vBulletin Manual
This manual is based off vBulletin version 4.2.5
 

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.
Minimum Requirements
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:Most hosting providers already have these applications on their servers. With the above requirements meant, the vBulletin software will run on any operating system using any modern web server software.


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.Once you have a web hosting package meeting the minimum requirements, you are ready to proceed with vBulletin. For help in finding an appropriate webhosting company, please view our Hosting Options forum.

Installing vBulletin

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

The following documents will take you through this process step-by-step.
Note:
Before installing vBulletin you 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

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

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

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

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

By default compression is performed on the JavaScript files included within the /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:When you have set the download options you can click the Download button to start the download. When the download prompt window appears, you should choose the Save option and choose a directory on your computer in which to save the package.

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

Preparing the vBulletin Files for Upload

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Creating your Database

When you install vBulletin, you are asked what database to connect to. This is where all your information is actually stored. There are many different ways to create a database and which method you use depends on how your server is set up. We've provided some links to common methods.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This is correct:

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

This is NOT correct:

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

Never edit anything to the left of the equal sign.

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

config.php

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To enable MySQLi, view Editing the vBulletin Configuration File.

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

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

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

SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'char%'

The results screen will show your current character set settings:

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

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

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

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

Uploading vBulletin Scripts to Your Web Server

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

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

Although there are several methods available to transfer the vBulletin files from your computer to your web server, by far the most common method in use is transfer via FTP. Most operating systems have built-in tools for opening FTP connections although they are often limited in their usefulness and many people opt to use a third party FTP client application. For this example we will use Smart FTP.
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.
The easiest way to transfer the files is to upload the entire upload folder to the server. Using Smart FTP we do this by dragging the upload folder from its location on your computer's hard disk to the web publishing folder on the server.

Most FTP client applications will handle the file transfers automatically, but if for some reason your application does not, you should make a note of the following:
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.
Depending upon the speed of your internet connection, uploading all the files could take several minutes to complete. After completion, you should see that the web server now contains a folder called upload containing a perfect copy of the files in the upload folder on your computer's hard disk.

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

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

Running the vBulletin Install Script

The installation wizard has been rewritten in vBulletin 4.0.9. The new installation process provides a more seamless experience without requiring as much intervention from the operator. Once all the vBulletin files have been successfully uploaded to your web server, you will need to run the vBulletin Installation Script in order to prepare your database.

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

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

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

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.
Installing the Mobile Style

Cleaning up after the Install

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

You should delete 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

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

You can upgrade to the latest version of vBulletin 4 from the following vBulletin versions:The upgrade process differs depending upon the version of vBulletin currently installed on your web server.

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.

Preparing the vBulletin Files for Upload

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Having renamed the upload folder as specified in the 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:
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.

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.
Having successfully uploaded all the new vBulletin files to your web server, you will need to make a note of the existing values in the vBulletin 2 admin/config.php file and apply them to the new vBulletin 3 includes/config.php.new file as described here.

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:

Having completed this deletion process, you can run the vBulletin 2 to vBulletin 3 upgrade script.

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

Once you have uploaded the files to upgrade your vBulletin installation, point your browser to http://www.yourdomain.com/pathtoforums/install/upgrade.php. The screen will look like this:


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

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

Starting with vBulletin 4.0.9, you can run the upgrade script from the command line and remove the overhead of your browser and HTTP calls. The command line interface is designed to specifically help big boards with the upgrade process and to eliminate the time caused by HTTP interaction. To run this interface go to your install directory and execute:
php -f upgrade.php
If you are logged in as the root user, you will need to run the upgrade as the user that the webserver runs under. This will prevent permission problems from occurring later if you store CSS as files. Use this command:
sudo -u <user> php -f upgrade.php
Where <user> is the user that the webserver is run with. On most systems, this is the user nobody.

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
You can then review the output in any text editor. You should inspect this configuration to make sure that it has mysql and/or mysqli available so you can connect to the database. You would also need to make sure that the command line version of PHP has XML support. If it does not, then you would need to run the XML imports from the Browser.

Common Issues While Upgrading.

Q. I tried to run the upgrade wizard from the command line and got an error that MySQLi is not installed.
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
Follow the steps on the screen.

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

After the upgrade process is complete, 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 installl folder inside your forums directory.

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

If you have closed your forums for the upgrade you can now open them, or you can wait until you have gone through the next two steps checking for updated templates and phrases.

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.
1Firstly, 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.

2If you find that some of your customized templates do have updated default versions, you have three choices. You can either
  • Do nothing and hope that your customized templates will still work properly with the new vBulletin version. This is often not a problem, but sometimes a variable may have been renamed or else some other change may have been made that will render your customized template dysfunctional.
  • Click the [Revert] link for each template, removing your customizations to ensure that your templates are fully compatible with the new vBulletin version.
  • Click on the [Edit Template] link for each template, and compare the contents of your customized template with the version available by clicking the [View Original] in order to manually update your customized templates to reflect the changes made in the default templates.
On the release of a new vBulletin version, the release announcement posted in the Announcements Forum at vBulletin.com will usually contain a list of updated templates.

