Password – if you wish to password protect this forum, specify the password here. Administrators, super moderators, and moderators of the forum in question will not be prompted for a password. Passwords are not automatically applied to child forums; use Apply This Password to Child Forums to emulate this function.
- Apply This Password to Child Forums – if you have changed the password for this forum, setting this to yes will apply the specified password to all child forums. This can be used to emulate inheritance of passwords.Note:This option is only displayed when editing a forum.
- Can Have Password – this function prevents a forum from inheriting a password with Apply This Password to Child Forums and prevents a moderator from specifying a password in the moderators’ control panel. As an administrator, you may still specify a password for the forum.
- Act as Forum – setting this to no causes the forum to behave as if it were a category. This prevents posting in the forum and changes the template used to display the forum in the forum list.Note:If this is no, the template used will contain a _nopost suffix, as opposed to a _post suffix.
- Forum is Active – setting this to no prevents the forum from being displayed in the forum list. If a user still knows the forum’s URL, he or she may still access the forum.
- Forum is Open – setting this to no prevents users from posting to the forum. This setting has no effect if Act as Forum is no.
- Index New Posts in Search Engine – setting this to no prevents posts from being indexed for searching. Therefore, posts from this forum will not be found when a search is run.
- Allow HTML – setting this to yes allows users to use arbitrary HTML in their posts. This is NOT recommended except when all users who may post in the forum are trusted.Warning:Setting this to yes in a situation where users may not be trusted may compromise account security! Users may also inadvertently ruin your layout.
- Allow BB Code – this allows users to use default and custom BB codes to add markup and formatting to their posts. This is much preferred over allowing HTML.Note:Disabling BB Code will disable the editor toolbar for posting in the forum.
- Allow [IMG] Code – if you have enabled BB codes with Allow BB Code, this setting allows you to control whether users may display images inline with their posts. If this is set to no, images will be displayed as links.
- Allow Smilies – if this is set to yes, when a user types a smilie, such as :), it will be automatically translated into an image.
- Allow Post Icons – if this is set to yes, users may specify an icon to go with their post. In new threads, this icon will be displayed on the thread list; in posts, it will be displayed at the top of the post, next to the title.
- Allow Thread Ratings in this Forum – this setting allows users to rate threads from a scale of one (worst) to five (best).
- Count Posts Made in this Forum Towards User Post Counts – allows you to control whether new posts in this forum increase a users post counts. For example, if you have a testing forum, you may not want users’ posts there to increase their post count.
- Show this Forum and Child Forums on the Forum Jump Menu – this setting allows you to prevent a specific forum (and child forums) from being displayed on the forum jump. This allows you to remove clutter and rarely accessed forums from the forum jump.
Forum Permissions |
Show All Moderators |
Note:
Super moderator permissions can be combined with regular moderator permissions for a more granular approach.
View Permissions |
Podcast Settings |
Podcast feeds will work inside of iTunes (and other aggregates that support enclosures) without any information on this page being filled in. These settings are used when you wish to submit one of your forums as a podcast to iTunes as a podcast that can be searched for and seen from within iTunes.
- Enabled
This setting enables the output of the information entered on this page.
- Category
This setting corresponds to categories defined within iTunes. This list is subject to being updated by Apple and the latest list can be found at Apple - iTunes - Podcasts. You can update the categories that you are able to choose from by modifying a file in your forums directory that contains the categories that vBulletin displays for your choosing. The file is located on your server in your forums directory at /includes/xml/podcast_vbulletin.xml
- Media Author
This is shown in the Artist column in iTunes.
- Owner Name
Your name, or the name of the person to be associated with control of this podcast.
- Owner Email
Your email, or the email of the person to be associated with control of this podcast.
- Image URL
This tag specifies the artwork for your podcast. iTunes prefers square .jpg or .png images that are at least 300 x 300 pixels.
- Subtitle
The contents of this tag are shown in the Description column in iTunes. The subtitle displays best if it is only a few words long. If this is left blank, the Summary will be used.
- Keywords
This tag allows users to search on text keywords within iTunes. Use commas to separate keywords.
- Summary
The contents of this tag are shown in a separate iTunes window that appears when the “circled i" in the Description column is clicked. It also appears on the iTunes page for your podcast. This field can be up to 4000 characters. If this field is left blank, your forum description will be used.
- Explicit
Set this to Yes if your podcast contains Explicit material. Not setting this properly can result in your podcast being banned from iTunes.
Warning:
There are several caveats that you must be aware of for this process to be successful.
- vBulletin Options > External Data Provider > Enable RSS Syndication must be enabled.
- vBulletin Options > External Data Provider > Enable Podcasting must be enabled.
- The forum in question must be viewable by guests.
- You must set Enabled to Yes and select a Category.
- The feed to your podcast must be called with the forumid of the forum. You can not combine multiple forums into a podcast that includes iTunes specific information.
Ex: http://www.example.com/forums/external.php?forumids=2
- iTunes only support six filetypes: .m4a, .m4v, .mp3, .mp4, .mov, and .pdf
- Attachments in the forum must be viewable by guests.
- Due to the decision of Apple to limit valid enclosure urls to those that end with the extensions listed above, podcasting via iTunes will not work on IIS servers and possibly others. If you need help verifying that podcasting will work on your server, please contact vBulletin support. Hopefully, Apple will come to realize that there are better ways to determine valid urls and will lift this restriction in the future.
Thread Prefixes |
Calendars |
Using the Calendar Manager you can create a number of different calendars, add specific holidays and events, and create Calendar Moderators to oversee the use of each calendar.
In the same way as you can set permissions for forums, you can use the Calendar Manager to set permissions at a usergroup level for individual calendars and calendar types.
An Introduction to Calendars |
The basic premise of the Calendar system is that it follows the same design as the forums in its approach. You create multiple calendars, as you do forums, in order to categorize your subject matter.
Real world examples would be:
- Birthday Calendar - A calendar that only displays your forum members' birthdays.
- Holiday Calendar - A calendar that only shows upcoming holidays, either those you define or the included holidays.
- Private Calendar - A calendar that allows members to keep track of their own private events.
- Event Calendar - A calendar that lists upcoming forum events.
Managing Calendars |
Creating a New Calendar |
Display Order - Order in which the calendars appear in the calendar jump menu. Also the calendar with the lowest order, that the user has access to view, will be the default calendar for the user.
Custom Fields - See Below.
Email Addresses to Notify When There is a New Event - An email detailing the event details will be sent to any email address listed in this section. if you moderate events, you will probably want to put the email addresses of your calendar moderators in here so they will be notified about new events.
Moderate Events - If enabled, this will cause all new events to be placed into moderation. They will not appear on the calendar until a calendar moderator approves them through the Moderator Control Panel. Events posted by any of the following users will appear directly on the calendar, bypassing moderation.
- Forum Administrators
- Forum Super Moderators
- Calendar Moderator (of this calendar)
Default View - Sets whether the calendar is first displayed in a weekly or monthly view.
Start of the Week - If the user does not choose a Start of Week option in their User CP then this setting will be used.
Event Title Cutoff - In monthly view, long event titles can wreck havoc with the layout of the calendar cells. In order to control this, you should set a reasonable maximum number of characters to display on the monthly view. The event title will be displayed up to the character count and then followed with (...).
Event Count - If a day contains an excessive number of events, it can begin to appear unwieldy. If a day exceeds the allotted number of events, a single link will be displayed instead that takes the user to the daily view for that particular day.
Birthday Count - Just as with the previous option, a large number of birthdays can cause problems. This option also replaces multiple birthdays with a single link to the daily view for this particular day.Show Birthdays on this Calendar - This one is obvious as it simply enables or disables birthdays from appearing on the calendar.
Show predefined holidays on this Calendar - Enables or disables the display of any holidays that you create in the Holiday Manager.
Show admin defined holidays on this Calendar - There are many holidays that can not be strictly defined by a recurring pattern. We still support some holidays of this fashion and you can choose which of these holidays that you wish to display on this calendar.
Show Saturday / Sunday on this Calendar - If disabled, this option will remove Saturday and Sunday from the calendar.
Show upcoming event from this Calendar on the forum index - This option allows you to display upcoming events from this calendar on the forum home page. This option requires that the Display Calendar Events option under Forums Home Page Options in the vBulletin Options be enabled.
Allow HTML / BBCODE / IMG CODE / SMILIES - These choices simply enable or disable the listed options as you will find elsewhere in vBulletin.
Custom Fields |
For example, you could ask for any of the following:
- Concert Venue
- Location of Event
- Choose from a list of options
Note:
When creating a new calendar, you must first save it before you can add custom fields to it
Description - Tell the user how you expect them to answer this choice.
Options - There are two types of field that you may create:
- Single Input Text Box
- Select List
Note:
If you leave this option empty and select <No> for the next option, you will not be able to save this custom field. You must either allow the user to enter their own text or give them options to choose from, or both.
Field Required - Enabling this will require the user to either enter text or choose an option, depending on the type of field you create.
Modifying Existing Calendars |
To delete an existing calendar select <Delete> from the dropdown menu to the right of the calendar name.
Warning:
Removing a calendar will also remove all events associated with it.
Calendar Moderators |
- Approve events for display if you have moderation enabled
- Ability to edit all events on their calendar
- Delete events
- Move events to different calendars
- A calendar that you have moderation enabled for
- A calendar that allows some usergroups to post public events and you do not implicitly trust the content that they will post
Adding a New Moderator |
moderator dropdown at the far right of the calendar you are working with.You will then be presented with the following screen:Moderator Username - Enter the name of the moderator you are adding to this calendar. This name must match a user who is currently registered on your forum.
Can Edit Events - Allows the moderator to edit all events posted on this calendar.
Can Delete Events - Allows the moderator to delete all events posted on this calendar.
Can Move Events - Allows the moderator to move events to any other calendar that thay have Can View access to.
Can Moderate Events - Allows the moderator to approve new events through the Moderator Control Panel.
Can View IP Addresses - Allows the moderator to view the IP Address of the event poster.
Note:
If the calendar permission Can View Others' Events is disabled, the only user who can view/edit/delete an event is the user who posted it and this is assuming the user has permission to edit/delete their own events.
Modifying Calendar Moderators |
Calendar Permissions |
Please refer to the Usergroup Permissions' section if you need further clarification on what is meant by inheritance and multiple group membership.
Usergroup Level Calendar Permissions |
By default, all calendars that you create will follow the permissions that are defined in the calendar permissions section of the Usergroup Manager. If you wish to define specific permissions for each calendar, you will use the Calendar Permissions to do so, which will be explained in the next section.
To modify the default calendar permissions for any usergroup, navigate your way to the usergroup manager at Usergroups->Usergroup Manager. Select the usergroup you wish to modify by selecting <Edit Usergroup> from the drop down menu on the right.Scroll down to the section labelled Calendar Permissions near the bottom of the page. A breakdown of what each permission does follows:
Can View Calendar - This is the global on/off switch for each calendar. If this is disabled the user will receive permission denied if they attempt to access this calendar. It will not be displayed as a choice for them in the calendar jump menu.
Can Post Events - This setting allows users to post events on the calendar.
Can Edit Own Events - Allows a user to edit their own events. There is no time limit on editing events if this is enabled.
Can Delete Own Events - Allows a user to delete their own events. There is no time limit on allowing event deletion if this is enabled.
Can View Others' Events - You set the option to <No> to set up a private calendar as this will allow users to only see events that they post.
Calendar Level Permissions |
The calendar permissions manager is found at Calendars & Moderators->Calendar PermissionsYou will see a listing of each of your calendars, with each of your usergroups below each calendar. All usergroups in black are using the permissions specified at the usergroup level while any listings in red are using permissions specifically set for that calendar.
To modify permissions for any usergroup, select the <Edit> link next to the usergroup, beneath the calendar you wish to edit.The permissions that you see here, are the same permissions that you see at the usergroup level for the calendar. Please refer to the previous section for their description and usage.
The section you will want to take note is at the top of the screen and appears as:If you have edited an usergroup that is using custom permissions then the Use Custom Permissions option will be selected. To delete the custom permissions for this group, you simply select Use Usergroup Default Permissions and then press .
If you have edited a group that is using the default usergroup permissions then you will want to make sure that Use Custom Permissions is selected before you press , otherwise the group will continue to use the default usergroup permissions for this calendar.
Holiday Manager |
Note:
Any holidays that you add through the Holiday Manager can be enabled/disabled per calendar in the Calendar Manager.
Adding a New Holiday |
Title - What you wish to call this holiday.
Description - Describe the holiday.
Recurring Option - There are two types of holidays that you can setup.
- Holiday that occurs on the same day every year, i.e. Jan 1st
- Holiday that occurs on the same day of the week every year, i.e. 4th Thursday in November
Modifying Existing Holidays |
To delete an existing holiday select <Delete> from the dropdown menu to the right of the holiday name.
Practical Examples of Calendar Permissions |
A Birthdays Only Calendar |
1 | Click Calendars & Moderators->Calendar Manager. |
2 | Click | next to the calendar you wish to setup this way.
3 | Click <Yes> next to Show Birthdays on this Calendar. |
4 | Click |
5 | Click Calendars & Moderators->Calendar Permissions. |
6 | Find the calendar you with to modify and choose the usergroup you wish to deny posting events for (probably the Registered Users group) by clicking |
7 | Make sure Can Post Events is set to <No>. |
8 | If it is not, select Use Custom Permissions, then select <No> next to Can Post Events. |
9 | Click |
Note:
If you have any events on this calendar you will need to move them to another calendar or they will still appear.
A Private Events Calendar |
1 | Click Calendars & Moderators->Calendar Permissions. |
2 | Find the calendar you wishto modify. You need to complete the next step for each usergroup by pressing | .
3 | If you want this group to be able to post private events, make sure Can Post Events is set to <Yes>. |
4 | If it is not, select Use Custom Permissions, then select <Yes> next to Can Post Events. |
5 | Make sure Can View Others' Events is set to <No>. |
6 | If it is not, select Use Custom Permissions, then select <No> next to Can View Others' Events. |
7 | Click |
Warning:
If you fail to select <No> for Can View Others' Events for every usergroup of your Calendar, then the missed groups will be able to see other user's private events
Threads & Posts |
You can delete (prune) threads, or move them from forum to forum based on search parameters you specify. You can also remove polls from specified threads, find out who voted in otherwise private polls, and remove all thread subscriptions to a specific thread.
Mass Prune Threads |
The first prunes by threads matching the following criteria:These include date-related, view-/reply-related, status-related, and miscellaneous criteria.
The second prunes by username. The most common use for this is to delete all posts by a specific user.
Note:
This option will also prune individual posts. The first option only searches for entire threads.
Warning:
You may not undo a prune. Make sure you only prune exactly what you want to!
Once the pruning is complete, you should run Rebuild Forum Information in Update Counters. If you are pruning by username, you should run Rebuild Thread Information first!
Mass Move Threads |
Once you submit the search form, you will be asked whether you wish to move all threads that match your criteria or want to move threads selectively. If you chose to move selectively, you will be shown a page similar to this:This lists each of the threads that matched your criteria. Use the checkbox on the left to select whether or not the thread is moved. Once you are ready, click .
Once the moving is complete, you should run Rebuild Forum Information in Update Counters.
Unsubscribe Threads |
To obtain the thread ID, find the thread you want to remove. The link to the thread should look like http://www.example.com/forums/showthread.php?t=####. The #### part is the ID number that you need to enter here.Unsubscribe All Threads from Specific Users allows you to quickly remove all of a user’s thread subscriptions. One reason you might do this is if the user’s email has been bouncing recently. However, this is not a temporary removal; you will not be able to restore the subscriptions in the future.
Here, you specify:
- User Name – name of the user whose subscriptions you wish to remove.
- Find All Threads Older Than X Days – allows you to only remove subscriptions to threads that are more than this number of days old.
- Forum – allows you to only remove subscriptions to threads in specific forums.
Strip Poll from Thread |
Once you have found this, submit the form. You will receive a screen where you can confirm that this is the correct poll. Simply submit that to remove the poll.
Who Voted in Poll |
Tags |
Tags can contain any character except a comma, which is used to separate multiple tags. Additionally, you may not create tags which:
- Have less than an admin-specified amount of characters. The default is 3.
- Have over 25 characters. (This is the default value. You may change it by changing the "Tag Maximum Length" option.)
- Contain any censored words.
- Are in a list of common words.
Below this, you can add a new tag:You may not add any invalid tags, as people will not be able to assign them to threads. See above for the tag rules.
Front-End Inline Moderation Tools |
At the bottom of the page, a moderation drop down box shows the available actions. Next to the moderation drop down box is a button that maintains a count of the selected threads or posts. Checking a checkbox will increase the number by one, unchecking a checkbox will decrease the number by one.
Note:
Inline Moderation is a feature of the front-end of vBulletin. It is accessed from forumdisplay or showthread.
Inline Thread Moderation |
- Select All
Selecting 'Select All' will highlight all the threads on the current page, including sticky, soft-deleted, unapproved and closed threads. - Deselect All
Selecting 'Deselect All' will reset all the highlighted threads on the current page, including sticky, soft-deleted, unapproved and closed threads. - Invert Selection
Selecting 'Invert Selection' will highlight all the unselected threads, and reset all the highlighted threads on the current page, including sticky, soft-deleted, unapproved and closed threads. - Select Closed Threads
Selecting 'Select Closed Threads' will highlight all the threads that are not open for posting on the current page, including closed threads that are sticky, soft-deleted, and/or unapproved. - Select Unapproved Threads
Selecting 'Select Unapproved Threads' will highlight all the threads that are not visible to members (in moderator queue) on the current page, including unapproved threads that are sticky, soft-deleted, and/or closed. - Select Deleted Threads
Selecting 'Select Deleted Threads' will highlight all the threads that are marked as soft-deleted on the current page, including deleted threads that are sticky, unapproved, and/or closed. - Select Sticky Threads
Selecting 'Select Sticky Threads' will highlight all the threads that are marked as important (sticky at the top of the page) on the current page, including sticky threads that are soft-deleted, unapproved, and/or closed. - Select Threads with Polls
Selecting 'Select Threads with Polls' will highlight all the threads that are have polls added to them on the current page, including threads with poll that are soft-deleted, sticky, unapproved, and/or closed. - Select Threads with Attachments
Selecting 'Select Threads with Attachments' will highlight all the threads that are have attachments added to them on the current page, including threads with attachments that are soft-deleted, sticky, unapproved, and/or closed.
Once threads have been chosen, the Moderation drop down at the bottom of the page is used to perform the desired action.
- Delete Threads
This option will bring up the delete threads interface that allows you to choose between Soft and Hard deletion (depending on permission level). - Undelete Threads
This option will restore Soft deleted threads. - Open Threads
This option will open closed threads. - Close Threads
This option will close open threads. - Approve Threads
This option will approve moderated threads. - Unapprove Threads
This option will unapprove threads, sending them back to moderation. - Stick Threads
This option will stick threads. - Unstick Threads
This option will unstick threads. - Move Threads
This option will bring up the move threads interface. - Merge Threads
This option will merge the selected threads into a new thread. - View Selected Threads
This option will list the threads that have been selected for Inline Moderation. This is most useful when you've selected threads on multiple pages and need to recall them. - Deselect All Threads
This option will clear the list of checked threads, resetting the value in the to 0. This is most useful when you've selected threads on multiple pages and wish to start over.
Note:
The number of chosen threads will be listed in parenthesis inside the
button. If this number exceeds the number of threads that you have chosen, you may have clicked on other threads by mistake.Note:
This interface is also available when searching for threads via search.php. One could search for all threads containing a common word or posted by the same user and then perform Inline Moderation upon them.
Inline Post Moderation |
- Select All
Selecting 'Select All' will highlight all the posts on the current page, including soft-deleted and unapproved, posts with attachments and posts by guests.
- Deselect All
Selecting 'Deselect All' will reset all the highlighted posts on the current page, including soft-deleted and unapproved, posts with attachments and posts by guests. - Invert Selection
Selecting 'Invert Selection' will highlight all the unselected posts, and reset all the highlighted posts on the current page, including soft-deleted and unapproved, posts with attachments and posts by guests. - Select Unapproved Posts
Selecting 'Select Unapproved Posts' will highlight all the posts that are not visible to members (in moderator queue) on the current page, including unapproved posts that are soft-deleted. - Select Deleted Posts
Selecting 'Select Deleted Posts' will highlight all the posts that are marked as soft-deleted on the current page, including deleted posts that are unapproved. - Select Posts with Attachments
Selecting 'Select Posts with Attachments' will highlight all the posts that are have attachments added to them on the current page, including posts with attachments that are soft-deleted and unapproved. - Select Posts from Guests
Selecting 'Select Posts from Guests' will highlight all the posts that are made by guests (unregistered members) on the current page, including posts by guests with attachments, that are soft-deleted and unapproved.
Once posts have been chosen, the Moderation drop down at the bottom of the page is used to perform the desired action.
- Merge Posts
This option will bring up the merge posts interface where you may combine multiple posts into one new post. - Move Posts
This option will bring up the move posts interface where you can either move posts to a new thread or merge them into an existing thread. - Copy Posts
This option will bring up the copy posts interface where you can either copy posts to a new thread or merge them into an existing thread. - Delete Posts
This option will bring up the delete posts interface that allows you to choose between Soft and Hard deletion (depending on permission level) - Undelete Posts
This option will restore soft deleted posts. - Approve Posts
This option will approve moderated posts. - Unapprove posts
This option will unapprove posts, sending them back to moderation. - Approve Attachments
This option will approve moderated attachments. - Unapprove Attachments
This option will unapprove attachments, sending them back to moderation. - View Selected Posts
This option will display a list of the posts that have been selected for inline moderation. This is most useful when you've selected posts on multiple pages and need to recall them. - Deselect All Posts
This option will clear the list of checked posts, resetting the value in the to 0. This is most useful when you've selected posts on multiple pages and wish to start over.
Note:
The number of chosen threads will be listed in parenthesis inside the
button. If this number exceeds the number of posts that you have chosen, you may have clicked on other posts by mistake.Note:
This interface is also available when searching for posts via search.php. One could search for all post containing a common word or posted by the same user and then perform Inline Moderation upon them.
Prune Post Edit History |
Warning:
You may not undo a prune. Make sure you want to do this!
Thread Prefixes |
When a user creates a thread, he or she will have the option of specifying a prefix to the thread title. This prefix can be used to filter threads within the forum or searched on.
For example, you may wish to use prefixes in a marketplace forum, where people post "Wanted" and "For Sale" entries. Alternatively, if you have multiple products and only one announcement forum, you could have prefix threads in that forum depending on the product they relate to.
Users will then see the selected prefix where ever the thread title is shown:
The Thread Prefix Manager |
Adding or Editing a Prefix Set |
- Prefix Set ID - This is the unique identifier for this prefix set. Only one set can have this value and the value may only contain A-Z, a-z, 0-9, and _ (underscores) only.
- Title - This is the title of this prefix set. You should not use any special HTML markup. It will be shown when administering thread prefixes or if a user must choose between prefixes in more than one set.
- Use Prefix Set in These Forums - Prefix sets must be attached to forums before they can be used. Select the forum or forums this prefix set will be available in using this field. Once you do this, when a user creates a new thread in a selected forum, he or she will be able to select a prefix from this set.
- Display Order - The sorting order for sets. Sets with lower values will be shown before sets with higher values. Note that the display order setting for individual prefixes only controls their order within the set.
Adding or Editing a Prefix |
- Prefix ID - This is the unique identifier for this prefix. Only one prefix can have this value and the value may only contain A-Z, a-z, 0-9, and _ (underscores) only.
- Prefix Set - The set this prefix is to be placed in. This prefix will only be selectable in forums that have this set enabled. If you change this set, threads that can no longer use this prefix will have it removed!
- Title (Plain Text) - This is the title of the prefix, using no special markup. This will be shown in the prefix list menu, when the thread title is shown in the navigation bar, or when the thread title is used in an email.
- Title (Rich Text) - This is also the title of the prefix, but you may use HTML to add additional markup to the title. This version of the prefix will be shown in a list of threads and within the thread itself.
- Display Order - The sort order for this prefix. Lower values will be displayed first within the selected prefix set.
Prefixes will also be placed directly before a thread title, with only a space separating them. For this reason, you will probably want to include something to make the prefix stand out from the title. In the rich text value, this could be color, italics, or an image (For Sale). However, in the plain text version, you may need to include a colon or square brackets ("For Sale:" or "[For Sale]").
Moderation |
For example, if you have chosen to moderate all posts before they are viewable, the 'Moderate Posts' link will show you the Post Moderation List, where you can approve or reject posts that have been made by your members.
Moderate Threads / Posts |
At the top of this page, you will see the moderate threads section.
- Posted By – the user who posted the thread. This is not editable.
- Forum – the forum in which the thread was posted. This is not editable.
- Title – the title of the thread.
- Message – the body of the first post in the thread.
- Notes – any additional notes you wish to specify about the thread. These will be accessible on the Edit Thread page when viewing the thread.
- Action – what you wish to do with the thread. Validate will display the thread as normal, Delete will remove the thread from the database, and Ignore will leave the thread here.
Moderate Attachments |
- Attachment – the file name and file size of the attachment. Click the file name to view the attachment.
- Thumbnail – if a thumbnail can be created for the attachment, it will be displayed here.
- Posted By – the name of the user who posted this attachment, and the post which it has been attached to.
- Action – like the Moderate Threads / Posts section, you may Validate (display), Delete, or Ignore (do nothing to) each attachment in the queue.
Moderate Events |
- Posted By – the user that posted this event. This is not editable.
- Calendar – the calendar this event was posted to. This is not editable.
- Subject – the title of the event.
- Date – the date(s) which the event is active for. This is not editable.
- Event – the body of the event.
- Action – like the other moderation sections, you may Validate (display), Delete, or Ignore (do nothing to) each event in the queue.
Moderate Visitor Messages |
- Posted By – the user that posted this message. This is not editable.
- User Profile – the profile that the message is posted on. This is not editable.
- Message – the body of the event.
- Action – like the other moderation sections, you may Validate (display), Delete, or Ignore (do nothing to) each event in the queue.
Attachments |
The Attachments Manager allows you to search for attached files, view statistics about all the attachments stored on your server, and configure the parameters for what file types you would like to allow to be posted.
An Introduction to Attachments |
- Allow multiple attachments per post
- Generate thumbnails for image attachments
- Allow multiple attachments to be uploaded at once
- Moderation of attachments
- Full control over allowed file types, file size, and image dimensions
- Users can manage attachments from their User CP
- Attachments can be searched and sorted via the Admincp.
- Attachments can be stored in the database or the filesystem
General Attachment Settings |
- Message Attachment Options in the vBulletin Options section
- Can Upload Attachments / Can Download Attachments permissions in the Forum Permissions
- Attachments Section
- Attachment Manager
- Attachment Permissions
- Search
- Moderate Attachments
- Attachment Statistics
- Attachment Storage Type
Message Attachment Options |
- Limit Space Taken Up By Attachments (Total)
- Attachments Per Post
- Attachment Inputs
- Allow Deletion of Attachments Beyond Edit Time Limit
- Allow Duplicate Attached Images
- View Attached Images Inline
- Enable Thumbnails
- Thumbnail Size
- Thumbnails Per Row
Attachment Manager |
Navigate to Attachments->Attachment Manager.
You will be presented with the current file types that your forum allows for message attachment.To add a new extension for message attachment, press the button.
To edit an existing extension, select the Edit option to the right of the extension.
To specify usergroup permissions for an extension, select the View Permisisons option to the right of the extension.
Managing Extensions |
Max File size - This is the maximum file size you wish to allow attached files of this extension to be. Each attachment that is uploaded is going to consume space on your hosting account. You need to take your storage limits into consideration when deciding what size files to allow. There are also several MySQL and PHP settings that affect the maximum file size that you will be able to upload. Generally you will be able to upload files up to a megabyte. If you need larger files and find yourself not able to post them, you'll need to ask for support via our ticket system or on the support forums.
Maximum Width - The maximum width in pixels that an uploaded image can be. This setting only applies for some image types. By default we include all image types that support this option.
Maximum Height - The maximum height in pixels that an uploaded image can be. This setting only applies for some image types. By default we include all image types that support this option.
Mime Type - The mime type dictates how the browser is supposed to handle the files when the attachment is opened. General mime-type lists are available on the Internet but if you choose to leave this option blank, often your browser will simply prompt you to save the attachment.
Display thumbnail for this type - This option generates a thumbnail, a small image, of uploaded images. The thumbnail will be displayed instead of the fullsize image. The fullsize image can be viewed by clicking on the thumbnail. Thumbnails must also be enabled in vBulletin Options -> Message Attachment Options.
Open this attachment in a new browser window - This option will open the attachment in a new window. Some users prefer to have control over how attachments open.
Enabled - Controls whether or not this attachment type is allowed to be uploaded.
Press when you have finalized your new attachment file type.
Extensions & Sizes |
Navigate to Attachments->Extensions & Sizes.
You will be presented with the current file types that your forum allows for message attachment.
Editing and Adding a New Filetype |
To edit an existing filetype, select the <Edit> link to the right of the extension.Extension - This is the extension of the allowed file. An example would be "jpg" for JPEG image files. Specify the extension of the file without the period.
Max File size - This is the maximum file size you wish to allow attached files of this extension to be. Each attachment that is uploaded is going to consume space on your hosting account. You need to take your storage limits into consideration when deciding what size files to allow. There are also several MySQL and PHP settings that affect the maximum file size that you will be able to upload. Generally you will be able to upload files up to a megabyte. If you need larger files and find yourself not able to post them, you'll need to ask for support via our ticket system or on the support forums.
Maximum Width - The maximum width in pixels that an uploaded image can be. This setting only applies for some image types. By default we include all image types that support this option.
Maximum Height - The maximum height in pixels that an uploaded image can be. This setting only applies for some image types. By default we include all image types that support this option.
Mime Type - The mime type dictates how the browser is supposed to handle the files when the attachment is opened. General mime-type lists are available on the Internet but if you choose to leave this option blank, often your browser will simply prompt you to save the attachment.
Display thumbnail for this type? - This determines wheter or not to generate a thumbnail for Image files only.
Open this attachment in a new browser window? - This determines whether or not the attachment should open in a new browser window.
Enabled - Controls whether or not this attachment type is allowed to be uploaded.
Press when you have finalized your new attachment file type.
Attachment Permissions |
- Ability to Post Attachments
- Ability to View Attachments
Please view the Forum Permissions and Usergroups section of the admincp for usage.
Each extension also has usergroup level permissions that allow you to control which usergroups can upload which extensions.
Managing Attachment Permissions |
Next to each extension, you will see 2 links:
- Reset – this will automatically delete any custom permissions that were set for this extension.
- Deny All – this will automatically deny every usergroup access to upload this extension. This is helpful if you want to deny access to an extension for most groups
Note:
Make sure Use Custom Permissions is selected at the top of the page if you want your changes to be saved.
Attachment Storage Type |
There are several factors you need to consider before choosing which method you wish to use. By default, vBulletin stores attachments in the database since every server that supports vBulletin will work with this method. Not every server will be able to store attachments in the file system.
Storing in Database:
- Pro
- Backing up your database, also backs up your attachments
- Does not consume any of your file system storage limits (unless mysql storage counts)
- Con
- Can increase server load on large forums
- Pro
- Better performance for large forums
- Easier to backup your database
- Con
- Does not work if SAFE MODE is enabled on your server.
- Need to backup attachments separately from database
- Consumes space on your file system
Moving Attachments to the Filesystem |
You will be presented with the following screen if you have attachments in the database:To begin the process of moving attachments to the database, press
You will then be presented with the following:
Note:
vBulletin tries to determine if you have SAFE_MODE enabled and may display an error message instead of the above screen. If this happens, you will need to contact your host about disabling SAFE_MODE for your site or choose to leave attachments in the database.
This directory must be writable by PHP, which generally means it must either be owned by the same user that your web server is running under or set to permissions 0777 or Global Read/Write on Windows Systems. Please refer to your system documents to find out how to set these permissions.
Please use the full qualified path name to this directory.
Press when you have entered a valid directory. vBulletin will test the directory for proper permissions and inform you if the permissions are not set properly.The above screen is the final step before the actual moving begins. After pressing on this page, the moving of files from the database will begin.
After you press , the attachments will be copied from the database to the file system. At the end of the process you will have attachments in both locations and will be presented with the following screen as confirmation that you wish to finalize the process by deleting all attachments from the database.Pay close attention to the Attachments in Database and Total Attachments Processed totals. If these totals do not match up then you could possibly lose attachments. If Total Attachments processed is 0 then something is configured wrong and blocking attachments from being written to the file system.
If you feel, all is well, select the <Yes> option to the right of Finalize and press . At the point all attachments will be removed from the database. The attachment table will then be optimized to recover file space. This step can take an exceedingly long time to complete so please be patient.
Moving Attachments to the Database |
If you have attachments stored in the file system, you will be presented with two options rather than the one listed above for moving to the file system.You can either Move attachments back to the database or Move attachments to a new directory.
If you are moving attachments back to the database, review the steps listed in the previous section as they are the same for the most part. The only difference is that at the end of the process, you will not be asked to confirm the move.
If you wish to move attachments to a new directory, choose the Move Items to a Different Directory option and press . You will be presented with a screen asking your for a pathname, displaying the current attachment directory. Enter your new directory and press .
Note:
This step does not create the new directory, nor does it actually move the attachments. It simply changes the directory that vBulletin looks for attachments in. You must create the directory, give it proper permissions (as detailed in the previous section), and then move the attachments manually.
Users |
Tools here include the ability to search for users based on information in their user profile, a form to manually add a new user, a system to send an email to selected users or generate a mailing list and set user-specific forum permissions amongst other functions.
You can track down trouble-making users by searching on the IP address that is logged when they make a post, then ban a mischievious user from the board. You can then search for other banned users to manage their ban periods or restore their access to the board.
Adding or Editing a User |
- User Name – the name that will identify the user.
- Password – the password this user will use to login.Note:If you are editing a user, you will not be able to see this user’s password. Leave this field blank to keep the password as is.
- Email – the email address of the user.
- Language – the language the user will see the board in.
- User Title – the title that will be displayed under this user’s name in posts. If you wish to set a custom title here, be sure to change the Custom User Title option below as well.
- Custom User Title – the settings in effect for the User Title option. If this is set to no, the user will receive the default title for his or her usergroup; otherwise this user will receive the title specified above.
- Home Page – the user’s home page. This will be linked to from his or her profile and posts.
- Birthday – the user’s birthday. You may specify only the month and day.
- Signature – the user’s signature. HTML, vB code, and smilies are parsed according to your settings on the vBulletin Options page.
- ICQ UIN – the user’s ICQ number, if he or she has one.
- AIM Screen Name – the user’s AIM screen name, if he or she has one.
- Yahoo! ID – the user’s Yahoo! handle.
- MSN ID – the user’s MSN handle.
- COPPA User – determines whether the user is a COPPA user. If the user is under 13 and you are using the COPPA system, this should be set to yes.
- Parent Email Address – if the user is a COPPA user, then this address will receive an email every time this user changes his or her profile.
- Post Count – the user’s post count.
- Referrer – user name that referred this user.
- IP Address – this user’s IP address at registration.
- Avatar – allows you to edit or remove this user’s avatar.
- Profile Picture – allows you to edit or remove this user’s profile picture.
Warning:
Choosing one of these options will automatically submit any changes.
Allows you to set the values for any custom profile fields.
Usergroup Options
- Primary Usergroup – the user’s primary usergroup. See the Usergroup and Permissions section for more information.
- Additional Usergroups – the user’s secondary usergroups. See the Usergroups and Permissions section for more information.
- Display Reputation – determines whether or not to display the user’s reputation score with his or her posts.
- Reputation Level – the user’s actual reputation score. Higher is better.
- Current Reputation Power – the user’s calculated reputation power. You may not change this directly.
- Receive Admin Emails – determines whether the user receives emails sent by the administrator through the control panel.
- Display Email – controls whether the user’s email button is displayed, allowing members to send email to him or her.
- Invisible Mode – determines whether the user is invisible. This prevents the user’s current activity status from being displayed to everyone.
- Receive Private Messages – determines whether the user has enabled private messaging.
- Send Notification Email When a Private Message is Received – controls whether the user receives an email when he or she receives a private message.
- Pop up a Notification Box When a Private Message is Received – manages whether the user receives a popup window when he or she has received a private message.
- Display Signatures – controls whether the user sees signatures after posts.
- Display Avatars – determines whether the user sees avatars.
- Display Images – controls whether the user sees attachments and IMG tags inline.
- Automatic Thread Subscription Mode – controls the user’s default thread subscription mode. This can vary from no subscription to instant emails to weekly digests.
- Thread Display Mode – determines how the user views threads by default. The user may select linear, along with post ordering; hybrid; or threaded.
- Message Editor Interface – determines the type of editor that the user sees. Choices include no toolbar; the standard editor toolbar, which has buttons to include vB code; and the WYSIWYG editor, which will show users what their post will actually look like (e.g., red text will actually be red in the editor).
- Style – the default style that this user uses to browse the forums.
- Timezone – the time zone that all times will be displayed for this user.
- Automatically detect DST settings – determines whether automatic daylight savings time (DST) detection is used.
- Is DST current in effect – sets whether DST is currently in effect, essentially changing the user’s time zone by one hour.
- Default View Age – default cutoff date for threads on the forum display page.
- Join Date – the day the user registered.
- Last Visit – the time of the user’s last visit. This is the time used to determine what posts are new.
- Last Activity – the time the user was last active. This is the time the user last loaded a page.
- Last Post – the time of the user’s latest post.
Quick User Links |
- Edit Forum Permissions (Access Masks) – allows you to edit this user’s access masks. See below for more information.
- View Forum Permissions – shows what permissions this user has in each forum.
- Send Email to User – allows you to email this user directly using your default email program.
- Email Password Reminder to User – sends a password change request to this user.
- Send Private Message to User – brings up the form to send a private message to this user (if it is enabled).
- Private Message Statistics – displays the number of private messages this user has in each folder.
- Delete All User’s Private Messages – deletes all of this user’s received private messages.
- Delete Private Messages Sent by User – deletes all private messages this user has sent.
- Delete Subscriptions – deletes all of this user’s thread subscriptions.
- View IP Addresses – displays all IP addresses that are logged for this user. Aside from the IP logged at registration, IPs are only logged during posting.
- View Profile – displays this user’s public profile on the board front end.
- Find Posts by User – searches for posts made by this user.
- Ban User – allows you to ban this user from accessing the board for various time frames.
- Delete User – allows you to remove this user from the database.
- Edit Administrator Permissions – allows you to edit the sections of the admin control panel that this user has access to. This will only be displayed if this user is an administrator.
Editing Access Masks |
Note:
General information on access masks is available here.
- Yes – this user will be granted access to the forum user his or her global usergroup permissions, regardless of any forum-level usergroup permissions.
- No – this user will be denied any access to this forum regardless of forum-level usergroup permissions.
- Default – no special access mask specified; user will receive access to the forum as per forum-level or global usergroup permissions.
Note:
Inheritance of permissions still works here. Therefore, if you specify yes in a parent forum, that will carry over to any child forums.
Warning:
These settings will have no effect unless you have enabled access masks in the vBulletin Options section.
User Change History |
- User names
- Emails
- User group membership
Search for Users |
Quick Search |
- Show All Users – lists all users in alphabetical order.
- List Top Posters – lists all users, ordered by post count (descending).
- List Visitors in the Last 24 Hours – only lists users who have visited the board in the last 24 hours.
- List New Registrations – lists all users with newest registrations first.
- List Users Awaiting Moderation – shows all users who are in the moderation queue. This will generally be empty unless you have enabled user moderation.
- Show All COPPA Users – displays all users waiting to be approved because of COPPA.
Advanced Search |
Additionally, you may choose to display most fields inline on the search results page.
Search Results |
- View / Edit User – displays this user’s information. See the Adding or Editing a User section for more information.
- Send Password to User – redirects you to the lost password form, allowing you to send a new password to this user.
- Edit Access Masks – allows you to edit this user’s access masks. See the Editing Access Masks section above for more information.
- Delete User – removes this user from the database. You will be asked what you want to do with his or her posts.
Merge Users |
Permissions will not be changed and moderator status will not be transferred; these must be respecified.
Ban User |
- User Name – the name of the user to ban.
- Move User to Usergroup – the usergroup to move this user to. This usergroup should have reduced permissions, if any at all.Note:Only usergroups that are specified as banned groups will be displayed here.
- Life Ban After... – the ban’s length. This ranges from 1 day to 2 years to permanent.
View Banned Users |
<<<screenshot of the View Banned Users panel>>>
There are two tables in the View Banned User panel: Temporary Ban and Permanent Ban. Both tables have the following columns:
- User Name
The username of the user who has been banned. Clicking the username will open the Edit User form for that user. For more information on this form, see the Adding or Editing a User article. - Banned By
The username of the user who banned the specified user. Clicking the username will open the Edit User form for this user. For more information on this form, see the Adding or Editing a User article. - Banned On
The date the specified user was banned. - Ban Period
The length of the ban, in days. In the Permanent Ban table, this column displays “Permanent”. - Ban Will Be Lifted On
The date and time the ban will be lifted. In the Permanent Ban table, this column displays “Never”. - Ban Time Remaining
The amount of time the specified user has left on their ban, in days and hours. In the Permanent Ban table, this column displays “Forever”. - Lift Ban
Use this option to lift the ban on the specified user before the end of the ban period. Clicking the link opens a new page asking if you are sure you want to lift the ban for the specified user. Clicking the button will remove the user from the banned usergroup and placed back into the usergroup they were a member of before their banning. They will also be removed from the View Banned Users panel. Clicking the button will cancel the action and return you to the View Banned Users panel. - Ban Reason
This column displays the text entered into the “Reason to show the user” field on the Ban User form. Clicking this link will open a new page with the following fields:
<<<screenshot of the new forml>>>- User Name
The username of the specified banned user. - Reason to show the user
This message will be shown to the user every time they visit the site while the ban is in effect.
- User Name
Prune / Move Users |
- Usergroup – the usergroup matching users must belong to.
- Has not logged on for x days – the number of days since the user has visited the board. Set this to 0 to ignore.
- Join Date is Before – the user must have joined before the date you specify here.
- Posts is less than – the user must have less than this number of posts (based on post count stored with the user).
- Order By – field to order matching users by.
Note:
If you choose to move the selected users, only their primary usergroup will be changed. Secondary usergroups will remain the same.
Private Message Statistics |
- View Private Message Statistics – displays detailed specifics for this user, listing how many messages he or she has in each folder.
- Edit User – takes you to the user’s profile screen, where you can edit the user’s information.
- Send Email to User – allows you to email the user using your default email client.
- Send Private Message to User – takes you to the private message compose screen, allowing you to compose a private message to this user.
- Delete All User’s Private Messages – allows you to delete all of this user’s private messages.
Referrals |
Search IP Addresses |
- Find Users by IP Address – if you have an IP and wish to see what users have posted with that IP, enter the address here. You may enter part of an IP. For example, if you wish to see what users have had 192.168.1.0 to 192.168.1.255, then enter 192.168.1. (Note the period after the final 1.)
- Find IP Addresses for User – if you wish to see what IPs a user has posted with, enter his or her username here.
- Depth to Search – if this option is set to 2, the opposite search will automatically be run on any results. For example, if you search for users by IP address, all IP addresses of each matching user will be displayed; if you search for IP addresses for a user, all other users that have used each IP address will be displayed.
Send Email to Users |
- Test Email Only? – allows you to simply test the email, ensuring that you have selected the correct users.
- Email to send at once – the number of emails to send out per page. If this is set too high, you may receive page timeouts and the emails may not be sent properly.
- From – the address which the emails will be sent from.
- Subject – the subject line of the email.
- Message – the body of the email. You may use the following variables that will be replaced with the appropriate values when the email is sent:
$userid – the user’s ID number.
$username – the user’s name.
$email – the user’s email address.
The following will only be defined if the user is in the Users Awaiting Email Confirmation usergroup:
$activateid – the ID number the user will use to active his or her account.
$activatelink – the full URL that the user can use to active his or her account automatically.Note:It is impossible to send a user his or her password. They are encrypted before being stored.
Generate Mailing List |
Access Masks |
Note:
General information on access masks is available here.
Below this is a forum-by-forum view of your existing access masks.For each forum with access masks you will have the following options:
- Reset – this automatically deletes all access masks for the specified forum.
- Display All Users / Display Users – these options display a page that lists all users that have an access mask or only the users that have a specific access mask setting in that forum, allowing you to quickly edit or delete these access masks:
Additional Functions |
- Delete All Access Masks – this automatically deletes every access mask. This will cause all users’ forum access to be based off of their forum- and global-level usergroup permissions.
- Access Masks Quick Editor – this provides a way to quickly edit all access masks. It will display the username, forum, and setting for each access mask specified. You can then edit or remove these access masks.
Usergroups and Permissions |
You can use the Usergroup Manager to edit the various permissions for each group, or even add new usergroups to create a specialized permissions system unique to your own board.
Also under the usergroups section, you will find the necessary tools for setting specific usergroup-based permissions for individual forums, and the all-important Administrator Permissions tool, which allows Super Administrators to limit the powers of their co-administrators.
An Introduction to Usergroups and Permissions |
Through this, you may control what this group of users is allowed to do on your board.
For example, perhaps you want only administrators to be able to post in a specific forum? Or only certain users to be able to attach files with their posts? Or maybe even allow a group of users to have their own user titles? These are all possible with usergroup permissions!
Basic Concept: Inheritance |
The first is at a global level. These permissions can be edited by going to Usergroups > Usergroup Manager > Edit Usergroup.
The permissions you specify here will be used everywhere on the board unless you override them at the forum level. Forum-level permissions can be edited by going to Usergroup > Forum Permissions. Permissions you specify for a forum will also automatically inherit to any child forums, unless overridden there and so on.
Each of these areas will be discussed in detail in the following sections.
Basic Concept: Membership to Multiple Groups |
For example, you may have a user who belongs to group X, but needs to have access to the few extra options (such as attaching files to posts) given by group Y. You can make X this user’s primary group and make Y a secondary group.
The basic idea here is that if a user is in multiple groups and they specify conflicting permissions, the greater permission overrides. Thus, a yes will always override a no and a larger number will override a smaller number.
Note:
There is a slight exception to this rule. If 0 represents unlimited or no restriction, then it will override any other setting; it really is the greater permission.
Warning:
Be careful when putting a user in a secondary group that you also use as a primary group. You may edit the group and inadvertently give the secondary user more permissions than you originally meant to!
Access Masks: The Overriding Permission and Another Method for Creating Exceptions |
Access masks will override any forum-level usergroup permissions for this user.
To edit access masks for a specific user, go to Users > Search for Users > searching for the user you want to edit > clicking [Edit Forum Permissions] or [Edit Access Masks]. You can quickly view existing access masks by going to Users > Access Masks.
Access masks work similarly to forum-level usergroup permissions; inheritance to child forums still occurs. However, you will not have as many options as with a forum permission:
- Setting a user’s access mask to yes for a forum gives them the same permissions in that forum as they have at the global level, regardless of any forum-level usergroup permissions specified.
- Setting the mask to no denies them access to the forum completely, as if each individual permission were set to no.
- Default simply means no special access mask is specified; forum-level usergroup permissions are used.
How Permissions are Applied (in a Nutshell) |
Managing Usergroups |
- (COPPA) Users Awaiting Moderation – if you have enabled moderation of new registrations, any users who have yet to be approved will go here. Additionally, if you are using the COPPA system, all COPPA members will go here before being approved.
- Administrators – this group will contain your administrators. By default, they have full access to the board.
- Moderators – this is the group that you will most likely put your moderators into, although you are not required to.
- Registered Users – after a newly registered user is approved/confirmed, he or she will be put here. This is likely where most of your users will be.
- Super Moderators – this group contains users who are not quite administrators (they don’t have access to the admin control panel), but have full moderator abilities in all forums.
- Unregistered / Not Logged In – all guests or people who have not logged in will be treated as if they were in this group.
- Users Awaiting Email Confirmation – if you have required users to confirm their email address before posting, those who have registered but not clicked the link in the email that is automatically sent to them will be placed here. Once they click the link, the will be moved to the appropriate group.
Finally, you will see the controls column. This column provides the following options:
- Edit Usergroup – this allows you to edit this groups information and global permissions. Additionally, the ID number of the usergroup is displayed, should you need to know it for another operation.
- Edit Promotions – displays any promotions that are setup for this usergroup. See the promotions section for more information.
- Show All Primary Users – displays a list of the users who have this group as their primary group.
- Show All Secondary Users – displays a list of the users who have this group as their secondary group.
- View Reputation – displays a list of the users in this group, ordered by their reputation scores. See the reputation section for more information on what this score means.
Finally, if you have any public usergroups, they will be displayed in a third table. Public usergroups are groups that users may join. These usergroups may be moderated if you name one or more usergroup leaders or unmoderated if you do not name any.When a user joins a public usergroup, he or she will become a secondary member in the group and his or her permissions will change according to the rules of membership in multiple groups.
Beyond the options that are available in the previous two tables, with public usergroups, you can:
- Add Usergroup Leader – this allows you to specify the username of a user who will become a moderator of the group. He or she will be able to approve and deny requests to join the group.
- View Join Requests – as an administrator, you also have the ability to moderate each public usergroup. This page allows you to perform these moderation duties; see below for detailed information on this page.
Adding or Editing a Usergroup |
The only difference between the add- and edit-pages is that, when adding a new group, you have the ability to create a usergroup based off of an existing usergroup:If you use this option, all the fields will be populated with the values specified for the group you selected. Simply change whatever fields you wish to change and submit.
Most settings should be self explanatory. If you are unsure of an option, simply click the inline help icon for a further explanation.
Join Requests |
Once you have selected a usergroup, you will be presented with a screen that looks similar to this:Each outstanding join request will be listed here. Selecting Accept will add this user to the group; Deny will remove the request, preventing the user from joining the group; and Ignore will simply leave the request as-is. Additionally, you can click the , , and buttons to quick select an option for each request.
Usergroup Promotions |
Once you enter this section (Usergroups > Promotions), you will see a screen similar to this:Here you can edit or delete existing promotions or add a new one. The section below will discuss adding and editing a promotion.
Adding or Editing a Promotion |
Note:
This section will detail adding a promotion. Almost all of the information in this section applies to editing a promotion as well.
- Usergroup – this defines the primary usergroup which users must be in to be affected by this permission.Note:This is not available when editing a promotion. If you need to change a promotion’s source usergroup, create a new promotion and delete the old one.
- Reputation Comparison Type – while the Days Registered and Posts criteria always refer to a Greater of Equal to scheme, reputation promotions may be specified with a Greater or Equal to or Less Than scheme. This allows you to setup negative reputation promotions. For example, users with a reputation of less than -100 may be demoted into a usergroup with less permissions.
- Reputation Level – the threshold point for the user’s reputation score.
- Days Registered – threshold point for number of days a user has been registered. This always refers to a Greater or Equal to scheme.
- Posts – threshold point for number of a posts a user has. This always refers to a Greater of Equal to scheme.
- Promotion Strategy – allows you to select which combination of criteria a user must meet before being promoted. This ranges from having to have at least a certain amount of posts to meeting one of the three criteria to meeting all three.
- Promotion Type – allows you to select whether the promoted users become primary or secondary users in the group.
- Move User to Usergroup – this is the usergroup that users who meet the criteria you specified above will be moved to.
Managing Forum Permissions |
Next to each forum title, you will see 2 links:
- Reset – this will automatically delete any custom permissions that were set for this forum. It will not change any permissions that are being inherited from a parent forum.
- Deny All – this will automatically remove deny every usergroup access to this forum (every individual permission will be set to no for each usergroup). This is helpful if you want to deny access to a forum for most groups
Note:
To delete a forum permission from this screen, make sure Use Usergroup Default Permissions is selected at the top of the page.
Additional Forum Permission Tools |
Permission Duplication Tools |
The usergroup-based permission duplicator will copy permissions from a usergroup into one or more groups. You can limit this to specific forums with the Only Copy Permissions from Forum option. Additionally, to prevent accidentally overwriting, there are the Overwrite Duplicate Entries and Overwrite Inherited Entries settings. Overwrite Duplicate Entries prevents you from overwriting any existing permissions set for a forum (that is, they’re in red) for one of the usergroups you are copying to. Overwrite Inherited Entries is similar, except it refers to cases where permissions aren’t directly specified for a forum but a parent forum (orange entries).
The forum-based permission duplicator works similarly, except that it copies all permissions in a forum to another forum. Overwrite Duplicate Entries and Overwrite Inherited Entries behave the same way.
Permissions Quick Editor |
Quick Forum Permission Setup |
The permissions you can set here are the same as you can elsewhere in the forum permissions system.
Warning:
As the page mentions, permissions set with this will automatically overwrite any existing permissions set for this forum if there is a conflict. There is no Overwrite <Some Type of> Entries option, as it is assumed that you know which groups already have permissions specified.
Practical Examples of Permission Schemes |
An Announcement Forum |
1 | Click Usergroups > Forum Permissions > find the forum you want to setup this way > click Edit next a usergroup other than Administrators. |
2 | Set Can Post Threads to no, Can Reply to Own Threads to yes, and Can Reply to Others’ Threads to yes. How you set the rest of the permissions is up to you. |
3 | Click | .
4 | Repeat this process for each group other than Administrators. |
A Private Forum |
1 | Click Usergroups > Forum Permissions > find the forum you want to setup this way > click Edit next a usergroup other than Administrators or Moderators . |
2 | Click | .
3 | Click | .
4 | Repeat this process for each group other than Administrators and Moderators. |
Registration-Required Board |
1 | Click Usergroups > Usergroup Manager > Edit Usergroup next to (COPPA) Users Awaiting Moderation. |
2 | Change Can View Forum to no; you can set any other setting as you like. |
3 | Click | .
4 | Repeat this process for Unregistered / Not Logged In and Users Awaiting Email Confirmation. |
User Titles |
For example, when a user registers he may be given the title 'Junior Member', then when that user has made 100 posts he could be granted the user title 'Senior Member'.
The numbers of posts required to climb each 'rung' of the ladder, and the actual titles given are entirely up to you.
An Introduction to User Titles |
User titles are the descriptions of a user that are displayed under his or her username in a post. These titles will often refer to one of three things:
|
User Title Manager |
- User Title – the title that users will receive once that have the Minimum Posts number of posts or more.
- Minimum Posts – the minimum number of posts for a user to receive this title. He or she will have this title until he or she makes enough posts to be moved to the title with the next highest Minimum Posts value.Note:The post count checked against the Minimum Posts value is the value stored with the user. Therefore, posts in forums that do not count posts will not have an effect.
- Controls – the dropdown in this column allows you to edit or delete this user title.
Adding or Editing a User Title |
- Title – the user title that each user who meets the Minimum Posts criteria will receive.
- Minimum Posts – the minimum number of posts that a user needs to receive this title.Note:If a user has enough posts to receive a title with a higher Minimum Posts value, he or she will receive that title instead.
User Infractions |
Infractions carry a point total that is awarded to users. When a user reaches pre-determined point levels, the user is given infraction groups. Infraction groups are set up to restrict the permissions of users.
The system can also be configured to institute automatic bans based on points or number of infractions received.
An Introduction to User Infractions |
The first step in the system is the creation of Infraction Levels. These levels will vary based on the content of your forum and the scale of the system that you wish to create. You can create just a few levels or can get very detailed with many levels covering a myriad of forum infractions.
When creating levels, keep in mind a point total at which you wish to start penalizing users by taking away permissions. If you envision taking away a certain permission when a user accumulates 10 infraction points then you need to consider how many points will be given for each infraction and how quickly the user can get to 10 points.
Each infraction level has an expiration time. When the infraction expires, the associated points are removed from the user's point total and the user's infraction groups are recalculated.
Infraction levels can also be allowed to be given as warnings. A warning does not add any infraction points to the user's point total. Warnings serve as a method to remind user's of your forum's rules and encourage them to be followed without awarding infraction points. Moderators have the ability to give an infraction or a warning for those levels that have the warning ability enabled. Moderators will be forced to send a message to the user that details why the infraction is being given. This message will use the Private Messaging System if it is enabled. Otherwise an email will be sent if your forum has Email enabled. At the same time, a new thread for discussion of the infraction will be created in a pre-determined forum. This forum is setup in the vBulletin Options > User Infractions Options section.
There are two methods in which you may penalize users. The first method is utilizing infraction groups to gradually remove permissions.
Normal permissions work by combining all of a user's usergroup permissions and granting a permission for any that have a yes. Infraction group permissions work in the reverse as all infraction group permissions are combined and any permission with a No is taken from the user. You should set up your infraction usergroups (in the Usergroup Manager) by setting all permissions to Yes and then setting those that you wish to take away to No.
Any permissions set to No will effect all forums. If you only wish to penalize a user in certain forums, set all permissions to Yes and then set up custom permissions at Usergroups > Forum Permissions for the forum in question using the infraction group.
A user can have multiple infraction groups as they will gain all groups that apply to their primary usergroupid and accumulated points.
The second method by which you may penalize users is by setting up automatic bans. You may set up bans that only apply to specific usergroups as well as apply to all users. Bans may be triggered either by points or by the number of infractions that the user has received. An example setup would be to ban a user for one week for receiving their third infraction and then banning them permanently for receiving their sixth infraction.
Infraction groups and automatic bans may be utilized at the same time but managing a system utilizing both can be tricky.
Navigate to User Infractions > User Infraction Manager to view your current infraction levels, groups and bans. If you have none set up, you can easily add either from this screen.To add a new level, navigate to User Infractions > Add New User Infraction Level.
To add a new group, navigate to User Infractions > Add New User Infraction Group.
To add a new automatic ban, navigate to User Infractions > Add New Automatic Ban.
Modifying User Infraction Levels |
Expires - This is the timeframe for which the infraction level will be active. When the infraction expires, the associated points will be removed from the user's infraction total. If a value of Never is chosen, then this infraction will never expire.
Points - This is number of infraction points that this infraction level will penalize for. A value of at least 1 must be entered.
Warning - Setting this option to Yes will allow a warning to be given for this infraction level. A warning carries no points as it only serves to remind an user of your forum rules.
Extend - When this option is enabled a user will receive extended expiration times if given a second (or more) infraction that matches an existing active infraction. For example, a user is given an infraction for spamming posts that expires in 1 day. An hour later this user is given another spamming posts infraction. Since the user already had an active spamming posts infraction, this new infraction's expiration time is added to the end time of the previous infraction. Effectively, this new infraction will now end 1 day and 23 hours later instead of the default of 1 day. If the user was given a third infraction, it would be added to the end of the second infraction as well.
To modify an existing infraction level, select the <Edit> option to the right of the level in the User Infraction Manager. Editing an User Infraction Level presents you with the same options as adding a new level.
To remove a level, select the <Delete> option to the right of the infraction level in the User Infraction Manager.
Modifying User Infraction Groups |
Primary Usergroup - This infraction group will only apply to user's who have this usergroup as their primary usergroup. Selecting -- All Usergroups -- will apply this infraction group to all users.
Override with Permissions from Usergroup - This usergroup will be used to penalize the user. Any permission that is set to No will be taken from the user.
Override Display - This overrides the user's username markup and user title with the settings from the infraction usergroup.
To modify an existing infraction group, select the <Edit> option to the right of the infraction group in the User Infraction Manager. Editing an User Infraction Group presents you with the same options as adding a new group.
To remove a group, select the <Delete> option to the right of the infraction group in the User Infraction Manager.
Modifying Automatic Bans |
Method - The ban can either be triggered by accumulated points or infractions.
Primary Usergroup - This ban will only apply to user's who have this usergroup as their primary usergroup. Selecting -- All Usergroups -- will apply this ban to all users.
Move User to Usergroup – the usergroup to move this user to. This usergroup should have reduced permissions, if any at all.
Note:
Only usergroups that are specified as banned groups will be displayed here.
To modify an existing automatic ban, select the <Edit> option to the right of the ban in the User Infraction Manager. Editing a ban presents you with the same options as adding a new ban.
To remove a ban, select the <Delete> option to the right of the automatic ban in the User Infraction Manager.
Viewing User Infractions |
- The user that received the infraction
- The user that left the infraction
- The date and time the infraction was left
- The type of Infraction
- The number of points that was given for the infraction
- The expiration time of the infraction
- The post that the infraction was left for
Issuing User Infractions |
General Infractions are given by visiting the User's Profile and clicking on the Infractions tab. Here you can see a history of the infractions that a user has received and issue a new one. Clicking on a user's name anywhere in the front-end part of the system will provide access to their user profile.
To give an infraction for a particular offending post, you would need to click on the "Yellow Card / Red Card" icon. The location of the icon can varies depending on the Postbit layout that you use and your style. By default it looks like this .
After selecting to give a new infraction, you will see the infraction screen. Here you can choose the infraction to issue, add an administrative note and send a message to the user.
User Ranks |
However, User Ranks are more flexible than User Titles because they can (if desired) be applied to specific usergroups, and can contain images and HTML in the titles.
An Introduction to User Ranks |
User's ranks generally appear beneath their username on posts, private messages, announcements, usernotes and in their profile.
Ranks can be assigned to specific usergroups or they can be assigned to cover all groups who don't have a rank specifically assigned to them.
As of vBulletin 3.5, it is possible for a user to display multiple ranks by being a member of multiple user groups, each with specific ranks. vBulletin 3.0 only allowed a single set of ranks to be displayed for a user. This is covered in more detail when editing a rank is discussed.
Navigate to User Ranks > User Rank Manager to view your current ranks. If you have none set up, you will only see the small notice that defines user ranks.The figure above demonstrates a simple rank scheme. In this setup, members of the Administrator group who have at least 1 post would have the rank of three smilies. Since we have also set up a rank to cover All Usergroups, all members, including the Administrator group, with at least 10 posts would have a rank of .::Newbie::..
To add a new rank, navigate to User Ranks > Add New User Rank.
Modifying User Ranks |
Usergroup - This is the usergroup that this rank applies to. If you want it to apply to all groups then leave it set to All Usergroups.
Note:
When this is set to All Usergroups, Display Type controls an important feature. If Display Type is set to 'always', then this rank will display for every user, no matter what other ranks you may have defined for their usergroups. When set to 'if displaygroup = this group', then this rank will only display if the user has no other ranks explicitly defined for their usergroup. You use this setup to create a generic rank for everyone but keep it from displaying for other groups that have a special rank (Admin, Moderator, etc)
Stack Rank - This allows you to control how ranks are displayed in case a user has multiple ranks displayed. If you set this yes, this rank will be displayed on its own line. If you set this to no, this rank will follow the previous rank on the same line.
Display Type - This option controls who the rank will be shown for. If you select 'always', the rank will be displayed for any user that has this user group as a primary or secondary group. If you select 'if displaygroup = this group', then this rank will only be shown if the user is currently being identified as this group. If you are not using multiple-group membership, this option does not have any effect.
Note:
Remember, the rank will apply to the users Primary Usergroup unless the user has chosen to be identified by a Secondary Usergroup through Public Groups.
OR you may enter text - If you wish to use text instead of an image, you would put in this field.
To modify an existing rank, press <Edit> to the right of the rank in the User Rank Manager. Editing a User Rank presents you with the same options as adding a new rank.
To remove a rank, select the <Delete> option to the right of the user rank in the User Rank Manager.
User Ranks Example 1 |
Ranks are evaluated by usergroupid in reverse order. This means that the All Usergroups rank will appear last. If you wish to have ADMIN appear on one line, and the All Usergroups rank on another, you would set the Stack Rank option of the Administrator group to Yes. This will result in an html <br /> being placed after ADMIN. The All Usergroups rank would then follow, displaying on a new line.
The ADMIN rank would only display for users that had the Administrator group as their primary Usergroup or as a Secondary group. If the Display Type of the Administrator group's rank was changed to Displaygroup, then this rank would only show for those user's who have set the Administrator group as their displaygroup. That would be accomplished either by the user only being in the Administrator group, being a member of multiple groups assigned by the admin and having the Admin group as their displaygroup, or by having used Public Groups to to join the Admin group and choosing that as their display group.
The last scenario is quite silly since you would not allow members to join the Admin group on their own choosing but the logic can be applied to other groups. You could use paid subscriptions to assign a user to a group with a rank defined as above.
User Reputation |
Using the User Reputation manager, you can create titles for a variety of reputation levels, so that users are given a reputation title when they reach a certain reputation level.
An Introduction to User Reputation |
Users gain and lose reputation based on how their posts are scored by other forum participants. Users with the ability to affect reputation, will either give or take aways points by approving or disapproving with a post's content.
User reputation can be a divisive element of your forum so great care should be taken before a decision is made to enable it.
All of the factors that affect a user's reputation score are found in the User Reputation section of the vBulletin Options. Please view that section of the manual for more information on controlling how users are able to affect another user's reputation.
Modifying User Reputation Levels |
From this screen you can choose to edit a level description, change a level minimum or remove a level. If you wanted to change the minimum level of has a reputation beyond repute from 2000 to 3000 you would enter 3000 in the input field where 2000 is currently and press
If you wished to change the text of has a reputation beyond repute, you would press the <Edit> link.From this screen you can also change the minimum level as you can from the previous screen. Enter the new level text in the Description field but take care as you can not use HTML in this field. Press when finished.
Adding a new reputation level presents you with the same screen, but only empty. Make sure to choose a reputation level that is not the same as a level that already exists as levels must be unique. You will not be allowed to save the field if you duplicate a minimum level.
Viewing Reputation Comments |
- The user that left the reputation
- The user that received the reputation
- The date and time the reputation was left
- The amount of reputation this user received
- The reason or comment the user giving the reputation left
- The post that prompted this user to leave reputation
User Albums |
Album Picture Storage Type |
When Pictures are in the Database |
You will be presented with the following screen if you have pictures in the database:To begin the process of moving picutres to the database, select the desired method and press .
You will then be presented with something like the following:
Note:
vBulletin tries to determine if you have SAFE_MODE enabled and may display an error message instead of the above screen. If this happens, you will need to contact your host about disabling SAFE_MODE for your site or choose to leave attachments in the database.
- Full Picture File Path or Picture and Thumbnail File Path - this is the path where full pictures will be stored if you choose to allow direct access to thumbnails or where pictures and thumbnails will be stored if you do not.
This folder should be outside of your web root (usually the public_html or www folder). If you put this inside your web root, people will be able to bypass permissions and download any pictures that have been uploaded. Please use the full qualified path name to this directory.
This folder must be writeable by PHP. The easiest way to do this is CHMOD it 777 (consult your FTP, Telnet, or SSH documentation for more info on how to do this). - Thumbnail File Path - this is the path where your thumbnails are being stored. Unlike the "Full Picture File Path" setting, this path must be within your web root. Users will need to be able to access the files in this directory directly. It must be writeable by PHP. The easiest way to do this is CHMOD it 777 (consult your FTP, Telnet, or SSH documentation for more info on how to do this).
- URL to Thumbnails - this is the URL to the "Thumbnail File Path" directory, relative to your main forum directory.
After you press , the pictures will be copied from the database to the file system. At the end of the process you will have pictures in both locations and will be presented with the following screen as confirmation that you wish to finalize the process by deleting all attachments from the database.Pay close attention to the number of pictures that had errors. If you finalize, these pictures will likely be lost.
If you feel, all is well, select the <Yes> option to the right of Finalize and press . At the point all pictures will be removed from the database.
When Pictures are in the File System |
- Move pictures within the file system - this option allows you to move the pictures to a different directory in the file system. Select this option and then enter the new paths on the following screen.Note:This step does not create the new directory, nor does it actually move the pictures. It simply changes the directory that vBulletin looks for pictures in. You must create the directory, give it proper permissions (as detailed in the previous section), and then move the pictures manually.
- Keep pictures in the file system, but disallow direct access to thumbnails - this simply moves the thumbnails so they are no longer directly accessible. This process is similar to moving the pictures into the file system, so see this section for more information.
- Move pictures into the database - this returns the pictures to the database. It is similar to the process for moving the pictures into the file system, so see this section for more information.
Rebuild Thumbnails |
To rebuild your user album thumbnails, you would want to rebuild all attachment thumbnails under Maintenance -> Update Counters
Custom Profile Fields |
Commonly-used custom fields include 'Location', 'Occupation', 'Interests' etc.
An Introduction to Custom Profile Fields |
There are six input options for you to choose from to tailor your required data collection method.
- Single-Line Text Box - This is a textbox that allows the user to enter a response.
- Multiple-Line Text Box - This is also a textbox (textarea), except it consists of multiple lines,
- Single-Selection Radio Buttons - This option offers the user a choice of multiple answers, allowing them to make one selection.
- Single-Selection Menu - This option also offers the user a choice of multiple answers except that it is presented as a dropdown menu. It also allows the user to make one selection.
- Multiple-Selection Menu - This option offers multiple choices to the user, allowing multiple selections to be made. This is presented as a drop down menu plus a selection box.
- Multiple-Selection Checkbox - This option also offers multiple choices to the user, allowing multiple selections to be made. This is presented as checkboxes.
Adding a New Custom Profile Field |
Depending on which type of input field you choose to create, you will presented with varying configuration options.
Single-Line Text Box |
Description - Explain to the member what you want them to answer in this field.
Default Value - If the member doesn't change this field, then this will be the value stored in their profile.
Max length of allowed user input - The maximum number of characters that the member will be allowed to input.
Field Length - The HTML width of the input box on the screen.
Display Order - The order of the field in relation to any other custom profile fields.
Field Required - You can require the user to answer this field at registration. If you add it after the user registers, then they will need to answer it before they can update their profile. If set to Yes, always then the user will be forced to complete this field before doing anything else on the forum. If you wish to display this field at registration but not have it required, select No, but display at registration.
Field Editable by User - If disabled, this field will not appear to user when they edit their profile. Only at registration allows the user to only edit this field at registration or if the field is blank and set to be required.
Private Field - This field will only be visible to other users who have usergroup permission to view private profile fields.
Field Searchable on Members List - If enabled, this field is searchable via the Advanced Member's Search. If this field is hidden, then only Admins and Moderators will be able to search on this field.
Show on Members List - If enabled, field will appear on the member's list and if it is hidden only Administrators and Moderators will see it.
Regular Expression - Expressions allow you to filter the data you allow the user to input in the field. Regex can be rather complicated so ask for assistance if you have trouble getting this to work properly. For example, the following regex would only accept a number in the range of 1 to 50:
^([1-9]$|[1-4][0-9]|50)$
^([0-9]{7,8})$
Multiple-Line Text Box |
Description - Explain to the member what you want them to answer in this field.
Default Value - If the member doesn't change this field, then this will be the value stored in their profile.
Max length of allowed user input - The maximum number of characters that the member will be allowed to input.
Field Length - The HTML width of the input box on the screen.
Text Area Height - Sets how many line tall the box is.
Display Order - The order of the field in relation to any other custom profile fields.
Field Required - You can require the user to answer this field at registration. If you add it after the user registers, then they will need to answer it before they can update their profile. If set to Yes, always then the user will be forced to complete this field before doing anything else on the forum. If you wish to display this field at registration but not have it required, select No, but display at registration.
Field Editable by User - If disabled, this field will not appear to user when they edit their profile. Only at registration allows the user to only edit this field at registration or if the field is blank and set to be required.
Private Field - This field will only be visible to other users who have usergroup permission to view private profile fields.
Field Searchable on Members List - If enabled, this field is search able via the Advanced Member's Search. If this field is hidden, then only Admins and Moderators will be able to search on this field.
Regular Expression - Expressions allow you to filter the data you allow the user to input in the field. Regex can be rather complicated so ask for assistance if you have trouble getting this to work properly. For example, the following regex would only accept a number in the range of 1 to 50:
^([1-9]|[1-4][0-9]|50)$
^([0-9]{7,8})$
Note:
Multiple-Line Text box fields can not be listed on the memberlist.
Single-Selection Radio Buttons |
Description - Explain to the member what you want them to answer in this field.
Items Per Line - This is the number of radio buttons that will appear on one line in the user's browser. Set to 0 to have all of the choices appear on one line.
Options - Enter each of the options that the user can choose from. You need to enter each option on its own line.
Set Default - If this is set to <Yes> then the first option from above will be chose by default when the user registers.
Display Order - The order of the field in relation to any other custom profile fields.
Field Required - You can require the user to answer this field at registration. If you add it after the user registers, then they will need to answer it before they can update their profile. If set to Yes, always then the user will be forced to complete this field before doing anything else on the forum. If you wish to display this field at registration but not have it required, select No, but display at registration.
Field Editable by User - If disabled, this field will not appear to user when they edit their profile. Only at registration allows the user to only edit this field at registration or if the field is blank and set to be required.
Private Field - This field will only be visible to other users who have usergroup permission to view private profile fields.
Field Searchable on Members List - If enabled, this field is searchable via the Advanced Member's Search. If this field is hidden, then only Admins and Moderators will be able to search on this field.
Show on Members List - If enabled, field will appear on the member's list and if it is hidden only Administrators and Moderators will see it.If you would like to also allow the choose the option of entering their own choice in addition to choosing one your yours, set Allow user to input their own value for this option to <Yes>.
Max length of allowed user input - The maximum number of characters that the member will be allowed to input.
Field Length - The HTML width of the input box on the screen.
Regular Expression - Expressions allow you to filter the data you allow the user to input in the field. Regex can be rather complicated so ask for assistance if you have trouble getting this to work properly. For example, the following regex would only accept a number in the range of 1 to 50:
^([1-9]$|[1-4][0-9]|50)$
^([0-9]{7,8})$
Single-Selection Menu |
Description - Explain to the member what you want them to answer in this field.
Options - Enter each of the options that the user can choose from. You need to enter each option on its own line.
Set Default - There are three options:
- None - The selected option will be a blank field. If you require this field, this will force the user to make a choice.
- Yes, Including a First Blank Option - This sets the first option above as selected but also creates a blank option allowing the user to choose nothing if this field isn't required.
- Yes, but No First Blank Option - This also sets the first option above as selected but doesn't allow the user to choose a nothing since their is no empty option to choose from.
Field Required - You can require the user to answer this field at registration. If you add it after the user registers, then they will need to answer it before they can update their profile. If set to Yes, always then the user will be forced to complete this field before doing anything else on the forum. If you wish to display this field at registration but not have it required, select No, but display at registration.
Field Editable by User - If disabled, this field will not appear to user when they edit their profile. Only at registration allows the user to only edit this field at registration or if the field is blank and set to be required.
Private Field - This field will only be visible to other users who have usergroup permission to view private profile fields.
Field Searchable on Members List - If enabled, this field is searchable via the Advanced Member's Search. If this field is hidden, then only Admins and Moderators will be able to search on this field.
Show on Members List - If enabled, field will appear on the member's list and if it is hidden only Administrators and Moderators will see it.If you would like to also allow the choose the option of entering their own choice in addition to choosing one your yours, set Allow user to input their own value for this option to <Yes>.
Max length of allowed user input - The maximum number of characters that the member will be allowed to input.
Field Length - The HTML width of the input box on the screen.
Regular Expression - Expressions allow you to filter the data you allow the user to input in the field. Regex can be rather complicated so ask for assistance if you have trouble getting this to work properly. For example, the following regex would only accept a number in the range of 1 to 50:
^([1-9]|[1-4][0-9]|50)$
^([0-9]{7,8})$
Multiple-Selection Menu |
Description - Explain to the member what you want them to answer in this field.
Limit Selection - Limits the number of choices that the user may make. If you want to allow them to select all of the choices you offer, set this to 0.
Box Height - Sets how many of the choices to display on the screen. If this number is smaller than the number of choices than the the first X choices will be shown with the rest accessible to the user by scrolling.
Options - Enter each of the options that the user can choose from. You need to enter each option on its own line. You can enter a maximum of 32 options.
Display Order - The order of the field in relation to any other custom profile fields.
Field Required - You can require the user to answer this field at registration. If you add it after the user registers, then they will need to answer it before they can update their profile. If set to Yes, always then the user will be forced to complete this field before doing anything else on the forum. If you wish to display this field at registration but not have it required, select No, but display at registration.
Field Editable by User - If disabled, this field will not appear to user when they edit their profile. Only at registration allows the user to only edit this field at registration or if the field is blank and set to be required.
Private Field - This field will only be visible to other users who have usergroup permission to view private profile fields.
Field Searchable on Members List - If enabled, this field is searchable via the Advanced Member's Search. If this field is hidden, then only Admins and Moderators will be able to search on this field.
Show on Members List - If enabled, field will appear on the member's list and if it is hidden only Administrators and Moderators will see it.
Multiple-Selection Checkbox |
Description - Explain to the member what you want them to answer in this field.
Limit Selection - Limits the number of choices that the user may make. If you want to allow them to select all of the choices you offer, set this to 0.
Items Per Line - Sets how many of the choices to display on one line.
Options - Enter each of the options that the user can choose from. You need to enter each option on its own line. You can enter a maximum of 32 options.
Display Order - The order of the field in relation to any other custom profile fields.
Field Required - You can require the user to answer this field at registration. If you add it after the user registers, then they will need to answer it before they can update their profile. If set to Yes, always then the user will be forced to complete this field before doing anything else on the forum. If you wish to display this field at registration but not have it required, select No, but display at registration.
Field Editable by User - If disabled, this field will not appear to user when they edit their profile. Only at registration allows the user to only edit this field at registration or if the field is blank and set to be required.
Private Field - This field will only be visible to other users who have usergroup permission to view private profile fields.
Field Searchable on Members List - If enabled, this field is searchable via the Advanced Member's Search. If this field is hidden, then only Admins and Moderators will be able to search on this field.
Show on Members List - If enabled, field will appear on the member's list and if it is hidden only Administrators and Moderators will see it.
Modifying Existing Custom Profile Fields |
There are a few points that you must consider when modifying an existing custom profile field.
The first is that profile fields are limited in what other field types that they can be converted to.
- Single-Line Text box can be converted to a Multiple-Line Text box and vice versa
- Multi-Selection Checkbox can be converted to a Multi-Selection Menu and Vice Versa
Secondly, a special form is required when modifying the user choices in the two Multi-Selection fields.
If you wish to add, delete or change the order of the options of a Multiple-Selection Menu or a Multiple-Selection Checkbox you will see the option Fields with a button labeled . Pressing the will present you with a screen like the following:To move an item up in the list, press the up arrow to the left of the item and to move an item down press the down arrow to the left of the item.
To rename or delete an item, choose the appropriate <link> to the right of the item.
To add a new choice to the list, enter the name of the choice in the box labeled Name and select where you want the new item to appear by changing the value of Position.
Paid Subscriptions |
In general, this is achieved by temporarily making a subscribed user into a member of one or more specific usergroups, which have access to the site areas or services for which they have paid.
An Introduction to Subscriptions |
Payment is processed automatically via the various online processors that support a call back to a user defined script, this allows the system to be virtually maintenance free.
Note:
If you run vBulletin with any sort of HTTP authentication system then the callback by the online processors will be subject to the same conditions and the subscription will not go through.
Payment API Manager |
Paid Subscriptions > Payment API Manager will present you with the following screen, the Payment API Manager allows you to change the appropriate variables regarding payment as well as enable and disable a particular gateway.Within debug mode further Payment API's can be added, please refer to the Developer Documentation on how to create a Payment API.
PayPal |
1 | Log in to your PayPal account |
2 | Click on the Profile subtab |
3 | Click on the Instant Payment Notification Preferences link in the 'Selling Preferences' column |
4 | Click Edit You should now be presented with a screen containing the following: Note: If the Instant Payment Notification link is not present you will need to apply for Premier Account or a Business Account from PayPal. http://www.example.com/forums/payment_gateway.php?method=paypal Click |
5 | Go to Paid Subscriptions > Payment API Manager > PayPal in your AdminCP where you will be presented with the following screen: |
6 | Enter your PayPal email address in the PayPal email field. This does not need to be the primary email address for your PayPal account and can be any email address associated with your PayPal account that you wish to use for payments received from your forum. |
7 | If you wish to use recurring subscriptions, you also need to enter your primary email address for your PayPal account in the PayPal Primary Account Email field. Your completed PayPal page will then look like eitherwhere the PayPal email address used for your forum is the same as the primary email address for your PayPal account, orwhere the PayPal email address is different to the primary email address for your PayPal account. |
8 | Finally, to activate the PayPal API for paid subscriptions, change the Active setting to Yes. |
NOCHEX |
1 | Log in to your NOCHEX account |
2 | Click on the 'Edit Automatic Payment Confirmation Details' link You should now be presented with a screen containing the following: Note: If the 'Edit Automatic Payment Confirmation Details' link is not present you will need to contact NOCHEX support and request that your account have this feature activated. http://www.example.com/forums/payment_gateway.php?method=nochex Click |
3 | Go to Paid Subscriptions > Payment API Manager > NOCHEX in your vBulletin AdminCP where you will be presented with the following screen:and enter your NOCHEX email address in the NOCHEX email field. |
4 | Finally, change the active setting to Yes to activate payments via NOCHEX in vBulletin |
Note:
NOCHEX does NOT support recurring payments.
Worldpay |
1 | Log in to the WorldPay CMS You should now be presented with a screen containing the following: |
2 | Click Configuration Options next to the Installation which has (Select Junior). This will lead you to the configuration screen which should look like the following: |
3 | Enter the following URL in the 'Callback URL' field: http://www.example.com/forums/payment_gateway.php?method=worldpay |
4 | Check the 'Callback enabled?' checkbox. |
5 | Within the 'Callback password' field enter an appropriately secure password, this will be used for verifying transactions. Click |
6 | Go to Paid Subscriptions > Payment API Manager > Worldpay in your vBulletin AdminCP where you will be presented with the following screen: |
7 | Enter your Installation ID that was displayed in the initial login to the WorldPay CMS and the password you setup within the CMS in the relevant fields on this page. |
8 | To activate WorldPay payments in your forum, change the Active setting to Yes |
Note:
WorldPay does NOT support recurring payments.
Authorize.Net |
1 | Log in to Authorize.Net merchant account |
2 | Click Settings on the left menu |
3 | Under the 'Transaction Response' group click Relay Response You should now be presented with a screen containing the following: |
4 | You should now enter the following URL, adjusted to your forum: http://www.example.com/forums/payment_gateway.php?method=authorizenet Click |
5 | You should now be on the main Settings screen again, click 'Obtain Transaction Key' under the Security group. Enter the appropriate secret information and a new key will be generated for you. Note: If you already know your transaction key you dont need to generate a new one. |
6 | To set the Login ID and transaction key go to Paid Subscriptions > Payment API Manager > Authorize.Net in your vBulletin AdminCP where you will presented with the following page: |
7 | Complete the Authorize.Net Login ID and Authorize.Net Transaction Key with your login for Authorize.net and the transaction key that you have generated in the relevant fields. |
8 | If you have a MD5 Hash Security Key for your Authorize.net account, then you can enter it in the MD5 Hash Security Key field. This is not a required field, so if this field is not completed then it will not affect the operation of the paid subscriptions. |
9 | Finally, to activate Authorize.Net payments, change the Active setting to Yes. |
Note:
Authorize.Net does NOT support recurring payments.
2Checkout |
1 | Log in to your 2CO account |
2 | Click on "Account" |
3 | Click on "Site Management". |
4 | Find the option labeled "Direct Return". Set this option to "Header Redirect". |
5 | Find the option "Approval URL", place the URL to your gateway.php. Example:http://www.yourforum.com/payment_gateway.php?method=2checkout |
6 | Save these options |
7 | Locate and click the "Products" link to go to your "Products List" page. |
8 | Choose an existing product or create a new one. Note Your Product ID for the product that you wish to add a subscription for within vBulletin. |
9 | Next you need to associate the subscriptions that you have in your 2CO account with your vBulletin subscriptions. Go to Paid Subscriptions > Subscription Manager. Choose an existing subscription or create a new one. You must enter the Product ID from the previous step into the 2CO Prod ID field. If you create multiple 2CO subscriptions you can enter them all into one vBulletin subscription or you can create multiple vBulletin subscriptions for each 2CO subscription. You should match the cost to the value you chose for your 2CO subscription. |
10 | Go to Paid Subscriptions > Payment API Manager > 2Checkout where you will be presented with the following page: |
11 | Enter your 2Checkout Vendor ID Number and 2Checkout Secret Word in the fields provided. |
12 | To activate payments using 2CO change the Active setting to Yes. |
Note:
2Checkout does NOT support recurring payments.
CCBill |
1 | Login to your CCBill account. |
2 | Go to CCBill Admin > Account Setup > Choose SubaccountIn this example our Subaccount will be 0002. Write this number down under the label CCBill Client Sub Account Number. Later you will need to enter it into the Payment API Manager in the vBulletin Admin Control Panel. Press when this page is completed. |
3 | CCBill Admin > Account Setup > Website InfoThis screen has several options, with only two options pertaining to vBulletin. You need to set the Approval URL and Denial URL. These are the locations that your clients will be directed to go to after a purchase or denial. This can be any URL, but you probably want to use the URL to your forum. Fill this information out along with the other options and press . |
4 | CCBill Admin > Account Setup > User ManagementvBulletin manages user accounts so we need to disable user management within CCBill for this sub account. Press . |
5 | CCBill Admin > Account Setup > User Management - ModifyUser Management Type - Select None Collect Username/Password - Select Hide both Username and Password Min. Username Length - Change to 10 Max. Username Length - Change to 10 Min. Password Length - Change to 10 Max. Password Length - Change to 10 Complete the other options to your liking and then click . |
6 | CCBill Admin > Account Setup > Server Info As alluded to previously, CCBill was designed to manage the user accounts of your members. Since you will not be using CCBill in this capacity, choose Other for the SystemType option. CCBill will not need to have access to your server as nothing will be installed on it. You will need to complete the non FTP options so that CCBill support can verify your website is acceptable. Press . |
7 | CCBill Admin > Account Setup > Pricing Options Only one time billing is supported by CCBill with vBulletin. For the Select Pricing Option Type option, select Single Billing Type. CCBill does not support the necessary callback routines to notify vBulletin when a recurring billing type is re billed. Press . |
8 | CCBill Admin > Account Setup > New Single Pricing OptionChoose a price for your subscription and a period in days. You will need to write this information down since you will need to duplicate it in the vBulletin Subscription Manager. Unlike the other payment processors, CCBill must have each subscription setup within its Admin Center as well as within vBulletin. Press |
9 | CCBill Admin > Account Setup > Pricing Options Overview This screen will display the subscription that you just created. Next to the subscription will be a number under the label of ID. Write this number down next to the payment and length of this subscription. You may choose to add more subscriptions at this point by selecting Create New Pricing Option. Ensure that you write down the ID number for each subscription that you create. Note: You may also retrieve these numbers later if you forget. |
10 | CCBill Admin > Account Setup > Standard Form Layout You must now choose the style of form that will be shown to your members when they are paying for your CCBill subscriptions. Choose the form that appeals to you and click . |
11 | CCBill Admin > Account Setup > Standard Form Theme You must now choose a theme for your form. Choose the theme that appeals to you and click . Note: You may customize your form in greater detail later |
12 | CCBill Admin > Account Setup > Standard Index Page This page is not used by vBulletin so click . |
13 | CCBill Admin > Account Setup > Final Instructions Click . |
14 | CCBill Admin > Modify Subaccount > Advanced > Background Post Information Your sub account and at least one subscription has now been completed. On the left side of the screen click on Advanced.You now need to enter urls that point back to your forum. In this example, our forums' url is http://www.example.com/vb3.Approval Post URL - Enter http://www.example.com/vb3/payment_gateway.php?method=ccbill Denial Post URL- Enter http://www.example.com/vb3/payment_gateway.php?method=ccbill You may increase the security of your CCBill transactions by including a secret word. If you wish to do this, instead of the above enter: Approval Post URL - Enter http://www.example.com/vb3/payment_gateway.php?method=ccbill&secretword=ABCDEF Denial Post URL- Enter http://www.example.com/vb3/payment_gateway.php?method=ccbill&secretword=ABCDEF Replace ABCDEF with your own secret word. Make note of this secret word as you will need to enter it into the vBulletin Subscription Manager later. Press . |
15 | Click View Subaccount Info on the left side of the menu. |
16 | CCBill Admin > Subaccount On the right side of the screen, find the box that contains your form. It will appear similar toWrite down the name of the CREDIT form. In our example, the name is 74cc. You will need to enter it into the vBulletin Subscription Manager later. |
17 | At this point vBulletin is ready to accept your CCBill options. Log into your vBulletin Admin Control Panel and go to Paid Subscriptions > Payment API Manager. Edit the CCBill API.You have six options to complete. CCBill Client Main Account Number - This is your main CCBill account number. It is used to login to your account. CCBill Client Sub Account Number - You wrote this number down in Step 2 and it was 0002 in our example. Make sure to include any leading zeroes that are included as the number should be four digits. CCBill Form Character Code - You wrote this down in the previous step, 16. It was 74cc in our example. CCBill Secret Word - This is optional but if you chose a secret word in step 14 then enter it here exactly the same. Our example was ABCDEF. Datalink Username - This is a 6-8 character alphanumeric name. It must contain at least one number and one letter. Choose an username now for usage later when Datalink is configured. Datalink Password - This is a 6-8 character alphanumeric password. It must contain at least 1 number and one letter. Choose a password now for usage later when Datalink is configured. Press . |
18 | Next you need to associate the subscriptions that you created in the CCBill admin with your vBulletin subscriptions. Go to Paid Subscriptions > Subscription Manager. Choose an existing subscription or create a new one. You must enter the subscription ID from Step 9 into the CCBill SubID field. If you create multiple CCBill subscriptions you can enter them all into one vBulletin subscription or you can create multiple vBulletin subscriptions for each CCBill subscription. You should match the U.S. Dollars amount and the Subscription Length to the values you chose for your CCBill subscription(s). CCBill only accepts payments in US Dollars. |
CCBill offers their Data Link Services Suite to facilitate this interaction. You should have already chosen an username and password for Data Link in step 17. Now you must go back to your CCBill Admin so that an accompanying account can be created to allow vBulletin access.