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

One of the most common complaints about vBulletin's upgrade process is applying the template changes. While the template history feature helped a little bit, it didn't go far enough. vBulletin 4.0 will introduce a feature to make applying template changes much easier: automatic merging and 3-way comparison.

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

When a new version of vBulletin is released, it is common for some of the default phrases to have been updated to accommodate new features or fix bugs.

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.
1Firstly, 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.

2If you find that some of your customized phrases do have updated default versions, you can either:
  • Do nothing and hope that your customized phrases will still work properly with the new vBulletin version. This is often not a problem, but sometimes the phrase may have added text to describe new functionality or have made changes that break the values in the old version.
  • Click on the [Edit] link for each phrases, and compare the contents of your customized phrase with the version available. From this page, you may either update your customized version or revert to the default version by emptying the translation field.

How to Patch Your Site

What is a Patch Level? How does it differ from a full release?

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

The Administrator Control Panel is the area of your board that only administrators and super moderators can access. From here you can control almost all factors of your board.

Logging-in to the Control Panel

The vBulletin Admin Control Panel can be accessed by pointing your browser at http://www.example.com/forums/admincp/.

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 [Options] button to expand the form to its full size.

The two options you can set from the login form are:Clicking the [Log in] button will submit the login details and options you have set, and log you in to the board.
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

The first thing you will see when you log into the Admin Control Panel is the welcome page. This page contains a quick method to search for users, some useful links and the vBulletin credits.

You will notice that the Admin Control Panel is divided into three distinct areas. The first and most obvious of these is the main panel, which currently shows the welcome page. This area (the main panel) is where the majority of your attention will be focused when administering your board.

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.
If at any time you want to return to the welcome page of the Admin CP, clicking the [Control Panel Home] link at the top of the navigation panel will do this.

An Introduction to the Admin CP Sections

Looking at the Admin CP navigation panel you will see a number of sections, the purpose of each will sometimes be clear and in other cases less obvious. This part of the manual will act as a brief summary of those section, informing you of their contents and purpose.
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

This part of the documentation will go over the individual options and settings in vBulletin section by section.

Options

Turn Your vBulletin On and Off

This setting group from the Settings > Options will allow the Administrator to close the forums to the public with a custom message or set it active. This is a usefull feature when performing serious forum or database maintenance, version updates or bug fixing.

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.

Site Name / URL / Contact Details

Settings > Options > 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.

Content Management

Settings > Options > 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.

General Settings

Use the Settings > Options > General Settings setting group to control several general aspects of your board.

This ranges from meta tags to the use of forumjump, enabling access masks to the display of IM icons.When you are done, click the [Save] button to apply the changes.

Facebook Options

vBulletin allows people to connect with your site and register using their Facebook credentials. This is called Facebook Connect. To set the options for this you would go to Settings > Options > Facebook Options

Enabling Facebook

Create new application on facebook.com (Required for each vB installation)

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

The Settings > Options > Image Settings setting group allows you to control how vBulletin processes images for uploading and handles image verification.When you are done, click the [Save] button to apply the changes.

Human Verification Options

Use the Settings > Options > Human Verification Options setting group to control where human verification is required on your forum in conjunction with the Human Verification configuration settings.When you are done, click the [Save] button to apply the changes.

Date and Time Options

The vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > Date and Time Options setting group is used to define the way dates and times are displayed on certain sections of the board in what way and how they should behave.
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
When you are done, click the [Save] button to apply the changes.

Cookie and HTTP Header Options

The Settings > Options > Cookies and HTTP Header Options setting group allows you to control the cookie settings, gzip compression, HTTP headers and redirect messages options.When you are done, click the [Save] button to apply the changes.

Server Settings and Optimization Options

The Settings > Options > Server Settings and Optimization Options setting group lets you control the server settings to optimize display of posts through post cache, your email sending options and several other options and settings that is definitely worth to walk through and setup.When you are done, click the [Save] button to apply the changes.

Friendly URLS

Enabling friendly URLs can increase your site's ranking in search engines and can be useful for users to understand the URL's that they follow.

URL Type
TypeExample
Standard URLsshowthread.php?t=12345
Basic Friendly URLsshowthread.php?1234-Thread-Title
Advanced Friendly URLsshowthread.php/1234-Thread-Title
Mod Rewrite Friendly URLsthreads/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.
Default Value: Basic Friendly URLs

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

The Settings > Options > Style & Language Settings setting group lets you set the default style and language for your site.

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

Use the vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > Email Options setting group to setup the behaviour of your email features throughout the board.

Here you can setup:

Sending email via SMTP

Relying on the PHP internal mail function has always caused problems with a few configurations. The PHP internal mail function is simply a wrapper for the systems own mail program such as sendmail or procmail. The problems occur when certain configurations have extra authentication settings or confusing with line endings. This has been resolved by the introduction of our mail class to correct any problems that may occur with the internal mail function and also to allow the use of SMTP which will completely bypass PHP's own internal mail function.

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

Use the Settings > Options > Censorship Options setting group to manage the words you specify to be placed with characters.

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

These options allow you to control how new user registrations are handled on your forums.

Settings > Options > User Registration Options

User Refractions & Post Reporting Options

Use the Settings > Options > User Infractions & Post Reporting Options setting group to manage user infraction and post reporting notifications.