Note:
CCBill requires the connection to Data Link to be done via SSL (https) which means that your PHP installation will require openSSL suuport to be included. Please contact your host if you need openSSL support installed
1 | CCBill Admin Click on the Premium Features link at the top of the CCBill Admin screen |
2 | CCBill Admin > Premium Features Click on Value Added Features link on the upper left side of the screen. |
3 | CCBill Admin > Value Added Features Click on Data Link Services Suite at the bottom of the page. |
4 | CCBill Admin > Value Added Features > Data Link Services SuiteUnder Sub Account select the account that you previously setup for vBulletin in step 2 at the beginning of this document. Click . |
5 | CCBill Admin > Value Added Features > Data Link Services Suite > Add New UserEnter the username and password that you created in step 17 for Data Link. If your chosen username or password is not accepted, you'll need to remember to update vBulletin with your new username and password as well. Enter your server's ip address in the IP Address field. If you have a multi-server setup, enter every server's ip address. Press . |
Note:
CCBill does NOT support recurring payments.
Moneybookers |
1 | Log into your MoneyBookers account and set up a secret word |
2 | Go to Paid Subscriptions > Payment API Manager > MoneyBookers where you will get the following screen: |
3 | Enter your MoneyBookers Email and Moneybookers Secret Word in the fields provided. Note: The Moneybookers Secret Word must be entered in lowercase. |
4 | To activate payments using MoneyBookers, set the Active setting to Yes. |
Note:
MoneyBookers does NOT support recurring payments.
Adding or Editing a Paid Subscription |
- Title – Subscription title.
- Description – a short description which can be used to describe what the subscription offers.
- Active – if checked users will be able to subscribe to this Subscription.
- Tax – if checked tax will apply to a payment made to the user, this is mainly for Paypal.
- Shipping – if checked shipping information will be required with the payment information.
- Primary Usergroup – the primary usergroup that the subscription should change, this is not always required.
- Additional Usergroups – the secondary usergroups that the user joins on subscription.
Cost and length are now a seperate entity within the Subscription Manager so that a single Subscription can have multiple lengths and payment amounts, there is also the ability to add a recurring subscription.
The screen is as follows:
- Subscription Length – the length before the subscription lapses, note PayPal has a limit of 100 days for recurring subscriptions.
- Recurring – if checked any future subscriptions created will be recurring.
Warning:
Do not change the cost of a Subscription if a recurring payment is currently in use, these payments will fail to update.
Warning:
Do not set a Paypal subscription to greater than 100 days. Use the months or years options to set subscriptions greater than 100 days.
Practical Example of a Paid Subscription |
The subscription will offer some benefits over our a regular user such as increased attachment space, large avatars and more private messaging space.
Creating the new Usergroup
1 | Login to the Admin Control Panel |
2 | Open the Usergroups menu and click "Add New Usergroup" |
3 | At the top of the screen choose "Registered Users" from the Create usergroups Based off of Usergroup menu and click |
4 | Adjust usergroup permissions appropriately, increasing attachment space, avatar dimensions and private messaging space |
5 | Click |
1 | Open the Subscriptions menu and click "Add New Subscription" |
2 | Enter the appropriate title, description, length and cost for your subscriptions |
3 | On the right of the screen there will be a Usergroup Options table, under Additional Usergroups check the Usergroup that you created earlier in this example |
4 | Click |
Subscription Manager |
- Title – the title of your Subscription.
- Active – the number of users with active subscriptions.
- Completed – the number of users with completed subscriptions.
- Total – the total number of users with active or completed subscriptions.
- Display Order – the order in which subscriptions will be displayed on the forum, a lower value will appear above a higher value.
- Controls – these options allow you to edit a subscriptions, manage users with a subscriptions or manually add a user to a subscription.
Manually Adding A Subscribed User |
You will be presented with a screen containing the following:You should enter the username that this subscription applies to and adjust the dates if appropriate, by default these are the lengths for the subscription.
Transaction Log |
This log offers several search options that enable you to narrow down searches to specific criteria.Start Date - Date to limit the oldest transactions to.
End Date - Date to limit the newest transaction to.
Subscription - Include transactions that pertain to all subscriptions or limit transactions to thost that pertain to a specific subscription.
Processor - Include transactions that pertain to all payment processors or limit transactions to those that pertain to a specific payment processor.
Currency - Include transactions that pertain to all currencies or limit transactions to those that pertain to a specific currency.
Type - Include failure, charged and reversed transactions or limit to either one.
Note:
Failed transactions are those that could not be matched up with a subscription. This generally happens when there is a misconfiguration. Click on Failure when viewing these transactions to see raw output of what was sent by the payment processor. This information can be used by support to help you troubleshoot problems.
that pertain to a specific user.
Order By - Control the order of the resulting log. The order can also be changed when viewing the log by clicking the column headers.
Note:
Transactions completed before vBulletin 3.6.0 Beta 1 will contain incomplete information.
Transaction Stats |
Stats offers several search options that enable you to narrow down searches to specific criteria.Start Date - Date to limit the oldest transactions to.
End Date - Date to limit the newest transaction to.
Subscription - Include transactions that pertain to all subscriptions or limit transactions to those that pertain to a specific subscription.
Processor - Include transactions that pertain to all payment processors or limit transactions to those that pertain to a specific payment processor.
Currency - Include transactions that pertain to all currencies or limit transactions to those that pertain to a specific currency.
Type - Include charged and reversed transactions or limit to either one.
Order By - Control the order of the resulting stats. List the stats in order of most transaction or in order of date.
Scope - Groups transactions into the chosen option. Example, selecting Monthly would show you how many transaction were performed each month.
Note:
Transactions completed before vBulletin 3.6.0 Beta 1 will contain incomplete information.
Subscription Permissions |
To edit a subscription, simply find the appropriate subscription and usergroup, and click [Edit]. This will lead you to this screen:To deny access to purchase a subscription, choose No, otherwise choose Yes to allow permission.
Avatars |
Using the Avatar Manager, you can pre-define groups of avatars from which your members can choose one as their own avatar.
Also under this section is a tool to control the storage of your members' custom avatars (those which they have uploaded themselves). You may choose to store custom avatars in the database, or as files on the server's file system.
An Introduction to Avatars |
Implementing Avatars on vBulletin |
To configure avatars on your bulletin board first open the vBulletin Options menu in the Admin CP. Select User Picture Options.In this section you can set the following options:
- Avatars Enabled - Use this to enable/disable the overall use of avatars
- Avatar Display Width - This option defines the number of columns of avatars displayed to the user via the user control panel avatar selection page.
- Avatars Per-Page - This option defines the number of pages the avatars will be displayed over in the user control panel avatar selection page.
- Profile Pictures Enabled - This option relates to the use of profile pictures which if enabled will allow members to upload small images, usually larger than avatars, that can be displayed on the member's profile in the members' list.
To enable avatars for member registrations:
AdminCP > vBulletin Options > User Registration Options > Default Registration Options > Display Avatars > Tick the box
Adding Avatars |
- Add New Avatars - allows you to add one or multiple avatars that have already been uploaded to your webserver
- Upload Avatar - enables you to upload an avatar from your local hard disk
When you select the Add New Avatar link in the Avatar menu you are presented with the add avatar option screen. You have the option to either add a single avatar or to add multiple avatars.
Adding a Single Avatar |
- Title - enter the name or title you want to apply to the avatar. This will be the title of the image that is displayed in the Avatar Options in the User Control Panel
- Minimum Posts - enter the minimum number of posts a member needs before they are entitled to use this avatar. If you want to make this avatar available to all users, enter 0 or leave blank
- Avatar File Path - this can either be an URL of an image (e.g. http://www.example.com/images/avatar.gif) or a path on your web server (e.g. "/www/sites/htdocs/images/avatar.gif").
- Avatar Category - select the category you want to assign the avatar to
- Display Order - This determines the order in which the avatars are shown. By default the next display order is assigned and can be changed at a later date.
Adding Multiple Avatars |
- Avatar Category - select the category you want to assign the avatars to
- Avatars File Path - this can either be an URL of an image (e.g. http://www.example.com/images/avatar.gif) or a path on your web server (e.g. "/www/sites/htdocs/images/avatar.gif").
- Avatars to show per page - this figure set the number of avatars to be shown on each page.
Additionally, and if required you should enter the minimum number of post the members are required to have before they are entitled to use these avatars. You may enter different values for each of the listed avatars.
Once all the details have been entered and checked you need to tick the check boxes against each avatar that you want to add. If you want to add all of them, click 'Check All' box in the header. Then click the 'Add Avatars' button.
Avatar Management |
There are also further avatar settings in the Usergroup Manager. You may specify, per usergroup, the height, width and file size of avatars that the selected usegroup may use. You can also set whether or not the usergroup can upload their own custom avatars.
Note:
For further information regarding usersgroups and permissions please refer to the Usergroups & Permissions section of this manual
Expand the Avatars menu option in the Admin CP and click on the Avatar Manager.The avatars can be arranged in categories and you may restrict access to any avatars either by post count or usergroup. Usergroup restrictions are set at the category level where as post count restrictions are set at the individual avatar level.
The Avatar Manager displays the category title, number of avatars assigned to the category, the list display order of the category and the category controls.
Category Controls
- Mass Move - Enables you to move any or all the avatars from one category to another
- View - Allows you to see the avatar images assigned to a specific category. There are two further options under this, Edit and Delete which allows you to edit the details of any of the avatars listed in the category or delete them.
- Edit - Allows you to modify the category details
- Delete - This will delete the category. You be presented with additional options to either move the avatars assigned to this category to another category or delete all the avatars as well as the category.
- Avatar Permissions Enables you to set the permissions as to which usergroup or usergroups may have access to the avatars in a specific category.
Avatar Mass Move |
Each Avatar has a drop down menu containing all the other available categories. You can opt to move some or all the avatars in the selected category and you can move different avatars to different categories in one action.You can specify the category for each individual avatar, or if all the avatars are moving to the same category there is a separate global menu for you to select the category from.
Avatar Category View |
Avatar Category Edit |
Note:
The display order is for the category only, it determines the order in which the categories are displayed in the Avatar Manager in the AdminCP
Avatar Category Delete |
Avatar Category Permissions |
Uploading Avatars |
- Filename - enter the url or path for the avatar or use the Browse button to navigate to the required image
- Title - enter a name for the avatar that is to be uploaded
- Minimum Posts - enter the minimum number of posts a member needs before they are entitled to use this avatar. If you want to make this avatar available to all users, enter 0 or leave blank
- Avatar File Path - enter the location where the avatar should be upload to on you webserver. The file path should be both readable and writeable by your webserver
- Avatar Category - lists all the available categories. Select a category that the avatar will be assigned to
- Display Order - This determines the order in which the avatars are shown. By default the next display order is assigned and can be changed at a later date
User Picture Storage Type |
Database vs File System
There are no real advantages or disadvantages to using one of these storage types over the other. Both require disk space, keeping items in the database provide an easier backup method, using a file system may be slightly more efficient as there are less queries that need to be run and both are easy to manage via the AdminCP.
At the end of the day it comes down to your own preference on how you want to manage your user picture images and how you want to store them.
Note:
The default storage type is to store the images in the database.
Move User Pictures from Database to File System |
Selecting the User Picture Storage Type option will display the current storage type and enable you to change it.
Warning:
The transfer process will only be successful if there is sufficient disk space to store your images and that the specified directory exists and if fully readable and writable (usually chmod 777)
- Avatar File Path - enter the location where the avatars will be stored on your webserver. The path to the directory where your images will be stored. This should be both readable and writeable by your webserver and relative to your forums root directory
- URL to Avatars - enter the url of where the avatars will be stored. This should be relative to your forums home page
- Profile Picture Path - enter the location where the profile pictures will be stored on your webserver. The path to the directory where your images will be stored. This should be both readable and writeable by your webserver and relative to your forums root directory
- URL to Profile Pictures - enter the url of where the profile pictures will be stored. This should be relative to your forums home page
Move User Pictures in a file system to the database |
Move Avatars to a Different Directory |
- Avatar File Path - enter the new location where the avatars will be stored on you webserver. This is the path to the directory where you images will be store. This should be both readable and writeable by your webserver and relative to your forums root directory
- URL to Avatars - enter the new url of where the avatars will be stored. This should be relative to your forums home page
The settings for the new location of the avatars will have been updated.
Note:
You must now manually move all avatars to the new folder, using an FTP client or a shell command such as:
mv -rf ./customavatars/* ./avatartmp/
Move Profile Pictures to a Different Directory |
- Profile Picture Path - enter the new location where the avatars will be stored on you webserver. This is the path to the directory where you images will be store. This should be both readable and writeable by your webserver and relative to your forums root directory
- URL to Profile Pictures - enter the new url of where the avatars will be stored. This should be relative to your forums home page
The settings for the new location of the profile pictures will have been updated.
Note:
You must now manually move all profile picturesto the new folder, using an FTP client or a shell command such as:
mv -rf ./customprofilepics/* ./profpictmp/
Post Icons |
The Post Icon manager contains all the tools you will need to upload and modify icons for your members to use.
Introduction to Post Icons |
Implementing Post Icons on vBulletin |
To enable Post Icons on your bulletin board you need to edit the forum permissions for each forum that you wish to allow Post Icons. Forums & Moderators > Forum Manager > Edit Forum > Enable/Disable FeaturesSet Allow Post Icons to Yes. Repeat these steps for each forum.
The administrator can also choose to enable or disable Post Icons in Private Messages too. vBulletin Options > Private Messaging Options > Allow Message Icons for Private Messages
Adding Post Icons |
- Add New Post Icon - allows you to add one or multiple Post Icons that have already been uploaded to your webserver
- Upload Post Icons - enables you to upload an Post Icons from your local hard disk
When you select the Add New Post Icon link in the Post Icon menu you are presented with the add Post Icon option screen. You have the option to either add a single Post Icon or to add multiple Post Icons.
Adding a Single Post Icon |
- Title - enter the name or title you want to apply to the Post Icon.
- Post Icon File Path - this can either be an URL of an image (e.g. http://www.example.com/images/icons/posticon.gif) or a path on your web server (e.g. "/www/sites/htdocs/images/icons/posticon.gif").
- Post Icon Category - select the category you want to assign the Post Icon to
- Display Order - This determines the order in which the post icons are shown. By default the next display order is assigned and can be changed at a later date.
Adding Multiple Post Icons |
- Post Icon Category - select the category you want to assign the Post Icons to
- Post Icon File Path - this can either be an URL of an image (e.g. http://www.example.com/images/icons/posticon.gif) or a path on your web server (e.g. "/www/sites/htdocs/images/icons").
- Post Icons to show per page - this figure set the number of Post Icons to be shown on each page.
Once all the details have been entered and checked you need to tick the check boxes against each Post Icon that you want to add. If you want to add all of them, click 'Check All' box in the header. Then click the 'Add Post Icons button.
Post Icon Management |
There are also further Post Icon settings in the Forum Manager. You may can opt to allow or disallow, per forum. You can also enable or disable Post Icons in Private Messages.
Note:
For further information regarding foruma and permissions please refer to the Forums Permission section of this manual
Admin Control Panel > Post Icons > Post Icon Manager The Post Icons can be arranged in categories and you may restrict the use of to Post Icons at a usergroup level.
The Post Icon Manager displays the category title, number of Post Icons assigned to the category, the list display order of the category and the category controls.
Category Controls
- Mass Move - Enables you to move any or all the Post Icons from one category to another
- View - Allows you to see the Post Icons images assigned to a specific category. There are two further options under this, Edit and Delete which allows you to edit the details of any of the Post Icon listed in the category or delete them.
- Edit - Allows you to modify the category details
- Delete - This will delete the category. You be presented with additional options to either move the Post Icons assigned to this category to another category or delete all the Post Icons as well as the category.
- Post Icon Permissions - Enables you to set the permissions as to which usergroup or usergroups may have access to the Post Icons in a specific category.
Post Icon Mass Move |
Each Post Icon has a drop down menu containing all the other available categories. You can opt to move some or all the Post Icons in the selected category and you can move different Post Icons to different categories in one action.You can specify the category for each individual Post Icon, or if all the Post Icons are moving to the same category there is a separate global menu for you to select the category from.
Post Icon Category View |
Post Icon Category Edit |
Note:
The display order is for the category only, it determines the order in which the categories are displayed in the Post Icon Manager in the AdminCP
Post Icon Category Delete |
Post Icon Category Permissions |
For example, if you have a selection of post icons that you want only administrators, moderators and super moderators to use. You would first need to create a category to contain these post icons, upload or move the specially selected post icons to the new category then set the permissions for that category so that only the Administrator, Moderators and Super Moderators usergroups can use the post icons in this category.
Uploading Post Icons |
- Filename - enter the url or path for the Post Icon or use the Browse button to navigate to the required image
- Title - enter a name for the Post Icon that is to be uploaded
- Post Icon File Path - enter the location where the Post Icon should be upload to on you webserver. The file path should be both readable and writeable by your webserver
- Post Icon Category - list all the available categories. Select a category that the Post Icon will be assigned to
- Display Order - This determines the order in which the Post Icons are shown. By default the next display order is assigned and can be changed at a later date
Smilies |
Smilies (also called emoticons in some quarters) are small images used to convey some form of emotion in messages.
Example
What you type: | Hi there! :) |
Will get parsed as: | Hi there! |
Note:
Don't forget to go through the settings of the vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > Message Posting and Editing Options where you can control the 'Maximum Images Per Post/Signature'.
Smilie Manager |
- Title
This column tells you the name of each category. You can click on the category name to view which smilies are in it, after which you can edit or delete a smilie and update its display order.
- Contains
This column tells you how many images are in the corresponding category.
- Display Order
This column tells you the display order of each smilie category. The display order is used to order the smilie category listing in this Smilie Manager as well as how it is displayed on your forums. You can update the display orders shown on this page by changing the number values and clicking the button.
- Controls
On the right side you will find several options for each smilie category.
The [Mass Move] link takes you to a page where you can select a new category for each smilie in the corresponding category and submit the changes all at once.
The [View] link does the same thing as clicking on the category name to the left, it takes you to a page where you can view all smilies in the corresponding category.
The [Edit] link allows you to edit the title and display order of the corresponding category.
The [Delete] link takes you to a page where you can delete the corresponding category and all of its smilies or mass move the categories smilies to another category and then delete the original category.
Click on the link to load a page from where you can enter a 'title' for the new category and the display order. If you don't know the number for the display order than you can leave this empty. Then press the button to add this new smilie category. You will then return to the initial overview of all the smilie categories.
Click on the link to load a page from where it will display all the smilies from all the categories. On this page you can also edit and delete a smilie.
Add New Smilie |
You can either add a single image or add multiple images at the same time.
Note:
Don't forget to upload the smilies to your images/smilies directory first before using this feature. If you don't know how to do that you can also use the alternative feature to manually upload a smilie.
- Title
This is the title you want to give to describe your smilie.
- Text to Replace
This is the replacement text for the smilie. When a user types this text in a post, it will get replaced with the smilie image.
- Smilie File Path
Type the path and filename of the smilie you want to add. An example would be images/smilies/happy.gif
- Smilie Category
This drop down box will have all the possible smilies categories - select one to add this smilie to this category.
- Display Order
If you know which order you'd like to give to your smilie you can enter it here. This is an optional field, if you don't know what the display order should be you can leave this field empty. You can always change it later.
Adding Multiple Smilies (Admin Control Panel > Smilies > Add New Smilie > Add Multiple Smilies)
- Smilie Category
This drop down box will have all the possible smilies categories - select one to add all the smilies to.
- Smilies File Path
Type the path and not filename of the smilies directory you want to add. An example would be images/smilies/newones/ (if you have uploaded your smilies to the newones/ directory)
- Smilies to Show Per Page
This is the number of images to display per page while adding them.
Smilie Display Order |
Consider this example where you have two smilies:
Smilie Name | Smilie Text | Smilie Image |
Smilie 1 | :o | |
Smilie 2 | :o) |
To make these smilies parse correctly, Smilie 2 should have a smaller display order than Smilie 1, so that it is parsed first and is not picked up in the search for Smilie 1.
Upload Smilie |
Note:
The directory that you are trying to put the file in must be CHMODed 777. Consult your FTP program documentation for how to do this.
If you don't know how to do that you can also use the alternative feature to add one or more smilies through the Add New Smilie manager.
If you don't know how to do that you can also use the alternative feature to add one or more smilies through the Add New Smilie manager.
- Filename
Click on the button and select from your hard drive the smilie you want to upload.
- Title
This is the title you want to give to describe your smilie.
- Text to Replace
This is the replacement text for the smilie. When a user types this text in a post, it will get replaced with the smilie image.
- Smilie File Path
Type the path of the smilie directory. An example would be images/smilies. This directory should be readable and writable by the webserver (usually CHMOD 777).
- Smilie Category
This drop down box will have all the possible smilies categories - select one to add this smilie to this category.
- Display Order
If you know which order you'd like to give to your smilie you can enter it here, this is an optional field. If you don't know what the display order should be you can leave this field empty, you can always change it later.
Custom BB Codes |
The Custom BBCode manager allows you to define new bbcode tags in order to extend the range of formatting available to your members.
Here is a list of all the default BBcode, http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/misc.php?do=bbcode
An Introduction to BB Codes |
Many BB code tags are included by default in vBulletin. Some of these include [b] for bold, [i] for italics, and [url] for inserting hyperlinks. Their output is not directly modifiable. However, you can disable specific tags in the vBulletin Options section.
BB codes may take one of two formats: with an option or without. An example BB code with an option is [url=http://www.vbulletin.com]vBulletin[/url]; [url]http://www.vbulletin.com[/url] is an example of a BB code that does not have an option. Essentially, an option allows you to specify two values per BB code reference. It is not possible to have more than one option in a BB code.
Things to keep in mind when creating BB codes:
- BB codes must not be empty. Empty tag usage, such as [i][/i], will be removed before parsing and there for nothing will be displayed in its place, even if something normally would.
- BB codes must have a closing tag. [i] will not be parsed alone; it needs the [/i] to be parsed.
- If you wish to have a tag that accepts both an option and non-option version, such as [url], you must create both. Simply create one tag with Use {option} set to yes and the other set to no.
BB Code Manager |
- Title – the title of your BB code.
- BB Code – an example of the BB code.
- HTML – the HTML output of the example.
- Replacement – an HTML rendering of the example
- Button Image – the button being displayed with the editors, if you have specified one.
- Controls – these options allow you to edit or delete this BB code.
Adding or Editing a BB Code |
- Title – the title of your tag, which will be used to generate the BB code list.
- Tag – this is the text for the BB code, which goes inside the square brackets. For example, you would use 'b' for [b] tags and 'url' (without quotes) for [url] tags.
- Replacement – this is the HTML code for the BB code replacement. Make sure that you include '{param}' (without the quotes) to insert the text between the opening and closing BB code tags, and '{option}' for the parameter within the BB code tag. You can only use {option} if 'Use Option' is set to yes.
For example, you would use <b>{param}</b> for [b] tags and <a href="{option}">{param}</a> for [url=xxx] . You will always use '{param}', but you will only use '{option}' when Use Option? is yes. - Example – this is a sample piece of BB code to use as an example for this particular BB code. For example, you would use [b]Bold[/b] for [b] tags, [url=http://www.vbulletin.com]vBulletin[/url] for [url] tags.
- Description – this is a piece of text to describe the BB code tag. This can include HTML tags if you wish.
- Use Option – setting this option to yes will allow you to create a [tag=option][/tag] style tag, rather than just a [tag][/tag] style tag.
- Button Image – this is the URL to an image that will be displayed when a user is making a new post. Clicking the image will allow a user to quickly insert this tag. The image should be 21-pixels-wide by 20-pixels-high and the path should be specified relative to the main vBulletin directory.
- Remove Tag If Empty? - setting this option to yes will remove this BB Code from your text if there is nothing within it. For example, if this option is set, [tag][/tag] will not be displayed, whereas [tag]text here[/tag] will be displayed. Set this option to no if you wish the BB Code's replacements to be shown no matter what
- Disable BB Code Within This BB Code? - setting this option disables the parsing of any BB Code within this BB Code, displaying them as plain text.
- Disable Smilies Within This BB Code? - setting this option disables smilies within the BB Code, displaying them as plain text.
- Disable Word Wrapping Within This BB Code? - setting this option disables word-wrapping within this BB Code.
RSS Feed Posting Robot |
Many sites now offer RSS feeds, which provide a means of providing their content to other parties in a standardized format.
The RSS posting robot in vBulletin allows administrators to import a wealth of third party data into their forums, such as live news feeds or even posts and threads from other forums.
Managing RSS Feeds |
Next to each feed is a checkbox which can be used as a quick means of disabling feeds without actually deleting them. To use this feature, simply tick or un-tick as many feeds as you want then hit the button to save your preference.
To add or edit an RSS feed from which your board can fetch data, navigate to RSS Feeds > RSS Feed Manager and either click the name of the RSS feed you want to edit, or else click the button to add a new one.
Each RSS feed listed in the manager can be edited by clicking either on its name or on the [Edit] link. Also shown is the host name of the server on which the RSS feed is located. Clicking on this host name (such as www.example.com) will allow you to view the raw feed source, which may be shown as plain XML or else might be formatted using XSLT by the feed owner.
Additionally, each feed shows the last time at which the source was checked for updates.
Editing RSS Feeds |
The RSS Feed Editor will then load, presenting you with a detailed form to complete in order to instruct vBulletin how to treat the RSS feed to which you are pointing it.
- Reset Last Checked Time
This control is related to the Check Feed Every... control (see below) and allows you to have vBulletin check the feed the next time the robot checks any feeds, instead of waiting for the next scheduled time. - Feed is Enabled
If this control is set to 'No', the feed will be ignored. The enabled switch is an easy way to temporarily disable a feed without actually deleting the record from the database. - Title
Enter a title for your feed here. This will be used soley for identification purposes within the Admin Control Panel. - URL of Feed
This is the most important control on the page. Enter the full URL to the feed here, including the port number if it is non-standard.
A few examples:- http://www.example.com/feed.rss
- https://www.example.com/secure_feed.xml
- http://www.example.com:8080/another_feed.rdf
- Check Feed Every...
Use this control to specify how frequently vBulletin should query the feed specified to check for new items.Warning:Bear in mind that checking a feed too frequently could get your server blacklisted by the site hosting the feed. - Maximum Items to Fetch
Some feeds may contain many items. To prevent your forum being flooded with messages, specify a number here to limit the messages posted from the feed to the first few items. - Search Items for Words
When a feed is checked you may optionally have vBulletin search each item for key words and only post the item if one or more of those key words is found. Enter any number of words into the text box, separating each word with a space or new line.
By ticking and unticking the Search Titles Only control you may specify whether the system should search the title feed only, or both the title feed and the description field from each item in the feed. - User Name
Enter the name of the user who to whom items posted from this feed will be attributed. Usually this would be an administrator, or a special user created soley as the poster of RSS items. - Forum
Select a forum into which messages posted from the feed will be placed. Ensure that the forum you choose can accept posts! - Allow Smilies
If any smilie codes are found in the RSS items to be posted, having this option set to 'Yes' will convert those smilie codes into their corresponding smilie images. - Display Signature
Set this option to 'Yes' if you would like items posted by the RSS feed robot to include the signature of the user to whom they are attributed (see User Name above). - Convert HTML to BB Code
Some RSS feeds contain HTML formatting. If you would like vBulletin to attempt to convert HTML into BB Code, set this option to 'Yes'.Note:Note that the later setting 'Allow HTML in Announcements' will be ignored if this option is enabled.
Within vBulletin, we allow you to access only specific parts of the RSS. The fields you can use are title, description, link, id, date, enclosure_href and content:encoded
These fields of information can be included in the templates using the simple format {feed:fieldname} where 'fieldname' is the name of the field whose contents you want to insert.
Here is an example of a template that will include the item title, description and link:
[b]{feed:title}[/b] {feed:description} [url={feed:link}]More...[/url]
The vBulletin RSS Feed posting robot has the ability to post RSS items either as threads or as announcements, with different options for each posting type. The options for each type are described in the following pages.
Posting RSS Items as Threads |
- Post Icons
If you would like items posted from this RSS feed to have a post icon, select the one you would like from the list presented to you. If you select 'No Icon', the posted items will either have no icon, or will have the default icon if specified in the Admin CP > vBulletin Options > Thread Display Options (showthread) > Show Default Post Icon option. - Make Thread Sticky
Set this option to 'Yes' if you would like threads posted from this RSS feed to always appear at the top of the list of threads (forumdisplay.php). - Moderate Thread
If you would like to give your moderation staff the opportunity to check the content of items posted by the RSS robot before they - Thread Action Delay (Hours)
This special option allows the system to perform an action on a thread posted by the RSS robot after a number of hours has elapsed.
If you would like an action to be performed on a thread after a time delay, enter a number of hours in the box provided, otherwise leave the value as 0 to disable the option.- Unstick Sticky Thread After Delay
Select this option if you would like sticky threads to be unstuck after the number of hours you specified. This can be useful for drawing attention to new items for a limited time, before allowing them to drop off the first page of thread results. - Close Thread After Delay
This option allows you to have threads posted by the RSS robot to be automatically closed after a delay specified by you (above).
- Unstick Sticky Thread After Delay
Posting RSS Items as Announcements |
- Allow HTML in Announcements
If this option is set to 'Yes', any HTML included in RSS items will be posted verbatim in items posted on your board.Warning:Allowing raw HTML means that any malicious HTML or Javascript code included in the RSS feed will appear uncensored on your board. Do not enable this option unless you fully trust the RSS source to not include such exploit code, or all sorts of bad things could happen... - Days for Announcements to Remain Active
Announcements posted by the RSS robot will remain visible to board visitors for a limited time. You can set the amount of days they will remain active using this control.Note:Once an announcement has been posted by the RSS robot, you can manually change the expiry date of any individual announcement by editing it directly via the Admin CP > Announcements > Announcement Manager > Edit system.
Saving and Previewing RSS Feeds |
Occasionally, the preview may also give you useful information about the feed, such as suggestions for options.
Scheduled Tasks |
You will find a number of tasks already set to run at specific times, and you can edit the intervals for those tasks, or add your own if you have something specific you need done.
Introduction to Scheduled Tasks |
Examples of things you might use scheduled tasks for include daily and weekly email digests and automatic, happy-birthday emails.
Warning:
vBulletin’s scheduled tasks system does not constantly run on the server like cron and scheduled tasks in Windows®. Tasks are automatically run when a user browses your board, so if your board does not have any traffic at a given time, tasks scheduled to run then will not run until later.
vBulletin’s scheduled tasks also will not run when you board is turned off.
vBulletin’s scheduled tasks also will not run when you board is turned off.
Managing Scheduled Tasks |
- m – this stands for minute. This is the minute of the hour when the task will run. * means it runs every minute.
- h – this stands for hour, the hour of the day when the task will run. * means it will run every hour.
- D – this stands for day. If a number is specified, this is the day of the month when the task will run; * means it will run every day.
- M – this stands for month. This is the month of the year when the task will run. As you may expect, * means it will run each month.
- DoW – this stands for day of the week. If specified, the task will only run on this day of the week, ignoring the day of month setting; if * is selected here, control is passed to the day of month setting.
- Title – the name of the scheduled task.
- Next Time – the next time that the task is scheduled to run.
- Controls – contains controls to edit or delete the task (in the drop down) or run the task right now.
Adding or Editing a Scheduled Task |
- Varname – An unique identifier for the task. You will most likely want to call this something similar to the task's title. You may only use a-z, A-Z, 0-9, and _ (underscore) in this field.
- Title – the title of the scheduled task. This is used for identifying the task in the scheduled task manager and log.
- Description – the description of the scheduled task. This is used for describing the task in the scheduled task manager.
- Log Phrase - this controls the format of the phrase that will be used when logging successful runs of this task. If the code that logs this task provides more specific information about what was performed, you may use text placeholders such as {1}.
- Day of the Week – the specific day of the week that the task should run on. If this is set to a day, then the Day of the Month setting will not have any effect.
- Day of the Month – if Day of the Week is set to *, then this indicates the specific day of the month that the task should run on. Set this to * to run the task daily.
- Hour – the hour of the day when the task is run. Set this to * to run the task every hour.
- Minute – the minute of the hour when the task is run. Set this to * to run the task every minute.
- Active – The task will only execute when this option is enabled.
- Log Entries – allows you to specify whether results from the task are logged.
- Filename – the path to the PHP script which contains the code to be run. This should be specified relative to the main forums directory.
- Product - this is the product that this task is associated with. You do not need to change this value unless you are developing an addon to be released.
Scheduled Task Log |
To view log entries, select the criteria you want and click . This will lead you to a screen that looks like this:
- ID – ID number used to identify the log entry.
- Action – title of the scheduled task run.
- Date – date and time that the task was run.
- Info – information returned from the task. For some scripts, this information may include users affected.
Plugin System |
The following sections detail some of the methods in which this can be done.
The Product Manager |
Each row of the product manager interface shows the details of a product you have installed into your vBulletin system.The image shown above lists two installed products - My Product and Your Product. You can see the description of each product, together with the version number of the currently installed version.
For the majority of users, the product manager will be the interface through which downloaded products are installed, upgraded or removed.
Installed products can be temporarily disabled or fully removed from the system using the corresponding popup menu for each product.
The product manager also acts as the packager for creating new products - this use is described fully in Creating a Product.
Importing / Installing a Product |
Clicking this link will load the Add/Import Product interface, which contains two forms. In this instance, we will be using the Import Product form.Importing a product is done in much the same way as importing a style, or a language pack. You simply need to click the button and navigate with the file dialog to the product XML file you downloaded.
Alternatively, if you have uploaded the XML file to your server via FTP, you can specify the relative path to the XML file from your forums directory instead of using the button.
If you are installing a new product, you should leave the Allow Overwrite option set to No, but if you are installing a new version of a product you have previously installed (upgrading) then this option should be set to Yes.
When the form is complete, hit the button and the XML file will be imported, installing any templates, phrases, plugins etc. that are specified within that XML file.
Temporarily Deactivating a Product |
To disable a product, simply select Disable from the popup menu next to the product you want to deactivate.Disabled products will not execute their plugin code, nor will their appear control panel navigation items be displayed and any defined bitfield permissions will not be shown in the usergroup permissions editor.
A disabled product shows with its name struck-through and will have the Disable option from the popup menu replaced by a Enable option. To re-enable a product, simply select this option.
Removing / Uninstalling a Product |
Uninstalling a product will automatically and permanently remove the following:
- All plugin code attached to the product
- All master templates attached to the product
- All master phrases attached to the product
- All options attached to the product
- All admin help entries attached to the product
To uninstall a product, select the Uninstall option from the popup menu corresponding to the target product.
Note:
While the master versions of all templates and phrases belonging to a product will be deleted by the uninstall procedure, if any customized versions exist, they will be retained in the database and will appear as custom templates.
The Plugin Manager |
Adding or Editing a Plugin |
Product | Use the Product field to attach this plugin to a product. This allows plugins to be grouped together and exported and installed as part of a product package through the product manager. |
Hook Location | The hook location specifies where in the vBulletin system your plugin code should be executed. To work out what hook would be appropriate to use, you will need to look through the vBulletin PHP scripts for hook locations, then identify the unique ID of hook you want to use. In the example illustrated, we are attaching our code to the profile_updateprofile hook, which can be found in profile.php with this line: ($hook = vBulletinHook::fetch_hook('profile_updateprofile')) ? eval($hook) : false; |
Title | Use the title field to give your plugin a meaningful name to help you identify it at a later date. |
Execution Order | This field allows the execution order to be defined when multiple hooks are to be executed. A hook with a lower execution number will be executed first. |
Plugin PHP Code | Use this box to enter the PHP code you want to be executed at the specified hook location. Remember that the code runs in the context and scope of the hook line itself. For more information about writing plugin code, there is a section of this manual dedicated to this subject. Warning: Plugin code must be valid PHP or errors will ensue. |
Plugin is Active | You can use this control to disable an individual plugin without removing the code. This can be helpful in debugging. |
Plugin Summary View |
- the title of each plugin
- the hook that executes the code (or the product the plugin belongs to)
- the active/inactive status of the plugin
Help! I've broken my board! |
Thankfully, help is at hand. There is a global, code-level switch you can use to totally disable the plugin/hook system so that any plugins (including broken ones) do not run.
To disable the plugin/hook system completely without accessing the Admin CP options, you need to edit includes/config.php and add the following code:
define('DISABLE_HOOKS', true);
To re-enable the plugin system, remove the code again from config.php.
Creating a Product |
In summary, they are these:
- Add a product record and title it accordingly
- Add plugin code for the product
- Add templates and phrases for the product
- Add options for the product
- Add control panel navigation entries for the product
- Add bitfield permissions for the product
- Export the product XML file
Adding a Product |
This will act as a grouping agent for all the items you add that go together to form your product.
To add a product record, navigate to Plugin System > Manage Products > Add/Import Product then use the Add New Product form.The fields to complete are as follows:
Product ID | This is the most important field of a product - all items added to the product such as templates, plugins, phrases etc. will all reference this value to indictate their attachment to the product. Product IDs can contain lowercase letters, underscores and numbers but no other characters. Note: Please do not name your products with a 'vb' prefix, such as vbelephant or vbsidewalk. The 'vb' prefix is reserved for official vBulletin products released by Jelsoft or its affiliates. |
Title | The title field is used to give your product a recognizable name for the purposes of identification. |
Version | The version field is important as it is used in the product upgrade process. A version value of 2.0 is considered newer than 1.0 etc. |
Description | Fairly self-explanitory, the description field is used to give a little more detail about your product than the title field. |
Product URL | This is the location where users can get information and support for your product. If you provide this, the product title will be linked to this URL from the product list. |
Version Check URL | If you provide this URL, users will be able to automatically check to see if their version of the product is up to date. Data returned by this page must be in this format:<version productid="x">1.2.3</version> |
Writing Plugin Code |
When adding code to a plugin, you should bear in mind that your code will have access to all variables and classes that are exposed at the point where the hook is placed.
For example, let us consider this hypothetical hook in a hypothetical script:
<?php
require_once('./global.php');
$foo = 1;
$bar = 2;
($hook = vBulletinHook::fetch_hook('hypothetical_hook')) ? eval($hook) : false;
eval('print_output("' . fetch_template('hypothetical_template') . '");');
?>
We will now add a plugin to the hypothetical_hook hook, using this code:
if ($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'] == '192.168.0.1')
{
$foo = 10;
$bar = 20;
}
<?php require_once('./global.php'); $foo = 1; $bar = 2; if ($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'] == '192.168.0.1') { $foo = 10; $bar = 20; } eval('print_output("' . fetch_template('hypothetical_template') . '");'); ?>
Optimizing Plugin Memory Usage |
A simple way to avoid this problem is to use the plugin code simply to call an external script, which contains all the complex code. In this way the code is only loaded when it is actually required.
For example, a plugin could contain this:
$tmp_uid =& $vbulletin->userinfo['userid'];
$db->query_write("
INSERT INTO " . TABLE_PREFIX . "profilelog
(userid, dateline)
VALUES
($tmp_uid, " . TIMENOW . ")
");
include('./plugins/my_script.php');
Product Dependencies |
Once you have created a product, you will be taken back to the main product manager page. From this page, select Edit from the dropdown for your product. Here, you can edit the existing product properties (see this page for more information), add/edit product dependencies, or add/edit install and uninstall codes. We will concentrate on the product dependencies section:
Dependency Type (mandatory) | This is the type dependency you are creating. You may add requirements on specific versions of PHP, MySQL, and vBulletin. Additionally, you may add a dependency on a specific product, identified by product ID. If you are depending on a specific product, the user must have this product installed and enabled! |
Compatibility Starts With Version (mandatory in some cases) | This controls the minimum compatible version. You may leave this blank if you wish to have no minimum version; if you do this, you must enter a value into the Incompatible With Version field. This version is included in the compatibility. For example, if you require PHP 5.0.0, 5.0.0 will qualify. However, 5.0.0 Beta 1 will not. |
Incompatible With Version (mandatory in some cases) | This is the first incompatible version. All versions newer than this are also incompatible. If you wish to only require a minimum version, you may leave this field blank. This version is not considered compatible. For example, if you specify that your product is incompatible with PHP 5.0.0, a user with PHP 5.0.0 Beta 1 will be able to install your product, while a user with PHP 5.0.0 or 5.0.1 would not. |
Installation & Uninstallation Code |
Once you have created a product, you will be taken back to the main product manager page. From this page, select Edit from the dropdown for your product. Here, you can edit the existing product properties (see this page for more information) or add/edit install and uninstall codes. We will concentrate on the install codes section:
Version (mandatory) | The version of your product that this specific install/uninstall code pair corresponds to. This is used to control when the code is executed (see below). |
Install Code (optional) | This PHP code will be run only during installation of or while upgrading your product, starting with code attached to the oldest version. If the user is upgrading, only codes attached to newer versions will be run. Here is an example: You make several releases of your product, DemoProduct, versions 1.0, 1.1, 2.0, and 2.0.1. A user currently has version 2.0 installed. When he or she upgrades to 2.0.1, the only install code that will be run is code attached to the 2.0.1 release. However, when someone installs your product for the first time, code will be run from all versions in the order of 1.0, 1.1, 2.0, and finally 2.0.1. This system allows you to provide increment upgrades and first time installs in the same system. |
Uninstall Code (optional) | This PHP code is run only when your product is fully uninstalled. This should be used to clean up any tables or extra data that your product has created. Note that control panel options, phrases, templates, and plugins will automatically be cleaned up for you. Multiple pieces of uninstall code are executed from the newest to oldest version. Using the example above, the uninstall codes will be run in this order: 2.0.1, 2.0, 1.1, 1.0. This allows you to couple install codes and uninstall codes together into a specific version, preventing some uninstallation errors from occuring. |
Warning:
You must handle errors that may occur in the install/uninstall code as there is no built in error checking beyond what PHP natively provides.
XML-based Control Panel Navigation |
When building the navigation frame, vBulletin searches the includes/xml directory for files called cpnav_product.xml, where 'product' is replaced with the unique identifier for a product, for example cpnav_myproduct.xml.
An example cpnav XML file might look like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <navgroups product="myproduct"> <navgroup phrase="my_product" hr="true" permissions="canadminsettings" displayorder="1"> <navoption displayorder="10"> <phrase>my_product_manager</phrase> <link>myproduct.php?do=modify</link> </navoption> <navoption displayorder="20"> <phrase>add_new_item</phrase> <link>myproduct.php?do=add</link> </navoption> </navgroup> </navgroups>
Within the <navgroups> node resides any number (greater than one) of <navgroup> nodes. Each <navgroup> node has a number of attributes, some of which are optional while others are mandatory. The attributes are as follows:
phrase (mandatory) | The phrase attribute defines the name of the phrase used to display the text for the navigation group. This phrase should be a member of either the GLOBAL, Control Panel Global, or preferably the Control Panel Home Pages phrase group. The phrase should belong to the product being described. |
displayorder (mandatory) | The displayorder attribute is used to define the position of the navigation group relative to other navigation groups. A navigation group with a displayorder of 3 will appear before a group having displayorder 6 etc. Note that display order is distributed between all products, so if one product has two navgroups, with display order values of 10 and 30 respectively, while another product has a two navgroups with display order values of 20 and 40, the navgroups of the two products will appear interleaved in the navigation panel. |
text (optional) | The text attribute will be shown if the defined phrase does not exist. |
permissions (optional) | If a navigation group should be displayed only to administrators with specific permissions, the permissions attribute can be used to achieve this. As an example, if only administrators with Can Administer Styles permissions should be allowed to view a navigation group, you should add permissions="canadminstyles" to the <navgroup> tag. |
hr (optional) | If the hr attribute exists and has a value of true, an extra amount of space will be left underneath the navigation group in order to create logical groupings of navigation groups. |
<navoption displayorder="50"> <phrase>phrase_varname</phrase> <link>product.php?do=action</link> </navoption>
Navigation options have two child nodes, <phrase> and <link>. These are very simple nodes and perform an equally simple task. The <phrase> node contains the name of the phrase whose text will be displayed. As with the phrase attribute of the <navgroup> tag, this phrase should be defined within either the GLOBAL, Control Panel Global, or preferably the Control Panel Home Pages phrase groups, and should belong to the appropriate product. Secondly, the <link> node contains the relative URL to the script to which the option links.
vBulletin can support an unlimited number of cpnav_product.xml files, in order to allow any product to add to the default list of navigation links in the admin control panel.
Note:
For a fully-featured control panel navigation XML file example, see includes/xml/cpnav_vbulletin.xml
XML-based Bitfield Definitions |
With 3.5, this problem has been resolved using XML files tied into the product system.
Every product can add a file called bitfield_[product].xml to the includes/xml directory. When bitfields are rebuilt, these files will be read by the system and will appear in the bitfield datastore cache.
An example bitfield XML file might look like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <bitfields product="myproduct"> <bitfielddefs> <group name="ugp"> <group name="myproductpermissions"> <bitfield name="canfoo" group="myproduct_permissions" phrase="can_foo">1</bitfield> <bitfield name="canbar" group="myproduct_permissions" phrase="can_bar">2</bitfield> </group> </group> </bitfielddefs> </bitfields>
Within the <group name="ugp"> (usergroup permissions) node are definitions for groups of bitfield permissions. The <group name="myproductpermissions"> node defines a bitfield called myproductpermissions, which corresponds to an integer field in the usergroup table called myproductpermissions.
Inside this node are individual <bitfield> nodes, each of which defines a bit within the myproductpermissions bitfield. Each of these nodes has three important attributes:
name | The name attribute defines the name of the bit for easy reference within vBulletin code. For example, if your <group> node's name is myproductpermissions, and your bitfield's name is canfoo, you will be able to access the value of this bit using $vbulletin->bf_ugp_myproductpermissions['canfoo']. |
group | The group attribute is important only for integration into the usergroup editor. You can either specify the name of an existing group (for reference, see includes/xml/bitfield_vbulletin.xml), in which case the yes/no radio buttons for this bit will appear within that group, or else you can define a new group, in which case the name of the group should correspond to the phrase name for the group you are creating. |
1 | The first thing to do is to define the product using the product manager, if you have not done so already. |
2 | We must now alter the usergroup table in the database to include this new field. The query to support this particular field would be as follows:ALTER TABLE usergroup ADD myproductpermissions INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL DEFAULT 0; |
3 | Now that we have a place in the database to store the permissions it is necessary to add all the phrases referenced by the bitfields XML. In our example, these phrases are called myproduct_permissions, can_foo and can_bar. These phrases need to be added to the Permissions phrase group, and should belong to the myproduct product. |
4 | With the phrases and the database field in place, we can now perform the final step, which is to rebuild the vBulletin bitfield cache from the XML files. This can only be done in debug mode, and appears as a link in the vBulletin Options navigation group. |
5 | The newly-defined bitfield permissions will now appear within the usergroup editor and can be edited in the same way as the standard, predefined permissions for each usergroup. |
Exporting a Product |
The vBulletin product manager includes a facility to do just this. Almost all the items you have added to your product can be exported in a single XML file. The following items are included in the exported product XML file:
- Product version, title, description etc.
- Plugins
- Templates
- Phrases
- Options
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <product productid="myproduct" active="1"> <title>My Product</title> <description>A test product</description> <version>1.0</version> <codes> <code version="1.0"> <installcode><![CDATA[$db->query(" CREATE TABLE " . TABLE_PREFIX . "profilelog ( userid INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL, dateline INT NOT NULL, INDEX (userid) ) ");]]></installcode> <uninstallcode><![CDATA[$db->query(" DROP TABLE " . TABLE_PREFIX . "profilelog ");]]></uninstallcode> </code> <code version="2.0"> <installcode><![CDATA[$db->query(" ALTER TABLE " . TABLE_PREFIX . "profilelog CHANGE dateline dateline INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL ");]]></installcode> <uninstallcode>//moo</uninstallcode> </code> </codes> <templates> <template name="profile_log" templatetype="template" date="1127469263" username="Administrator" version="3.5.0"><![CDATA[<div> <div style="margin-bottom:10px">Most recent profile updates:</div> $profile_logbits </div>]]></template> <template name="profile_logbit" templatetype="template" date="1127472467" username="Administrator" version="3.5.0"><![CDATA[<div> $log[username] @ $log[date] <span class="time">$log[date]</span> </div>]]></template> </templates> <plugins> <plugin active="1"> <title>Profile Update Logger</title> <hookname>profile_updateprofile</hookname> <phpcode><![CDATA[$tmp_uid =& $vbulletin->userinfo['userid']; $db->query_write(" INSERT INTO " . TABLE_PREFIX . "profilelog (userid, dateline) VALUES ($tmp_uid, " . TIMENOW . ") ");]]></phpcode> </plugin> </plugins> <phrases> <phrasetype name="Permissions" fieldname="cppermission"> <phrase name="can_bar"><![CDATA[Can Bar]]></phrase> <phrase name="can_foo"><![CDATA[Can Foo]]></phrase> <phrase name="myproduct_permissions"><![CDATA[My Product Permissions]]></phrase> </phrasetype> <phrasetype name="Control Panel Home Pages" fieldname="cphome"> <phrase name="add_new_item"><![CDATA[Add New Item]]></phrase> <phrase name="my_product"><![CDATA[My Product]]></phrase> <phrase name="my_product_manager"><![CDATA[My Product Manager]]></phrase> </phrasetype> </phrases> <options> </options> </product>
Statistics & Logs |
Statistics |
- Top Statistics - A short list of various records on your board.
- Registration Statistics - The number of registrations on your board shown over a defined time frame.
- User Activity Statistics - The number of users that visited your board shown over a defined time frame.
- New Thread Statistics - The number of new threads on your board shown over a defined time frame.
- New Post Statistics - The number of new posts on your board shown over a defined time frame.
Note:
User Activity Statistics will show 0 for any entries prior to your upgrade to vBulletin 3
Control Panel Log |
- Log Entries to Show Per Page - Number of entries to show on each page.
- Show Only Entries Relating to Script - Filter the logs viewed by the script that generated the log entry, this will still include files that may have been deleted after the logging.
- Show Only Entries Generated By - Filter the logs viewed by the user that generated the entry.
- Order By - The logs can be sorted based on Date, username or action performed.
Pruning of the Control Panel Log should be performed to reduce the size of the database, alot of space can be consumed by this data.
- Remove Entries Relating to Script - The script to remove log entries for.
- Remove Entries Logged by User - The user to remove log entries for.
- Remove Entries Older Than (days) - Removes logs older than the length specified in days.
Note:
To access these parts of the Admin Control Panel you may need to edit your config.php please refer to Editing the vBulletin Configuration File for further instructions.
Moderator Log |
- Log Entries to Show Per Page - Number of entries to show on each page.
- Show Only Entries Generated By - Filter the logs viewed by the user that generated the entry.
- Order By - The logs can be sorted based on Date, username or action performed.
Pruning of the Moderator Log should be performed to reduce the size of the database, a lot of space can be consumed by this data.
- Remove Entries Logged by User - The user to remove log entries for.
- Remove Entries Older Than (days) - Removes logs older than the length specified in days.
Scheduled Task Log |
Maintenance |
You will find tools for repairing and optimizing the tables in your database, along with various diagnostic tools useful in tracking down problems you may experience in the running of your board.
Database Backup |
Warning:
Due to limitations with PHP, backups may not be complete on larger databases. Please ensure that the final line of your backup contains:If it does not, we recommend backing up using SSH and mysqldump.
### VBULLETIN DATABASE DUMP COMPLETED ###
- Database tables to include in backup – this will output a backup of the selected tables directly to you.
- Backup database to a file on the server – this will output a backup of all tables in the database to the specified file on the server.Note:This file must be writeable by the user that PHP is running as (usually the web server). This can generally be accomplished by using chmod 0777 on the directory you wish to write to.
Note:
At this time, vBulletin does not provide any means to import a backup in the control panel. We recommend using SSH and mysql. If this is not possible, you may try a tool such as phpMyAdmin.
CSV Backup of a Table |
- Table Name – the name of the table you wish to export to CSV.
- Separator Character – the character used to separate individual fields in the CSV file.
- Quote Character – the character used to delimit/surround each field in the CSV file.
- Add Column Names – this option controls whether the first line of the CSV file will be the names of the columns in the database.
'userid','forumid','accessmask' '1','1','1' '1','2','0'
Repair / Optimize Tables |
- Optimize Tables – selecting this option defragments MySQL’s data file for this table and reclaims lost space. For more information on this process, see the MySQL manual. It is not necessary to optimize tables that are showing no overhead.
- Repair Tables – this option causes MySQL to attempt to repair any tables it thinks are crashed. MySQL generally reports this by issuing an error such as ‘Got error ### from table handler’. Under normal conditions, this should not occur and this option should not need to be run. However, if something goes wrong, this option will generally restore all your data. For more information, see the MySQL manual.
Update Counters |
Most options on this page have one option that you may set, Number of X to process per cycle. This is the number of records that are processed on one page. Generally, the higher this number is, the faster the process will complete; however, the higher the chance of your browser timing out and the process not completing. In most cases, the default value should suffice.
The following functions are available:
- Update User TitlesThis will update all users’ user titles. Users with custom titles will not be affected.
Run this if you have changed the user title ladder and wish to see the changes reflected immediately for all users. - Rebuild Thread InformationThis will rebuild thread counters such as replies and attachment counts. Also it will rebuild the cached first and last post information of a thread.
Run this if you have pruned specific posts from many threads or changed a user name and wish to see the change in the last post information of each thread. - Rebuild Forum InformationThis will rebuild the post and thread count in each forum based on the number of posts/threads actually in the database. Additionally, it will rebuild the last post information for each forum.
Run this if you have mass-deleted a lot of threads or posts or have renamed a user and wish to see the changes reflected in the last post information of the forum. You may need to run Rebuild Thread Information first, though! - Fix Broken User ProfilesThis will fix any users that are missing records in the userfield or usertextfield tables. This generally only happens because of outside programs incorrectly interfacing with vBulletin.
You will generally not need to run this function unless you use an outside program to register users and it does not properly register this. - Rebuild Search IndexThis will rebuild the index used to perform searches. This will allow you to take advantage of any improvements to the indexing algorithm or implement any changes to the indexing options on older posts.
Run this after a major upgrade (such as vBulletin 2 to vBulletin 3) or if you wish to apply changes to the indexing options to all posts.Note:The search index is automatically built for each post as it is posted. This is simply a batch function. If you have done a major upgrade, your search index will have been deleted. Your search engine will not function fully until the index has been rebuilt. - Rebuild Post CacheThis will rebuild cached post data.Note:This option will not be displayed if you have not enabled post caching.
Run this if you have changed a BB code template, BB code, or smilie and the changes are not being displayed on recent posts. - Rebuild StatisticsThis will rebuild your board statistics (user registrations, threads, posts, and active users per day) from the first post on your board. Statistics will automatically be generated for new days.
Run this if you have done a major upgrade. - Rebuild Similar ThreadsThis will rebuild the similar thread information for each thread. This allows the similar thread function to find threads that have been posted since the thread in question originally was.
Run this if you have changed the similar thread thresholds or wish to have the similar threads function display newer threads as well.Note:This will rebuild similar threads regardless of whether they are enabled. They must be enabled in order to be displayed in a thread. - Delete Duplicate ThreadsThis will remove all but one copy of threads that appear to have duplicates (same title, poster, time, and forum).
This rarely needs to be run; only run it if you see duplicate threads in your forums. The most common cause for this is multiple imports of the same data. - Rebuild Attachment ThumbnailsThis will rebuild the thumbnails of image attachments.
Run this if you did not (or could not) have thumbnails enabled in the past but wish to now or have changed thumbnail dimensions. - Rebuild User ReputationThis will rebuild your user reputation scores based on the information in the database and the new reputation base specified here.
Run this if you want to remove any custom reputations and specify a new reputation base. - Update User NamesThis will update all cached user names in the database.
Run this if you have manually changed a user name. - Update Post CountsThis will update all users’ post counts based on the actual contents of the database. If you have pruned or manually changed post counts, this function will likely lower your users’ post counts.
Run this if you wish to regenerate post counts with your current data. - Rebuild StylesThis will rebuild your style information. Additionally, it can check for styles without a parent (pre-vBulletin 3 styles) to ensure they work properly and renumber your templates in the database. The latter is simply aesthetic; there is no advantage to having templates that begin at 1.
Run this if you have done a major upgrade or have edited your templates or styles manually. - Remove Orphan ThreadsThis will search for any threads in non-existent forums and remove them. This is helpful if you deleted a forum and the process timed out before completing.
- Remove Orphan PostsThis will search for any posts in non-existent threads and remove them. This will generally not be needed, but could be helpful if your data was corrupted somehow.
Diagnostics |
The diagnostic tests provided are:
- Upload Test –This test attempts to determine if your upload settings are set properly for the server. Simply attach a file when submitting the form. If this test succeeds, then attachments and custom avatars should function properly.
- Email Test –This test attempts to determine if your email settings are correct and that your email server is functioning properly. Enter your email address and the test will attempt to email you a test mail. If you receive the email properly, email options on your board should function properly.
- Suspect File Versions Test –This checks all vBulletin files used for this installation and attempts to determine which files, if any, were created for an older version. If any files are found, you should re-upload that file with the current version. If you can not find the file in the your version’s download, you may simply delete the suspect file from your server.
This system will also check for any files that have been modified since they were downloaded as part of the vBulletin package, will alert you to any missing files and will inform you of any files that are not a standard part of vBulletin. - System Information –This displays system information that is often useful in debugging problems.
Execute SQL Query |
Warning:
The ability to execute an arbitrary query is a powerful one. It can ease administration at times, but it has the potential of destroying your database. Be sure the query you are running is exactly what you want.
Note:
Your user ID must be in the $config['SpecialUsers']['canrunqueries'] variable in config.php to access this page. See Editing the vBulletin Configuration File.
- Automatic Query – these are predefined queries to accomplish commonly-used mass updates. These include setting specific options to a certain value for all users.
- Manual Query – if you wish to run your own query, you may enter it here. Ensure that no Automatic Query is selected. Additionally, you may only run one query at a time.
- Results to Show Per Page – if you have specified a query that returns results (generally SELECT queries), this is the number of results to display per page.
View PHP Info |
To obtain more information on the PHP function used to gather this information; phpinfo(), click here.
Podcasting |
The term is also often used to simply describe any .mp3 audio file that is available for download from a website by clicking on a link. In regards to vBulletin, podcast media is only accessible from your RSS feeds.
Configuring vBulletin for Podcasting
- Forums & Moderators > Forum Manager > Controls > Podcast Settings
Choose a forum that will host the podcast files and configure the iTunes settings. Podcast feeds will work inside of iTunes, and other clients that support RSS Enclosures, without any information on this page being filled in. These settings are used when you wish to submit one of your forums as a podcast to iTunes as a podcast that can be searched for within iTunes.- Set Enabled to Yes
- Select a Category
This forum must be viewable to guests so verify this by logging out of your forum and checking if you can view threads and attachments within this forum. If not, configure the permissions for this forum to allow guests to view.
- vBulletin Options > External Data Provider > Enable RSS Syndication must be enabled.
- vBulletin Options > External Data Provider > Enable Podcasting must be enabled.
Browse to the forum that you setup for podcasting and click on New Thread. You will see a few new posting options that pertain to podcasting.
- Podcast URL - URL to your media file. Do not enter a value in this field if you are going to use the vBulletin attachment system to upload your media file.
- Filesize - Size of media file. Do not enter a value in this field unless an error message asks you to do so after submitting the thread.
- Subtitle - Subtitle of your media file, used by iTunes and can be ignored.
- Explicit - Check if the media file contains explicit language, used by iTunes and can be ignored.
- Keywords - Keywords for iTunes search, can be ignored.
- Author - Author of the media file, used by iTunes and can be ignored.
- You may upload your media file to your website, or another website, via ftp and link to it directly. To use this method, specify the complete URL in the Podcast URL that appears on the New Thread screen. You do not need to specify the filesize unless your are prompted to after submitting the thread. If you want your media file to appear in the thread to those that are viewing the thread via your forums, you will need to place the link within your post, such as Download: http://www.example.com/podcast.mp3 The handling of the media file will be handled automatically for those that view the podcast forum via RSS.
- The second option for specifying your media file is to use the vBulletin attachment system. You will be limited by the permissions of your usergroup. Only the first uploaded file will appear in the RSS feed as well. iTunes will not function with attachment uploads on IIS servers and some Apache servers. It is best to use the first method when possible.
Note:
You may specify any filetype that you wish, but take note that iTunes only supports six filetypes:
.m4a, .m4v, .mp3, .mp4, .mov, and .pdf
.m4a, .m4v, .mp3, .mp4, .mov, and .pdf
If you used the vBulletin attachment system, you should see a normal attachment link within the first post of the thread that you just created. If using the Podcast URL method (preferred) then you will only see a link if you manually placed a link within the first post.
For this example, we will use a forumid of 10 for our podcast forum. You can get the forumid of your podcast forum by hovering over any links to your podcast forum and looking for forumid=10.
The link to our example podcast forum is
http://www.example.com/forums/external.php?forumids=10
This is the URL that you would enter into iTunes and other RSS clients that support enclosures. Enclosure is the technical name for including a media file via RSS and is the preferred nomenclature for some clients.
Note:
Do not specify more than one forumid for your podcast URL
Users that are subscribed to your podcast forum will make periodic queries to the podcast URL to check for updates. Some clients can be programmed to automatically download the media file when a new post is found.
You may post as many threads in your podcast forum as you wish, whereas the first post of each thread will be considered a podcast. You should include a media file with each thread but are not required to do so.
You may allow your users to respond to the podcast thread, as a normal thread, as it will not affect the viewing of the podcast by podcast clients.
Troubleshooting and Common Solutions |
Solutions to Common Problems
When viewing my board, I get an error that says "Cannot add cookie information, headers already sent"
The most common reason for this is a blank or exta line in your config.php. You are not allowed to have anything outside the <?php and ?> delimiters. Not even a space. It is recommended to eliminate all extra lines and spaces before or after these delimiters.
I installed a new plugin and now my forum doesn't work. I can't login into the Admin Control Panel to fix this.
To temporarily disable the plugin system, edit config.php and add this line right under <?php
define('DISABLE_HOOKS', true);
I have several domains pointed to my forums. However when users login via one domain, they get an error that says "In order to accept POST request originating from this domain, the admin must add this domain to the whitelist".
That error can happen when you post to a vBulletin form from an external referrer that isn't on the white list:
Admin CP -> vBulletin Options -> General Settings -> Post Referrer Whitelist
Edit this list to include all referrers that you use.
I have tried the above but cannot log into my Admin Control Panel to make the changes.
You can temporarily disable the Whitelist by editing your config.php file. Open this file in wordpad and in a line above the ?> add the following code:
define('SKIP_REFERRER_CHECK',true);
Please view the source of the page and compare the error to those listed in the section on troubleshooting MySQL. If the error isn't listed there, please open a support ticket at http://www.vbulletin.com/go/techsupport/
Upgrade Issues |
Q. I receive the following error when trying to upgrade:
We have detected that you have already tried to run the upgrade script.
You will not be able to proceed unless you revert to a vB 2.2.x/2.3.x database.
This happens you do not upload all files, especially: install/upgrade.php
Upload all the files from the vBulletin .zip file again, making sure you upload them 100%, overwrite existing files (do not skip or resume). Then run that upgrade script again, at that step. You can skip install/install.php and includes/config.php.new and the whole images/ directory.
Q. My Postbit is no longer showing the avatar, its a broken image / its just text now!
As of vBulletin 3.5.0 beta 1 there were a lot of changes done to the postbit and postbit_legacy templates, you will either need to make the changes as outlined in the release threads (links to listed changed) or revert the template itself.
Q. The Quick Reply / Inline Moderation / Drop Down menus are not working.
vBulletin 3.5.0 has quite a few template changes, its recommended that you try using a stock style and seeing if this fixes the problems. Again as there have been many changes it may be easier to start fresh and re-customize.
(We recommend you go to the "Find Updated Templates" page of the "Styles & Templates" section of your control panel and revert all templates listed there!)
Q. After the upgrade I got a few database error emails, however I did not see these errors myself.
As of per the gold release announcement, if you are upgrading from 3.0.x to 3.5.0 you should totally close off your website, otherwise you may experience this. If you did not get anymore and are not seeing error messages now you should be fine.
Q. After upgrading from 3.0.x to 3.5.0 I run Admin Control Panel > Maintenance > Diagnostics > Suspect File Version and noticed that I was still running a few 3.0.x files; Can I remove those?
If you are 100% sure you have uploaded all the vBulletin 3.5.0 files, overwriting any file already on the server (not skipping or resuming them), you can remove the left-over files from 3.0.x.
Q. After upgrading from vBulletin 3.0.x to 3.5.0 Internet Explorer Says displays a popup that says it cannot display the page. "Internet Explorer Cannot Open Internet Site http://domain.com/forums/page.php=x"
You are an incompatable style from the vBulletin 3.0.x serries and it needs to be reverted before it will work.
Email Issues |
First, make sure that you actually have turn on the email functions here:
Admin CP -> vBulletin Options -> Email Options -> Enable Email features -> Yes
Then verify that the email system for your forum is working via the Admin Control Panel. You can do that under diagnostics.
Admin Control Panel -> Maintenance -> Diagnostics -> Email Diagnostics
If there is an error stated, you can look at the logs for your mailer daemon to find out what error is occuring. If their is no error and the email is sent to the supplied address, then the issue is on the ISP/mailbox end. Continue reading further down this page for other suggestions.
If there is no error and you didn't get the emails then make sure you have a valid webmaster's email address in your Admin CP settings and that there is only one address. In addition make sure the domain on the email address matches the domain for your site. Otherwise some ISPs may treat this as spam. Then try this:
Admin CP -> vBulletin Options -> Email Options -> Enable "-f" Parameter -> Yes
Then try the vB email functions again. If it still doesn't work, then this is either a server and/or mailbox issue. By default vB uses PHP's mail() function for all its email and uses the SMTP server specified in php.ini. If PHP and the mail server are configured correctly then email will work. You can view the details here: http://us3.php.net/mail/
To troubleshoot any email problems you will need to view the mail logs on the server to see what happened to those emails that don't work. Once vB sends it to PHP it's in the hands of the server. If you are on a shared server you may need to ask your host to look through the logs for you.
Many large service providers such as Verizon, AOL and MSN are implementing aggressive filtering. In many cases, the customers of these providers can place the email address you use for notification in their contact list and then your emails will be allowed through. If this doesn't work, you should contact the provider in question and ask to be placed on their whitelist. Some providers will charge a listing fee for this.
In addition, AOL (and possibly others) will not accept emails from domains that do not have reverse DNS setup. It's possible these emails are being placed into a spam folder or are being filtered.
The problem could also be caused by aggressive spam filters on the user's machine. In these cases their anti-spam software should be configured to allow emails from your domain name. Refer them to the documentation for the software they are using.
If all else fails you can switch to the SMTP mail option to see if this works better for you. These settings are here:
Admin CP -> vBulletin Options -> Email Options -> SMTP Email -> Yes
Then fill out the appropriate SMTP settings for your account and server.
My host only allows me to send a certain number of emails per hour to control spam. How can I make vBulletin get around this limitation?
You cannot circumvent hard limitations created by your hosting provider. However, you can use vBulletin's SMTP email processing to point the software to an off-site email provider with more privileges.
Admin Control Panel -> vBulletin Options -> Email Options
Email is sent as "[email protected]"
You need to enable the "-f parameter" in vBulletin. This sends the email address specified in the Admin Control Panel to the email client.
Admin Control Panel -> vBulletin Options -> Email Options.
For more information please see:
http://us3.php.net/manual/en/ref.mail.php
Email from my forums is blocked
One of the reasons for email being blocked is if it is coming from a different domain than what is in the 'From' email address. To ensure a better chance of your email getting through, make sure the Webmaster's email address is using the same domain as your forums.
Error: unrouteable mail domain "****.com"
This problem is caused by this option being checked in WebHost Manager for the server:
Prevent the user 'nobody' from sending out mail to remote addresses (php and cgi scripts generally run as nobody if you are not using phpsuexec and suexec respectively.)
Unchecking this option should stop this problem. You will of course need to have root access to the server to do this. If you don't, then you'll need to ask your web host to do this for you.
McAfee VirusScan Enterprise
McAfee VirusScan Enterprise blocks SMTP port 25 by default, which blocks all emails from being sent. Eliminating or changing that rule will allow emails to go through.
How can I send emails as HTML
vBulletin does not support HTML emails at this time.
Can I log Emails sent by vB?
Yes, in vB 3.6 you can log all sent emails to make sure that vB is sending these. You do this here:
Admin CP -> vBulletin Options -> Error Handling & Logging -> Log sent eMails to a File
Then if the emails appear in this log but they are not being received, then you will know this a problem with either the mail server or the recipient's mailbox. If the logs show 'FAILED" then this is a server problem. The server's email function returned a failure. Please see server configuration/logs for more details. You will need to consult your host if you are on a shared server.
SMTP Server Setup
If you are using SMTP for email, in some rare instances the SMTP server will require an additional field that is not part of the normal settings, namely this:
ini_set("SMTP","mail.yourdomain.com");
To add that setting, edit your config.php file and add this line right under <?php:
ini_set("SMTP","mail.yourdomain.com");
...changing "mail.yourdomain.com" with your specific mail domain, of course. If you do not have such a mail domain, then ask this host about this.
Invalid Webmaster's Email
Another possible cause of that problem is that you do not have a valid Webmaster's email address. You need to set this to a valid email address:
Admin CP -> vBulletin Options -> Site Name / URL / Contact Details -> Webmaster's Email
You cannot use more than one address in that field.
Note:
Please be aware that vB does not have it's own email application. It has to use either PHP or SMTP, and both of those are server applications. There is very little control vB has over these.
For the PHP option, you have the -f setting and the webmaster's email address. That's it. The rest is up to the server which needs to be setup correctly for PHP email to work.
For SMTP, the only options in vB for this are the SMTP settings. If those don't work, then this means either the settings are wrong, or there is a problem connecting to that SMTP server from your server. There is nothing vB can do about this.
For the PHP option, you have the -f setting and the webmaster's email address. That's it. The rest is up to the server which needs to be setup correctly for PHP email to work.
For SMTP, the only options in vB for this are the SMTP settings. If those don't work, then this means either the settings are wrong, or there is a problem connecting to that SMTP server from your server. There is nothing vB can do about this.
Image Manipulation Issues |
This is caused by Freetype 2 support not being compiled into PHP and requires PHP to be recompiled.
Most likely the original PHP configure string contained --with-freetype but this usually only enables support for Freetype version 1, which does not support True Type fonts. To enable Freetype 2 support (assuming that the server has the Freetype 2 libraries installed), this part of the configure string neeeds to be removed and replaced with (normally) --with-freetype-dir=/usr
To find out if a Linux server has Freetype 2 support, run locate freetype2 at the command line and look for some results, usually in /usr/include/freetype2.
Blank or 'White' Pages |
1. You did not upload the vB files correctly. Reupload the vB non-image files and make sure you upload these in ASCII format and that you overwrite the ones on the server. Make sure you upload the Admin CP files to the admincp directory specified in your config.php file. Then, if you can access the Admin CP, run 'Suspect File Versions' in Diagnostics to make sure you have all the original files for your version:
Admin CP -> Maintenance -> Diagnostics -> Suspect File Versions
Do any show as 'File does not contain expected contents', 'version mismatch' or missing? If so, you need to reupload the original vB non-image files. Make sure you upload these in ASCII format and overwrite the ones on the server.
2. You have extra space or lines in your config.php file. Make sure there is no whitespace or extra lines in config.php either before the <?php or after the ?>. [Note: Beginning with 3.6.3 the trailing ?> was removed.]
3. If this is happening on the forum home page only, then you may have an empty index.html or index.htm file in that directory. Delete it.
4. You have a bad plugin installed. To disable the plugin system, edit config.php and add this line right under <?php
define('DISABLE_HOOKS', true);
Note: If you are running vBSEO or other add-ons that use .htaccess rewrite, you will need to remove those changes as well.
5. The servername setting in config.php is wrong. Doublecheck this setting. 99% of the time, 'localhost' is correct:
$config['MasterServer']['servername'] = 'localhost';
6. Your PHP has magic_quotes_sybase turned on. You have to turn this off. On *nix systems you can do this by creating an .htaccess file with this content and placing it in your main forum directory:
php_flag magic_quotes_sybase 0
7. [For multiple white pages] You have added code to your header, headinclude or phpinclude templates that is no longer functional.
[For white pages in a select area] You have added code to one of your templates that is causing this problem.
The quickest way to find out if a custom template is at fault is to create a new style with no parent style and try that:
Admin CP -> Styles & Templates -> Style Manager -> Add New Style
8. You have a corrupted template. Repairing the template table may help:
REPAIR TABLE template;
9. You have GZIP enabled. Try turning GZIP off here:
Admin CP -> vBulletin Options -> Cookies and HTTP Header Options -> GZIP HTML Output -> No
Or by running these queries in the SQL tab in phpMyAdmin:
UPDATE setting SET value = '0' WHERE varname = 'gzipoutput';
UPDATE datastore SET data=REPLACE(data,'s:10:"gzipoutput";i:1;','s:10:"gzipoutput";i:0;') WHERE title='options';
You can also edit config.php and add this right under the <?php line to disable GZIP:
DEFINE('NOZIP', 1);
Sometimes this problem is caused when your server is already using GZIP and by turning this on in vB you were double compressing. This causes problems with some pages but not others. It also happens to some people and not others.
10. Sometimes this can also be caused when PHP has the 'display_errors' function turned off. So instead of displaying the actual error so you can see what is wrong, you get a blank page. Look at your phpinfo page and if 'display_errors' is Off or '0', then add this line to your includes/config.php file right under <?php
ini_set("display_errors", true);
11. Check your phpinfo page to see if suhosin is installed as a module. If it is, this could be the cause of this problem. To fix this, add or edit an .htaccess file in your root forum directory and add these lines to it:
php_flag suhosin.cookie.encrypt Off
php_value suhosin.request.max_vars 2048
php_value suhosin.post.max_vars 2048
12. This can be caused by a bug in PHP 5.2.5:
http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=43620
13. This can also be caused by a memory_limit setting in php.ini that causes the server to time out before displaying the page. Edit config.php and add this right under the <?php line:
ini_set('memory_limit', -1);
14. If the script producing this problem is showgroups.php, then you may have too many usergroups for this. Make sure this is set to 'No' for any groups except Admins and Mods:
Admin CP -> Usergroups -> Usergroup Manager -> Edit Usergroup -> Viewable on Show Groups
15. Check the file and directory permissions. Although this can differ by server, in general the directories should be chmod'd to 755 (-rwxr-xr-x) and files to 644 (-rw-r--r--). If any are set to 777 (-rwxrwxrwx) then this could result in blank pages.
16. Check your .htaccess file for any rewrite rules that may be effecting the page(s) you are having the issue with. If your problem is only in one particular directory, you may need to exclude the rewrite rules from working in that directory.
17. There is a bug in PHP 5.3.5 that can cause white pages during search and possibly other functions. The link to this bug is here: http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=51425
Further info is here: http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php/371767-New-post-search-returning-blank-white-pages-%28no-errors-indicated%29?p=2108112#post2108112
MySQL Issues |
Common MySQL Error Messages |
OS Error Code 11: Cannot create thread
This is an out of memory error. The operating system does not have enough memory to create a new process for MySQL to perform the query. You should increase the amount of memory available to MySQL by editing the MY.CNF file.
OS Error Code 13: Permission denied
You do not have permission to write to a directory. Most commonly the temporary files directory. Create a directory in your User Home directory on the server and chmod it 777. If this does not resolve the issue then you must contact your host and have them fix your permissions.
OS Error code 28: No space left on device
Either the swap, a partition, temp directory or hard drive on the web server is out of space or doesn't have enough space to complete the above operation.
This is a server issue, you need to contact your hosting provider to get more space to write to. I advice you to shut down your forum to prevent more errors or data loss. You can upload the tools.php file from the vbulletin .zip file do_not_upload/ folder into your forumdir/admincp/ directory and run it through the browser, there's a switch there to turn your forum on/off.
MySQL error code 126: Index file is crashed / Wrong file format
MySQL error code 127: Record-file is crashed
MySQL error code 132: Old database file
MySQL error code 134: Record was already deleted (or record file crashed)
MySQL error code 135: No more room in record file
MySQL error code 136: No more room in index file
MySQL error code 141: Duplicate unique key or constraint on write or update
MySQL error code 144: Table is crashed and last repair failed
MySQL error code 145: Table was marked as crashed and should be repaired
These error codes all have the same solution. They specify that something has gone wrong with your data. You should run optimize & repair on your database tables. You can upload the tools.php file from the vbulletin .zip file do_not_upload/ folder into your forumdir/admincp/ directory and run it through the browser, there's a switch there to run optimize and repair. Run it a few times for best result.
For more information on repairing your database please view the MySQL documentation at:
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/repair.html
Socket Connection Error
This most commonly looks like this:
mysql_connect(): Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock' (2) /home/exampledomain/public_html/forums/includes/class_core.php on line 273
1. The info in your config.php file is wrong (in which case your forums wouldn't work at all), or
2. MySQL crashed, it's not running or it can't find the socket. You need to contact your host about this. Here is more info on this error:
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/Can_not_connect_to_server.html
mysql_connect(): Too many connections
The server has maxed out the number of MySQL connections it allows. You can try turning persistent connections off by adding this to your config.php:
$config['MasterServer']['usepconnect'] = 0;
Here is more info on that error: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/too-many-connections.html
Error code 1064: MySQL Parse Error (error in SQL syntax
SQL parse errors are mostly caused by installed modifications. In order to test this temporarily disable all products and plugins by adding this line to your config.php file under <?php:
define('DISABLE_HOOKS', true);
It means that a query is sent that is larger than your host allows for.
MySQL Error : Got a packet bigger than 'max_allowed_packet' bytes
You need to ask your host to increase the 'max_allowed_packet' variable in the my.cnf file and restart MySQL. The default is 1Mb, but most hosts run 8-16 Mb without problems.
More info here: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/packet-too-large.html
Link ID == False |
This error could be caused by any of the following:
- The database information in your config.php file is wrong (in which case your forums won't work at all.)
- The user doesn't have permission to access the database specified in config.php.
- The database doesn't exist.
- MySQL isn't accepting new connections. (The server could either be down or has reached it's maximum connections limit.)
To find out which of these is the cause of the problem, you can copy the text below and save it into a file called 'connect.php', then upload it to your forums directory and run it with a web browser.
<?php
require_once('./includes/config.php');
$db = @mysql_connect($config['MasterServer']['servername'], $config['MasterServer']['username'], $config['MasterServer']['password']) or die(mysql_error());
mysql_select_db($config['Database']['dbname'], $db);
echo "Connected sucessfully.";
?>
Failure to Connect |
This error means either:
- One or more of the following is wrong in your config.php file:
$config['MasterServer']['servername'] (except in rare cases, this should almost always be left as 'localhost' or '127.0.0.1')
$config['MasterServer']['username']
$config['MasterServer']['password']
$config['Database']['dbname']
If you are unsure of what the appropriate values are then you will need to ask your web host.
NOTE: Please note that you can NOT use the config.php file from version 2.x or 3.0.x on a 3.5.0 forum. - Or that this db user is not assigned to that database or does not have permission to access MySQL to create or access a database. You may need to first manually create the database and assign the db user to it. Since each web host is different, if you do not know how to do this then contact your web host for help.
- Or you are running MySQL 4.1.x. As of MySQL 4.1.X there is a new password hashing system. PHP4 does not have builtin support for it as of yet, however PHP5 does. In order for your old PHP4 MySQL clients to be able to connect to the MySQL 4.1.X database you need to set an OLD_PASSWORD. You should be able to run the following Query to make it possible for PHP4 to access the MySQL 4.1.X database.
SET PASSWORD FOR 'username'@'localhost' = OLD_PASSWORD('password');
More info is here:
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/password-hashing.html
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/upgrading-from-4-0.html
Duplicate entry 'XXX' |
This error is most commonly caused by plugins or addons that incorrectly set auto increment fields within vBulletin. Please remove your plugins or addons and verify that the database keys are set correctly.
It can also be caused by backing up a newer MySQL database with the "Compatibility Option" if this is the case, the MYSQL backup does not contain auto-increment information and the proper indexes are not created when the backup is restored.
Please run these queries to create the proper indexes in vBulletin.
ALTER TABLE `adminhelp` CHANGE `adminhelpid` `adminhelpid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `adminlog` CHANGE `adminlogid` `adminlogid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `adminmessage` CHANGE `adminmessageid` `adminmessageid` INT(10) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `announcement` CHANGE `announcementid` `announcementid` SMALLINT( 5 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `attachment` CHANGE `attachmentid` `attachmentid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `attachmentpermission` CHANGE `attachmentpermissionid` `attachmentpermissionid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `avatar` CHANGE `avatarid` `avatarid` SMALLINT( 5 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `bbcode` CHANGE `bbcodeid` `bbcodeid` SMALLINT( 5 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `calendar` CHANGE `calendarid` `calendarid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `calendarcustomfield` CHANGE `calendarcustomfieldid` `calendarcustomfieldid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `calendarmoderator` CHANGE `calendarmoderatorid` `calendarmoderatorid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `calendarpermission` CHANGE `calendarpermissionid` `calendarpermissionid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `cron` CHANGE `cronid` `cronid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `cronlog` CHANGE `cronlogid` `cronlogid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `event` CHANGE `eventid` `eventid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `forum` CHANGE `forumid` `forumid` SMALLINT( 5 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `forumpermission` CHANGE `forumpermissionid` `forumpermissionid` SMALLINT( 5 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `groupmessage` CHANGE `gmid` `gmid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `holiday` CHANGE `holidayid` `holidayid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `icon` CHANGE `iconid` `iconid` SMALLINT( 5 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `infraction` CHANGE `infractionid` `infractionid` INT ( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `infractionban` CHANGE `infractionbanid` `infractionbanid` INT ( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `infractiongroup` CHANGE `infractiongroupid` `infractiongroupid` INT ( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `infractionlevel` CHANGE `infractionlevelid` `infractionlevelid` INT ( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `imagecategory` CHANGE `imagecategoryid` `imagecategoryid` SMALLINT( 5 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `language` CHANGE `languageid` `languageid` SMALLINT( 5 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `mailqueue` CHANGE `mailqueueid` `mailqueueid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `moderator` CHANGE `moderatorid` `moderatorid` SMALLINT( 5 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `moderatorlog` CHANGE `moderatorlogid` `moderatorlogid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `paymentapi` CHANGE `paymentapiid` `paymentapiid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `paymentinfo` CHANGE `paymentinfoid` `paymentinfoid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `paymenttransaction` CHANGE `paymenttransactionid` `paymenttransactionid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `phrase` CHANGE `phraseid` `phraseid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `plugin` CHANGE `pluginid` `pluginid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `picture` CHANGE `pictureid` `pictureid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `picturecomment` CHANGE `commentid` `commentid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `pm` CHANGE `pmid` `pmid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `pmtext` CHANGE `pmtextid` `pmtextid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `poll` CHANGE `pollid` `pollid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `pollvote` CHANGE `pollvoteid` `pollvoteid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `post` CHANGE `postid` `postid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `postedithistory` CHANGE `postedithistoryid` `postedithistoryid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `productcode` CHANGE `productcodeid` `productcodeid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `productdependency` CHANGE `productdependencyid` `productdependencyid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `profilefield` CHANGE `profilefieldid` `profilefieldid` SMALLINT( 5 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `ranks` CHANGE `rankid` `rankid` SMALLINT( 5 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `reminder` CHANGE `reminderid` `reminderid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `reputation` CHANGE `reputationid` `reputationid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `reputationlevel` CHANGE `reputationlevelid` `reputationlevelid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `rssfeed` CHANGE `rssfeedid` `rssfeedid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `search` CHANGE `searchid` `searchid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `smilie` CHANGE `smilieid` `smilieid` SMALLINT( 5 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `style` CHANGE `styleid` `styleid` SMALLINT( 5 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `subscribeevent` CHANGE `subscribeeventid` `subscribeeventid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `subscribeforum` CHANGE `subscribeforumid` `subscribeforumid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `subscribethread` CHANGE `subscribethreadid` `subscribethreadid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `subscription` CHANGE `subscriptionid` `subscriptionid` SMALLINT( 5 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `subscriptionlog` CHANGE `subscriptionlogid` `subscriptionlogid` MEDIUMINT( 8 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `subscriptionpermission` CHANGE `subscriptionpermissionid` `subscriptionpermissionid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `template` CHANGE `templateid` `templateid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `templatehistory` CHANGE `templatehistoryid` `templatehistoryid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `thread` CHANGE `threadid` `threadid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `threadrate` CHANGE `threadrateid` `threadrateid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `upgradelog` CHANGE `upgradelogid` `upgradelogid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `user` CHANGE `userid` `userid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `useractivation` CHANGE `useractivationid` `useractivationid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `userchangelog` CHANGE `changeid` `changeid` INT(10) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `usergroup` CHANGE `usergroupid` `usergroupid` SMALLINT( 5 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `usergroupleader` CHANGE `usergroupleaderid` `usergroupleaderid` SMALLINT( 5 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `usergrouprequest` CHANGE `usergrouprequestid` `usergrouprequestid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `usernote` CHANGE `usernoteid` `usernoteid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `usertitle` CHANGE `usertitleid` `usertitleid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `userpromotion` CHANGE `userpromotionid` `userpromotionid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT; ALTER TABLE `word` CHANGE `wordid` `wordid` INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT;
Lost connection to MySQL server during query |
1. Is that the server timed out and closed the connection. By default, the server closes the connection after 8 hours or 28800 seconds if nothing has happened. You can change the time limit by setting the wait_timeout variable when you start mysqld via your server's /etc/my.cnf as well.