User Profile Options

With these options you can control how the way your users edit their profile.

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

With these options you can control the settings for User Albums.

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

With these options you can control the options for users customizing their profile page style.

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

With these options you can control visitor messages on users profiles.

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

With these options you can control the use of social groups.

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

Use the Settings > Options > User Picture Options setting group to manage the settings for the avatars and profile pictures.
Note:
This is the section for the global switch, use the usergroup permissions to setup the permissions on a usergroup basis.

When you are done, click the [Save] button to apply the changes.
Note:
To manage your pre-defined avatars, or to control the storage of avatars, go to the Avatars section.

User Reputation Options

This section contains many settings that dictate how users of your forum are able to affect each other's reputation score.

User Notes Options

Users with permission to read / write usernotes are now able to go to a profile of a member and leave usernotes about this person. This feature is intended to allow staff members to discuss members and keep the information organized rather then having a variety of threads in a staff forum.

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.

Basically the usernotes are plain-text entries that hold comments from other (staff) members. Turn on these options to allow markup of text and insertion of smilies / images or even HTML

User Listing Options

Settingss > Options > User Listing Options

This section of the Admin Control Panel allows you to set options for the Member List including:

User Banning Options

Settings > Options > User Banning Options

This section of the Admin Control Panel allows you to set the Banning Options for your forum along with IP bans.

BBCode Options

vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > BB Code Settings

Message Posting and Editing Options

Settings > Options > Message Posting and Editing Options
Note:
This will increase the amount of disk space used by vBulletin for database storage.

Message Posting Interface Options

Settings > Options > Message Posting Interface Options

Poll and Thread Rating Options

Settings > Options > Poll and Thread Rating Options

Message Searching Options

Settings > Options > Message Searching Options

Tagging Options

Settings > Options > Tagging Options

Forum Home Page Options

Settings > Options > Forums Home Page Options

Forum Listings Display Options

Settings > Options > Forum Listings Display Options

Forum Display Options (forumdisplay)

Settings > Options > Forum Display Options (forumdisplay)

Thread Display Options

Settings > Options > Thread Display Options (showthread)

Threaded / Hybrid Mode Options (showthread)

Settings > Options > Threaded / Hybrid Mode Options (showthread)
Note:
This is a vBulletin 4 Feature and not included in vBulletin 5

Private Messaging Options

Settings > Options > 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

The Settings > Options >Who's Online Option allows you to control the display of http://www.example.com/forums/online.php.

Identifying Spiders in Who's Online

If you have set the "Enable Spider Display" to yes, the file includes/xml/spiders_vbulletin.xml is used to determine how a spider is identified.

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>
If you want to add spiders to the list, you should add them in place of the red text (just before "</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

Settings > Options > 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/)

Admin Control Panel Options

Settings > Options > 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:User Editor Columns

Number of columns to display in user editor. Smaller resolutions will probably want to set this to 1.

External Data Provider

Besides the main forums, the search friendly archive and the printable version of a thread, you can also choose to turn on the external data provider. (Settings > Options > External Data Provider)

Here you can select which type can bse turned on/off. You can choose between javascript, rss and/or xml.

When you are done, click the [Save] button to apply the changes.

Implementing the External Data Provider

The External Data Provider is used to syndicate this information to external websites. This feature uses the permissions for the Unregisted / Not Logged In usergroup. If that usergroup doesn't have permissions to view the forum, the feeds will not work.

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 External Data Provider also gives alternative feeds in commonly used formats. These are useful if you have external readers or a script to read them already. These feeds are available in XML, RSS and RSS2 so it should fit a wide variety of readers. The system defaults to RSS so if you leave off the type, that is what you get.

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

Settings > Options > 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.
Log Failed Admin Control Panel Logins to a File

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.
Log PHP Errors to a File

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.
Maximum File Size of Error Logs (default: 1048576)

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'.

Paid Subscriptions

Settings > Options > 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

Settings > Options > 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.
define('DISABLE_HOOKS', true);
(Remove from the config.php file when done.)

Spam Management

Settings > Options > 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

vBulletin allows you to create and submit an XML sitemap to your favorite search engines and website management tools. This facilitates easier indexing of your site and with various tools can even tell you if there are problems with the content on your site. You can find the options for this here: Settings > Options > 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

This section will show the different search engines installed in vBulletin and allow you to switch between them.

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

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
To ensure that myisamchk and the server use the same values for full-text parameters, place each one in both the [mysqld] and [myisamchk] sections of an option file:
[mysqld]
ft_min_word_len=3

[myisamchk]
ft_min_word_len=3
Then restart the server and rebuild your FULLTEXT indexes. To rebuild your indexes, you need to run the follow queries in sequence:

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;
Next you need to drop the old indexes off the tables. To drop the indexes you would do:
drop index text on searchcore_text;
drop index grouptitle on searchgroup_text;
Finally, you need to build new indexes. To recreate the indexes you would do:
CREATE FULLTEXT INDEX text ON searchcore_text (title, keywordtext);
CREATE FULLTEXT INDEX grouptitle ON searchgroup_text (title);
If you have a table prefix defined in your config.php you would need to add it to the beginning of each table name in every query. To rebuild your search indexes after this, you will need to go to the Update Counters section of Maintenance in your Admin CP. Rebuilding the search indexes can be a time and processor intensive process.