2. Another common reason to receive the MySQL server has gone away error is because you have issued a ``close'' on your MySQL connection and then tried to run a query on the closed connection. You can check that the MySQL hasn't died by executing mysqladmin version and examining the uptime.
i.e. to check mysql uptime, in shell as root user type:
mysqladmin -u root -p version
3. You can also get these errors if you send a query to the server that is incorrect or too large. If mysqld gets a packet that is too large or out of order, it assumes that something has gone wrong with the client and closes the connection. If you need big queries (for example, if you are working with big BLOB columns), you can increase the query limit by starting mysqld with the -O max_allowed_packet=# option (default 1M) or via max_allowed_packet variable in your /etc/my.cnf file and restarting mysql after you edited your /etc/my.cnf file. The extra memory is allocated on demand, so mysqld will use more memory only when you issue a big query or when mysqld must return a big result row
4. Or simply your host restarted MySQL. I'd contact your web host and ask him to look into this.
Links to additional information:
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/gone-away.html
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/common-errors.html
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/server-parameters.html
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/option-files.html
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/show-variables.html
Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket |
1. The info in your config.php file is wrong (in which case your forums wouldn't work at all), or
2. MySQL crashed, it's not running or it can't find the socket. You need to contact your host about this. Here is more info on this error:
MySQL 5.1:
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/can-not-connect-to-server.html
MySQL 5.0:
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/can-not-connect-to-server.html
MySQL 3.23, 4.0, 4.1:
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/4.1/en/can-not-connect-to-server.html
In Windows:
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/can-not-connect-to-server-on-windows.html
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/can-not-connect-to-server-on-windows.html
3. In the rare instance that this server is not using the default MySQL port (3306) then you will need to edit config.php to change this to the port it is using:
$config['MasterServer']['port'] = xxxx;
...with 'xxxx' being the port number.
Branding Free Instructions |
Warning:
Please note that you are not permitted to remove the vBulletin branding / copyright unless you have purchased the branding-free option. The costs are $170 on a per license basis and is a one time fee.
Removing the branding without permission will result in having your license being revoked.
Removing the branding without permission will result in having your license being revoked.
Here are the steps to remove all the public branding from vB4:
1. Edit the footer template here:
Admin CP -> Styles & Templates -> Style Manager -> Edit Templates -> footer
And remove this section:
<div id="footer_copyright" class="shade footer_copyright"> <!-- Do not remove this copyright notice --> {vb:rawphrase powered_by_vbulletin} <!-- Do not remove this copyright notice --> </div>
Admin CP -> Styles & Templates -> Edit Templates -> footer
2. In your headinclude template remove this line:
<meta name="generator" content="vBulletin {vb:raw vboptions.templateversion}" />
<meta name="generator" content="vBulletin {vb:raw vboptions.templateversion}" />
<div id="footer_copyright" class="shade"> <!-- Do not remove this copyright notice --> {vb:rawphrase powered_by_vbulletin} <!-- Do not remove this copyright notice --> </div>
x_powered_by_vbulletin
From this:
{1} - powered by vBulletin
To this:
{1}
5. Then, edit the vbulletin_message phrase and change this:
vBulletin Message
...to whatever you want.
6. To change the default metatags in vBulletin, you would do so under the General Options
Admin CP -> Settings -> Options -> General Settings -> Meta Keywords and Meta Description
7. And finally, in the file /archive/index.php you need to remove this section:
<div id=\"copyright\">$vbphrase[vbulletin_copyright]</div> </div>
A. To edit Templates:
Admin CP -> Styles & Templates -> Style Manager -> Edit Templates
B. To edit Phrases:
Admin CP -> Languages & Phrases -> Search in Phrases -> phrasename (Phrase Variable Name Only)
Click on edit, and place the new phrase in the available language text boxes.
Warning:
Please note that if you are not permitted to remove the vBulletin branding / copyright unless you have purchased the branding-free option. The costs are $170 on a per license basis and is a one time fee.
Removing the branding without permission will result in having your license being revoked.
Removing the branding without permission will result in having your license being revoked.
Restoring the Required Copyright Notice |
The copyright notice must be clearly visible on all forum pages unless you have purchased the Branding Free license option.
Your footer must contain at least the following text and must not be masked by color or images:
Powered by vBulletin®
Copyright ©2000-2008 Jelsoft Enterprises Limited.
Restoring the copyright notice
If you have removed the copyright and need to add it back in you can do one of two things:
1. Revert the footer template.
AdminCP -> Styles & Templates -> Style Manager -> Edit Templates -> select the 'footer' template -> Click the 'Revert' button
2. Edit the footer template and add in the following text:
<!-- Do not remove this copyright notice -->
$vbphrase[powered_by_vbulletin]
<!-- Do not remove this copyright notice -->
3. Revert the 'powered_by_vbulletin' phrase
AdminCP -> Languages & Phrases -> Search in Phrases -> enter 'powered_by_vbulletin' -> select 'Phrase Variable Name Only ' -> Click the 'Find' button -> Click the 'Copy Default Text' -> Save
Appendix: Terminology |
vBulletin-Related Terms |
Access Mask |
Admin Control Panel |
Only administrators have access to the AdminCP.
Administrator |
Avatar |
There are two types of avatars, predefined and custom:
- Predefined avatars are images that the board administrator has made available to use.
- Custom avatars are images created by the user that can be uploaded to the board if the Adminstrator has granted that particular permission.
BB Code |
Examples:
In html to make text bold, italics or underlined you would use:
<b>Bold</b> <i>Italic</i> <u>Underlined</u>
[b]Bold[/b]
[i]Italic[/i]
[u]Underlined[/u]
Buddy List |
Alternately, you can click on their username in any post and, from the drop-down menu, click the [Add username to Your Buddy List] link.
Buddies will appear in the Users online list with a + sign following their username.
Bulletin Board |
Category |
Since vBulletin version 2.0, Categories have ceased to be separate entities from Forums - a category is simply a Forum that is configured to accept no posts.
Conditionals |
Customer Number |
Customer Password |
Data APIs |
For example, instead of having different code to update a user record from the Admin Control Panel and from the User Profile editor, both systems can now simply direct their data to the user data manager, which will deal with ensuring that the data is valid and complete, then save it to the database.
Forum |
Guest |
This could be because they have not yet registered, or because they are a registered member who has logged out.
Hook |
Hooks in the code look like this:
($hook = vBulletinHook::fetch_hook('unique_hook_id')) ? eval($hook) : false;
In this instance, the hook is called 'unique_hook_id'.
Ignore List |
Posts from users that you are ignoring are hidden from view when logged into the forums.
Inline Moderation |
The following actions can be performed on threads with inline moderation from forumdisplay:
- Delete Threads
- Undelete Threads
- Open Threads
- Close Threads
- Approve Threads
- Unapprove Threads
- Stick Threads
- Unstick Threads
- Move Threads
- Merge Threads
- Merge Posts
- Move Posts
- Delete Posts
- Undelete Posts
- Approve Posts
- Unapprove Posts
- Approve Attachments
- Unapprove Attachments
Member |
Members' Area |
The Members' Area is where you can download vBulletin releases and updates as well as access to additional documentation and resources not publically available.
The Members' Area is currently located at http://members.vbulletin.com.
Moderator |
Moderator Control Panel |
The ModCP is a vastly scaled down version of the AdminCP and allows Moderators to perform duties based on the permissions assigned to them by the Administrator.
Plugin |
Plugins allow code to be added to vBulletin without actually modifying the PHP files.
Post |
Post Icon |
Product |
vBulletin products are arranged in a such a way that they can be semi-automatically installed and uninstalled through the Product Manager.
Products are used to extend or modify functionality in vBulletin.
Prune |
Replacement Variable |
Smilies |
Sticky Thread |
Making a thread sticky is part of the Thread Tools that are available to Adminstrators and Moderators.
StyleVar |
Super Administrator |
Superadministrators must be added to the vBulletin config.php file to enable their superadmin status:
// ****** 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';
Super Moderator |
Thread |
User |
User Control Panel |
Usergroup |
General Internet-Related Terms |
AJAX |
Cookie |
CSS |
Domain |
FTP |
HTML |
HTTP |
IP Address |
An example would be IP Address 66.135.192.87 is for ebay.com
Javascript |
When JavaScript is combined with Cascading Style Sheets(CSS), and later versions of HTML (4.0 and later) the result is often called DHTML.
Search bot |
Server |
Spider |
Typically search engines use spiders to gather information from web sites to increase there search index.
example search engine spiders:
- Googlebot
- lycos
- ask jeeves
- scooter
- fast-webcrawler
- slurp@inktomi
- turnitinbot
AdminCP > vBulletin Options > Who's Online Options
- Enable Spider Display - Setting this to Yes will allow you to see the spiders you have specified in the Spider Identification Description
- Spider Identification Strings - Enter the unique identifier for the spider you want to see
- Spider Identification Description - the description of the spider to be displayed in the Who's Online section of your board
SSH |
You will need to check with your hosting company to see if it is available with your hosting package.
Telnet |
You will need to check with your hosting company to see if it is available with your hosting package.
Note:
Telnet is generally considered to be insecure, as your login username and password is transferred using plain text.
To prevent this, it is preferable to use the SSH protocol.
To prevent this, it is preferable to use the SSH protocol.
URL |
XHTML |
XSS |
XML |
Miscellaneous Terms |
AIM |
ASCII |
CGI Shebang |
COPPA |
vBulletin is compliant with the COPPA law and requires children under the age of 13 to get parental consent before they can post.
For more info about this law, see: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/coppa.htm
DST |
FAQ |
Firewall |
ICQ |
Import |
- Conversion
Importing is conversion of data from a different Bulletin Board program to vBulletin. Merging two forums together (users, forums, attachments, etc).
- Admin Control Panel
Importing of additional Style- or Language Packs. This allows you to update or include (additional) styles or languages on your board.
Localhost |
localhost uses the reserved loopback IP address 127.0.0.1.
In general a MySQL server runs on the same server as your web server. You can enter in the vBulletin includes/config.php file as host address for the MySQL server localhost. (See example below)
// ****** MASTER DATABASE SERVER NAME ******
// This is the hostname or IP address of the database server.
// It is in the format HOST:PORT. If no PORT is specified, 3306 is used.
// If you are unsure of what to put here, leave it at the default value.
$config['MasterServer']['servername'] = 'localhost';
MSN |
MySQL |
Note:
More information about how to get and install MySQL can be found here Technical Documents / Installing MySQL or from http://www.mysql.com
PHP |
PHP is a script language and interpreter.
Note:
More information about how to get and install PHP can be found here Technical Documents / Installing PHP and Apache or from http://www.php.net
phpMyAdmin |
RSS Enclosure |
Thumbnail |
WYSIWYG |
The vBulletin WYSIWYG editor is one that allows a user that creates a new post to see what the end result will look like while the post is being created. This is in contrast to editing a post in the vBulletin standard editor which requires you to understand BB Code tags like [b] for bold and [u] for underline.
Yahoo |
Appendix: Feature List |
General Features |
- Scalable solution - database server and web servers can reside on separate machines.
- MySQL back-end database
- vBulletin can be run on any machine that can support PHP and MySQL (Solaris, BSD, Linux, Windows, Mac)
- Written in PHP which makes for a fast and efficient product
- Admin Control Panel
- Moderator Control Panel
- User Control Panel
- Compliant with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998. See this page for more information: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/coppa.htm
General Forum Features |
General
- Who's online
- Search
- Thread display options - sort by, sort order, from date
- Thread and forum subscription (notification by email optional)
- Thread preview on mouse-over (optional, via Admin CP)
- Active Users viewing thread shown
- New Post Indicator
- Printer Friendly versions on threads
- Admin tools for Threads - edit/delete/move/lock/Make sticky/ etc
- Email page to a friend option
- Linear, Threaded, Hybrid display views available
- Supports BB Code in posts
- Supports HTML in post
- Smilies
- Avatars
- Optional WYSIWYG or standard editors for posts and Private Messages
- Attachment images (.gif,.jpg, etc) are no longer in the database (optional, via Admin CP)
- Quick reply box (with optional "forced" click on post to quote)
- Preview post option
- Post rating
- User reputation
- Polls
- Post Reporting - report posts to moderators
- User post count
- Admin tools for Posts - edit/delete/move/ etc
- Preview safe attachments
- Member List
- Member Search
- Member Birthdays shown on Forum home
- User Style picker
- Private Messaging
- Buddy list
Calendar Features |
- Supports multiple private and public calendars
- Viewable public and private events (adminCP option)
- Weekly, monthly and yearly views
- Jump to Today option
- Add single, ranged or recurring events
- Add all day events
- Option to show calendar event on forum home page (adminCP option)
- Show events to specific usergroups (adminCP option)
- Calendar Moderation
- Private events reminder
- Ability to add custom fields
User Control Panel Features |
Editable user profile - This information can be viewed by other members from the member list.
Custom user title, URL home page, date of birth, instant messaging medium, location,
occupation, biography, interests, vB version, plus any other custom user fields that
may be defined by the administrator
Profile pictures - Allows members to upload pictures that can be viewed in the users' profile.
Private Messaging
- Pop-up notification when new PM recieved
- Private Message Tracking
- Private Message filing in custom folders
These include Daylight Savings options, forum style chooser, selection of
notification types for PM,emails etc, thread display options, WYSIWYG editor
options, language chooser, vCard downloads to allow the user profile to be placed
into the address book
Calendar event reminders for subscribed events
Pop-up auto-refreshing buddylist with ICQ-style alerts when new buddies come online
Attachment Management
- View attachment statistics - shows limit and used space
- View the attachments you have posted (link or thumbnail views available)
- Remove attachments
- Admin Defined Avatars
- Custom Avatars - upload from your own computer or specify a URL
Signature Editor
Email and password changes require current password
Joinable Public User Groups
Admin Control Panel Features |
Styling & Templates
- Templated system
- Conditionals supported in the templates
- Ability to create multiple styles which can be applied to different forums and users
- Ability to upload / download styles and languages
- Language manager - allows you to easily translate you forums in any language
- Multiple languages supported
- Phrase manager
- User registration options
- User banning (by name & IP)
- Global ignore user - when enabled all posts by the specified user will be ignored/unseen by other members. Automatically added to the all users ignore lists
- Unlimited Moderators and SuperModerators
- Permission system, based on user, usergroup or forums
- Task Scheduler
- Control Panel, Moderator & Task logs
- Board statistics
- Maintentance - Database backups, table repair
- Post Prunning
- Moderation queues for user registration and posting
- Calendar moderation
- Import facility - import posts and members seamlessly upgrade from other bulletin board systems, including Infopop's Ultimate Bulletin Board, UBBThreads, OpenTopic, and Ikonboard
- Multiple attachments and types (types defeined by admin in CP)
- Attachment thumbnails (requires PHP to have GD enabled)
- Storage type options for attachements (database or file system)
- Attachment moderation
- Multiple calendars supported
- Paid Subscriptions (PayPal, NOCHEX, WorldPay & Authorize.net)
- Private forums
- COPPA compliant
- Server Settings and Optimisation options configurable via the adminCP
- Editable FAQ for your own boards
- Context sensitive help throughout the adminCP
Appendix: Technical Documents |
Securing Your vBulletin Installation |
Securing Your Server |
Most hosting providers will provide this service if you have a dedicated machine so you should work with them to make sure your machine is as secure as possible. Below are some links that will help you.
Linux Kernel Hardening
Installing and Securing IIS Servers
Securing Apache
Securing PHP
Securing MySQL
Please note, that if you are on a shared server you must rely on your hosting provider to secure your server for you.
Accessing Your Server and Files |
You can find out more about these protocols at Wikipedia.com
SFTP: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSH_file_transfer_protocol
SSH: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSH
Root Accounts
Root or Super User accounts are a necessity if you maintain your own server but they are a security nightmare. You should never access your server directly with a Root Account unless you can absolutely guarantee a secure tunnel between your access point and the server itself. You can do this with a Virtual Private Networking protocol on both your server and the computer you access the server with. Not all servers will support this though and your datacenter might not allow the installation of the software to allow it.
If you are using Linux or Unix, you can create a usergroup called a "Wheel Group". This is a group of users that once logged in through SSH, can issue a command to switch to a superuser. This is the only way you should access your superuser accounts without a VPN connection. You can find information on creating wheel account users in your operating system's documentation.
Restricting Access to Your Files |
The most common method of authorizing someone is called "Basic Authorization. The Basic authentication method transmits user names and passwords across the network in plaintext or unencrypted form. A computer vandal could use a network monitoring tool to intercept this information. You can use your Web server's encryption features, in combination with Basic authentication, to secure user account information transmitted across the network.
.htaccess
.htaccess is how you can easily secure files in Apache. It allows you to use Apache's configuration directives without editing the default configuration file (httpd.conf). This makes it useful for communities on shared or virtual hosting or dedicated hosting.
There are a lot of things you can do with .htaccess but we are concerned with denying access to specific files and directories.
NTAUTH
Windows comes with a permissions system often referred to as NTAUTH. It is part of the NTFS file system and integrated into IIS and other server technologies in Windows. For instructions on how to use this to protect your server please see Microsoft's IIS Documentation:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/en/server/iis/default.asp?url=/windows2000/en/server/iis/htm/core/iiabasc.htm
Alternatives to NTAUTH
IISPassword is a free utility that can be installed on your IIS server. IISPassword uses Basic HTTP Authentication for password protecting web sites on IIS, just like htaccess works on Apache. That makes your password protected Apache web site compatible with IIS, and vice versa.
CHMOD, or File Permissions on your Unix/Linux System
You can control who has access to files on your servers beyond whether a web browser can call them up and have the server execute them. This is based on file permissions and can help to protect your files if someone gains unauthorized access to another portion of the machine. File permissions will help protect your site more on a shared server which has many people accessing it than they will on a server that only you have access to. However it is a good practice to only give the minimum permissions that you need to give and allow your site to work properly.
In our case, the web server application needs to be able to read your vBulletin files as long as PHP is installed as an Apache or ISAPI Module. If you are using the CGI executable, then they will probably need Execute permissions as well. In Linux and Unix, you change permissions using a tool called CHMOD which lets you set the permissions.
CHMOD can use either bitkeys, a series of numbers to designate permissions, or letters to represent the permissions. Both of these can be confusing to the uninitiated. Using the numbers results in more concise commands with the same number of control. You will see these commonly referred to in technical documents.
To set the permissions for your vBulletin files, with PHP as a Apache or ISAPI module, you would type the following in your command prompt on the server:
chmod 644 *
If your hosting provider tells you that you need Read and Write permissions on your files then you would use this command:
chmod 755 *
Most modern SFTP clients can handle this automatically though a properties dialog on the context menu. Refer to your client software for documentation on how to do this.
Please Note: If an attacker gets root access to your machine, there is no way to protect your files with permissions. They will be able to access everything. If this happens you will need a recent backup so you can recover your site.
Securing your Config.php File |
// ****** 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'] = ''; The section of code to look for is: // ****** 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'] = '';
Making sure no one edits this file after you upload it to the server is a large priority. If an attacker can change the contents of this file they can easily take control of your community. The first thing you want to do is restrict access to this file via file permissions. Make sure no one can access this except you. Use the techniques described under Restricting Access to secure this file.
One thing you might consider doing is denying access via a Web Browser at all times. This file only needs to be read internally via PHP and should not be accessed with a Web Browser. On most installations, this would never occur. However should your version of PHP stop working for some reason, then the file can be served as plain text and any prying eyes can see it. You can counter this on the webserver level with tools like .htaccess and NTFS Permissions.
Here is an example .htaccess file that would prevent access to the config.php. You would place this file within your /includes directory.
Apache 2.2:
<Files config.php> order deny,allow deny from all </Files>
<Files "config.php"> Require all denied </Files>
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/en/server/iis/htm/core/iidfpsc.htm
Moving Servers |
1. The vBulletin files, including all the vB files currently on your server as well as any attachments, avatars and profile pics (if you store these in the file system instead of the database) along with any custom images.
2. The vBulletin database which contains the actual data itself, including the user info, posts, threads, forums, setting, styles, languages, etc.
This guide will help you move your vBulletin forum from one server to another. Please note that while you can move the files themselves with FTP, moving the database generally requires Telnet or SSH access to both servers. (Other methods are available but are less reliable.)
If you only have this access on one of the servers, you may need to ask your host to assist you with the steps you cannot perform.
Warning:
Specific cookie domains (Cookie Domain) and cookie paths (Path to Save Cookies) may cause problems if you are moving servers and changing the URL to your forums.
If you are unsure whether your cookie settings will cause problems after the move, we recommend resetting your cookie path to / and removing any cookie domain value before the move. An incorrectly set cookie domain or path will likely prevent you from accessing your control panel.
If you are unsure whether your cookie settings will cause problems after the move, we recommend resetting your cookie path to / and removing any cookie domain value before the move. An incorrectly set cookie domain or path will likely prevent you from accessing your control panel.
1) Backing Up and Moving the Files |
If you are storing attachments, avatars and user profile pictures in the file system instead of the database (the default storage method) then you will need to move those files and directories over as well. As with the old server these directories will need to be made world-readable and writable, (chmod -R 777 on *Nix systems.)
Also since the exact path to these directories will very likely be different on the new server, you will need to reset these paths in the Admin CP after the transfer is done and your forums are up and running on the new server. You do this here:
Admin CP -> Attachments -> Attachment Storage Type
Admin CP -> Avatars -> User Picture Storage Type
2) Backing-Up the Current Database |
1 | Telnet/SSH into the server where your vBulletin is currently installed. We will call this machine1. |
2 | Type:mysqldump --opt -Q -uUSERNAME -p DATABASENAME > /PATH/TO/DUMP.SQLIn this line, you should change the following:
|
3 | Once it has returned to the prompt, verify that DUMP.SQL exists in the directory you specified. If you did not specify a full directory, the file will be in the directory you are currently in. |
Note:
When moving servers you need to check the MySQL versions on both the old and new servers. It is always best if the new server is running the same or a newer version of MySQL.
If the new server is running an older version of MySQL it would be best to seek out a different host. If this is not possible, you will need to make a compatible dump of the database.
This only applies between major version number, ie MySQL 5.x to MySQL 4.x.
Add the following option to the mysqldump command:
--compatible=name
Produce output that is more compatible with other database systems or with older MySQL servers. The value of name can be ansi, mysql323, mysql40, postgresql, oracle, mssql, db2, maxdb, no_key_options, no_table_options, or no_field_options. To use several values, separate them by commas. These values have the same meaning as the corresponding options for setting the server SQL mode.
Please note that there may still be issues even using the --compatible option
MySQL Manual
If the new server is running an older version of MySQL it would be best to seek out a different host. If this is not possible, you will need to make a compatible dump of the database.
This only applies between major version number, ie MySQL 5.x to MySQL 4.x.
Add the following option to the mysqldump command:
--compatible=name
Produce output that is more compatible with other database systems or with older MySQL servers. The value of name can be ansi, mysql323, mysql40, postgresql, oracle, mssql, db2, maxdb, no_key_options, no_table_options, or no_field_options. To use several values, separate them by commas. These values have the same meaning as the corresponding options for setting the server SQL mode.
Please note that there may still be issues even using the --compatible option
MySQL Manual
3) Transferring to the New Server |
1 | Telnet/SSH into machine1 if you have not already. |
2 | Type:ftp MACHINE2Replace MACHINE2 with the host name (www.example.com) or IP address (192.168.1.1) of the new server. You should be prompted for a username and password. This is the username and password that you use to login via FTP to your new server. |
3 | Type the following:ascHere you should change:
|
4 | Once these commands have finished, type:close |
5 | Verify that DUMP.SQL is in /PATH/TO/NEW/DIRECTORY on the new server. |
4) Restoring the Database on the New Server |
1 | On the new server, if necessary, create the database which your vBulletin will be installed in. Refer to your host for specific information on how this is done. |
2 | Telnet/SSH into machine2. |
3 | Type:mysql -uUSERNAME -p NEWDBNAME < /PATH/TO/NEW/DUMP.SQLYou should change the following parts of this line:
|
Note:
We recommend you use the method described above to restore your database, as it is the most reliable. If you don't have access to SSH then there are alternate instructions on restoring your database available in the technical section of the manual.
5) Bringing it Back Online |
1 | Open up includes/config.php and edit $config['MasterServer']['servername'], $config['MasterServer']['username'], $config['MasterServer']['password'], and $config['Database']['dbname'] with the values that correspond with the new server. If you are not sure what these values should be, please contact your new host. |
2 | Upload the new config.php and the rest of the files (if they still need to be uploaded). |
3 | Login to your admin control panel, go to the vBulletin Options section, and change your BB URL, if necessary. |
Note:
If you are not using the default database cache in vBulletin, you will need to flush your cache and restore it on the new server. These means updating your Memcache settings in your config.php file. If you are using the filesystem to store your Datastore, you need to make sure that includes/datastore/datastore.php is chmod 0777 so vBulletin can write to it.
Installing PHP and Apache |
This section will compile and perform a basic, generic install of Apache and PHP. If you need specific values, you will need to modify the configure lines to suit.
Note:
We will setup PHP with Apache 1.x in this section. Instructions may vary for Apache 2.x.
1) Downloading PHP and Apache |
1 | We need to download the latest versions of both Apache and PHP to the server. Go to http://www.php.net and download the source code of the latest version, php-xxx.tar.gz and place it in the /usr/local/src directory on your server. |
2 | Go to http://www.apache.org and download the source for the latest version of Apache 1.x, apache_xxx.tar.gz, and place this in the same location. |
Note:
The file names will vary slightly as they will include the version number. You will need to replace xxx in the following steps with the appropriate value.
2) Preparing to Install Apache |
1 | Telnet/SSH into your server if you have not already. |
2 | From the shell prompt, type the following:cd /usr/local/src |
3 | Now we need to figure out where Apache is currently running, so we can configure the new version for the same location. Type:ps –efLook for a line like this: nobody 32319 340 0 19:48 ? 00:00:00 /usr/local/etc/httpd/bin/httpdThis says Apache is installed in /usr/local/etc/httpd. This may be different on your system, if so, replace /usr/local/etc/httpd with your Apache location in the following steps. |
4 | Now type:cd /usr/local/src/apache_xxxThis will configure Apache and get ready for compiling in a later step. |
3) Compiling and Installing PHP |
cd /usr/local/src/php-xxxNow PHP 4 is installed and we are ready to compile and install Apache.
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/php --with-config-file-path=/usr/local/php --with-mysql --with-apache=../apache_xxx
make
make install
4) Compiling and Installing Apache |
1 | From the shell, type:cd /usr/local/src/apache_xxx |
2 | Now shut down Apache to install in new binaries:/usr/local/etc/httpd/bin/apachectl stop |
3 | Now install Apache:make install |
5) Completing the Installation |
1 | Now we just want to copy our PHP configuration file:cd /usr/local/src/php-xxxIf you have any modifications you wish to make to your php.ini file, you may make them now. |
2 | cd /usr/local/etc/httpd/confEdit your httpd.conf file and make sure the following line is added: AddType application/x-httpd-php .php |
3 | You can now reboot your system, or simply re-start Apache with:/usr/local/etc/httpd/bin/apachectl start |
Installing PHP under IIS using FastCGI |
Microsoft has posted instructions on how to install PHP under FastCGI on their IIS.net website. You can see those instructions here:
To install PHP with FastCGI under IIS6 please follow these instructions:
http://learn.iis.net/page.aspx/247/using-fastcgi-to-host-php-applications-on-iis-60/
To install PHP with FASTCGI under IIS7 please follow these instructions:
http://learn.iis.net/page.aspx/246/using-fastcgi-to-host-php-applications-on-iis-70/
Installing MySQL |
1) Compiling and Installing MySQL |
tar xfz mysql-version.tar.gzNext you need to configure the MySQL install. Unless you really know what you're doing, all you should have to do is tell it where to install. I recommend /usr/local/mysql:
cd mysql-version
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysqlAfter sitting through the screens and screens of configuration tests, you'll eventually get back to a command prompt. You're ready to compile MySQL:
makeAfter even more screens of compilation, you'll again be returned to the command prompt. You're now ready to install your newly compiled program:
make installMySQL is now installed, but before it can do anything useful its database files need to be installed too. Still in the directory you installed from, type the following command:
scripts/mysql_install_dbWith that done, you can delete the directory you've been working in, which just contains all the source files and temporary installation files. If you ever need to reinstall, you can just re-extract the mysql-version.tar.gz file.
2) Setting Up a New User for MySQL |
/usr/sbin/groupadd mysqlgrpBy default, MySQL stores all database information in the var subdirectory of the directory to which it was installed. We want to make it so that nobody can access that directory except our new MySQL user. The following commands will do this (I'm assuming you installed MySQL to the /usr/local/mysql directory):
/usr/sbin/useradd -g mysqlgrp mysqlusr
cd /usr/local/mysql
chown -R mysqlusr.mysqlgrp var
chmod -R go-rwx var
3) Starting the MySQL Server |
bin/safe_mysqld --user=mysqlusr &The MySQL server has now been launched by the MySQL user and will stay running (just like your Web or FTP server) until your computer is shut down. To test that the server is running properly, type the following command:
bin/mysqladmin -u root statusA little blurb with some statistics about the MySQL server should be displayed. If you get an error message, something has gone wrong. If retracing your steps to make sure you did everything described above doesn't solve the problem, a post to the SitePoint.com Forums will probably help you pin it down in no time.
4) Making MySQL Start Up with Your Server |
Assuming you've set up a special MySQL user to run the MySQL server, you'll need to edit the mysql.server script before you use it. Open it in your favorite text editor and change the mysql_daemon_user setting to refer to the user you created above:
mysql_daemon_user=mysqlusrSetting up the script to be run by your system at startup is a highly operating system-dependant task. If you're not using RedHat Linux and you're not sure of how to do this, you'd be best to ask someone who knows. In RedHat Linux, the following commands (starting in the MySQL directory) will do the trick:
cp share/mysql/mysql.server /etc/rc.d/init.d/That's it! To test that this works, you can reboot your system and request the status of the server as before to make sure it runs properly at startup.
cd /etc/rc.d/init.d
chmod 500 mysql.server
cd /etc/rc.d/rc3.d
ln -s ../init.d/mysql.server S99mysql
cd /etc/rc.d/rc5.d
ln -s ../init.d/mysql.server S99mysql
Creating a New MySQL Database for vBulletin to Use |
The following pages describe the process needed to do this under a variety of systems.
Setting-up a MySQL Database on the Command Line |
1 | Firstly, you will need to log in to your server via SSH or Telnet as the root user, or some other user with permission to control MySQL at the root level. Windows users can use Command Prompt. |
2 | Next, you will need to start the MySQL command line tool by typing something along these lines:/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql -uroot -pon Windows it willl be similar to: c:\mysql\bin\mysql -uroot -pThe system will then ask you to provide the MySQL root password to continue. |
3 | When you have completed the login to MySQL you will see a mysql> command prompt. To see the list of databases that already exist, type the following:SHOW DATABASES;You will then be given a list of the databases that already exist. The name you choose for your new database must be unique, so ensure that the name you want to give to your new database is not already in use. |
4 | After you have decided upon a name, you can run the query to create the new database. For this example, we will call the database example_database. Type the following, replacing the name of the database with the name you have chosen: CREATE DATABASE example_database; |
5 | Having created the database, we will now create a MySQL user account with permission to access the new database. Doing this is a security precaution, as it's never a good idea to have PHP scripts talking to MySQL with root privileges. In this example, we will name our new user example_user and give the account a password of p4ssw0rd. Replace those values as appropriate when you type the following: GRANT ALL ON example_database.* |
$config['Database']['dbname'] = 'example_database';
$config['MasterServer']['servername'] = 'localhost';
$config['MasterServer']['username'] = 'example_user';
$config['MasterServer']['password'] = 'p4ssw0rd';
Setting-up a MySQL Database in cPanel |
The only notable difference is if you are using the cPanel Advanced theme. If that's the case, click the then the and join us again at the next step.
For all others, you should see a screen something like the one in the figure below. Click the icon.On this screen, you will enter the database name you want in the blank next to then click .Once you have clicked you will be brought to a redirect screen confirming the creation of the database. Click the or link to return to the main MySQL screen.
Now we have to create the database user and password. Scroll down the screen until you see this:Enter the database username and password you want in the appropriate blanks and click the .
Once you have clicked you will be brought to a redirect screen confirming the creation of the username and password. Click the or link to return to the main MySQL screen.
Now you have to add the user to the database so they can have access and control. Scroll until you see this:Using the drop-down menus, make sure you have selected the proper user and database, then click .
Again, you will be sent to the redirect screen confirming the addition of the user to the database. Again, click the or link to return to the main MySQL screen. You should see something like this:These are the database name, username and password you will use in the config.php file.
Note:
cPanel will always preface the database name and database username with your main account username and an underscore.
If you chose the database name and the database username your database will be and your database username will be
If you chose the database name and the database username your database will be and your database username will be
Setting-up a MySQL Database in Plesk |
Note:
If the
button is greyed out, it means that your account does not have MySQL database access. Please contact your host to correct this.Setting-up a MySQL Database in Ensim |
When you load your control panel you should see something resembling the screen in the following figure. Most people will click the link next to the icon. Others may have to click the link in the left side nav panel.If you had to use the link in the left side nav panel, you will see the following screen:Click the following button in the row labeled This will bring up the following screen:Click the link.
This will bring the screen where you create the database:Type the database name you want in the blank and click the . This will create your database and take you to the main database screen. You should see the database you created listed on the screen.
Note:
Most Ensim installations will prefix the database name with
Also, Ensim will use the same username and password for the database username and password that you use for your main account login.
so if you choose as your database name, the actual name of the database may be Also, Ensim will use the same username and password for the database username and password that you use for your main account login.
Backing-up your MySQL Database Manually |
Backing Up The Database via SSH/Telnet |
1) SSH or Telnet access to your site. You will need to check with your hosting company to see if this is available.
2) An SSH/Telnet Client, such as PuTTy.
Open your SSH/Telnet client and log into your website. The command line prompt you will see will vary by OS.
For most hosting companies, this will bring you into the FTP root folder.
Type in the following to create a backup in the current directory:
mysqldump --opt -Q -u dbusername -p databasename > backupname.sql
Or to create a backup in a separate directory (signified by /path/to/) type:
mysqldump --opt -Q -u dbusername -p databasename > /path/to/backupname.sql
You will be prompted for the database password. Enter it and the database will backup.
If your hosting company has you on a remote MySQL server, such as mysql.yourhost.com, you will need to add the servername to the command line. The servername will be the same as in your config.php. The command line will be:
Current directory:
mysqldump --opt -Q -h servername -u dbusername -p databasename > backupname.sql
Separate directory:
mysqldump --opt -Q -h servername -u dbusername -p databasename > /path/to/backupname.sql
You can then, if you wish, download the backup to your home computer.
Backing Up The Database via phpMyAdmin |
Go to phpMyAdmin in your web browser and select the database you wish to back up by clicking on the name. If you have multiple databases, you will need to select the name from the drop menu.
In the right-hand frame, you will see a row of links. Click [Export]
Now in the right-hand frame you will see three (3) areas. In the first area, called Export you select the table(s) you wish to back up by selecting them from the list. To select multiple tables, hold the Ctrl key and click the table names. To select all table, click the [Select All] link.
In the second area, called SQL Options, make sure you have the following boxes checked:
Structure
Add 'drop table'
Add AUTO_INCREMENT value
Enclose table and field names with backquotes
Data
In the third area, check Save as file and type a name for the backup in the File name template :.
If your system supports it, you may also choose a compression type. None is selected by default.
Click and you will be prompted to save the backup on your local computer.
Restoring your MySQL Database Manually |
Note:
There is no Database Restore function built into vBulletin. If you cannot use either of the methods covered in the manual, you will need to ask your hosting company to restore the database for you.
Restoring The Database via SSH/Telnet |
1) SSH or Telnet access to your site. You will need to check with your hosting company to see if this is available.
2) An SSH/Telnet Client, such as PuTTy.
Note:
If your database backup resides on your home computer, you will first have to upload it via FTP to your website
You can either change directoties to wherever the backup is located and type in the following:
mysql -u dbusername -p databasename < backupname.sql
Or if you do not want to change directories and you know the path to where the backup is located, type in the following:
mysql -u dbusername -p databasename < /path/to/backupname.sql
You will be prompted for the database password. Enter it and the database will backup.
If your hosting company has you on a remote MySQL server, such as mysql.yourhost.com, you will need to add the servername to the command line. The servername will be the same as in your config.php. The command line will be:
mysql -h servername -u dbusername -p databasename < backupname.sql
Or:
mysql -h servername -u dbusername -p databasename < /path/to/backupname.sql
Restoring The Database via phpMyAdmin |
Go to phpMyAdmin in your web broswer and select the database you wish to back up by clicking on the name. If you have multiple databases, you will need to select the name from the drop menu.
In the right-hand frame, you will see a row of links. Click [SQL]
You will see a large input box for queries and below that you will see a smaller box labeled Browse.
Click the button, navigate to and select the backup file on your home computer and click the .
Warning:
There are sometimes file size limitations on importing a database backup this way. If your database is too large, you might encounter PHP timeout errors. In that case, you will need to attempt to restore your database via SSH/Telnet.
The vBulletin Datastore |
Examples for this are
- forumcache - A serialized array with all the forums along with their options and permissions
- options - A serialized array with all the information set in the vBulletin Options
- profilefield - A serialized array of all the profile fields and their options.
/* #### DATASTORE CACHE CONFIGURATION ####
Here you can configure different methods for caching datastore items.
vB_Datastore_Filecache - to use includes/datastore/datastore_cache.php
vB_Datastore_APCu - to use APCu (which replaces APC)
vB_Datastore_XCache - to use XCache (not available for PHP 7+)
vB_Datastore_Memcache - to use one or more Memcache servers, more configuration below.
vB_Datastore_Redis - to use one or more Redis servers, more configuration options below. */
// $config['Datastore']['class'] = 'vB_Datastore_Filecache';
vB_Datastore_Filecache
This option saves the datastore data in the /includes/datastore/datastore_cache.php file. Reading from the filesystem is generally less load-intensive than querying the database.
To use this option, you'll need to make sure that the /includes/datastore/datastore_cache.php file is writable and readable by PHP. Usually this is chmod 777. Then, uncomment the following line in the config.php file.
// $config['Datastore']['class'] = 'vB_Datastore_Filecache';
This option saves the datastore data in shared memory using APCu on a server. APCu is replacing APC.
To use this option, replace the following line:
// $config['Datastore']['class'] = 'vB_Datastore_Filecache';
$config['Datastore']['class'] = 'vB_Datastore_APCu';
This option saves the datastore data on a memcached server. This is a fast memory caching system which can also be run on a different server to reduce load on the main server.
To use this option, a memcached server has to be set up first.
To use this option, replace the following line:
// $config['Datastore']['class'] = 'vB_Datastore_Filecache';
$config['Datastore']['class'] = 'vB_Datastore_Memcache';
/* #### MEMCACHE SETTINGS #### */
$config['Misc']['memcacheServers'] = array(
array(
'server' => '127.0.0.1',
'port' => 11211
),
);
$config['Misc']['memcacheRetry'] = 15; // Retry time in seconds.
$config['Misc']['memcacheTimeout'] = 1; // Connect timeout in seconds.
$config['Misc']['memcachePersistent'] = true; // Persistent connections.
This option is not available for versions of PHP from 7+.
To use this option, replace the following line:
// $config['Datastore']['class'] = 'vB_Datastore_Filecache';
$config['Datastore']['class'] = 'vB_Datastore_XCache';
Redis is an open source (BSD licensed), in-memory data structure store.
To use this option, replace the following line:
// $config['Datastore']['class'] = 'vB_Datastore_Filecache';
$config['Datastore']['class'] = 'vB_Datastore_Redis';
/* #### REDIS SETTINGS #### */
$config['Misc']['redisServers'] = array(
array(
'addr' => '127.0.0.1',
'port' => 6379
),
);
$config['Misc']['redisRetry'] = 100; // Retry time in milliseconds.
$config['Misc']['redisTimeout'] = 3; // Connect timeout in seconds.
$config['Misc']['redisMaxDelay'] = 10; // Slave out of sync, timeout in seconds.
Using Forum, Blog or CMS in a Subdirectory. |
With vBulletin 4.1.1, you have gained the ability to run your forum components in different directories. This includes subdirectories of your primary installation directory and sibling directories. However due to the way that the forums and blog are implemented, it is a little different than other software packages. Implementing this on your site is fairly straightforward though.
Components Supported
Currently vBulletin supports running the CMS, Forum, and Blogs in directories other than your primary installation directory.
Uploading the files.
In your 4.1.1 package there are a number of new files located within the Do Not Upload Folder to implement this functionality. You need to upload these files first. Go into your Do Not Upload folder and you will see four subfolders. These are named – blog, forum, cms and rewrite.
You need to upload the folders that correspond to the components that you want to run in a sub-directory on your website. For our example today, we're going to concentrate on the forum directory. Upload this to your forum root directory using your favorite file transfer tool.
Using Mod_Rewrite?
If you are using mod_rewrite friendly URLs, you need to upload the .htaccess for your components as well. These are in the rewrite directory and get uploaded to their corresponding directories on the server.
Note: Only .htaccess files are provided at this time. If you are using IIS 7 with the URL Rewrite addon, you can import the .htaccess files within IIS Manager to create the appropriate web.config files. Consult the help files in IIS Manager for instructions.
vBulletin Settings
Once you have the files uploaded, you need to update some settings in your Admin Control Panel. Log in to your Admin Control Panel and go to:
Settings → Options → Site Name / URL / Contact Details.
Here you will find new options for the URLS of your different components. They exist for Forums, CMS and Blogs. These need to be set to the same directories that you uploaded the files to earlier.
Forum Component URL
If this is specified it will override the Forum URL setting for Forum specific pages. You may specify an absolute URL or a URL relative to the main Forum URL
Examples:
If vBulletin is located at http://example.com/vbulletin then entering a value of "forum" will result in the forum being located at http://example.com/vbulletin/forum.
A value of "http://www.example.com/forum" will result in the forum being located at http://www.example.com/forum.
All vBulletin URLs must have the same host name.
Cookies
You need to set your cookie path so that it is inclusive of all your vBulletin directories. If your cookie path is the default of '/' then you don't need to change anything. However if you changed this for any reason, it may need to be updated. For example, if vBulletin is located at www.host.com/mysite/vbulletin but the forum is located at www.mysite.com/mysite/forum then a cookie path of "mysite" will work, but a cookie path of "mysite/vbulletin" will not work because the cookies will not be sent to pages in the mysite/forum directory.
Note: Changing the cookies for your site will invalidate all cookies for your users. They will be logged out and must log back in.
Debug Mode |
Note:
The config file is located in your includes directory.
To do this, you need to edit your config.php file and add the following line:
$config['Misc']['debug'] = true;
Turning off Debug Mode
Edit your config.php file and remove the above line of code or comment it out by placing two slashes ('//') in front of it. Save the file and overwrite the copy stored on your server.
Appendix: Developer Tools |
Graphics Developer Kits |
vBulletin 3 Graphics Kit |
The colors to which the standard graphics are matted are based on the colors of the default vBulletin style, which is primarily white and pale blue. It may be that these colors do not suit your own customized styles, in which case you will need to use the vBulletin 3 Graphics Developer Kit to produce a set of graphics matted to your own colors.
Two versions of the Graphics Developer Kit are available from the vBulletin Members' Area. The first contains images that are fully prepared and require only that you choose the matte color and save the resulting images. The second version contains larger, layered images that allow you to make numerous changes to the look of the graphics before saving out the matted versions.
This document will explain the process of saving out images using the 'large, layered' version of the Graphics Developer Kit, as the steps required to achieve the same results with the 'instant matte' version are a subset of these.
After downloading the 'large, layered' version of the Graphics Developer Kit from the vBulletin Members' Area, you should extract the files from the zip archive. You will be left with a directory structure that mirrors the directory structure from the 'images' directory of your vBulletin installation.The images stored within the extracted directories are in Photoshop .psd format, in order to retain their layer information and facilitate editing. Opening an image into Photoshop (or an alternative application with PSD format support) will give you access to edit the individual graphic layers so that you can make whatever changes you need to make.
You will find that many of the PSD images are in fact used to build a number of the final graphics. For example, all the smilie graphics are generated from just two PSD files.
Here you can see a typical arrangement of image layers within one of the Graphics Kit files. This particular file (Forum Icons.psd) is used to build statusicon/forum_new.gif, statusicon/forum_old.gif, statusicon/forum_new_lock.gif, statusicon/forum_old_lock.gif and statusicon/forum_link.gif. By switching on and off the icon next to each layer or layer set you can change the visibility of each layer and hence build each individual image. For example, to build the statusicon/forum_new.gif image, you would need to hide all layers with the exceptions of:
|
1 | Firstly, resize the image to the desired size for the final graphic (see the table of sizes and matte classes for the correct size for each image). The resize command can be found by following Image > Image Size in Photoshop. |
2 | Secondly, selecting each visible layer in turn, apply a sharpening filter. We recommend that you use Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask with the following settings: |
3 | Finally, after sharpening each layer, call up the File > Save for Web dialog. Here, set the number of colors to 256, the format to GIF and turn transparency on.You should now click the Matte control, choose Eyedropper Color and then pick an appropriate color to use as the background for your image. You can refer to the table of sizes and matte classes to find the name of the CSS class on which each graphic will be located, so that you can match that up to an appropriate color. |
Table of Sizes and Matte Classes |
Directory | Image Name | Width | Height | Matte Class |
buttons | ||||
buttons | newthread | 110 | 26 | page |
buttons | reply | 110 | 26 | page |
buttons | threadclosed | 110 | 26 | page |
buttons | edit | 70 | 22 | alt2 |
buttons | reply_small | 70 | 22 | alt2 |
buttons | forward | 70 | 22 | alt2 |
buttons | quickreply | 25 | 22 | alt2 |
buttons | sendpm | 70 | 22 | alt2 |
buttons | 70 | 22 | alt2 | |
buttons | home | 70 | 22 | alt2 |
buttons | find | 70 | 22 | alt2 |
buttons | mode_hybrid | 16 | 16 | vbmenu_option |
buttons | mode_linear | 16 | 16 | vbmenu_option |
buttons | mode_threaded | 16 | 16 | vbmenu_option |
buttons | printer | 21 | 17 | vbmenu_option |
buttons | sendtofriend | 21 | 17 | vbmenu_option |
buttons | addpoll | 21 | 17 | vbmenu_option |
buttons | subscribe | 21 | 17 | vbmenu_option |
buttons | report | 21 | 17 | thead |
buttons | reputation | 21 | 17 | thead |
buttons | ip | 18 | 17 | thead |
buttons | sortasc | 12 | 12 | thead |
buttons | sortdesc | 12 | 12 | thead |
buttons | firstnew | 12 | 12 | alt2 |
buttons | lastpost | 12 | 12 | alt1 |
buttons | collapse_alt | 11 | 11 | alt1 |
buttons | collapse_alt_collapsed | 11 | 11 | alt1 |
buttons | collapse_tcat | 15 | 15 | tcat |
buttons | collapse_tcat_collapsed | 15 | 15 | tcat |
buttons | collapse_thead | 13 | 13 | thead |
buttons | collapse_thead_collapsed | 13 | 13 | thead |
icons | ||||
icons | icon1 | 16 | 16 | alt1 |
icons | icon2 | 16 | 16 | alt1 |
icons | icon3 | 14 | 16 | alt1 |
icons | icon4 | 16 | 16 | alt1 |
icons | icon5 | 16 | 16 | alt1 |
icons | icon6 | 16 | 16 | alt1 |
icons | icon7 | 16 | 16 | alt1 |
icons | icon8 | 16 | 16 | alt1 |
icons | icon9 | 16 | 16 | alt1 |
icons | icon10 | 16 | 16 | alt1 |
icons | icon11 | 16 | 16 | alt1 |
icons | icon12 | 16 | 16 | alt1 |
icons | icon13 | 16 | 16 | alt1 |
icons | icon14 | 16 | 16 | alt1 |
misc | ||||
misc | birthday | 30 | 30 | alt1 |
misc | birthday_small | 13 | 17 | alt1 |
misc | calendar | 30 | 30 | alt1 |
misc | calendar_icon | 13 | 17 | vbmenu_option |
misc | im_aim | 17 | 17 | alt1 |
misc | im_icq | 17 | 17 | alt1 |
misc | im_msn | 17 | 17 | alt1 |
misc | im_yahoo | 17 | 17 | alt1 |
misc | menu_open | 11 | 7 | vbmenu_control |
misc | multipage | 12 | 12 | alt2 |
misc | navbits_start | 15 | 15 | alt2 |
misc | navbits_finallink | 30 | 15 | alt2 |
misc | paperclip | 7 | 13 | alt2 |
misc | poll_posticon | 16 | 16 | alt1 |
misc | question_icon | 16 | 16 | alt1 |
misc | stats | 30 | 30 | alt1 |
misc | sticky | 12 | 12 | alt2 |
misc | subscribed | 12 | 12 | alt2 |
misc | subscribed_event | 17 | 17 | alt1 |
misc | whos_online | 30 | 30 | alt1 |
rating | ||||
rating | rating_0 | 60 | 12 | vbmenu_control |
rating | rating_1 | 60 | 12 | vbmenu_control |
rating | rating_2 | 60 | 12 | vbmenu_control |
rating | rating_3 | 60 | 12 | vbmenu_control |
rating | rating_4 | 60 | 12 | vbmenu_control |
rating | rating_5 | 60 | 12 | vbmenu_control |
reputation | ||||
reputation | reputation_off | 8 | 10 | alt1 |
reputation | reputation_highpos | 8 | 10 | alt1 |
reputation | reputation_pos | 8 | 10 | alt1 |
reputation | reputation_balance | 8 | 10 | alt1 |
reputation | reputation_neg | 8 | 10 | alt1 |
reputation | reputation_highneg | 8 | 10 | alt1 |
smilies | ||||
smilies | biggrin | 16 | 16 | alt2 |
smilies | confused | 16 | 21 | alt2 |
smilies | cool | 16 | 16 | alt2 |
smilies | eek | 16 | 16 | alt2 |
smilies | frown | 16 | 16 | alt2 |
smilies | mad | 16 | 16 | alt2 |
smilies | redface | 16 | 16 | alt2 |
smilies | rolleyes | 16 | 16 | alt2 |
smilies | smile | 16 | 16 | alt2 |
smilies | tongue | 16 | 16 | alt2 |
smilies | wink | 16 | 16 | alt2 |
statusicon | ||||
statusicon | announcement_new | 18 | 18 | alt2 |
statusicon | announcement_old | 18 | 18 | alt2 |
statusicon | forum_old | 29 | 30 | alt1 |
statusicon | forum_new | 29 | 30 | alt1 |
statusicon | forum_old_lock | 29 | 30 | alt1 |
statusicon | forum_new_lock | 29 | 30 | alt1 |
statusicon | forum_link | 29 | 30 | alt1 |
statusicon | subforum_old | 11 | 11 | alt2 |
statusicon | subforum_new | 11 | 11 | alt2 |
statusicon | subforum_link | 11 | 11 | alt2 |
statusicon | pm_old | 16 | 16 | alt2 |
statusicon | pm_new | 16 | 16 | alt2 |
statusicon | pm_replied | 16 | 16 | alt2 |
statusicon | pm_forwarded | 16 | 16 | alt2 |
statusicon | post_old | 10 | 11 | thead |
statusicon | post_new | 10 | 11 | thead |
statusicon | user_offline | 15 | 15 | alt1 |
statusicon | user_online | 15 | 15 | alt1 |
statusicon | user_invisible | 15 | 15 | alt1 |
statusicon | thread | 20 | 20 | alt2 |
statusicon | thread_dot | 20 | 20 | alt2 |
statusicon | thread_dot_hot | 20 | 20 | alt2 |
statusicon | thread_dot_hot_lock | 20 | 20 | alt2 |
statusicon | thread_dot_hot_lock_new | 20 | 20 | alt2 |
statusicon | thread_dot_hot_new | 20 | 20 | alt2 |
statusicon | thread_dot_lock | 20 | 20 | alt2 |
statusicon | thread_dot_lock_new | 20 | 20 | alt2 |
statusicon | thread_dot_new | 20 | 20 | alt2 |
statusicon | thread_hot | 20 | 20 | alt2 |
statusicon | thread_hot_lock | 20 | 20 | alt2 |
statusicon | thread_hot_lock_new | 20 | 20 | alt2 |
statusicon | thread_hot_new | 20 | 20 | alt2 |
statusicon | thread_lock | 20 | 20 | alt2 |
statusicon | thread_lock_new | 20 | 20 | alt2 |
statusicon | thread_moved | 20 | 20 | alt2 |
statusicon | thread_moved_new | 20 | 20 | alt2 |
statusicon | thread_new | 20 | 20 | alt2 |
statusicon | wol_lockedout | 17 | 17 | alt1 |
statusicon | wol_nopermission | 16 | 17 | alt1 |
statusicon | wol_error | 16 | 16 | alt1 |
vBulletin 2 Graphics Kit |
All images in this kit are saved as Adobe Photoshop .psd files, in order to retain their layer information and facilitate editing. They were created in Photoshop 6.0 and ImageReady 3.0.The PSD files included in the Graphics Developer's Kit are all that you will require to fully customize all the vBulletin buttons and icons to whatever extent you require.
When you open up a file into Photoshop, you will usually see a single image, but the file you opened may actually be used to create several images. Let's take a look at the file THREAD CLOSED.psd.This file is only used to create one image (threadclosed.gif), but the PSD file still contains several layers in order to make it easier to recolor and edit.
Take a look at the Layers Palette in Photoshop and you will be able to see the individual layers that are used to create this image.As you can see, the main constituent parts of the image are the Gradient background layer, the button outline layers, the text layer and the three layers used to create the small icon on the left-side of the button.
You can view individual layers by clicking the small icon next to each layer, in order to hide it, and then selectively turning the layers you want to see back to visible mode.
In order to recolor this image to suit your own site, you will need to recolor the Gradient and possibly the icon bg layers. This is how to do that.
Click on the Gradient layer in the Layers Palette, so that it becomes hilighted, as shown in the image above. You will now need to select a start and end color for your gradient. To do this, click on the colored boxes in the tools palette.The color in the top-left box will be the starting color for your gradient, and the color in the bottom-right box will be the ending color for the gradient.
Next, you will need to select the gradient tool from the tools pallete. To do this, press G on your keyboard until the gradient tool is selected.Ensure that the gradient type is linear by checking the tools options palette.Now you will need to use the gradient tool to draw your new gradient over the existing one.
To do this, simply drag a line from the top of the image to the bottom of the image, then release the mouse button, and the gradient will be drawn. Don't worry about the gradient 'going over the edges' of the existing gradient - it has had its transparency locked, so the new gradient will not go anywhere it's not supposed to.When you release the mouse button, the gradient will be drawn.If you want to ensure that the line you draw with the gradient tool is perfectly top-to-bottom, without a slight angle, simply hold down the shift key while you draw the line.
If you also want to recolor the icon, click on the layer called icon bg and then click the checkbox to lock the transparecy of this layer, as shown here:Now select the paintbrush tool from the tools palette by pressing B on the keyboard until the brush tool is selected.Now choose the color you would like to use, and paint all over the icon. Once again, don't worry about going over the edges, as the layer transparency has been locked:The final step is to save out the GIF version of this image, for use on your board.
To do this, choose the Save for Web option from the File menu (or hold down Alt+Ctrl+Shift+S on the keyboard).Probably the most important option that you will need to set is the color depth. This will directly affect the file size of the resulting image - the more colors you have, the larger the filesize. The file size is displayed in the bottom-left of the window. You will need to experiment to find the best compromize between image quality and file size. 64 colors will usually be sufficient.
When you are happy with the image, click the button to save the image. This will pop up a file window, where you can specify an filename.
As was mentioned before, some of the PSD files are used to create two or more of the final GIF images. An example of this is the SMILIES.psd file, which is used to create all of the smilie GIFs with the exception of confused.gif.Creating the various different smilies requires you to hide some layers and show others - for example, to create the eek smilie, you will need to hide all layers with the exception of eek, background and outer circle. To create the tongue smilie, hide the eek layer and show the tongue layer. Showing and hiding layers is done by clicking the small icon next to the appropriate layer.To change the background color of the smilies, you simply need to double-click the 'Color Overlay' effect applied to the background layer, and set a new color.When you have finished creating a smilie, simply pull up the Save for Web control as shown earlier.
vBulletin Code Standards |
Code Examples Color Key:
$code = red_code($var); Don't code like this $code = normal_code($var); Code like this
Braces |
if ($condition_one)
{
// do something
}
else if ($condition_two)
{
// do something else
}
else
{
// don't do anything
}
if ($condition_one) // do something else if ($condition_two) // do something else else // don't do anything if ($condition_one) { // do something } else { if ($condition_two) { // do something else } else { // don't do anything } }
Indenting |
function construct_something($var)
{
global $vboptions;
if ($vboptions['somevar'])
{
if ($var == 'something')
{
return true;
}
else
{
return false;
}
}
else
{
return true;
}
}
Loops and Branches |
for ($i = 0; $i < 10; $i++)
{
// do something
}
while ($result = $db->fetch_array($results))
{
// do something
}
if ($condition != 'something')
{
// do something
}
foreach ($array AS $key => $val)
{
// do something
}
if ($condition)
{
// do something
}
else if ($condition_two)
{
// do something else
}
Use of Spaces |
$a = 1;
$b += $a;
$c = $a . $b;
$d = $b . 'something' . $c;
$e = $d * $b;
$f = $e / $a;
$g = ($f + $e) * $b;
$h++;
$i--;
$x = htmlspecialchars($y);
$item = $DB_site->fetch_array($items);
$x = fetch_something($a, $b, $c);
$i = construct_something(strtoupper('something') . ' ' . substr($var, 0, $b));
$var = addslashes( $var ); $str = fetch_something( strlen( $var ), strpos( $x , $y ) ); $x = construct_x(substr($string, 0, strlen($bla)) . '/' . ucfirst($string)); if ($x == 1 AND ($y == 2 OR $z == 3) AND ($a = fetch_x($x, $y) OR $a == 'bla'))
Quoting Strings |
$flat_string = 'Hello, this is a string';
$dynamic_one = "Hello,\nthis is a string.";
$dynamic_two = "Hello $username,\n this is a string.";
$string_one = "The time is $timenow and the date is $datenow.";
$string_two = 'The time is ' . time() . ' and the date is ' . $datenow . '.';
$results = $DB_site->query("SELECT field FROM " . TABLE_PREFIX . "table AS table");
$var = "$x"; $result = strtoupper("$string"); $var = $x; $result = strtoupper($string); $string = fetch_something("something$var");
eval("\$template = \"" . fetch_template('template') . "\";"); eval('$template = "' . fetch_template('template') . '";');
Quoting Array Keys |
$a = $userinfo[12];
$b = $userinfo['username'];
$c = $userinfo["$field"];
$a = $userinfo["$var[12]"];
$b = $userinfo["$var[username]"];
$c = $userinfo["$var[$field]"];
$a = "Hello my name is $userinfo[12], how do you do?";
$b = "Hello my name is $userinfo[username], how do you do?";
$c = "Hello my name is $userinfo[$field], how do you do?";
$d = 'Hello my name is ' . $userinfo["$var[field]"] . ', how do you do?';
$e = "Hello my name is {$userinfo[$var[username]]}, how do you do?";
$_GET / $_POST / $_REQUEST |
- $_GET
- $_POST
- $_REQUEST
- $_COOKIE
- $_FILES
clean_gpc() and clean_array_gpc(), members of the vBulletin input class are used to sanitize all user submitted data.
Valid data types are:
- TYPE_BOOL - Boolean
- TYPE_INT - Integer
- TYPE_UINT - Unsigned Integer
- TYPE_NUM - Floating Point Number
- TYPE_UNUM - Unsigned Floating Point Number
- TYPE_UNIXTIME - Unix Timestamp (Unsigned Integer)
- TYPE_STR - Trimmed String (No leading or trailing whitespace)
- TYPE_NOTRIM - String
- TYPE_NOHTML - Trimmed String sent through htmlspecialchars_uni()
- TYPE_ARRAY - Array
- TYPE_FILE - File
- TYPE_NOCLEAN - Unvalidated
Sanitized values are accessed via the $vbulletin->GPC array using the value's field name as the array index, e.g. $vbulletin->GPC['field1']. You can be sure that the value in the $vbulletin->GPC array is of the type specified, no matter what may have originally been defined in the Superglobal array. For example, if you specify TYPE_NOHTML, you can display that variable directly in HTML without worrying about it being HTML safe.
The first parameter to both clean_gpc() and clean_array_gpc(), is the first letter initial of the Superglobal array that you are sanitizing the value from. You can only sanitize values from one Superglobal array with any single call to clean_array_gpc() or clean_gpc(). You can not clean values from $_COOKIE and $_POST with the same call, you have to make multiple calls. All of the values will end up in the same $vbulletin->GPC array so insure field names do not overlap.
Note:
$_COOKIE values must be accessed using the COOKIE_PREFIX:
$vbulletin->input->clean_gpc('c', COOKIE_PREFIX . 'forum_view', TYPE_STR);
$foo = $vbulletin->GPC[COOKIE_PREFIX . 'forum_view'];
$vbulletin->input->clean_gpc('c', COOKIE_PREFIX . 'forum_view', TYPE_STR);
$foo = $vbulletin->GPC[COOKIE_PREFIX . 'forum_view'];
$db->query_write(" UPDATE " . TABLE_PREFIX . "table SET field_one = '" . $db->escape_string(trim($_POST['field_one'])) . "', field_two = '" . $db->escape_string(htmlspecialchars_uni(trim($_POST['field_two']))) . "' WHERE key_field = " . intval($_POST['key_field') . " "); $vbulletin->input->clean_array_gpc('p', array( 'field_one' => TYPE_STR, 'field_two' => TYPE_NOHTML, 'key_field' => TYPE_INT )); /* This value can be accessed either by $cleanedvar or $vbulletin->GPC['field_one'] */ $cleanedvar =& $vbulletin->input->clean_gpc('p', 'field_one', TYPE_STR); $db->query_write(" UPDATE " . TABLE_PREFIX . "table SET field_one = '" . $db->escape_string($vbulletin->GPC['field_one']) . "', field_two = '" . $db->escape_string($vbulletin->GPC['field_two']) . "', WHERE key_field = " . $vbulletin->GPC['key_field'] . " ");
Boolean Function Return Values |
function is_three($var) { if ($var == 3) { return 1; } else { return 0; } } function is_three($var) { if ($var == 3) { return true; } else { return false; } }
if ($var === TRUE) if ($var === true)
AND/and/&& OR/or/|| etc. |
if ($var1 && $var2 || $var3) if ($var1 and $var2 or $var3) if ($var1 AND $var2 OR $var3)
foreach($array AS $key => $val)
{
// do something
}
Commenting Code |
// this is a single line comment
// this is a short comment that tells
// you something about the following code
/*
this is a long comment
and it
goes on
for several
lines...
*/
$var = 0; // initialize $var if ($var) // check $var // initialize $var $var = 0; // check $var if ($var)
if ($var)
{
// $var is true so do the following code
echo $var;
}
require_once('./global.php');
// #############################################################################
if (empty($_REQUEST['do']))
{
$_REQUEST['do'] = 'modify';
}
// #############################################################################
if ($_REQUEST['do'] == 'edit')
{
// do edit code
}
// #############################################################################
// lists items in a table
if ($_REQUEST['do'] == 'modify')
{
// do modify code
}
// ###################### Start is_something ######################
function is_something($var)
{
return iif($var, true, false);
}
// ###################### Start fetch_uppercase ######################
function fetch_uppercase($var)
{
return strtoupper($var);
}
Variable Comparison etc. |
if (empty($array)) // false if $array is populated
if ($string == '') // true if $string has no contents
if ($integer) // true if $integer is not 0
if (!$integer) // true if $integer is 0
if ($boolean) // true if $boolean is true
if (!$boolean) // true if $boolean is false
if ($boolean === true) // true if $boolean is 'true', false if $boolean is a true integer
if ($integer !== 0) // true if $integer is not 0, false if $integer is 'true'
$integer = 0;
if ($integer == '') // will return true
$string = '';
if ($string == 0) // will return true
$string = '0';
if ($string == '') // will return false
SQL Query Syntax |
$db->query_read('SELECT field FROM ' . TABLE_PREFIX . 'table ORDER BY field'); $db->query_read("SELECT field FROM " . TABLE_PREFIX . "table ORDER BY field");
$db->query_read("SELECT COUNT(*) AS records, SUM(field_one) AS total FROM " . TABLE_PREFIX . "table");
$results = $db->query_read("SELECT field_one, field_two, field_three, IF(field_four = 'Yes', 1, 0) AS field_four, FROM " . TABLE_PREFIX . "table_one AS table_one LEFT JOIN " . TABLE_PREFIX . "table_two As table_two USING(field_one) WHERE table_one.field_two IN('bla bla bla', 'moo moo moo') ORDER BY table_one.field_one DESC LIMIT 5,10"); $results = $db->query_read(" SELECT field_one, field_two, field_three, IF(field_four = 'Yes', 1, 0) AS field_four, FROM " . TABLE_PREFIX . "table_one AS table_one LEFT JOIN " . TABLE_PREFIX . "table_two As table_two USING(field_one) WHERE table_one.field_two IN('bla bla bla', 'moo moo moo') ORDER BY table_one.field_one DESC LIMIT 5,10 ");
$results = $db->query_read("
SELECT field_one, field_two
FROM " . TABLE_PREFIX . "table AS table
WHERE field_one IN(3,4,5)
AND field_two <> ''
AND field_three = 'something'
ORDER BY field_one
");
$db->query_first("SELECT something FROM table WHERE tableid = '$numericvar'"); $db->query_first("SELECT something FROM table WHERE tableid = '" . intval(numericvar) . "'"); $db->query_first("SELECT something FROM table WHERE tableid = " . intval($numericvar)); $numericvar = intval($numericvar); $db->query_first("SELECT something FROM table WHERE tableid = $numericvar");
$db->query_write(" ALTER TABLE " . TABLE_PREFIX . "table ADD field_four SMALLINT(5) UNSIGNED NOT NULL, ADD field_five INT(10) UNSIGNED NOT NULL "); $db->query_write(" ALTER TABLE " . TABLE_PREFIX . "table ADD field_four SMALLINT UNSIGNED NOT NULL, ADD field_five INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL ");
$db->query_write(" ALTER TABLE " . TABLE_PREFIX . "table ADD field_six INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL AFTER field_five "); $db->query_write(" ALTER TABLE " . TABLE_PREFIX . "table ADD field_six INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL ");
$db->query_write("
INSERT INTO " . TABLE_PREFIX . "table
(field_one, field_two, field_three)
VALUES
(1, 2, 'moo'),
(1, 2, 'baa'),
(3, 5, 'quack')
");
$db->query_write(" INSERT INTO " . TABLE_PREFIX . "table VALUES (1, 'one', 'some text') "); $db->query_write(" INSERT INTO " . TABLE_PREFIX . "table (field_one, field_two, field_three) VALUES (1, 'one', 'some text') ");
$db->query_write(" INSERT INTO " . TABLE_PREFIX . "table (auto_increment_field, field_two) VALUES (NULL, 'texty bits') "); $db->query_write(" INSERT INTO " . TABLE_PREFIX . "table (field_two) VALUES ('texty bits') ");
'Do' Branch Naming |
if (empty($_REQUEST['do']))
{
// set default branch for this script
$_REQUEST['do'] = 'modify';
}
// #############################################################################
if ($_POST['do'] == 'kill')
{
// 'kill'
// run code to remove item in database
}
// #############################################################################
if ($_REQUEST['do'] == 'delete')
{
// 'delete'
// display delete confirmation message
}
// #############################################################################
if ($_POST['do'] == 'insert')
{
// 'insert'
// run code to insert new item into database
}
// #############################################################################
if ($_REQUEST['do'] == 'add')
{
// 'add'
// display form to add new item
}
// #############################################################################
if ($_POST['do'] == 'update')
{
// 'update'
// run code to update item in database
}
// #############################################################################
if ($_REQUEST['do'] == 'edit')
{
// 'edit'
// display form to edit item
}
// #############################################################################
if ($_REQUEST['do'] == 'modify')
{
// 'modify'
// show default branch for this script
}
If a script contains branches to edit/add/delete more than a single item type (such as template.php containing script to modify both styles and templates), then you should suffix the kill/delete/insert/add/update/edit branch names with the item type.
if ($_REQUEST['do'] == 'edittemplate')
{
// show form to edit a template
}
// #############################################################################
if ($_REQUEST['do'] == 'editstyle')
{
// show form to edit a style
}
if ($_REQUEST['do'] == 'rebuildstylecache')
{
// rebuild style cache
}
// #############################################################################
if ($_REQUEST['do'] == 'updatetemplateparentlists')
{
// update template parent lists
}
// if (empty($_REQUEST['do']))
// if ($_REQUEST['do'] == 'rebuildstylecache')
// if ($_POST['do'] == 'killstyle')
// if ($_REQUEST['do'] == 'deletestyle')
// if ($_POST['do'] == 'insertstyle')
// if ($_REQUEST['do'] == 'addstyle')
// if ($_POST['do'] == 'updatestyle')
// if ($_REQUEST['do'] == 'editstyle')
// if ($_REQUEST['do'] == 'updatetemplateparentlists')
// if ($_POST['do'] == 'killtemplate')
// if ($_REQUEST['do'] == 'deletetemplate')
// if ($_POST['do'] == 'inserttemplate')
// if ($_REQUEST['do'] == 'addtemplate')
// if ($_POST['do'] == 'updatetemplate')
// if ($_REQUEST['do'] == 'edittemplate')
// if ($_REQUEST['do'] == 'modify')
Function Naming |
Custom function names should be all lower-case and should use underscores to separate words.
$var2 = issomething($var1); $var2 = isSomething($var2); $var2 = is_something($var1);
Group Prefix | Group Explanation | Example Functions |
print_ | Functions that directly print out code to the browser or output buffer via echo or print statements. |
|
construct_ | Functions that return variables containing HTML for later printing. |
|
is_ contains_ | Functions that return true/false based on conditions. |
|
can_ | Functions that return true/false based on permissions. |
|
verify_ | Functions that check conditions and directly drop out to an error message if certain conditions are met. |
|
convert_ | Functions that convert the input variable from one data format to another. |
|
cache_ | Functions that read data from the database (usually) and create PHP cache variables to lighten the SQL load. |
|
fetch_ | Functions that return arrays / strings / integers etc. If the data type to be returned is not explicit in the function name (such as fetch_template, fetch_userinfo etc.) then specify the type of data in the function name, such as fetch_template_update_sql, fetch_replaced_session_url, fetch_reminders_array etc. |
|
process_ | Functions that perform actions upon an array in order to prepare it for later reference. |
|
build_ | Functions that save data back to the database for later retrieval, such as caching birthdays into the datastore, rebuilding the style table etc. |
|
delete_ | Functions that delete something from the database. |
|
undelete_ | Functions that reverse a soft deletion. |
|
import_ | Functions from the bbimport system that take an array of data and insert it as a post/thread/user (etc.) record into the database. |
|
sanitize_ | Functions that make perform actions on the input parameters in order to make them safe for the next step, such as removing illegal characters, checking that a date is valid, that a $perpage value makes sense etc. |
|
parse_ | Functions that initialize the bbcode parsing process in some way. |
|
handle_ | Functions that are called by the bbcode parser to deal with a particular bbcode type. |
|
file_ | Functions that deal directly with the filesystem. |
|
log_ | Functions that append to one of vBulletin's logs. |
|
exec_ | Functions that actually perform an action rather than returning something. |
|
sort_ | Functions that sort data. |
|
strip_ | Functions that strip elements from strings |
|
xml_ | Functions that work to read or output XML. |
|
vb_ vb | Functions that replace built-in PHP functions with vBulletin replacements designed to extend functionality or otherwise alter the behavior of the built-in function. If the original function name contains underscores, prefix with 'vb_' otherwise prefix with 'vb'. |
|
js_ | Javascript functions defined within the PHP code (rather than being in one of the .js files). |
|
Data Managers |
Data managers allow rapid integration of vBulletin-specific data structures and data constraints into additional code (such as used with the product manager) or third-party applications. With only a few lines of code, you can use the data managers to create new threads and posts, users, and more.
As of this writing, vBulletin has the following data managers:
- Administrators
- Attachments
- Calendar Events
- Forums
- Moderators
- Private Messages
- Polls
- Poll Votes
- Posts
- Threads
- Threads with a Post
- Thread Ratings
- Users
- User Pictures (Avatars/Profile Pictures)
Programming with a Data Manager |
Note:
PHP experience is assumed here. You should understand procedural programming as well as have a handle on object-oriented programming.
- Create the data manager object.
- If you are updating an existing record, set the existing data.
- Set the values for the fields you wish to change.
- Depending on the error handling method chosen, check for errors and abort the save if errors are found.
- Save the updated/new data.
Note:
The code snippets below assume you are within the vBulletin environment already. They will need access to various vBulletin files, such as includes/functions.php and includes/class_core.php, and vBulletin data, such as $vbulletin.
1 | Creating the data manager object To create the data manager, you need to call the datamanager_init function, defined in functions.php. datamanager_init($classtype, &$registry, $errtype = ERRTYPE_STANDARD, $forcefile = '') Arguments are as follows:
Example usage:
$dataman =& datamanager_init('Thread', $vbulletin, ERRTYPE_ARRAY, 'threadpost');
|
2 | Setting the existing data (if necessary) If you are using the data managers to insert a new record into the database, you do not need to perform this step. However, if you are updating an existing record (eg, editing a post), this step is mandatory. To set the existing data, you must call the set_existing method of the data manager object. set_existing(&$existing) The $existing is an array of data that is currently stored in the database. It should include all the fields this data manager handles as keys. For example, the array passed into the user data manager would have a structure similar to this:
$existing = array(
The data passed into this function often comes from functions such as fetch_userinfo or fetch_threadinfo. This function does not return a value. Example usage:
$dataman->set_existing($vbulletin->userinfo);
|
3 | Setting the values for data you wish to change Most of your time spent dealing with data managers will be spent in this step. Each piece of data that is known must be set individually via one of several method calls. These calls will verify the validity of the data before using it to save the changes. set($fieldname, $value, $clean = true, $doverify = true) setr($fieldname, &$value, $clean = true, $doverify = true) The functions set and setr are identical except that the second argument is passed by-reference in setr and by-value in set.
Example usage:
$dataman->set('username', 'Admin');
set_bitfield($fieldname, $bitname, $onoff)
Example usage:
$dataman->set_bitfield('options', 'receivepm', true);
|
4 | Checking for errors before saving (if necessary) If you are using an error handler which does not stop execution, you will likely want to ensure that there are no errors up until the exact point at which the saving occurs. If you are using the ERRTYPE_ARRAY error handler, this is almost required since if errors have occurred, a PHP fatal error will occur. The first thing you need to do is call the pre_save method. This does any last minute data verification and anything else necessary before saving. This method can throw additional errors, so you need to call this explicitly if you are using an error handler that does not stop execution. The save method will call this automatically, so if you are using an execution-stopping error handler, you do not need to bother with this. Once this method has been called, you need to check to see if the $errors member is an empty array. If it is empty, then no errors have occurred and you may proceed with the save. If it is not empty, the array will consist of strings listing each of the errors; these are generally ready to be displayed to a user. Example code would look like this:
$dataman->pre_save();
|
5 | Saving the updated/new data The final step is to save the data. This is simply done by calling the save method of the data manager object. The save method does not need any arguments. The value this function returns varies depending on certain criteria:
// inserting a new user
|
Data Manager Example |
// init user datamanager class
$userdata =& datamanager_init('User', $vbulletin, ERRTYPE_ARRAY);
// check for matching email addresses
if ($vbulletin->GPC['email'] != $vbulletin->GPC['emailconfirm'])
{
$userdata->error('emailmismatch');
}
// set email
$userdata->set('email', $vbulletin->GPC['email']);
$userdata->set('username', $vbulletin->GPC['username']);
// check referrer
if ($vbulletin->GPC['referrername'] AND !$vbulletin->userinfo['userid'])
{
$userdata->set('referrerid', $vbulletin->GPC['referrername']);
}
// Set specified options
if (!empty($vbulletin->GPC['options']))
{
foreach ($vbulletin->GPC['options'] AS $optionname => $onoff)
{
$userdata->set_bitfield('options', $optionname, $onoff);
}
}
// ... additional data setting ...
$userdata->pre_save();
// check for errors
if (!empty($userdata->errors))
{
$errorlist = '';
foreach ($userdata->errors AS $index => $error)
{
$errorlist .= "<li>$error</li>";
}
// ... additional code; $errorlist is outputted to the user
}
else
{
// save the data
$vbulletin->userinfo['userid']
= $userid
= $userdata->save();
// ... additional processing code
}
Advanced Data Manager Techniques |
Using set_info to modify certain behaviors
Each data manager has built in functionality that it provides and default checks that it makes. Some of these data checks do not apply in all cases. Consider a user making a new post very shortly after making another post (so he or she would be stopped by the flood check). The thread/post data manager includes the checks to prevent flooding, so normally it would throw an error here. However, if the user decided to preview the post instead of submitting it, they should see their post instead of an error about the flood check. Calling set_info allows you to set a value to bypass that check, allowing the user to see their post instead of an error.
set_info($fieldname, $value)
setr_info($fieldname, &$value)
The set functions, the only difference between set_info and setr_info is with how the second argument is passed (by-value versus by-reference).These functions return nothing.
- $fieldname - the name of the info field you are setting. This is arbitrary and each data manager contains it's own list of info fields it uses.
- $value - the value that you are setting the field to. No verification is done on the data submitted.
The info fields used by a data manager are unrelated to the data fields used by the set and setr functions. Values set by set_info will not be saved to the database.
Each data manager has a unique list of info fields that it uses. These can be found be looking for references to $this->info within the data manager code. Info fields are generally used in two situations:Example usage:
- As a Boolean value, to control whether a certain section of code is run, such as the preview example discussed above. However, many sections of code do not have options attached to them; they will always be executed.
- As an array of extra data that the data manager can use but does not need. A good example occurs in the thread data manager. It accepts an array of info about the forum that the thread is being posted in. If you provide this information, the forum's last post time and other data will be updated; if you do not provide this information, nothing will be updated at the forum level.
$dataman->set_info('preview', true);
$foruminfo = fetch_foruminfo(1);
$dataman->set_info('forum', $foruminfo);
Using error callbacks for advanced behavior if an error occurs
One rarely used data manager feature allows you to call any function you wish just as an error occurs. You can invoke this feature by calling the set_failure_callback method of a data manager. This function takes only one argument, a callback. A callback is either a string that is the name of the function to call, or an array with 2 entries: a reference to an object and a string naming the method to call. Please see the PHP manual for more information on callbacks.
The function or object-method pair passed to set_failure_callback will need to accept the following as its arguments:Note that the names of the variables received by this function are up to you; these are simply recommendations.
- &$dm - a reference to the data manager that caused the error. This allows you to read data out of the data manager and do additional processing. Note that the last entry in $dm->errors is the phrased version of the error that triggered this function call.
- $errorphrase - this is the name of the phrase describing this error. It has not be changed into the browsing user's language.
While this functionality is not necessarily required, it can make it easier to perform certain operations. For example, you are doing some additional updates after you've inserted the main data, and these updates may fail but very rarely. If they fail, you want the newly inserted data to be removed. This is possible to do with an error callback.
An example in vBulletin combines the moderator and user data managers. It is possible to use the moderator data manager to tell the user data manager to update a specific user's user group. However, if that use if the last administrator, the user group updates might fail. The code to do this follows.This code undoes the moderator insert if the user can't be updated and then displays an error.// this takes place within the moderator data manager
function post_save_each()
{
// ...
$userdata =& datamanager_init('User', $this->registry, ERRTYPE_CP);
// ...
$userdata->set_failure_callback(array(&$this, 'update_user_failed_insert'));
if ($update_usergroupid)
{
$userdata->set('usergroupid', $this->info['usergroupid']);
$userdata->set('displaygroupid', $this->info['usergroupid']);
}
// ...
$userdata->save();
}
function update_user_failed_insert(&$user)
{
$this->condition = 'moderatorid = ' . $this->fetch_field('moderatorid');
$this->delete();
$this->condition = '';
$this->errors = array_merge($this->errors, $user->errors);
}
Structure of the $validfields member
The most important aspect of each data manager is the $validfields member. This is an array that controls:The $validfields array is structured very specifically. The key is the name of the field you are controlling (userid, username, etc). The value is another array, consisting of 2 to 4 values itself:
- What data the data manager accepts
- How important the data is (is it required? is it be generated automatically?)
- The data's type (integer, string, etc)
- How the data is verified
Note that keys in this second array are not explicitly specified.
- Data's type - this is the type the data will be cleaned to. This should be one of the constants defined for the input cleaner. Commonly used values are TYPE_STR (string), TYPE_INT (integer), and TYPE_UINT, though there are more types that you can use.
- Data required - this controls whether this field must be set for the data to be valid and savable. If you make a field required and the code does not set it before inserting, an error will be thrown. There are 4 possible values:
REQ_YES - the field is required
REQ_NO - the field is not required
REQ_AUTO - the field can be automatically generated. The does not have any effect on code execution at this time. This is appropriate for things like post times that can be reasonably guessed before inserting the new data. (You will still need to write code to generate the appropriate value!)
REQ_INCR - this field is an AUTO_INCREMENT field in the database, and thus will be automatically generated upon insertion.
- Verification method (optional) - this controls how the data is verified as being valid. This value can be used in three ways:
Not set - if you do not set this value in the array, the no verification will be done on the data.
The constant VF_METHOD - if you set this value to VF_METHOD, a function will be called to verify the data. The name of that function depends on the fourth value in this array. If you do not specify the fourth value, the function that is called is $this->verify_[fieldname]() (eg, $this->verify_userid()). The fourth value of the array overrides the function name.
A string which will be evaluated as code - finally, if you set this field to any value other than VF_METHOD it will be treated as PHP code. Before your code completes, it should return true or false. The value being tested for validity is available in $data and the data manager that called the code is available in $dm.
- Verification method override (optional) - this applies only if you set the third value to VF_METHOD. You may then use this value to override the name of the function called. The function called will be $this->[value]().
An example of a $validfields array:The following section will describe how you can use hooks to add valid fields to the data manager without modifying the source code directly.// ... this is within a data manager
var $validfields = array(
'forumid' => array(TYPE_UINT, REQ_INCR, VF_METHOD, 'verify_nonzero'),
'title' => array(TYPE_STR, REQ_YES, VF_METHOD),
'title_clean' => array(TYPE_STR, REQ_YES),
'threadcount' => array(TYPE_UINT, REQ_NO),
'daysprune' => array(TYPE_INT, REQ_AUTO, 'if ($data == 0) { $data = -1; } return true;'),
// ...
);
Using hooks to modify and extend existing data managers
One of the most exciting additions to vBulletin in version 3.5 is the idea of a plugin system and hooks. For more information on this system, please see here.Hooks are provided at four distinct places in most data managers. Each location allows you to accomplish specific functionaliy that cannot easily be done by the other locations. The hooks are named in a consistent fashion. They prefixed by a short word representing the data managed, followed by "data_", followed by a suffix tying the hook to a specific location. Two examples of hooks are attachdata_start and userdata_presave.Warning:Using the plugin system to modify the default vBulletin code can cause significant problems with your board. Any modifications you make via the plugin system cannot be supported. Please turn off the plugin system before requesting support!While most data managers have just these four hooks, some vary slightly. For example, some do not have the delete hook because they do not support deletion operations. Others are more complex and have additional hooks. Specific discussions of these variations are beyond the scope of this document.
- Constructor (*data_start) - this is called when the data manager object is created. If you wish to modify $validfields, this is the hook you'd use. Remember that you should append values onto the array to avoid overwriting the existing values.
If you need data verification and are only working with hooks, you will not be able to use the VF_METHOD constant. You will need to put all the verification code into a string as the third argument in the array or use a trick like the following code demonstrates. This code would be placed within the appropriate *data_start hook.// adding a field without data verification
$this->validfields['myfield1'] = array(TYPE_STR, REQ_NO);
// adding a field with all data verification inline
$this->validfields['myfield2'] = array(
TYPE_INT,
REQ_YES,
'if ($data % 2 == 0)
{
$dm->error("myfield2_is_even");
return false;
}
else
{
return true;
}'
);
// adding a field with data verification outside
// note: instead of defining the function here,
// you could put it in an outside file and include it
if (!function_exists('dm_verify_myfield3'))
{
function dm_verify_myfield3(&$data, &$dm)
{
// remove anything but a-z
$data = preg_replace('#[^a-z]#i', '', $data);
if (strtolower($data{0}) != 'z')
{
$dm->error('myfield3_does_not_begin_with_z');
return false;
}
else
{
// note that when this field gets saved,
// it will be saved with everything but
// a-z already removed
return true;
}
}
}
$this->validfields['myfield3'] = array(TYPE_STR, REQ_NO, 'return dm_verify_myfield3($data, $dm);');
- Pre-save (*data_presave) - this is called just before the data is saved, in the pre_save method. This allows you to do any last minute data checks (which is useful when you have two pieces of data which interact) or for generating fields which have not been but can be reasonably guessed.
Since the data has yet to be confirmed as valid, you should not save any changes into the database here.
- Post-save (*data_postsave) - this is called just after the data is saved, in the post_save_each method. This allows you to update any additional data based on the changes made.
For example, you may have created an additional table in the database which relies on the user name being correct. You could check if the username had changed and update your table appropriately:if (!$this->condition)
{
// inserting a new user, so insert into your table
}
else if ($this->user['username'])
{
// changing the username, so update your table
}
- Delete (*data_delete) - this is called just after the data is deleted, in the post_delete method. This is similar to the hook called post-save, except it is called while deleting a record with the data manager. Continuing the example from post-save, when a user is deleted, you should remove the associated record from your table.
Appendix: ImpEx Import System |
There are three tiers of importer systems within ImpEx, check to see which one your system falls into
Planning the import |
The three most important things to do now are:
Note:
- LEAVE THE ORIGINAL BOARD RUNNING UNTIL YOU HAVE READ THIS AND DONE SOME TEST IMPORTS.
- Back up your target database.
- Read the rest of this manual for importing.
- Testing an import before shutting down the source forum is the best way to go.
- There will probably be some residual HTML from the content that will need cleaning up afterwards, which is part of the import task and process, not a function of the support team.
- The links within the forum to other threads/posts/users will be imported, and link to the old board. A 301/404 solution will need to be put in place if that is a concern.
Before the import |
Warning:
LEAVE THE ORIGINAL BOARD RUNNING UNTLL YOU HAVE READ THIS AND DONE A FEW TEST IMPORTS
"I've turned my board off and done an import and it didn't work 100% correctly first time, my users are upset, fix it now"
Isn't really the best way of getting a board imported.
Right, on we go.
Make a back up of your source board and do the initial trial run import from that, not the live board.