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.

In order to make sure that fulltext searches are more efficient, common words won't be indexes. These are called Stop Words. You can see the default stop words here:
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

Question & Answer Options

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 [Add New Question] button. Existing questions may be deleted, modified or have answers modified by selecting the controls on the right of the question.

Social Bookmarking Manager

Social bookmarking is a way for users to store and organise bookmarks of web pages. In a social bookmarking system, a user will save a link to web pages that they want to remember and/or share. There are a number of third party services offering social bookmarking facilities, vBulletin provides the ability to link directly to an add page and pre-populate the data.

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

The first thing you need to do is make sure that this option is enabled. To do that, go here:

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

When you are adding or editing a new social bookmark site you will be presented with the following editor, further explanation about each of these fields is listed below.

vBulletin Options

One of vBulletin’s strengths is its enormous amount of user-configurable options. Most board-wide settings can be controlled through this section. To edit these options, go to vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options (the latter is a subgroup of the former).

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 option groups

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 [Edit Settings]. If you wish to display all settings, select [Show All Settings].

Expanded option groups

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 [Edit Settings].
Once you have selected a setting or setting group, the individual options will be displayed:

Viewing individual options

On the left, you will see the name and a description of each setting. If you are still unsure what a setting does, click the question mark icon all the way on the right for more information. In the center you will be able to select the value for each option. The type of each option varies; some are yes/no options while others are text areas.

Once you have changed the all the options you wish to change, click [Save]. Changes will take effect immediately.

vBulletin Options

This part of the documentation will go over the individual options and settings in the vBulletin Options section by section.

Turn Your vBulletin On and Off

This setting group from the vBulletin options will allow the Administrator to close the forums to the public with a custom message or set it active. This is a usefull feature when performing serious forum or database maintenance, version updates or bug fixing.

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.

Site Name / URL / Contact Details

vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > 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.

General Settings

Use the vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > General Settings setting group to control several general aspects of your board.

This ranges from meta tags to the use of forumjump, enabling access masks to the display of IM icons.When you are done, click the [Save] button to apply the changes.

Image Settings

The vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > Image Settings setting group allows you to control how vBulletin processes images for uploading and handles image verification.When you are done, click the [Save] button to apply the changes.

Human Verification Options

Use the vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > Human Verification Options setting group to control where human verification is required on your forum in conjunction with the Human Verification configuration settings.When you are done, click the [Save] button to apply the changes.

Date and Time Options

The vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > Date and Time Options setting group is used to define the way dates and times are displayed on certain sections of the board in what way and how they should behave.
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
When you are done, click the [Save] button to apply the changes.

Cookies and HTTP Header Options

The vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > Cookies and HTTP Header Options setting group allows you to control the cookie settings, gzip compression, HTTP headers and redirect messages options.When you are done, click the [Save] button to apply the changes.

Server Settings and Optimization Options

The vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > Server Settings and Optimization Options setting group lets you control the server settings to optimize display of posts through post cache, your email sending options and several other options and settings that is definitely worth to walk through and setup.When you are done, click the [Save] button to apply the changes.

Style & Language Settings

The vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > Style & Language Settings setting group lets you set the default style and language for your site.

Here you can setup the behaviours for the CSS file (store as file), Popup menus (hide or show) and postbit (new or legacy).

Email Options

Use the vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > Email Options setting group to setup the behaviour of your email features throughout the board.

Here you can setup everything related to how your forum sends and handles email.
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

Relying on the PHP internal mail function has always caused problems with a few configurations. The PHP internal mail function is simply a wrapper for the systems own mail program such as sendmail or procmail. The problems occur when certain configurations have extra authentication settings or confusing with line endings. This has been resolved by the introduction of our mail class to correct any problems that may occur with the internal mail function and also to allow the use of SMTP which will completely bypass PHP's own internal mail function.

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

Use the vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > Censorship Options setting group to manage the words you specify to be placed with characters.

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

These options allow you to control how new user registrations are handled on your forums.

vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > User Registration Options

User Infractions & Post Reporting Options

Use the vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > User Infractions & Post Reporting Options setting group to manage user infraction and post reporting notifications.

User Profile Options

With these options you can control how the way your users edit their profile.

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

With these options you can control the settings for User Albums.

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

With these options you can control the options for users customizing their profile page style.

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

With these options you can control visitor messages on users profiles.

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

With these options you can control the use of social groups.

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

Use the vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > User Picture Options setting group to manage the settings for the avatars and profile pictures.
Note:
This is the section for the global switch, use the usergroup permissions to setup the permissions on a usergroup basis.

When you are done, click the [Save] button to apply the changes.
Note:
To manage your pre-defined avatars, or to control the storage of avatars, go to the Avatars section.

User Reputation

This section contains many settings that dictate how users of your forum are able to affect each other's reputation score.

User Notes Options

Users with permission to read / write usernotes are now able to go to a profile of a member and leave usernotes about this person. This feature is intended to allow staff members to discuss members and keep the information organized rather then having a variety of threads in a staff forum.

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.