ImpEx only ever reads from a source board it will never alter source data. Though running an import against source data that is being updated can have some strange outcomes for the import as well as the source board, also it will cause a lot of load on the source boards database and could impair the performance of your source boards community.
Setting up |
The vBulletin license allows you to have a development board installed for the purposes of development and testing. Practicing an import is a good use of this.
Copy your source data to the same machine that your development vBulletin is installed, be that a database (i.e. phpBB) or the files (i.e. ubb.classic).
This is so you can create a testing environment to run the importer and make a note of what needs to be done before during and after the real import.
From running test imports like this you can configure the cleaner script and measure your timings, both of these will speed up your final transition.
Attachments |
Installing ImpEx |
Downloading the ImpEx Package |
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 vB3 Importers 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 ImpEx package.
You can choose from the following options:
- PHP File Extension
As a general rule, web servers will use .php as the extension for PHP scripts, but some servers may use a different extension, or you may simply wish to use a different extension out of your own preference. Various extensions are available here for you to choose. - Download File Format
This option allows you to choose the compression format of the package you are about to download. Most people will want to download the .zip package as Windows® has in-built support for zip files. However, if you are downloading the package directly to a Linux server you may prefer to use the tarball (.tar.gz) format. - CGI Shebang
This option will only be of use to you if your server runs PHP as a CGI rather than as a web server module. If your server runs PHP as a CGI and requires a shebang (such as #!/usr/bin/php) then you can enter the required text here and it will automatically be inserted into whichever PHP files in vBulletin require its use.
The package will then be downloaded and saved to the location you specified.
Preparing the ImpEx files for upload |
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 ImpEx 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 ImpEx_versionnum_licensenum (where versionnum is the version number of the package you have downloaded, and licensenum is the license number of your vBulletin license).
Within this folder you will find a further folder named licensenum.impex, and within this folder will be a collection of readme files and a folder called upload. This folder contains the ImpEx files that need to be uploaded to your web server.
However, before you upload the files you must make some changes to the ImpEx configuration file. This file is located in the impex folder (within the upload folder) and is called ImpExConfig.php.new.
The first thing you must do is to rename this file from ImpExConfig.php.new to ImpExConfig.php (removing the temporary .new extension).
It is also best to only upload the systems modules that you want to import from. There are over 70 importers and ImpEx will only use the systems that you need. In the impex/systems folder you will see many folders that contain the individual importers, if you are only importing from phpBB2, then only upload that folder.
Editing the ImpEx Configuration File |
To edit the ImpExConfig.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 ImpExConfig.php, as Notepad has problems displaying the line breaks in some file types.)The settings in this file need to be edited in order to create a working configuration file. These settings are devided in two groups. The target* and the source*:
Target Database Information (Into which database do we import?)
If you have ImpEx installed correctly and are running it via the admincp, you can ignore the target settings go to the source. This is because ImpEx will read you vBulletin config file.
$impexconfig['target']['databasetype'] | Enter the type of database here, currently this can only be mysql |
$impexconfig['target']['server'] | 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. |
$impexconfig['target']['user'] | This variable contains the username provided to you by your host for connecting to your database server. |
$impexconfig['target']['password'] | The password that accompanies the database username should be entered here. |
$impexconfig['target']['database'] | This value should be altered to state the name of the database that will contain your vBulletin installation on the database server. |
$impexconfig['target']['tableprefix'] | If your vBulletin installation uses a prefix on the tables, set it here. |
$impexconfig['sourceexists'] | If the system that is being imported from uses a database, enter the details for it here and set 'sourceexists' to TRUE. If the source data is NOT stored in a database, set 'sourceexists' to FALSE. |
$impexconfig['source']['databasetype'] | Enter the type of database here, usually this is mysql. If you are importing from a MS-SQL database, you will need MS-SQL support in PHP |
$impexconfig['source']['server'] | This sets the address of database server from which you want to import data from. 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', if this database is hosted on another domain use the address of the database server as supplied by your web host. If you are attempting to import from a remote server (i.e. you have just moved hosts) ensure that the database will allow remote connections. Other wise you will need to back up the source database and restore it on your new server so it is local. |
$impexconfig['source']['user'] | This variable contains the username provided to you by your host for connecting to your database server. |
$impexconfig['source']['password'] | The password that accompanies the database username should be entered here. |
$impexconfig['source']['database'] | This value should be altered to state the name of the database that contains your other forum software data on the database server. |
$impexconfig['source']['tableprefix'] | If that database uses a prefix for the tables, set it here. |
Note:
Please note that Jelsoft / vBulletin Support can not provide the values you require for your database(s). 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.
If you need to create a new database for vBulletin to use, instructions for doing so in a variety of systems are available here.
The language is the language file that is used for the display of text, English, German, etc.
The page speed is the seconds of wait between the page refresh when automatically refreshing. Setting a longer time will help with network lag and server load.
The defines are typical settings that are changed for problem imports :
Defines for special cases (What do we want to turn off/on ?)
impexdebug | Prints out to the screen any debug added to an install of ImpEx. |
emailcasesensitive | When matching emails in the user module (user merge), this forces the matching to be case sensitive or not (follwing the RFC strictly, emails should be case sensitive, for the vast majority of the time, this isn't the case). |
forcesqlmode | Some MySQL servers that have MYSQL_STRICT mode, will not accept a lot of the ImpEx SQL as it currently uses the database defaults and not a value for even field, this attempts to override that setting by passing the SQL ' set sql_mode = '' ' |
skipparentids | The last set of updating post is setting the parent id's for the imported posts if they don't have one. This can be (and usually is) very intensive due to the amount of SQL used. The number of queries run is the number of threads times two, plus one. Though this is very effected by the number of posts as usually the post table has to be scanned (MySQL intensive). Sometimes due to the load on larger boards the final page of the import posts can time out, setting this define to true will skip that all together. The load and bottle neck here is a know issue and being looked at. |
ImpExConfig.php |
Note:
The config file has changed from an ini file to a PHP scripts in 3.5 the same as the standard vBulletin config file.
<?php
#################################################################### |;
# vBulletin [#]version[#] - Licence Number [#]license[#]
# ---------------------------------------------------------------- # |;
# Copyright ©2000–[#]year[#] Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd. All Rights Reserved. |;
# 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 # |;
#################################################################### |;
# The following settings allow ImpEx to connect to the vBulletin 3
# database into which you will be importing data.
# If impex is installed in vBulletin you can ignore the target details
# as includes/config.php
$impexconfig['target']['databasetype'] = 'mysql';
$impexconfig['target']['server'] = 'localhost';
$impexconfig['target']['user'] = 'username';
$impexconfig['target']['password'] = 'password';
$impexconfig['target']['database'] = 'vbulletin_forum';
$impexconfig['target']['tableprefix'] = '';
# If the system that is being imported from uses a database,
# enter the details for it here and set 'sourceexists' to TRUE.
# If the source data is NOT stored in a database, set 'sourceexists' to FALSE
$impexconfig['sourceexists'] = false;
# mysql / mssql
$impexconfig['source']['databasetype'] = 'mysql';
$impexconfig['source']['server'] = 'localhost';
$impexconfig['source']['user'] = 'username';
$impexconfig['source']['password'] = 'password';
$impexconfig['source']['database'] = 'source';
$impexconfig['source']['tableprefix'] = '';
# Error logging will log import errors to a database table impexerror
# for use with support.
# Language file is the file of phrases to be used, default is english.
# pagespeed is the second(s) wait before the page refreshes.
$impexconfig['system']['errorlogging'] = true;
$impexconfig['system']['language'] = 'impex/impex_language.php';
$impexconfig['system']['pagespeed'] = 1;
define('impexdebug', false);
define('emailcasesensitive', false);
define('forcesqlmode', false);
define('skipparentids', false);
?>
Uploading ImpEx Scripts to Your Web Server |
Note:
Installing ImpEx in vBulletin requires the impex/ directory to be installed in the same directory as the admincp (i.e., your main forum directory) and the file cpnav_impex.xml (which can be found in upload/includes/xml) to be placed in the includes/xml directory. This because the admincp is generated from XML and needs the ImpEx XML to display the import option.
Although there are several methods available to transfer the ImpEx 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.
The easiest way to transfer the files is to upload the entire upload/ folder to the server. Using an FTP client we do this by selecting or dragging the upload folder from its location on your computer's hard disk to the web publishing folder on the server. If the transfer doesn't automaticly start, click on the button.
Note:
Only upload the folders in the impex/systems folder that you need, i.e. the system you are importing from. If you upload all of them, delete the ones you are not going to use/
- All text files to be transferred in ASCII mode
All files containing plain text from the vBulletin package should be transferred in ASCII mode.
Text file types you will find in vBulletin/ImpEx are: .html, .php, .js, .xml, .css. - All non-text files to be transferred in Binary mode
The remaining files, which are mostly images, should be transferred to your web server in Binary mode.
Binary file types used in vBulletin/ImpEx include: .gif, .png, .jpg, .ico.
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. Upload the ImpEx folder inside the installed vBulletin version 3 folder. Like public_html/forum/impex/
Once you have uploaded the whole impex/ directory, copy the cpnav_impex.xml file found in upload/impex/ to the includes/xml directory on your server.
If all has gone well, you are now ready to run the impex import script to prepare your third party forum software database import to vBulletin version 3.5.
Warning:
Before you do anything! Always make a 100% backup of your web files and database(s) to ensure you can revert to previous working version.
How to Use ImpEx |
Please note that the ImpEx system is written for version 3.5.0 and higher.
Now that you have installed ImpEx and selected the system to import from you are ready to do the actual import
Warning:
This is your last chance to back up your target database
Introduction to the ImpEx core System |
It comprises of a set of core files, being all the ones in the impex/ folder.
All the folders in the impex/systems folder are the individual systems that ImpEx can import from.
Importing a board |
Warning:
Make sure you have a 100% completed and working backup of your currently working forums (files and databases). If needed, you can revert back to your previously working version and start over again
001 - Check and Update Database | This module will check and alter the tables in the databases as well as the connections. After clicking on the ImpEx will Alter the tables in the vB database (target) to include import id numbers. (This is needed during the import process for maintaining references between the tables during an import.) If you have large tables (i.e. lots of posts) this can take some time. They will also be left after the import if you need to link back to the original vBulletin userid. | button it check the database for the tables it expects to find, you should see a green list of you source database tables, and tables listed in red are expected by the importer and missing, you import may still run as not all tables are used during an import, though if critical tables (i.e. the user table) are missing then this will break an import.
002 - Associate users | You only need to run this module if you have users existing in the vBulletin database that you wish to merge with users in the source database during the import that have different email addresses. If you are doing a clean import then skip this module. |
To start the import click on the button and when that module has been completed, the statistics will update and the name of the button will change.
Re-running modules |
For instance if you run the import post module for a phpBB import for the first time, it will import all the post from the phpBB board and place them in the vBulletin database.
All the posts will have a importpostid which is the original post id of the post in the phpBB board. Any original post from the vBulletin board before the import will have no importpostid, as they are original.
So when the module is run for a second time (another practice run, you change some setting, updated a parser, got more posts, etc) it will delete all posts from the vBulletin board that have an importpostid.
This is useful for getting timings or re-running modules that had issues that you have changed or updated.
Warning:
If you have associated or merged users, the original vBulletin users will now have a importuserid, re-running the import user module will delete these users, if you don't have any associated users this isn't an issue.
Final Import Steps |
Warning:
An import will only ever get a certain amount of information from a source board into vBulletin.
Always check the permissions of moderators and forums after an import as there may not be a one to one mapping from the source boards permissions to vBulletin's permissions system.
Admin CP -> Forums & Moderators -> Show All Moderators -> Edit
Admin CP -> Forums & Moderators -> Forum Permissions
Forum cache
To rebuild the forum cache so your imported forums appear, go to your forum manager and save the display.
Counters
Update the Threads and Forums counters after an import to reflect the true values for each forum and thread.
Admin CP -> Maintenance -> General Update Tools -> Rebuild Thread Information
Admin CP -> Maintenance -> General Update Tools -> Rebuild Forum Information
Default forum
If you are importing into a fresh install of vBulletin, you may want to delete the default forum, it is advised that you do this before the import, if you are doing it after the import make sure that the imported forums and threads are not contained with in the default forum as they will be removed also.
User groups
Most importers will import the usergroups or create a default import usergroup, this is so you can check the users being imported and manage them accordingly, to move users to the default Registered Users group in vBulletin, delete the import group they are in and all the users will be moved to the Registered Users group by default.
Even with a vBulletin to vBulletin import the groups are created again, this is so you can manage the new users accordingly, in some cases you will need to keep the new users separate depending on the nature of your community to manage them.
Be sure to double-check the main Usergroup permissions to make sure they match what you want:
Admin CP -> Usergroups -> Usergroup Manager -> Edit Usergroup
Search index
You will need to rebuild the search index if you want to be able to search on the imported posts.
Admin CP -> Maintenance -> General Update Tools -> Rebuild Search Index
Remove the ImpEx files
Once you have finished and completed an import and your site is up and running, delete all the ImpEx files, this will ensure that if you do another import in the future you will get the latest version, as you will have to download ImpEx again.
Secondly, its good house keeping to remove an application that has your database config details and direct access to your site from your server once you have finished using it.
Password |
Not all systems can import the source board's passwords; this is due to the nature in which they are stored. The details for each importer should list if they can be imported or not.
If you import from a system where the passwords can not be imported or there was an error importing the passwords you can use the email all users and send them the link to your boards password reset page when you are ready to go live.
That will allow them to reset their passwords, though it relies on them having the correct email address in their source boards user profile.
Users > Send Email to Users
For example:
Hello $username,
We have recently moved our forum to vBulletin, part of moving to this amazing software is that you are required to reset your password, if you follow this link and enter your email address you will be emailed directions to resetting your password.
http://www.example.com/forum/login.php?do=lostpw&email=$email
Thanks,
Webmaster of example.com
Now what ? |
Try the import a few times to make sure you are happy with the process and know what to do when the time comes.
This is the time to ask question here about things that you don't understand or believe are going wrong, not when you do the final live import !!Have some of your trusted users or admin/moderators look around the test import boards to help with finding any issues and pointing out permissions that need to be updated etc.
This is a good time to configure impex/tools/cleaner.php if you need to remove HTML or incorrect links from your vBulletin posts.
If you wish to remove the importid's from the database read about help.php.
Cleaner.php |
http://www.yoursite.com/impex/tools/cleaner.php
...using your forum URL of course.
ImpEx parses out as much HTML and incorrect BB code as it can find, though there can sometimes be unexpected HTML or codes in the posts.
To remove this you will need to use cleaner.php, the basic principle is that is matches one string and replaces it for another, or a blank to just delete the original string.
Once cleaner has been run successfully you must rebuild the Rebuild Post Cache in the AdminCP > Maintenance > Update Counters
The file itself has many comments and instructions though as an example, if I have the post :
Hi there, I was looking though the web and I found this site and I think it <B>r0x0rs</B> , its about pirates it must be good as they are the best.
<a href="http://www.example.com/badpage.html">advert</a>
There are three errors there, the <B> tags should be BB code, we want to remove the HTML completely and pirates should be ninjas, obviously.
In the script there is this code :
$replacer = array(
"<img>" => "[img]",
"" => "",
"" => "",
"" => "",
"" => ""
);
$replacer = array(
"<B>" => "[B]",
"pirates" => "ninjas",
'<a href="http://www.example.com/badpage.html">advert</a>' => ""
);
Help.php |
There are four options on the help page.
Cancel
To cancel and return to the import, click here.
Clicking on this will send you back to the ImpEx main page.
Delete Session
To delete the import session and continue with the import, click here.
This will remove the import session. The import session contains the state of the import, the page values, paths, system selected etc. Deleting this will effectually reset the import though it will not alter any imported data in the target database.
Delete Session and all imported data
To delete the import session and all imported data for a clean retry, click here.
This will delete the session, as described above, also it will delete all imported data in the target database. This will also include any associated users, as an associated user will be assigned and importuserid and will effectively be treated as an imported user.
Remove importids
To delete the importid's in the database, click here, also removes the session. This will allow you to do consecutive imports
This will remove the importid's from the tables that have been imported into, see this section for more information.
Remove duplicate forums/threads/posts
On occasion when a browser stalls or a page fails to load you will have to refresh the page, this will mean that duplicate items will be imported, as the page will rerun the SQL from the last page load.
The duplicate items will have the same import<item>id but they will have different id's within vBulletin due to the auto_inc field, because of that ImpEx can find items that have the same import id, but a different vBulletin id, i.e. :
Thread A : threadid = 1 importthreadid = 5.
Thread B : threadid = 2 importthreadid = 5.
B must be a duplicate.
Running this function on a database that has had multi-imports which hasn't been finalised between imports could possibly remove a large percentage of the previous import, so ensure you finalise multi-imports before performing consecutive ones.
Medium / Large imports |
Manually dropping the fulltext-index 'title' (title, 'pagetext') from the post table before the post module, then adding it after the import has been run can speed up the post module considerably.
ALTER TABLE `post` DROP INDEX `title`;
ALTER TABLE `post` ADD FULLTEXT `title` (`title` ,`pagetext`);
Display
Set the following in your ImpExConfig to lower the amount of display data sent to the browser.
define('shortoutput', true);
The estimates for a database based system, is that 200,000 is medium sized, over 750,000 posts is large.
The most important thing for ImpEx when dealing with medium or large imports is memory ImpEx needs to hold reference arrays when importing posts, i.e.
- userid to importuserid
- importthreadid to threadid
- userid to username
- forumid to importforumid
The bare minimum for a small import and running vBulletin is 8Meg, 16Meg is advised.
For a medium import 32-64Meg would be expected. For a large source board, its a sliding scale of how big your forum is, though 64Meg is a good setting to start with.
Changing the PHP memory limit requires access to you php.ini file and the ability to restart the webserver, if you do not have control of the webserver you may have to contact your ISP or find another server for the purposes of just doing the import.
dupe_checking
There is a setting in the ImpExConfig.php that enables and disables duplicate data checking, if you have a stable server and a fast connection where the pages are loading fine and there is no manual refreshing or back button use the setting this to false will increase the speed of the import.
Though if you need to or choose to run dupe checking, adding these indexes will help greatly :
ALTER TABLE `post` ADD INDEX `idx_importpostthread` ( `importpostid` , `importthreadid` )
ALTER TABLE `thread` ADD INDEX `idx_importthread` ( `importthreadid` )
ImpEx has the ability to run stand alone, i.e. not in the adminCP.
To do this, move the impex/ directory out of the forum/ folder i.e. If you are installed in
example.com/forum/
So you have :
example.com/forum/admincp/
example.com/forum/impex/
etc
Move ImpEx to the root folder so you have :
example.com/impex
Configure ImpExConfig.php for the target database information as it will not be able to read the vBulletin config file. Then browse to it directly e.g. www.example.com/impex/index.php.
This will lower the memory over head as it won't have to load inside the adminCP, also it will not time out within the admincp and will load slightly faster.
Quick Guide |
This is the procedure for testing and importing, always run tests before doing an import.
Get ImpEx
Down load ImpEx from the Members Area, here.
Config the file
In the downloaded archive there is a file ImpExConfig.php.new. Rename that to ImpExConfig.php and edited it's contents for the target and source details of the database. If the source is a file based system, just edit the target details.
Upload it
Upload the ImpEx folder with the newly edited ImpExConfig.php file to your webserver, into the same directory that the admincp is in, or in the webroot for a stand alone import
If you are running ImpEx installed youl have to put the cpnav_impex.xml file in the includes/xml directory for ImpEx to show in the adminCP. The file is in upload/includes/xml in the download.
Browse to it
Select the Import from the adminCP nav bar, then the system you want to from the drop down list.
Do import
Run the first module to inspect the source and alter the target database. If you are doing a clean import or the users you want to merge will have the same email addresses ignore module 002, which is for manual user id association.
Update counters
In the maintenance section of the adminCP, run the Update counters for the threads, then the forums. Re-order the forums and delete the default Main Forum if need be, then save the display order to rebuild the forum cache.
Clean up usergroups and forums
Setup the permissions for the usergroups, or delete the imported usergroups to move the users in those groups to the default Registered group.
cleaner.php
If you have HTML or unparsed content in your posts, you may need to use cleaner.php.
Review
Check over the board before opening it, get the help of some moderators or admins from the original site, to check users, posts, PM's etc.
Multiple imports. |
For instance a user will have a userid and a importuserid once they are imported. The userid is the vBulletin assigned userid and will be what ever is next in the line and available as per the database.
The importuserid is the userid from the source board.
This is imported and used to match the user to their imported posts, attachments PM's etc.
The same goes for posts for instance threadid has a importthreadid so that ImpEx knows where to put the imported posts.
When you have done an import and are completely finished and wish to do another import you will have to set all these import id's to 0.
This is so that you finalized the data in the board, that is remove its legacy id's so that it permanently becomes part of the target board, after this is done, there is no way back (apart from restoring the back up you made before starting).
As you can import into an empty board or an existing one, this has some serious implications. e.g.
You have a source board and your vBulletin target board.
The vBulletin target board has a lot of content, once you have performed an import of the source board you can still reverse the operation as the source database has importsomethingid's for all the imported data, therefore ImpEx can tell what is original and what is imported data, this is needed for the re-running of modules also.
As soon as you finishing an import, the import id's are no longer needed and serve no purpose, with one exception, that being 3rd party applications.
If you have an application that uses the user data from your source board, it will no doubt be associated with the userid from the source board, if you wish to keep that, update the 3rd party application to use the importuserid in the vBulletin database. Though vBulletin will not update the importuserid only the userid for new users so its best to update the 3rd party software with the new userid's.
So with the exception of 3rd party applications there is no more use for the import id's.
They can be ignored for all purposes save Importing consecutive boards and general tidiness (also indexes are created that may slow down huge boards slightly).
You MUST remove the import id's before performing a 2nd import, this is because ImpEx will not know what is original imported data and what is just imported etc.
If you are importing boards that use the same user data, just use the auto-email associate to link up the userids automatically between board imports.
To remove the import id's use the clean database found at the top of the ImpEx page, as show in the attached images.
Terminology |
Importing into an empty vBulletin, i.e. a fresh install.
Merge import
Importing into a board that contains data and users that exists on both boards. Most systems will have the ability to merge users on email address so the users in the target board gain ownership of the imported data.
Differential import
This is just terminology and not supported.
A differential import is when the source board is left open when imported into the target, and the user wishes to do a 2nd import at a later date to get the new data from the source board that has been created since the first import. i.e. the difference in the data.
Internal link parsing
This is currently under review for development.
Internal links are links that exists in posts in the source board, to threads and posts in the original source board i.e.
Note:
Check this link out ...
www.example.com/phpBB/viewtopic_84050.html
www.example.com/phpBB/viewtopic_84050.html
Internal link parsing, is finding all the links in posts that point to other posts and threads in the board being imported and updating them with the correct URL and postid/threadid, its not just the URL to change the id changes as well.
Source system
The system being imported from.
Target system
The system being imported to, vBulletin.
Stand alone
Running ImpEx outside of the adminCP.
ImpEx installed
Running ImpEx inside the adminCP.
Core
The core files that are needed for ImpEx to run :
ImpExConfig.php, ImpExController.php, ImpExData.php, ImpExDatabase.php, ImpExDisplay.php, ImpExDisplayWrapper.php, ImpExFunction.php, ImpExModule.php, ImpExSession.php, cpnav_impex.xml, db_mysql.php, help.php, impex_language.php, index.php,
vbfields.php.
System
A group of files in a directory of the system name that you are using to import the source board from. i.e. phpBB/000.php, phpBB/001.php ... etc
Module
The individual file of a system, i.e. impex/systems/ipb2/004.php , The IPB 2 user module.
Userid mapping
When importing a source board that has a 3rd party application, for instance a gallery, the gallery will usually use data from the user table based on the userid.
When a board is imported the userid's are assigned depending on the auto_inc value of the database, the existing number of users in the database, etc.
Basically regardless of what a 3rd party vendor will tell you, that you must force the user id's into vBulletin and that it can be done and that's the ideal way to proceed, the reality is :
Warning:
YOU CANNOT FORCE THE USER ID'S INTO VBULLETIN WITH OUT BREAKING IT
This is a big reoccurring issue with 3rd party products, the ideal way is to be able to remap the userid's in the 3rd party product to the new vBulletin userid.
ImpEx systems |
Note : All MSSQL importers, or MSSQL within systems that also have MySQL support are all classed as 3rd tier
Tier 1
Tier one systems are fully supported by the support team and development, they are the most active and common imports that customers do.
These importers were either upgraded or have been recently developed as all new importers are tier one.
Tier 2
Systems in this tier are the less common imports and legacy systems. Tier 2 systems can be promoted to tier 1 if there is enough demand, or retired to tier 3 when the source system reaches end of life or demand falls below a level that makes their existence viable.
Tier 3
This is the graveyard of importers, these importers are not supported. There are three reasons imports make it here. Firstly is because their source system has reached it's end of life and the source data model isn't changing any more so there are going to be no future updates. Secondly, that demand for them is so low that it is not viable to offer support for them as it makes no business sense (though the importer is here for people who want to delve into it).
Thirdly, that the source system is such a challenge to import from that the time typically taken for each import far out weights any sensible decision to try to support each individual import that would take hours per client with customisations.
Tier systems list |
Eve 1.3.4 / Groupee 4.0.3 | 1.3.4 - 4.0.3 |
fusionBB 2 | 2.1 |
Ikonboard (MySQL) | 3.x |
Invision Board 3 | 3.0.3 |
Invision Board 2 | 2.3.0 |
Photopost | 5.1 |
phpBB1 | 1.4.x |
phpBB2 | 2.0.22 |
phpBB3 | 3.0.5 |
Simple Machines Forum | 1.9 |
SMF | 2.0 |
Snitz Mysql & MSSQL | 3.4.04 |
Text file importer | 0.0 |
Infopop UBB.threads | 6.5 |
Infopop UBB.threads | 7.2 |
vBulletin | 3.7.x |
WoltLab Burning Board | 2.3.3 |
wbb3 | 3.0.3 |
YaBB 2 | 2.1 |
YaBB SE | 1.5.5 |
ASPPlayground | 2.5.5 |
DCForum+ MySQL | 1.27 |
InstantForum | 4.1.4 |
Invision Community Blog | 1.2.4 |
MyBulletinBoard (MyBB) | 1.4 |
Allaire | 3.1 |
ASP-DEV | 2.0 |
ASP-DEV | 2.0 |
bbpress | 0.9.0.1 |
beehive | 0.5 |
Community Server | 2.1 |
CuteCast | 2.x |
Discuz | 2.5 |
dotnetBB | 2.42 |
dotnetBB | 2.42 |
dragonfly | 9.2.1 |
Drupal | 4.7.0 |
dzoic | 3.5 |
eshare | 0.0 |
ExpressionEngine | 1.6.2 |
FUD Forum | 2.x |
FuseTalk | 2.0 |
fusion BB | 1.0.3 |
JForum | 2.1.5 |
Jive | 5.5 |
Jive Forums | 4.0.0 |
megaBBS | 1.69-2.2 |
Phpwind | 3.3.1 |
Simple Board | 1.0.4 |
vBulletin | 3.0.* - 3.5.* |
wowBB | 1.63 |
YaBB Gold | 1.3.1 |
CHC Forum | 0.0 |
DiscusWare 4.x Pro tab file data | 4.x |
MxBoard | 1.1.4 |
Infopop Open Topic | 4.0 |
PNphpBB2 (Post Nuke) | 2 |
Advanced Electron Forum | 1.05 |
w-Agora | 4.1.7 |
BuildACommunity | 0.0 |
bbBoard | 2 |
CFBB | 1.3.1 |
Deluxe Portal | 2.0 |
DigiPost | 2.0 |
DiscusWare (file based) | 4.00.6 |
Discuz | 4.0.0 |
e107 | 0.7.8 |
Edge CMS | 13-11-2005 |
EncoreII | 2 |
fireboard | 1.0.4 |
freethreads | 0.0 |
Geeklog | 1.3.10 |
Invision Power Board | 1.3 |
Seditio (LDU) | 121 |
Max Web Portal | 0 |
mercuryboard | 1.1.4 |
miniBB | 2.0.1 |
mmforum | 0.1.5 |
mvnforum | 1.0.2 |
mysmartbb | 1.50 |
MyTopix | 1.3.0 |
openBB | 1.0.7 |
Oxygen | 1.1.3 |
Phorum 3 | 3.4.8 |
Phorum 5 | 5.0.16 |
phpMyForum | 4.0.1 |
PHP Fusion | 6.00.301 |
PunBB | 1.2.10 |
SiteFrame | 3.1.8 |
SiteNet BBS | 2.0.3 |
ThWboard | 3.00 |
Toast Forums | 1.6 |
Tritanium BB2 | 2 Alpha 7 |
trollix XForum | 2.0 |
TruBB | 1.1 |
ttCMS | 3.1 |
Infopop UBB classic | 6.3 - 6.7 |
Ultraboard | 2000 |
versatile Bulletin Board | 1.0 RC 1 |
vBJournal | 1.0.2 |
vBulletin Forum 2 Blog | 3.6.8 |
vBlogetin | 1.0 Beta 3 |
vanilla | 1.1.4 |
vBulletin 2 | 2.3.10 |
vBulletin lite | 1.0 |
vbzoom | 1.1 |
webbbs | 5.30 |
Webcrossing | 5.0 |
Web Wiz Forums | 9.08 |
WordPress | 2.3.1 |
XMB forum | 1.9 |
Xoops - Newbb | 2.0 |
Xsorbit X5 | x5 |
Yet Another Forum | 1.9.0 |
Yahoo Groups access dB download | 0.0 |
Yahoo groups (raw text) | 0.0 |
zeroforum | 2.1.0 |
EVE & Groupee |
Users
Majority of profile.
(username, email, usergroup, icq, joindate, homepage,
Birthday, ipadress, lastvisit, usertitle, posts, display_name, first_name, gender, parent_email, Occupation, Location, Interests, Bio, signature)
Forums and Categories
Basic description information, parent ids and threading order. No display order title, you will have to put that in (this is due to the present changing database and may change in the future).
Threads
All are currently imported as visible and open.
Posts
All are currently imported as visible with threading order.
Polls
Attached to threads and with current vote values.
Private Messages
Currently all PM's are stored as sent for each user.
Attachments
Need to be downloaded from infopop.
Development :
N/A.
IPB 1.3 |
User groups
The IPB user groups and about 50% of the permissions setting, the users are still associated with the groups after import so just clean up the permissions after import.
Users
username, email, usergroup, password, icq, aim, joindate, homepage, ipadress, lastvisit, Birthday, posts, gender, parent_email, Occupation, Location, Interests, avatar, signature
Forums and Categories
Basic title and description information and layout.
Threads
Nearly all thread information.
note : Importing Parents id's was changed for 1.3
Posts
All are currently imported as visible.
Polls
Attached to threads and with current vote values.
Private Messages
Sent and recived are imported.
Buddy & Ignore Lists
For each user.
Moderators
Attached to forum and about 50% of permissions imported.
Attachments
Attachments are imported to the database and linked to the post.
Development :
N/A.
IPB 2 |
Usergroup
Name and partial permissions mapped.
Users
Majority of profile.
Not passwords
This would require modification of the vB database and would break the principles of an import. User can very easily reset their passwords.
Forums and Categories
Basic title and description information, with layout and parent ids.
Threads
All are currently imported with open/closed settings.
Posts
All are currently imported as visible with IP addresses.
Polls
Attached to threads and with current vote values.
Private Messages
Imports pm text with sent and to pm for each user.
Moderator
Attached to forum with majority
Attachments
Imported to post.
Smilies
Imported into custom smilie group.
Development
N/A..
phpBB 1 |
Users
Majority of profile.
(username, email, icq, aim, yahoo, homepage, msn, joindate, joindate, homepage, password)
Forums and Categories
All are currently imported as visible and open.
Threads
All are currently imported as visible with open state.
Posts
All are currently imported as visible with IP.
Polls
Attached to threads and with current vote values.
Private Messages
Currently all PM's are stored as sent and recived for each user.
Moderator
Attached to forums with default permissions.
phpBB2 |
Version supported : 2.0.4 - 2.0.21
Usergroups
Default and custom usergroups.
Users
Majority of profile and avatars.
(username, email, usergroup, password, aim, icq, joindate, homepage, lastactivity, yahoo, msn, posts, Occupation, Location, Interests)
Ban Lists
Userid, IP and email.
Forums and Categories
Basic title and description information, with layout and parent ids.
category hierarchy mod
Threads
All are currently imported as visible and open.
Smilies
Imported into the smilie group, concatenated if longer than 10 characters.
Posts
All are currently imported as visable with IP addresses.
Polls
Attached to threads and with current vote values.
Private Messages
Imports pm text with sent and to pm for each user.
Ranks
Imported as usergroups.
Attachments
Imported to post with current storage setting type (i.e. database or file system).
In Development
N/A.
phpBB 3 |
Usergroups
Default permissions.
Users
Majority of profile.
Not passwords
(username, email, joindate, ipaddress last activity, lastvisit)
Forums and Categories
All are currently imported as visible and open.
Threads
All are currently imported as visible with open & sticky state.
Posts
All are currently imported as visible with IP.
Private Messages
Currently all PM's are stored as sent and recived for each user.
Attachments
Imported and attached to posts.
Moderators
Imported and attached to forums.
SMF |
Usergroups
By name, no permissions.
Users
username, email, usergroup, aim, icq, joindate, homepage, yahoo, msn, ip address, birthday
Forums and Categories
Basic title and description information, with layout and parent ids.
Threads
All are currently imported as visible though with open settings.
Posts
All are currently imported as visable with IP addresses.
Polls
Attached to threads and without current vote values.
Private Messages
Imports pm text with sent and to pm for each user.
Moderators
Imported and attached to forums, though permissions will need to be reset.
Smilies
Imported to import smilie group.
Attachments
Imported to posts.
Development :
N/A.
Snitz |
Users
username, email, usergroup, aim, icq, joindate, homepage, lastactivity, yahoo, msn, posts.
Forums and Categories
Basic title and description information, with layout and parent ids.
Threads
All are currently imported as visible.
Smilies
Imported into the smilie group.
Posts
All are currently imported.
Polls
Attached to threads and with current vote values.
Private Messages
Imports pm text with sent and to pm for each user.
Moderators
Imported and attached to forums.
Development
N/A
ubb.threads 6.5 |
Usergroups
Title and users assocaited to group, reset details and permissions after import.
Users
username, email, usergroup, password, joindate, homepage, lastactivity, IP, postcount
Forums and Categories
Basic title and description information, with layout and parent ids.
Threads
All are currently with open settings, all visible.
Posts
All are currently imported as visable with IP addresses.
Polls
Attached to threads and with current vote values.
Private Messages
Imports pm text with sent and to pm for each user.
Moderators
Imported and linked to froum, reset permissions after import.
Attachments
Imported and linked to the post.
Development :
N/A.
ubb.threads 7 |
Usergroups
Title and default permissioins.
Users
username OR display name, email, usergroup, homepage, yahoo, aim, icq, usertitle, posts, avatar. birthday, signature, occupation, Locatioin, Intrests.
Forums and Categories
Basic title and description information, with layout and parent ids.
Threads
All are currently imported with open and visable set to true, sticky setting imported.
Posts
All are currently imported as visable with IP addresses.
Attachments
Imported and linked to the post.
Moderators
Imported and linked to froum, reset permissions after import.
vBulletin 2.3.11 |
Usergroups
Permissioins mapped.
Users
All information except avatars.
Forums and Categories
Most information and 75% of permissions, as always check after import.
Threads
All, rebuild after import as with forums.
Posts
All including attachments.
Polls
Imported to threads.
PM's
To and from.
Moderator's
To forum and with permissions.
Smilies
Text and image.
Development
Avatars.
Custom Avatars.
vBulletin 3.0.17 |
ImpEx can have 3.0.9 and 3.5.0 as either a target or a source.
A special case importer, the data that is currently imported is :
- Users
- Usergroups
- Ranks
- Avatars
- Custom Profile Pics
- Forums
- Threads
- Posts
- Polls
- PM's
- Moderators
- Smilies
- Attachments
None.
vBulletin 3.6.4 |
ImpEx can have 3.0.9 and 3.5.0 as either a target or a source.
A special case importer NOT to be used instead of an upgrade, the data that is currently imported is :
- Usergroups
- Users
- Forums
- Threads
- Posts
- Polls
- PM's
- Moderators
- Custom Profile Pics
- Attachments
- Subscription
- Smilies
- Avatars
WoltLab Burning Board 2.3.3 |
Usergroups
Title and default permissioins.
Users
username, email, usergroup, password, yahoo, aim, icq, homepage, joindate, last activity, lastvisit, usertitle, days prune, posts timezone offset, pmpopup avatarid, maxposts, birthday, avatar
Forums and Categories
Basic title and description information, with layout and parent ids.
Threads
All are currently imported with open and visable set to true, sticky setting imported.
Posts
All are currently imported as visable with IP addresses.
Polls
Attached to threads and with current vote values.
Private Messages
Imports pm text with sent and to pm for each user.
Moderators
Imported and linked to froum, reset permissions after import.
Attachments
Imported and linked to the post.
Ikonboard (MySQL) 3.x |
Usergroups
Title and default permissions.
Users
Majority of profile.
(username, email, usergroup, icq, joindate, homepage, password
Birthday, ipadress, lastvisit, usertitle, posts, display_name, gender, Occupation, Location, Interests, , signature)
Forums and Categories
All are currently imported as visible and open.
Threads
All are currently imported as visible with open & sticky state.
Posts
All are currently imported as visible with IP and signature permissions.
Polls
Attached to threads and with current vote values.
Private Messages
Currently all PM's are stored as sent for each user.
Moderator
Attached to forums with default permissions.
Attachments
Attached to posts.
List of all systems modules |
Tier 1 importers are supported and updated as needed.
Tier 2 importers are not supported and will be updated based on overall demand.
Tier 3 importers are no longer supported or updated.
ASPPlayground
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.5.5
- Import Usergroup
- Import User
- Import Forum
- Import Thread
- Import Post
- Import Poll
- Import Private Mesages
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 0.0
- Import usergroup
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
- Import Private messages
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.27
- Import User Groups
- Import Users
- Import Forums
- Import Threads
- Import Posts
- Import Private Messages
- Import Polls
- Import Moderators
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 4.x
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 4.1.4
- Import usergroup
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
- Import Private messages
- Import attachment
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.2.4
- Import blog user
- Import blog category
- Import blog
- Import blog comments
- Import blog attachment
- Import blog moderator
- Import blog rate
- Import blog trackback
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.1.4
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
- Import poll
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.4
- Import Usergroup
- Import User
- Import Forum
- Import Thread
- Import Post
- Import Poll
- Import Private Messages
- Import Moderator
- Import Attachment
- Import Smilie
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 4.0
- Import Users
- Import Forums and Categories
- Import Posts
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 2
- Import Usergroup
- Import User
- Import Forum
- Import Thread
- Import Smilie
- Import Post
- Import Private Messages
- Import Attachments
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.05
- Import usergroup
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
- Import attachment
- Import moderator
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 4.1.7
- Import User
- Import Forum
- Import Threads
- Import Post
- Import Attachments
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 3.1
- Import User
- Import Forum
- Import Thread
- Import Post
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.0
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.0
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 0.0
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 2
- Import User
- Import Forum
- Import Thread
- Import Smilie
- Import Post
- Import Poll
- Import Private Messages
- Import Attachment
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 0.9.0.1
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 0.5
- Import Usergroup
- Import User
- Import Forum
- Import Thread
- Import Post
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.3.1
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
- Import Private messages
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.1
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.x
- Import User
- Import Forum
- Import Thread
- Import Post
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.0
- Import Usergroup
- Import User
- Import Forums and Categories
- Import Thread
- Import Post
- Import Poll
- Import Attachment
- Import Moderator
- Import Smilie
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.0
- Import Usergroup
- Import User
- Import Forum
- Import Thread
- Import Post
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 4.00.6
- Import Usergroup
- Import User
- Import Categories
- Import Threads
- Import Posts
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 4.0.0
- Import Usergroup
- Import User
- Import Forum
- Import Thread
- Import Post
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.5
- Import usergroup
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
- Import poll
- Import Private messages
- Import attachment
- Import smilie
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.42
- Import Usergroup
- Import User
- Import Forum
- Import Thread
- Import Post
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.42
- Import Usergroup
- Import User
- Import Forum
- Import Thread
- Import Post
- Import attachment
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 9.2.1
- Import usergroup
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
- Import Private messages
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 4.7.0
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 3.5
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 0.7.8
- Import User
- Import Forum
- Import Thread
- Import Post
- Import Poll
- Import Private messages
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 13-11-2005
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 2
- Import Usergroup
- Import User
- Import Forum
- Import Thread
- Import Post
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 0.0
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
Tier = 1
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.3.4 - 4.0.3
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
- Import poll
- Import attachment
- Import Private messages
- Import Private Messages
- Import Attachment
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.6.2
- Import usergroup
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
- Import poll
- Import attachment
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.0.4
- Import usergroup
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 0.0
- Import User
- Import Forum
- Import Thread
- Import Post
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.x
- Import Usergroup
- Import User
- Import Forum
- Import Thread
- Import Post
- Import Smilie
- Import Poll
- Import Private Messages
- Import Moderator
- Import Attachment
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.0
- Import User
- Import Forum
- Import Thread
- Import Post
- Import Poll
- Import Private Messages
- Import Attachment
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.0.3
- Import usergroup
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
- Import attachment
- Import poll
- Import Moderator
Tier = 1
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.1
- Import usergroup
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
- Import Private messages
- Import attachment
- Import moderator
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.3.10
- Import Usergroup
- Import User
- Import Forum
- Import Thread
- Import Post
- Import Moderator
Tier = 1
Source version support in ImpEx = 3.x
- Import Usergroup
- Import User
- Import Forum
- Import Thread
- Import Post
- Import Poll
- Import Private Messages
- Import Moderator
- Import Attachments
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.3
- Import usergroup
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
- Import poll
- Import Private messages
- Import banlist
- Import moderator
- Import attachment
- Import Attachments
Tier = 1
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.3.0
- Import usergroup
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
- Import poll
- Import Private messages
- Import moderator
- Import attachment
- Import smilie
Tier = 1
Source version support in ImpEx = 3.0.x
- Import usergroup
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
- Import poll
- Import Private messages
- Import moderator
- Import attachment
- Import smilie
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.1.5
- Import usergroup
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
- Import Private messages
- Import attachment
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 5.5
- Import usergroup
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
- Import Private messages
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 4.0.0
- Import User
- Import Forum
- Import Thread
- Import Post
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 121
- Import usergroup
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
- Import Private messages
- Import poll
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 0
- Import User
- Import Forum
- Import Thread
- Import Post
- Import Poll
- Import Private Message
- Import Moderator
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.69-2.2
- Import Usergroup
- Import User
- Import Forums
- Import Thread
- Import Post
- Import Smilie
- Import Poll
- Import Private Message
- Import attachment
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.1.4
- Import Usergroup
- Import User
- Import Forum
- Import Thread
- Import Post
- Import Private Messages
- Import Attachments
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.0.1
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 0.1.5
- Import usergroup
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
- Import Private messages
- Import poll
- Import attachment
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.0.2
- Import usergroup
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
- Import Private messages
- Import attachment
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.50
- Import usergroup
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
- Import Private messages
- Import poll
- Import attachment
- Import moderator
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.3.0
- Import Usergroup
- Import User
- Import Forum
- Import Thread
- Import Post
- Import Poll
- Import Private message
- Import Attachment
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.0.7
- Import Usergroup
- Import User
- Import Forum
- Import Thread
- Import Post
- Import Poll
- Import Private Messages
- Import Moderator
- Import Smilie
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.1.3
- Import Usergroup
- Import User
- Import Forum
- Import Thread
- Import Post
- Import Smilie
- Import Private Message
- Import Attachment
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 3.4.8
- Import User
- Import Forum
- Import Thread
- Import Post
- Import attachment
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 5.0.16
- Import User
- Import Forum
- Import Thread
- Import Post
- Import Pm
Tier = 1
Source version support in ImpEx = 5.1
- Import usergroup
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
- Import attachment
Tier = 1
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.4.x
- Import User
- Import Forum
- Import Thread
- Import Post
- Import Smilie
- Import Poll
- Import Private messages
- Import Moderator
Tier = 1
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.0.22
- Import usergroup
- Import user
- Import banlist
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import smilie
- Import post
- Import poll
- Import Private messages
- Import rank
- Import attachment
Tier = 1
Source version support in ImpEx = 3.0.3
- Import usergroup
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import smilie
- Import post
- Import Private messages
- Import attachment
- Import moderator
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 4.0.1
- Import usergroup
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
- Import smilie
- Import poll
- Import Private messages
- Import attachment
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 6.00.301
- Import usergroup
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
- Import poll
- Import Private messages
- Import attachment
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 3.3.1
- Import usergroup
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
- Import smilie
- Import poll
- Import Private messages
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.2.10
- Import usergroup
- Import User
- Import Forum
- Import Thread
- Import Post
- Import Moderator
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.0.4
- Import User
- Import Forum
- Import Thread
- Import Post
- Import attachment
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 3.1.8
- Import User
- Import Categories
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.0.3
- Import User
- Import Forum
- Import Thread
- Import Post
Tier = 1
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.0
- Import usergroup
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
- Import Private messages
- Import poll
- Import attachment
- Import moderator
Tier = 1
Source version support in ImpEx = 3.4.04
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
- Import poll
- Import Private messages
- Import moderator
- Import smilie
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 3.00
- Import Usergroup
- Import User
- Import Forum
- Import Thread
- Import Post
- Import Ranks
- Import Private messages
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.6
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 2 Alpha 7
- Import Usergroup
- Import Ranks
- Import User
- Import Forum
- Import Thread
- Import Post
- Import Poll
- Import Private Messages
- Import Smilie
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.0
- Import User
- Import Forum
- Import Thread
- Import Post
- Import Smilie
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.1
- Import Usergroup
- Import User
- Import Forum
- Import Thread
- Import Post
- Import Attachment
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 3.1
- Import Usergroup
- Import User
- Import Forum
- Import Thread
- Import Post
Tier = 1
Source version support in ImpEx = 0.0
- Import User
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 6.3 - 6.7
- Import Users
- Import Ban List
- Import Forums
- Import Threads
- Import Posts
- Import Buddy List
- Import Ignore List
- Import Private Messages
- Import Poll
- Import Moderators
Tier = 1
Source version support in ImpEx = 6.5
- Import usergroup
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
- Import poll
- Import Private messages
- Import moderator
- Import attachment
Tier = 1
Source version support in ImpEx = 7.2
- Import usergroup
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
- Import attachment
- Import moderator
- Import Private messages
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 2000
- Import usergroup
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
- Import Private messages
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.0 RC 1
- Import User
- Import Forum
- Import Thread
- Import Post
- Import Poll
- Import Smilie
- Import Private Messages
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.0.2
- Import blog user
- Import blog text
- Import blog comments
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 3.6.8
- Import blog user
- Import blog category
- Import blog
- Import blog text
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.0 Beta 3
- Import blog user
- Import blog category
- Import blog
- Import blog comments
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.1.4
- Import usergroup
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.3.10
- Import usergroup
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
- Import poll
- Import Private messages
- Import moderator
- Import attachment
- Import smilie
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 3.0.* - 3.5.*
- Import usergroup
- Import user
- Import avatar
- Import Custom pictures
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
- Import poll
- Import Private messages
- Import moderator
- Import smilie
- Import attachment
Tier = 1
Source version support in ImpEx = 3.7.x
- Import usergroup
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
- Import poll
- Import Private messages
- Import phrase
- Import moderator
- Import Custom pictures
- Import attachment
- Import subscription
- Import smilie
- Import avatar
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.0
- Import User
- Import Forum
- Import Thread
- Import Post
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.1
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
Tier = 1
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.3.3
- Import User Groups
- Import Users
- Import Ban List
- Import Forums and Categories
- Import Threads
- Import Smilies
- Import Posts
- Import Polls
- Import Private Messages
- Import Moderators
- Import Attachment
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 3.0.3
- Import usergroup
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
- Import Private messages
- Import attachment
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 5.30
- Import forum
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 5.0
- Import Forum
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 9.08
- Import Usergroup
- Import User
- Import Forum
- Import Thread
- Import Post
- Import Poll
- Import Private message
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.3.1
- Import blog user
- Import blog category
- Import blog
- Import blog comments
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.63
- Import Usergroup
- Import User
- Import Forum
- Import Thread
- Import Post
- Import Poll
- Import Private message
- Import Moderators
- Import Attachment
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.9
- Import User
- Import Forum
- Import Thread
- Import Post
- Import Smilie
- Import Ranks
- Import Pm's
- Import attachment
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.0
- Import User
- Import Forum
- Import Thread
- Import Post
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = x5
- Import usergroup
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
- Import smilie
- Import poll
- Import attachment
- Import Private messages
Tier = 1
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.1
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
- Import Private messages
- Import attachment
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.3.1
- Import Usergroup
- Import User
- Import Forum
- Import Thread
- Import Post
- Import Private Messages
- Import Attachments
Tier = 1
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.5.5
- Import Usergroup
- Import User
- Import Forum
- Import Thread
- Import Post
- Import Poll
- Import Pm
- Import Attachments
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.9.0
- Import usergroup
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
- Import Private messages
- Import attachment
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 0.0
- Import user
- Import forum
- Import thread
- Import post
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 0.0
- Import User
- Import Forum
- Import Thread
- Import Post
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.1.0
- Import User
- Import Forums
CMS Importers |
Drupal - CMS (6)
Joomla - CMS (1.5)
Wordpress - CMS (2.9.1)
Each system currently imports the users into a default usergroup, then bulk loads the source data types as articles.