Basically the usernotes are plain-text entries that hold comments from other (staff) members. Turn on these options to allow markup of text and insertion of smilies / images or even HTML

User Listing Options

vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > User Listing Options

This section of the Admin Control Panel allows you to set options for the Member List including:

User Banning Options

vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > User Banning Options

This section of the Admin Control Panel allows you to set the Banning Options for your forum along with IP bans.

BB Code Settings

vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > BB Code Settings

Message Posting and Editing Options

vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > Message Posting and Editing Options
Note:
This will increase the amount of disk space used by vBulletin for database storage.

Message Posting Interface Options

vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > Message Posting Interface Options

Message Attachment Options

vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > Message Attachment Options

Poll and Thread Rating Options

vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > Poll and Thread Rating Options

Message Searching Options

vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > Message Searching Options

Message Searching Options (vBulletin Internal Search)

vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > 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)

vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > 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.

Tagging Options

vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > Tagging Options

Forums Home Page Options

vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > Forums Home Page Options

Forum Listings Display Options

vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > Forum Listings Display Options

Forum Display Options (forumdisplay)

vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > Forum Display Options (forumdisplay)

Thread Display Options (showthread)

vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > Thread Display Options (showthread)

Threaded / Hybrid Mode Options (showthread)

vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > Threaded / Hybrid Mode Options (showthread)

Private Messaging Options

Admin Control Panel > vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > 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

The vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > Who's Online Option allows you to control the display of http://www.example.com/forums/online.php.

Identifying Spiders on Who's Online

If you have set the "Enable Spider Display" to yes, the file includes/xml/spiders_vbulletin.xml is used to determine how a spider is identified.

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>
If you want to add spiders to the list, you should add them in place of the red text (just before "</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

Admin Control Panel > vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > 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/)

Admin Control Panel Options

Admin Control Panel > vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > 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:User Editor Columns

Number of columns to display in user editor. Smaller resolutions will probably want to set this to 1.

External Data Provider

Besides the main forums, the search friendly archive and the printable version of a thread, you can also choose to turn on the external data provider. (vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > External Data Provider)

Here you can select which type can be turned on/off. You can choose between javascript, rss and/or xml.

When you are done, click the [Save] button to apply the changes.

Implementing the External Data Provider

The External Data Provider is used to syndicate this information to external websites. This feature uses the permissions for the Unregistered / Not Logged In usergroup. If that usergroup doesn't have permissions to view the forum, the feeds will not work.

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 External Data Provider also gives alternative feeds in commonly used formats. These are useful if you have external readers or a script to read them already. These feeds are available in XML, RSS .91, RSS 1.0 and RSS 2.0 so it should fit a wide variety of readers. The system defaults to RSS 2.0 so if you leave off the type, that is what you get. RSS 1.0 and 2.0 feeds will include HTML markup and attachments unless &nohtml=1 is added to the feed url. Many aggregates support HTML markup and so posts will appear close to how they would appear when viewed on the forum.

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

Admin Control Panel > vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > 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.
Log Failed Admin Control Panel Logins to a File

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.
Log PHP Errors to a File

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.
Log Emails to a File
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.
Maximum File Size of Error Logs (default: 1048576)

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'.

Paid Subscriptions

vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > 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

Admin Control Panel > vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > 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.
define('DISABLE_HOOKS', true);
(Remove from the config.php file when done.)

Spam Management

vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > 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

vBulletin gives you the ability to download and upload options settings for installed products, including vBulletin itself.

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

From the main vBulletin Options section, there is the ability to backup the options of each product including vBulletin itself.

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 :Settings can be added and removed from the blacklist in debug mode.

Search Type

vBulletin supports two types of search indexing. Fulltext searching uses a search index that is constructed by MySQL itself, whereas vBulletin's own search feature uses its own index.

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
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.

Human Verification

The Human Verification system is designed to stop the spamming of forums by automated processes.

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

There are three Human Verification options provided as of vBulletin 3.7.The human verification option is selected in the Human Verification Manager. From here, you may choose the library to use and set options specific to the library.

Image Verification

Image Verification Options

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.The fonts and the background images that are used for Image Verification can easily be changed. Making your image verification unique is key to making it successful. The fonts are located in the images/regimage/fonts directory of your forum. You may upload any .TTF (True Type Font) here. Image Verification will immediately begin to use your font. The background images are located in the images/regimage/backgrounds directory of your forum. You should use 201x61 pixel jpg images for backgrounds. Uploaded background images will immediately by used by your forum.

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

Question & Answer Options

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 [Add New Question] 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

The following screen is presented to you after selecting to [Add New Question]

Question - This is the question that the user will be asked to solve.

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

The following screen is presented to you after selecting to edit an existing question

Question - This is the question that the user will be asked to solve. You may translate it into other languages by using the Translations link.

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 [Add New Answer]. Existing answers can be modified or deleted by using the controls to the right of the answer.
Modifying Answers
The following screen is presented to you after selecting to modify an answer

The answer supplied by the user must match exactly, except for case. Lowercase uppercase will be treated the same when evaluating responses.

reCAPTCHA Verification

Before reCAPTCHA verification will function, you must acquire a public and private key from recaptcha.net. This key is free, you simply must provide the domain that your forum is running on. Once you've acquired the keys, they must be entered in the fields, as pictured above.

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

Social bookmarking is a way for users to store and organise bookmarks of web pages. In a social bookmarking system, a user will save a link to web pages that they want to remember and/or share. There are a number of third party services offering social bookmarking facilities, vBulletin provides the ability to link directly to an add page and pre-populate the data.

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

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

When you are adding or editing a new social bookmark site you will be presented with the following editor, further explanation about each of these fields is listed below.

A list of additional social bookmarking sites and their icons and links can be found in the community managed listing found here:

Social Bookmarking Sites

vBulletin Blog

Blog Moderators

To add a new moderator, go to vBulletin Blog > Blog Moderators > Add New Moderator at the bottom table, if you wish to edit on the same page just click edit next to the username of the moderator.

Update Counters

The update counters section lets you ensure that counters such as number of replies in an issue or the number of issues in a project are correct. This is a maintenance section. You do not need to run either of the options here unless you suspect that the counters are incorrect. They should remain correct during day-to-day use.

There are five counters that can be rebuilt:

Permissions

Permissions for the Blog can be found in the standard usergroup permission page, the default install attempts to create a set of permissions that are based on the permission to create new threads / posts.

When adding / editing a usergroup at Usergroups > Usergroup Manager > Edit Usergroup in the right column you will find the following permissions:

The other permissions are self explanatory and are closely linked to their Thread / Post counterparts which can be read at this manual entry.

vBulletin CMS

The vBulletin CMS allows you and your users to create, edit and publish articles directly to your site. It combines a simple to use content manager with a unique organizational system that lets you control the smallest detail of the site from the number of sections, to the overall layout, to the placement of widgets and displays on each page.

Content Manager

Within the content manager you can perform bulk actions on your articles and other content types within the CMS. There are more options to manage individual articles in the publicly viewable front-end of the CMS. Edit the article to view them.

The checkbox to the left of each article name is used to select an article. You can use this to apply a single action to multiple articles at the same time.

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.

Section Manager

You can create, publish and order your sections here.

The numbers to the left indicate the order of the sections. To change the order of the sections, click on the up and down order buttons.

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:To change the display order of article previews, select an option from the “Display Order” dropdown list. The options you can choose from are:
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.
To change the number of article previews that appear per section, enter a different number in the “Content per Page” text field.

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

You can manage your categories here. Categories are used as admin level tags to organize sections. Categories can be used to manage content across multiple sections.

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

You can manage and edit grids here.

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

You can upload and download grids to and from your vBulletin here.

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

To clear the CMS Cache, go to Maintenance -> Clear System Cache in the Admin CP.

The link to the CMS Cache was removed and the Cache expanded to an overall system cache for better performance.

Layout Manager

You can manage and create layouts here.

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

You can create layouts and manage the placement of content within a grid here.

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

What are widgets?
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

You can manage and create new widgets here.

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

What are the basic types of widgets?
· 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

To configure individual widgets after saving them, click on the Configure link to the right of the widget information. This will cause an overlay to open that has the widget's specific options in it. Set the options as you desire and click the save button. The configuration will save and the overlay will close. Repeat this for all widgets that you have created.

Example: Configuring the General Search widget

Click on the <Widgets > link.

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

You can manage permissions here.

Permissions allow you to control what a group of users can and can not do in a section. This includes things like who can see a section, who can contribute articles to the section, who can edit content in the section and who can publish articles. Permissions for a section can be set and changed at any time. You can choose to modify the overall permission for your CMS module or set different permissions for each section.

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

From this section of the Admin Control Panel, you can manage advertisements that show up in your community. It will allow you to create new ads, edit them, or publish Google Adsense across your community quickly and easily.

Google Adsense Integration

As of vBulletin 3.8, we have partnered with Google AdSense to make it easy for you to sign up with AdSense and make money with your online community! More information is available about Google AdSense on their website

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.

Now you must choose the type of integration you want:

The available Google AdSense packages are defined as:

Low
  1. A small 5-link advertising unit under the navigation bar. This location only shows text ads in the Low package.
  2. A small advertising unit at the footer of the page.

High
  1. A medium advertising unit under the navigation bar.
  2. A nearly-square advertising unit within the first post of a thread. This only shows for guests.
  3. A medium advertising unit at the footer of the page.

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

This screen provides a list of your current advertisements. From here you can edit advertisements or toggle whether they are active or not.

To create a new advertisement click on "Add New Ad"

Add New Ad

Clicking on "Add New Ad" launches a wizard to create new advertisements for your community. You can select where they are shown on the page, include the HTML for the advertisements and set conditions on who sees the advertisements.

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:Underneath the ad options, you can see several conditions. You can set these to restrict the viewing of advertisements to specific locales, usergroups and restrict ads by dates. If your specific condition doesn't exist then you will need to create custom conditions using Plugins or Template Conditionals within the advertising HTML.

Google AdSense Integration

We have partnered with Google AdSense to make it easy for you to sign up with AdSense and make money with your online community! More information is available about Google AdSense on their website

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.