ImpEx FAQ |
Import Export.
The search function is only working on new thread, or not working at all.
After any import you need to rebuild the search index.
AdminCP > Maintenance > Update Counters > Rebuild Search Index
All my post dates are 12-31-1969, how do i fix this ?
After most imports you need to rebuild the thread info and forum info as well.
AdminCP > Maintenance > Update Counters > Rebuild Thread Information (this process could take a while)
AdminCP > Maintenance > Update Counters > Rebuild Forum Information
My member list says 1
Make sure you have move the users to the correct group. Adding and removing a temporary user will force the members list to rebuild.
Can ninjas do my import any better ?
Probably, though they are too busy flipping out to do imports.
What is the green percentage number during the import ?
It's mostly unimportant as it's just a reflection of the closeness of the source data to the target.
It's a measure of how much of the source data was available and selected when populating the ImpEx data object (user/thread/post/etc).
If a data object has 10 variables for data being imported and 3 of them are mandatory we can use that for an example.
If 5 of the variables are filled, 3 of which are the mandatory fields, then the object is 50% full and valid (green percentage number and imported).
If 9 of them are filled though only two of the mandatory ones, then it's 90% full though a fail.
The missing % that isn't imported is typically filled by defaults (within ImpEx just before the object is saved) or rebuilt when the admin runs the update counters and profile rebuild etc.
The % is an observation of what is being selected from the source and not is being saved.
Appendix: vBulletin 2 Manual |
Installing vBulletin |
The following documents will take you through this process step-by-step.
Note:
These installation instructions only apply to version 2 of vBulletin.
Downloading the vBulletin Package |
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.
You can choose from the following options:
PHP File Extension
As a general rule, web servers will use .php as the extension for PHP scripts, but some servers may use a different extension, or you may simply wish to use a different extension out of your own preference. Various extensions are available here for you to choose.
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 |
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 vBulletin_versionnum_licensenum (where versionnum is the version number of the package you have downloaded, and licensenum is the license number of your vBulletin license).
Within this folder you will find a further folder named versionnum.licensenum, and within this folder will be a folder called 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 admin 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).
Editing the vBulletin Configuration File |
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 commented in order to help you fill in the necessary information.
Of the settings in this file, only the first few need to be edited in order to create a working vBulletin configuration file. These settings are:
$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. |
$dbusername | This variable contains the username provided to you by your host for connecting to your database server. |
$dbpassword | The password that accompanies the database username should be entered here. |
$dbname | This value should be altered to state the name of the database that will contain your vBulletin installation on the database server. |
$technicalemail | An email address should be entered here. All database error messages will be forwarded to the email address provided. |
Note:
Please note that Jelsoft / vBulletin Support can not provide the values you require for $servername, $dbusername, $dbpassword and $dbname. 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.
If you need to create a new database for vBulletin to use, instructions for doing so in a variety of systems are available here.
$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 |
$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: $canviewadminlog = '1,15,16'; |
$canpruneadminlog | In the same way as $canviewadminlog controls which users can view the Admin Log, $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 $canviewadminlog setting. |
Note:
The variables $canviewadminlog, $canpruneadminlog, should all contain a single user ID, a comma-separated list of user IDs or nothing at all. For example:
$canviewadminlog = '1,15,16';
$canpruneadminlog = '1';
$canpruneadminlog = '';
config.php |
<?php
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Please note that if you get any errors when connecting, //
// that you will need to email your host as we cannot tell //
// you what your specific values are supposed to be //
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// type of database running
// (only mysql is supported at the moment)
$dbservertype = 'mysql';
// hostname or ip of server
$servername = 'localhost';
// username and password to log onto db server
$dbusername = 'root';
$dbpassword = '';
// name of database
$dbname = 'vbulletin';
// technical email address - any error messages will be emailed here
$technicalemail = '[email protected]';
// use persistant connections to the database
// 0 = don't use
// 1 = use
$usepconnect = 0;
// which users are allowed to view the admin log
// separate each userid with a comma
$canviewadminlog = '1';
// which users are allowed to prune the admin log
// separate each userid with a comma
$canpruneadminlog = '';
?>
Uploading vBulletin Scripts to Your Web Server |
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.
The easiest way to transfer the files is to upload the entire upload folder to the server. We do this by dragging or selecting the upload folder at its location on your computer's hard disk to the web publishing folder on the server. (If transfer doesn't automaticly start, click on the transfer button.)
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:
- All text files to be transferred in ASCII mode
All files containing plain text from the vBulletin package should be transferred in ASCII mode.
Text file types you will find in vBulletin are: .html, .php, .js, .xml, .css. - All non-text files to be transferred in Binary mode
The remaining files, which are mostly images, should be transferred to your web server in Binary mode.
Binary file types used in vBulletin include: .gif, .png, .jpg, .ico.
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.
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 |
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 button to open the script.The first thing you will see from the install script is a welcome screen and a link to click on, click it to start the installation.The next page will read out the config.php file details and give you the option to modify it if a setting is wrong. Click on the button to confirm the settings.
The next pages are to confirm that the config.php details for the database are correct and the installer will attempt to establish a connection to the database. Click on the link Click here to continue to continue.
The next pages will be steps to setup the database tables for vBulletin and populate it with settings and options. Click Next step each time the page has completed loading.After the database tables are populated you will be prompted to enter the forum details.
The settings required here are:
BB Title | This 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 Title | Less 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 URL | The 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 URL | This 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. |
Note:
You can change these after installation through the Admin Control Panel.
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.
Warning:
You have now completed the install of vBulletin. Once you have deleted this install script you can proceed to the control panel. You will not be able to access the control panel until you delete this script for security reasons.
This is the file the you must delete: install.php
This is the file the you must delete: install.php
Note:
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.
Introduction |
There are certain terms used through out the documentation that you should understand:
- Board - your installation of vBulletin. This includes all of your categories, forums, threads, posts and users. You may run one board (installation of vBulletin) for each license you have purchased.
- User / member - someone who has registered or posted a message on your bulletin board. As an administrator, you are a user who has administrative priveledges.
- Post - an individual message posted by a user. It can be made up of plain text, or HTML code, depending on the options that you have set.
- Thread - a group of posts usually on a certain subject. On most boards, users can start new threads.
- Forum - a group of threads again usually on a certain subject.
- Category - forums can be grouped into categories
- Control panel / admin area - this is the area of your board that only administrators can access. From here you can control almost all factors of your board.
The Control Panel |
In the remainder of this document, we'll be examining in detail each of the admin function available via the left-hand links:
- Options
- Announcements
- Forums and Moderators
- Threads
- Users
- User Titles
- User profile fields
- User Groups and Permissions
- Avatars
- Icons
- Smilies
- Custom BB codes
- Backup database
- Import & Maintenance
- Stats
- Styles
- Replacement variables
- Templates
Control Panel Options |
- Turn Your vBulletin on and off
- General Settings
- Contact Details
- Posting Code allowances (vB code / HTML / etc)
- Forums Home Page Options
- User and registration options
- Memberlist options
- Thread display options
- Forum Display Options
- Search Options
- [Email Options
- Date / Time options
- Censorship Options
- Edit Options
- IP Logging Options
- Floodcheck Options
- Banning Options
- Language Options
- Private Messaging Options
- HTTP Headers and output
- Spell Check
- Templates
- Load limiting options
- Polls
- Avatars
- Attachments
- Custom User Titles
- Calendar
- Upload Options
Forum Announcements |
Once an attachment has been posted to a forum, it will appear at the top of the forum display page, above the listing of threads.
When you create an announcement you can specify a title, start and end date, attach it to a single forum or globally and your message. You can use HTML in announcements.
Forums and Moderators |
Adding Forums |
- Title - Type in the title of the forum. You are limited to 100 characters here.
- Display Order - Forums are displayed from lowest to highest and under their parents. Use 0 to not display a forum.
- Default view age - The number of days worth of threads to display by default in this forum.
- Forum Parent - If you wish this forum to act as a sub-forum, select that forum that you wish to use as the "parent" forum. A sub-forum will then display under the parent forum.
- Email addresses to notify when there is a new post - Specify any email addresses to notify when there is a new post in this forum.
- Emails addresses to notify when there is a new thread - Specify any email addresses to notify when there is a new thread in this forum.
- Moderator Queue - Turn on this option if you would like your moderators (or yourself) to validate all threads and posts before they appear publically on the forum. You can access the Moderator Queue through the Moderator Control Panel located at: http://yourdomain.com/mod/ or direct using the admin links at the end of the forum display page.
- Attachment Queue - Require moderator validation before new file attachments are displayed. You can access the Attachment Queue through the Moderator Control Panel located at: http://yourdomain.com/mod/ or direct using the admin links at the end of the forum display page.
Custom style set for this forum - If you wish to set a certain style/design for this forum, select the styleset from this list. - Private forum - This allows you to create forums that are invisible to all users except moderators and administrators. These are good for those backstage areas needed to manage your forums!
- Act as forum? - If you select no for this option, this forum will act as a category - i.e. a forum that doesn't contain threads or posts, but can act as a parent for other forums.
- Is active? - If a forum is set as inactive, it will not be visible on the forum home page (even to administrators).
- Open for new posts? - selecting no for this option will effectively close a forum to everyone. No users will be able to post new threads or replies to existing threads. You can use this option if you wish to set up an "archive" forum - where posts can be viewed but not replied to.
- Allow HTML Code in posts - This will allow your members to use HTML code in their posts. We seriously recommend against turning this option on, as HTML may be used to break your page design, or insert malicious scripting into the page.
- Allow vB Code in posts - An safer alternative to HTML, vBCode allows your members to format their messages using several different codes... i.e. enclosing a word inbetween and will cause the word be be emboldened.
- Allow vB IMG Code in posts - One of the default vB Codes provided by vBulletin allows members to insert images into their posts. You can select this option for off if you would like to prevent users from including images in their posts.
- Allow Smilies in posts - Smilies are small graphical icons used to show emotions or used to spice up a post. If you don't want to allow these in this forum, you can disable them here.
- Allow Icons for posts - If this option is turned on, users can select an icon to display next to their post/thread. Icons associated with threads are displayed on the main forum browse page next to the title of the thread.
- Allow thread ratings in this forum? - By enabling this option, users can rate each thread between 1 and 5, where 5 is the best score. Ratings for each of the threads are displayed by default in the forum thread listing page.
- Count posts made in this forum towards user post counts? - By enabling this option, a user's post count will increase whenever he/she posts a thread or reply in this forum.
Modifying Forums |
From here, you can now click on a link adjacent to the forum you wish to modify. The available links are:
- Edit - Click this link to edit the forum parameters (for example, the forum title, description or parent).
- Remove - Click this link to remove the forum from the bulletin board.
- Add Moderator - Click this link to set up a user as a moderator of the forum. Once you click this link, a form will appear with the following options:
- Forum - The user will become the moderator of the forum selected in this drop down list.
- User name - The username specified in this field will be enabled as a moderator for the forum.
- Receive email when there is a new post - The moderator will receive an email for evey new post if you turn on this option.
- Receive email when there is a new thread - The moderator will receive an email for evey new post if you turn on this option.
- an edit posts - Select yes if you would like to give the moderator permission to edit posts in this forum.
- Can delete posts - Select yes if you would like to give the moderator permission to delete posts in this forum.
- Can view IPs - Select yes to allow moderator to view the IP address of users.
- Can manage threads (move,copy,split,etc) - Select yes to allow moderator to move and copy threads to another forum, as well as allowing moderators to split and merge threads.
- Can open and close threads - Select yes to allow moderator to close and open threads. It's not possible for users to post new messages to a closed thread.
- Can edit thread information - Select yes to allow moderator to edit thread information.
- Can moderate new posts - Select yes to allow moderator to validate threads/posts (via the moderator's control panel) that have been added to the moderation queue.
- Can moderate new attachments - Select yes to allow moderator to validate file attachments (via the moderator's control panel) that have been added to the moderation queue.
- Can modify styles - Select yes to allow moderator to edit bulletin board styles (not yet implemented).
- Can ban users from board - Select yes to allow moderator to ban a user from the whole bulletin board.
- Can can view whole user profile - Select yes to allow moderator to view complete information about the user (email address, etc). Please note that while moderators can view user information, only admins can edit the user account.
- Can post announcements - Select yes to allow moderator to post announcements on this forum.
- Can mass move threads - Select yes to allow moderators to mass move threads via the moderator's control panel.
- Can mass prune threads - Select yes to allow moderators to mass move threads via the moderator's control panel.
- Add Sub-Forum - Click this link to create a new forum that will use this forum as it's parent.
Note:
If you assign a moderator to a parent forum, the moderator will be able to moderate all sub forums under the parent.
An Introduction to Threads |
Pruning Threads |
The second form on this page will allow you to remove all threads/posts from a forum (on all forums) made by a specified user.
After selecting the options and pressing the button, you'll be taken to a confirmation screen, where you can either choose to prune all applicable threads, or you can select the ones you would like to prune.
Moving Threads |
The second form on this page will allow you to move all threads that have been posted by a specified user from one forum to another.
After selecting the options and pressing the button, you'll be taken to a confirmation screen, where you can either choose to move all applicable threads, or you can select the ones you would like to move.
Note:
Moving and pruning threads are both fairly server intensive.
An introduction to User Management |
Adding Users |
- User Group - The user group that this user is a member of.
- User Name - The user's username (or handle).
- Password - The user's password.
- Email Address - The email address of the user.
- Style Set - The style that the user has selected via the online user control panel.
- Parent Email Address - If this user is registered as a COPPA user, then the email address here receives an email every time the user updates their profile. This will be blank for all users except COPPA users.
- COPPA User - Is this a child under the age of 13? If it is, and you are set up to use the COPPA-compliant registration system, then this field should be set to yes.
- Home Page - The URL of the user's web site (including http://).
- ICQ Number - The ICQ number of the user. For more information, see: http://www.icq.com/. If they do not have an ICQ number, this field should be left empty.
- AIM Handle - The handle of the user for AOL's Instant Messenger. More information can be found here: http://www.aol.com/aim/
- Yahoo Messenger Handle - The handle of the user for Yahoo's instant messaging service.
- Signature - The user can use this field to add a uniform signature to the end of selected messages. You may be able to use HTML/vB code/smilies depending on settings in the control panel.
- Receive mailings from administrators - This option allows the user to opt out of administrator mailings.
- Show email - Also known as privacy mode to the user. When you select no ,the email, icq, aim, yahoo fields will not be visible in the user profile.
- Invisible on 'Online users' list - If yes is selected for this option, the user will not be visible on the bulletin board home page who's online list. Note: The user will be visible to administrators, but the username will have an asterisk (*) next to it to denote that the user has opted to be invisible.
- Receive PMs - If no, the user will not receive any private messages.
- Email on PM - If yes, the user will receive an email whenever he/she receives a new private message.
- PM Popup - If yes, any new private messages will cause a message box to appear on the screen (regardless of what bulletin board page the user is viewing) that will give the user the chance to jump straight to the private messaging inbox.
- Show Signatures - If no, the user's signature will not appear on any of his/her posts.
- Show Avatars - If [b]no, all avatars will be invisible to this user.
- Show Images - If no, all images posted by other users will be invisible to this user.
- Show vBcode - If no, all vBcode posted by other users will be invisible to this user.
- Use email notification by default - If yes, the user will an email notification when another user replies to his/her post/thread.
- Remember Username and password - If yes, the software will remember the user's username and password so that he/she will not have to manually log in everytime he/she visits the bulletin board.
- Browse boards with cookies - If yes, the software will retain the user's session in a cookie, instead of passing the information between pages using the s variable on the URL.
- User Title / Use Custom Title - To give the user a customised "title", type the title in the user title field and select yes for the user custom title option.
- Default view age - The number of days worth of threads to show on the forum topic page. Recommended values: 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 30, 45, 60, 75, 100, 365, 1000 (ie all). -1 gives default forum selection.
- Last Visit / Last Activity / Last Post - date stamps in the form yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss.
- Number of Posts - The number of posts that this user has accumulated (this figure is incremented by one everytime the user posts in a forum that has the Count posts made in this forum towards user post counts? option selected to yes.
- Time Zone Offset (hours) - The user can specify this option to offset the server's time by a certain amount. This is used in addition to the offset that you can specify in the options area.
- IP Address
Finding Users |
- List all users
- List top posters
- List visitors in the last 24 hours
- List most recent registrations
- List users awaiting moderation and COPPA users awaiting moderation
- List all COPPA users
- User Name contains ...
- User Group is ...
- Email contains ... Parent's email contains ...
- Is coppa user ... (yes or no)
- Homepage contains ...
- ICQ Number contains ...
- AIM Handle contains ...
- Yahoo Messenger Handle contains ...
- Signature contains ...
- User Title contains ...
- Join Date is after ... (yyyy-mm-dd)
- Join Date is before ... (yyyy-mm-dd)
- Last Visit is after ... (yyyy-mm-dd)
- Last Visit is before ... (yyyy-mm-dd)
- Last Post is after ... (yyyy-mm-dd)
- Last Post is before ... (yyyy-mm-dd)
- Birthday is after ... (yyyy-mm-dd)
- Birthday is birthday ... (yyyy-mm-dd)
- Number of Posts is greater than ...
- Number of Posts is less than ...
- IP Address contains ...
- Edit - Clicking this link will take you to a form where you can edit all the user fields (username, password, email address, etc).
- Email Password - Click this link to email the username and password to the user's email address.
- Remove - Click this link to remove the user from the database. Once you have removed a user, all messages posted by the user will now be credited to Unregistered.
- Edit Access Masks - Clicking this link will take you to a form where you can specify the user's forum permissions on a forum-by-forum basis:
Find Users by IP Address |
- IP Address - Type in the IP address (or partial IP address) here... the script will then return all users that have posted/visited the bulletin board with this IP address. An IP address consists of four sets of three numbers, each set seperated with a full stop. (eg. "123.456.789.876"). You can either search for users that exactly match a full IP address, of you can type in a partial IP address (e.g. "123.456") to find all users that access your forum from the same IP address range.
- User Name - If you would prefer to return all IP addresses assigned to a certain user, type in the username that you wish to search for in this field.
- Depth To Search
User Referrals |
http://www.yourwebsite.com/vbulletindirectory/m/forum/index.php?referrerid=$userid
(Where $userid is the unique ID number of the user)
Note:
Your users can find out their specific referal URL by visiting your vBulletin board FAQ page (by clicking on the button at the top of the page). Once a user has found out their unique URL, they can then pass the URL on to their friends and colleagues. If any of these visitors register for an account on your bulletin board via this special link, the user will earn one referral.
Note:
Before the vBulletin software will begin to track referalls, please make sure that the "Referrer - Enable the referrer system?" setting is turned on in the vBulletin control panel "options" screen.The administrator of the vBulletin software can use the "Referrals" control panel feature to find out which users have received referrals. In addition, the administrator can view a list of all the new usernames that the user has referred to the bulletin board. Once the administrator clicks on the "Referrals" link (under the "Users" section), the following form will appear on the right hand side of the screen:
Emailing Users |
- Messages to send at once - the number of email messages to send at any one time. Depending on the power of your server, you may wish to increase or dcrease this number.
- From - email address to use as the from address on each email
- Subject - email subject.
- Message - email message body... i.e. the actual email message. You can include three variables in your message - $username, $password and $email (corresponding to the user's username, password and email address respectively).
- User Name contains ...
- User Group is ...
- Email contains ... Parent's email contains ...
- Is coppa user ... (yes or no)
- Homepage contains ...
- ICQ Number contains ...
- AIM Handle contains ...
- Yahoo Messenger Handle contains ...
- Signature contains ...
- User Title contains ...
- Join Date is after ... (yyyy-mm-dd)
- Join Date is before ... (yyyy-mm-dd)
- Birthday is after ... (yyyy-mm-dd)
- Birthday is birthday ... (yyyy-mm-dd)
- Last Visit is after ... (yyyy-mm-dd)
- Last Visit is before ... (yyyy-mm-dd)
- Last Post is after ... (yyyy-mm-dd)
- Last Post is before ... (yyyy-mm-dd)
- Number of Posts is greater than ...
- Number of Posts is less than ...
Generate Mailing List |
An Introductions to User Titles |
Adding User Titles |
- Title - The new user title.
- Minimum posts required - the minimum number of posts that the user must have accumulated in order to earn this title.
Modifying / Removing User Titles |
From this screen, you can choose to Remove or Edit a user title, by clicking on the relevant links. If you click on the Edit link, a form will appear that will allow you to change the actual user title, or the minimum number of posts.
User Profile Fields |
For example, we have created five user profile fields in the vBulletin.com/forums/ bulletin board:
- Biography
- Location
- Interests
- Occupation
- Version of vBulletin
(The user profile fields are marked in this illustration with a red cross)
After registering, the user profile information will be visible to all users via the user profile page:The user can edit his/her user profile information via the user control panel Edit Profile setting:
Adding User Profile Fields |
- Title - the title of the user profile field (e.g. Location)
- Description - description of the field (eg. Where do you live?).
- Maximum Input - this indicates the maximum number of characters/letters that the user can type into this field.
- Field Length - how many characters long shall the input field appear on the form? (default value = 25)
- Display Order - if you would like the profile fields to appear in a specific order, include a number in this field that corresponds to the order number of this profile field.
- Field required - tick the yes option if you would like to require the user to fill in this field.
- Field hidden - if you select yes for this option, only administrators and moderators will be able to view the contents of this field. The user will still be able to edit this information via the user control panel.
Modifying / Removing User Profile Fields |
User Groups and Permissions |
It's possible to accomplish all of these tasks by harnessing the power of vBulletin's user groups and permissions system!
What is a User Group?
A user group is just what it sounds - a group of users. By default, the vBulletin software includes the following user groups:
- (COPPA) Users Awaiting Moderation - all users that have not been validated by an administrator or moderator will be included in this group (for bulletin boards that require user accounts to be validated by an administrator).
- Administrator - all vBulletin administrators are included in this group.
- Moderators - all vBulletin moderators are included in this group.
- Registered - this group is populated with all the standard users.
- Super Moderator - this group contains all the super moderators. A super moderator can moderate all forums on the bulletin board.
- Unregistered / Not Logged In - this group contains all visitors to the bulletin board who have not logged in, or haven't registered for a user account.
- Users Awaiting Email Confirmation - if you have configured your vBulletin forum to require email verification before the registration is completed, all users in this group have registered, but haven't yet activated their account.
95% of all permissions-based configuration will be dealt with by editing the existing seven standard user groups. By editing a user group option, you can change the permissions for a particular set of users across the whole bulletin board. If you would like to alter a user groups options for a particular forum only, you can set up custom forum permissions. Let's take a look at three practical scenarios:
1. Jack would like to force all users to register for the bulletin board before they can view the forums.
In this case, Jack would need to turn off the can view board option for all user groups apart from Registered, Moderators and Administrators.
2. Jill would like to set up a private forum for administrators only.
Since these permissions changes affect just a single forum (not all forums), Jill can accomplish this configuration by turning off the can view forum and can post new threads options (for this forum only) for all user groups apart from the Administrators.
Now we've dealt with the theory behind setting up permissions on your vBulletin forums, let's take a look at the admin control panel options.
Modifying User Groups |
If you click on the Edit link next to a user group, you'll be presented with the following form:The options listed on this form affect all users that are assigned to the selected user groups. Let's take a look at each of the options in more detail:
- User Status - if you wish all users within this group to have a certain user title, fill in this field.
- Can view board - select yes for this option if you would like all users in this group to have access to the bulletin board. If you select no, the users will receive the standard vBulletin log in screen.
- Can view members info - select yes to allow the user to view other users' profiles.
- Can view others' threads - select yes to allow the user to view threads posted by all other users.
- Can search - select yes to allow the user to use the vBulletin search engine (to find relevant threads and posts).
- Can use 'email to friend' feature - select yes to allow the user to forward threads to friends via email.
- Can modify profile - select yes to allow the user to edit his/her's profile via the online user control panel.
- Can post new threads - select yes to allow the user to post new threads.
- Can reply to own threads - select yes to allow the user to reply to threads that he/she started.
- Can reply to other's threads - select yes to allow the user to reply to threads started by other users.
- Can Rate threads if thread rating is enabled in the forum? - each thread can be rated from 1-5 (where 5 is the best). This feature can be turned on/off on a forum-by-forum basis. If you would like to allow the users assigned to this user group to be able to rate threads on forums where the feature is enabled, select yes.
- Can post attachments - select yes to allow this user to post file attachments.
- Can edit own posts - select yes to allow the user to edit his/her own posts/messages.
- Can delete own posts - select yes to allow the user to delete his/her own posts/messages.
- Can move own threads to other forums - select yes to allow the user to move threads that he/she started into another forum.
- Can open / close own threads - select yes to allow the user to open/close threads that he/she started.
- Can delete own threads by deleting the first post - select yes to allow user to delete an entire thread that he/she started by deleting the first (original) post/message.
- Can post polls - select yes to allow the user to post polls.
- Can vote on polls - select yes to allow the user to vote on a poll (posted by any user).
- Can use Private Messaging - select yes to allow the user to send/receive private messages to/from other users.
- Can Use Message Tracking? - message tracking is a feature in the private messaging system that allows a user to request read receipts... i.e. a user can find out whether or not a user read his/her private message. To enable this feature for all users assigned to the user group, select yes.
- Can Deny Private Message Read Receipt Request? - to counteract the message tracking feature, select yes to allow users to prevent the software from sending back a read receipt.
- Maximum Buddies to Send PMs at a time - you can set a limit to the number of private messages that can be sent at once here.
- Maximum PMs to Forward at a time - you can set a limit to the number of private messages that can be forwarded at once here.
- Can post Public events on Calendar - select yes to allow the user to post an event on the calendar that can be viewed by all users.
- Can edit other's Public events on Calendar - select yes to allow the user to edit other users' public events.
- Is Super Moderator - select yes to allow the user to moderate all forums.
- Can access control panel - select yes to allow the user access to the vBulletin admin control panel.
Modifying Forum Permissions |
Click on the Modify Forums link (below the User Groups and Permissions) section of the vBulletin control panel. The following screen will appear:From this screen, it's possible to set up custom permissions for each user group on a forum-by-forum basis. In addition, you can see at a glance which forums have already had custom permissions enabled, as per the key at the top of the screen. In this case, we can see that the Registered user group has been configured with customised permissions for the Announcements Discussions forum.
To set up a new (or edit an existing) custom configuration, click on the Edit link adjacent to the relevant user group. Clicking on the Registered user group underneath the Announcements Discussions forum will cause the following form to appear:From here, you can choose to use the default user group options for this forum permission (by clicking on the Use usergroup default option) or you can opt to Use custom settings for this forum. You can set the following options:
- Can view forum - select yes to allow the users in this group from viewing this forum.
- Can search - select yes to allow the users in this group to search this forum.
- Can use 'email to friend' feature - select yes to allow users in this group to forward threads started in this forum using the send to friend feature.
- Can post new threads - select yes to allow the users in this group to start new threads in this forum.
- Can post polls - select yes to allow the users in this group to post polls in this forum.
- Can vote on polls - select yes to allow the users in this group to vote on polls posted in this forum.
- Can post attachments - select yes to allow the users to post file attachments in this forum.
- Can move own threads to other forums - select yes to allow a user in this group to move threads that he/she started to another forum.
- Can open / close own threads - select yes to allow a user in this group to open/close threads that he/she started.
- Can delete own threads - select yes to allow a user in this group to delete an entire thread that he/she started by deleting the first (original) post/message.
- Can reply to own threads - select yes to allow a user in this group to reply to threads that he/she started.
- Can reply to other's threads - select yes to allow a user in this group to reply to threads started by other users.
- Can view others' threads - select yes to allow a user in this group to view threads posted by all other users.
- Can edit own posts - select yes to allow a user in this group to edit his/her own posts/messages.
- Can delete own posts and threads - select yes to allow a user in this group to delete his/her own posts/messages.
Note:
All sub-forums will automatically inherit custom permissions from their parent forum. Custom settings that have been inherited will be formatted in blue text on the modify forums screen.
Adding User Groups |
Avatars |
- Enable Avatars - Use this option to enable/disable the overall use of avatars.
- Minimum custom posts - Minimum number of posts that a user requires before they can choose an avatar.
- Allow uploads - Allow user to upload their own avatar if they have enough posts?
- Allow website uploads - Allow user to upload their own custom avatar from another website if they have enough posts?
- Maximum Dimensions - The maximum height and width of the avatar in pixels.
- Maximum File Size - The maximum file size (in bytes) that an avatar can be.
- Display Height - This option sets the number of columns of avatars displayed to the user via the user control panel avatar selection page.
- Display Width - This option sets the number of rows of avatars displayed to the user via the user control panel avatar selection page.
Adding Avatars |
- Upload - Click on this link to upload an avatar from your local hard disk drive.
- Add - Click on this link to add an avatar (or many avatars) to vBulletin that have already been uploaded onto a web server (or internet site).
Uploading Avatars |
Note:
Using this feature required your web server and PHP to have permission to write files to disk. If they do not have the neccessary permissions, it will fail.
- Avatar File - to upload an image from your hard disk, type in the local path to the avatar (i.e. c:\avatar.gif). You can also select an avatar using the Choose file dialog box by clicking on the button.
- Name - type in a name for the avatar.
- Minimum posts to use this avatar - type in the minimum number of posts that a user must have accumulated to use this avatar in this box (or leave empty to offer this avatar to all users).
- Path to image - The absolute path on your server where this avatar should be stored (please contact your host if you are unsure about what this setting should be).
Note:
Technical - All avatars that are uploaded to vBulletin by the administrator are stored directly on the web server hard disk drive. Custom avatars uploaded by users are stored in the MySQL database.
Adding an Avatar |
- Name - type in a name for the avatar.
- Minimum posts to use this avatar - type in the minimum number of posts that a user must have accumulated to use this avatar in this box (or leave empty to offer this avatar to all users).
- Path To Image - this can either be an URL of an image (e.g. http://www.vbulletin.com/images/v_logo.gif) or a path on your web server (e.g. "/www/sites/htdocs.old/images/logo.gif").
- Path to images - the path to the directory where the avatar images are uploaded (relative to your vBulletin forums directory on the server).
- Number of avatars to display per page? - once you click on the button at the end of the form, vBulletin will allow you to select which avatars to import into the system. You can adjust the number of avatars that are previewed on each page with this option.
Modifying / Removing Avatars |
- Name - type in a name for the avatar.
- Minimum posts to use this avatar - type in the minimum number of posts that a user must have accumulated to use this avatar in this box (or leave empty to offer this avatar to all users).
- Path to images - the path to the directory where the avatar images are uploaded (relative to your vBulletin forums directory on the server).
Styles & Templates |
A Style Set is a particular look or appearance for your forums. It consists of a Template Set and a Replacement Set. Replacement sets control the colors, fonts, etc for your style, whereas template sets control everything else! You could use Style Sets to provide users of your forum with a choice as to which layout they prefer. One popular use is to provide a normal layout and a 'lite' layout, which contains less graphics and smaller file sizes. Each Style Set can look completely different from all of your other sets.
A good example of Style Sets can be found at vBulletin.org. You can choose there between the default dark blue style, or the classic vBulletin purple style.
Adding a Style Set |
Once you have done that, you will see a screen similar to this:The first thing you need to do with your template set is to set up the fonts and colors to your liking. So click the '[fonts/colors/etc]' link next to your new style set. You'll then see a long page that allows you to set the header, footer, table widths, fonts and colors, among other things, for your new style set. It's the exact same page to the one you used when you first set up your forum. Once you're happy with these settings, click the 'Save Changes' button at the bottom. You will then be taken back to the same page, which will this time have all of your custom values filled in. If you decided not to modify the colors (you wanted to use a different design with the same colors), then just leave the options exactly as they are.
The next step is to modify some templates for the new style. If you chose to just use new colors (not a different design) for your new style set, then you can skip this step. Click the '[edit templates]' link at the very top of the page to be taken to the template editor. You should see a screen which begins like this:Your new template set will be expanded by default. This functions in exactly the same way as the main template editor, which you will probably already have used to customise your forum's layout. Any templates you change here will only take effect in your new style set, not the default style set which users are viewing at the moment.
Once you're happy with the changes, open a new browser window and visit your forums home page. Click on the user cp icon at the top, and go to Modify Options. Choose your new style set from the dropdown list on that page, and then click Submit Modifications. This will show you your forums, but in the new style set you have created. If you want to make any more changes, go back to the control panel and click either Styles > Modify > [fonts/colors/etc] to change the fonts or colors, or Templates > Modify to change the templates. Go back to your forums and hit Refresh to see how your latest changes look. When you're happy with the changes it's time to start telling users about the new style set!
You can also give users a direct link to see the new style set. The link will be in the form:
http://www.example.com/forums/index.php?styleid=x
You can get the styleid of your new style set by hovering your mouse cursor over the [fonts/colors/etc] button for your new style in the Modify Styles section of the control panel, and looking down in your browser's status bar to see the address it is pointing to. For example:
Hover your mouse cursor here:And then look in the Status Bar of your browser:Look for the dostyleid section of that link - the last number in the line. In this case it is 2, so you would replace x with 2 on the web address above. Also remember to replace the URL with your forum URL!
Icons |
Smilies |
Administrators can configure the smilies using a similar procedure to configuring avatars - such that you can add, upload, edit and remove them in the same way. However, as well as having a title, they also have a field called text to replace In this field, you would place the text that a user would type in, such as :) for example. Please note that this text is case sensitive.
Custom BB Codes |
By default, vBulletin installs with a set of BB code tags, such as [b] and [u], which allow rudimentary text formatting and a few other functions, such as quoting other messages, and embedding code in a non-proportional font.
Should you find that you want to add additional BB codes, an interface is provided to allow you to do so. In the left-menu panel of the control panel, scroll down until you find the Custom BB codes section, and click the add link.
Single-Parameter BB Codes |
- The first box should contain the name of the tag you are about to add. We will enter center. The name here is case-insensitive, so center is the same as CENTER and cEnTeR.
- The second box should contain the actual HTML code that will be used when the text is processed for bbcode tags. We will enter <div align="center">{param}</div>. The {param} part is short for parameter and will be replaced by the text that the user enters between the [center] and [/center] bbcode tags.
- In the third box, you should enter an example of the bbcode in use. We will enter this: [/center]This text is centered[[color=black][/center]
- The final box should contain a meaningful description of what your custom bbcode will actually do. In this case, we will enter The [center] tag allows you to create center-aligned text and images.
- Finally, the radio button at the bottom of the form allows you to instruct vBulletin that this is a double-parameter tag. This one is not, so set this to no. We will look at double-parameter tags a little later.
Modifying BB Codes |
In the left-panel, click the modify link under the Custom bb codes section. This will bring up a page that lists all the current bbcodes that you can modify, along with their example usage.To modify any existing bbcode, simply click the [edit] link next to the tag, and you will be taken to a form much like the one where you add new tags, where you can edit the options and parameters for that bbcode.
You may remove any bbcode that you do not want by clicking the [remove] link next to the tag.
Testing BB Codes |
Importing data into vBulletin 2 |
To begin an import, click the link in the left-panel labelled BB Import Systems (situated under the Import & Maintenance section):Once you have clicked the link, the following form will appear:This form will list all the forum importation scripts that are installed in your vBulletin installation. Select the script you would like to use, and click on the button.
Note:
If you do not have any import scripts installed, this screen will include a link to the vBulletin members area.
The Import Process |
Firstly, you will be asked to enter some details about the bulletin board you are about to import. These will usually be file-paths to necessary files, or the name of a database. This screenshot shows the initial page for the UBB6 import script.As you can see, the appropriate filepaths have been filled in. Once all the information is provided, click the button.
At some point during the import, you may reach a step where you can associate imported users with existing users. This is especially useful if you are importing another board into an existing, active vBulletin.The associate step allows you to make an association between a user from your vBulletin board, and the corresponding user from the board to be imported, so that duplicate users are not created.
For example, if i was importing a UBB board where I was also a member, I would associate the UBB member Kier with the vBulletin member Kier by entering Kier's vBulletin user id next to the name of Kier in the list of UBB members. A complete list of your vBulletin members, together with their user ids can be found by clicking the appropriate link on the association page.
- Click this link to show the complete list of your existing vBulletin members, together with their userid.
- The list of members for the imported bulletin board probably spans several pages - use this control to jump to different pages of the list.
- When all associations are done, click this link to proceed.
- The imported member Kier is the same person as the vBulletin member Kier, so the userid of the vBulletin member, Kier is inserted here. (When you have finished a page, click the associate users button at the bottom of the page).
Updating Counters |
- Update users - Running this will update the user title and last post time for each user. You can choose the number of users to update on each cycle before starting. This process is not too intensive, so you can probably afford to have a fairly large value here.
- Update Forums Info - This function updates the post count, thread count, last post time and last post username fields for every forum. It is useful after you have rearranged forums and their parents, or is you have moved lots of threads.
- Update threads info - Running this will update the number of replies per thread, the original poster information, the last poster information and the attachment totals for each thread. This process is fairly server intensive, and you should not need to do it except after importing data from another board.
- Build Search Index - This process rebuilds specified parts of the search index of the threads. If you make a change to the search indexing options, you will want to empty the search index, and then rebuild it from scratch. Please note that this is a very slow and server intensive process, and it should not be undertaken lightly.
- Remove dupe threads - This option was created to tidy up after doing an import from another board. Often there will be duplicate threads created due to data corruption problems on the board which you have imported from. This process will go through and remove any duplicate threads that exist. It is quite server intensive, but just needs to be run once after importing.
Stats |
When you select the View link in the control panel (available under the Stats section), you will be presented with the following screen:This form will allow you to specify the following paramaters:
- Type of stats - Use this option to choose whether to look at the data for new posts, new threads or new user registrations
- Date From and Date To - you can opt to show all information between a certain range of dates with these options.
- Time frame - you can choose to group the data by day, week or month. This allows you to look for trends over the short, medium or long terms.
- Sorting - choose whether to display oldest dates first, or most recent dates first.
- Format - choose whether you want the results of the report to appear in the control panel (as HTML), or whether you would prefer to download a seperate file in Microsoft Word Format (as RTF).