Now you must choose the type of integration you want:

The available Google AdSense packages are defined as:

Low
  1. A small 5-link advertising unit under the navigation bar. This location only shows text ads in the Low package.
  2. A small advertising unit at the footer of the page.

High
  1. A medium advertising unit under the navigation bar.
  2. A nearly-square advertising unit within the first post of a thread. This only shows for guests.
  3. A medium advertising unit at the footer of the page.

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 Styles & Templates section allows you to change the fonts, colors or the html of any section of the board to your preference.

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

The vBulletin Styles system is the interface through which you can configure the way that your visitors see your board.

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?

The pages you see making up the user-side of vBulletin are generated using a number of templates. Templates are fragments of XHTML code interspersed with PHP variables. These combine together to form complete XHTML pages that are served up to visitors.

A simple example template might look like this:
<table class="tborder">
<tr>
    <td class="tcat" colspan="2">My Table</td>
</tr>
$tablebits
</table>
The $tablebits PHP variable represents an area of the template that will be replaced with either some data, or additional template contents.

For example, we may have another template that looks like this:
<tr>
    <td class="alt1">$username</td>
    <td class="alt2">$message</td>
</tr>
This template would have the $username and $message variables substituted with the appropriate username and message.
<tr>
    <td class="alt1">Mister User</td>
    <td class="alt2">This is my message</td>
</tr>
The template would then be repeated as many times as necessary, replacing the variables with the username and message for each repetition. Finally, this completed block of XHTML would be inserted into the first template, replacing the $tablebits variable, resulting in a complete block of code like this:
<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>
This resulting code can then be passed on to the visitor's web browser for display.

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&amp;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

vBulletin 4.0 introduces a rich new syntax for marking-up templates, reducing the need for formatting and escaping to be performed in .php files.

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...]}
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}}
date
{vb:date timestamp[, format]}
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.
time
{vb:time timestamp[, format]}
As above, though uses the default time format instead of date format.
number
{vb:number number[, decimals]}
Outputs a number having run through vb_number_format for correct locale formatting. Number of decimal places to display can be optionally specified.
raw
{vb:raw variable}
Outputs the variable raw, without any formatting or escaping.
escapejs
{vb:escapejs variable}
Returns the variable prepared for use as a Javascript single-quoted string instead of running htmlspecialchars.
urlencode
{vb:urlencode variable}
Escapes the variable using urlencode.
if
{vb:if condition, true[, false]}
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>
link
{vb:link type, info[, extra-info]}
Used to build a hyperlink URL of the specified type and into the correct 'friendly' format.
For more information see: Link Syntax
math
{vb:math expression}
Primarily used within CSS, this is used to evaluate the result of the mathematical expression specified.
stylevar
{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]')
// ); 
Template:
<!-- 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>
Output:
<!-- 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
Creating Links in Templates

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 &amp; 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

Template Conditionals are a powerful tool for controlling the XHTML output from your templates. They allow you to create simple if/else branches within your templates, in order to display different content depending on the condition you specify.

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>
The previous example used a simple 'if' condition. We can extend that to include an 'else' condition, which will be used if the 'if' condition is not fulfilled.

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, $bbuserinfo[username].<br />
    <a href="search.php?do=getnew">Click here to view new posts</a>.
</vb:if>
Starting in vBulletin 4.0 template conditionals natively support 'else if' as well.
<vb:if condition="$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>
The actual syntax of vBulletin template conditionals is fairly straight forward. To begin a conditional, you simply start an <vb:if> tag. The <vb:if> tag accepts a single attribute, that being 'condition'. The value of the condition attribute contains an expression written in PHP. After the opening <vb:if> tag comes the HTML that should be expressed if the condition is met. The conditional terminates with a closing </vb:if> tag.

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>";

This could be expressed as a template conditional in the following way:
<vb:if condition="$my_variable == 1">
    <p>My variable is equal to one.</p>
</vb:if>
If we were to extend our PHP code to include an 'else' condition as follows...
if ($my_variable == 1)
{
    echo 
"<p>My variable is equal to one.</p>";
}
else
{
    echo 
"<p>My variable is not equal to one.</p>";

... then our template conditional would be extended thus:
<vb:if condition="$my_variable == 1">
    <p>My variable is equal to one.</p>
<vb:else />
    <p>My variable is not equal to one.</p>
</vb:if>
Furthermore, we may want to extend our PHP with an 'else if' condition:
if ($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
As a security precaution, to prevent malicious damage to either your database or your server itself, most PHP functions are disallowed 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="$my_variable = mysql_query('SELECT * FROM mytable')">
    <!-- naughty naughty... -->
</vb:if>
At the time of writing, the list of allowed 'safe' functions is as follows:
Note:
Functions marked * are custom functions defined by vBulletin itself. Each function name is a link that will take you to the documentation for that function. Use of these functions requires knowledge of PHP
This is an example of 'safe' functions being used in a template conditional:
<vb:if condition="isset($my_variable) AND is_browser('ie')">
    <!-- $my_variable is set and the browser is Internet Explorer -->
</vb:if>

Collapsing Elements

The vBulletin styles system allows you to create elements within templates that can be collapsed (hidden) when a visitor clicks a button. The collapsed state of elements is saved to a cookie, so when the visitor returns to that page, the elements they have collapsed will remain collapsed until they click the button to expand them again.

A collapsible element, shown expanded and collapsed

To add collapsible elements to your own custom templates is fairly straight-forward, and requires that you follow a few simple rules.

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>
In this example, you can see that the MyELEMENT identifier crops up in several places in the XHTML code. This should be replaced with whatever word you choose for your own identifier.
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.
The second part of a collapsible element is a container in which the collapsible content sits.

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>
If you want to add additional styling to the 'style' attribute of the container, you can do so by adding a semi-colon after the $vbcollapse[collapseobj_MyELEMENT] code and continuing as normal.

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>
When expanded, this example produces a layout like this:

And when collapsed, the same code produces this:

Collapsing <table> Rows
On the previous page, we discussed creating collapsible elements in your customized templates.

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="$stylevar[cellpadding]" width="100%">
<tr><td class="tcat"><strong>Table title</strong></td></tr>
<tbody>
    <tr><td class="alt1">First row of collapsible element</td></tr>
    <tr><td class="alt2">Second row of collapsible element</td></tr>
</tbody>
<tr><td class="alt1">Another row</td></tr>
</table>
On the other hand, this next block of code is valid XHTML. Notice that the first row of the table is enclosed with <thead> tags, and all other rows in the table are enclosed by a <tbody> container.
<table class="tborder" cellpadding="$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>
Here is that same block of code with the first two content rows set to allow collapsing:
<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>
When expanded, this code will result in a table looking like this:

... and when collapsed, the same code produces this:

vBMenu Popup Menus

vBulletin 3 styles provide a mechanism for creating popup menus, called vBMenu. This system allows complex or less-frequently used functionality to be hidden from immediate view, which results in a less cluttered and intimidating user interface for novice users.

You can add new vBMenu popups to your custom templates by following a few simple rules.

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>
The constituents of a vBMenu control, as seen in the code above are:If you would like to prevent the small menu image from appearing next to the text in the control, you can achieve this by adding a second argument of true to the vbmenu_register Javascript function, like this:
<script type="text/javascript">
    vbmenu_register("MyMENU", true);
</script>
The HTML code for the vBMenu popup element itself looks like this:
<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>
The constituents of the vBMenu popup element itself are very simple, and are based around the attributes applied to a <div> tag, which will surround any content we want to be a part of the popup. This <div> tag must obey the following rules:Any HTML content can be placed between the opening and closing tags of this <div> element, and will act as the body of our popup.
vBMenu Popup Content
While any valid HTML can be inserted into the <div> element that defines the reaches of a vBMenu popup, there are a few systems and standards in place to help you achieve a consistent look and feel for your menus.

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>
If for whatever reason you want to prevent the style switching behavior of elements using the .vbmenu_option CSS class, you can do so by adding a title attribute with a value of nohilite to the appropriate element, like this:
<tr>
    <td class="vbmenu_option" title="nohilite">
        This row will not hilight on mouse-over.
    </td>
</tr>
Multiple Popup Controls, Single vBMenu Popup
As previously mentioned, any vBMenu popup can have any number of popup controls.

To achieve this, it is necessary to slightly alter the code for each popup control.

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>
To allow multiple controls to operate the same menu, it is necessary to add a unique suffix to each control's identifier, which takes the form of a period followed by the unique suffix, as shown here:
<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
Some web browsers lack the ability to use the vBMenu system.

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
The following code will generate a complete vBMenu popup and a single associated control, and will also show an alternative HTML layout for incompatible web browsers.
<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
Should you wish to disable the vBMenu system completely, displaying non-popup content to all visitors regardless of their web browser's capabilities, you can do this by going to vBulletin Options > Style & Language Options and setting the Use 'vBMenu' DHTML Menus? setting to No.

After clicking the [Save] button, the $show['popups'] will be set to false for all visitors, and anyone visiting the site will be shown the alternative, no-popups layout.

The Legacy Postbit Template

The template in which most messages are displayed is called postbit. With the release of vBulletin 3, the layout of the postbit template was altered radically, changing from a system of two columns with user information in the left column and the message in the right to a system of two rows, with user information displayed above the message.

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 [Save] 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/.
If you have a PHP or HTML file that you want to include in your vBulletin forum, create a plugin that references that file. Then add a variable to the template of your choice where that file's contents should appear.
Note:
The Plugin system must be enabled in vBulletin Options -> Plugin System for plugins to work. It is disabled by default.
Including an HTML file:
1. Create a Plugin for global_start with this code:
$includedhtml = implode('', file('path/to/this/file/myfile.html'));
Replace the path and filename with the correct path and filename of the HTML file you want to include. The contents of myfile.html will be copied to the variable $includedhtml.

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();
Replace the path and filename with the correct path and filename of the PHP file you want to include. The code in myfile.php will execute and any output generated by this script will be stored in $includedphp.

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.
What is Output Buffering?

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));  
Replace FORUMHOME with the template you want to include your value in.

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

Not to be confused with XSS, CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets.

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>
As is clearly demonstrated by the previous example, the HTML code has two problems. Firstly, the display code actually represents more HTML than the content itself, and secondly, it is necessary to repeat the same display code over and over.

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>
You can see from this example that there is now significantly less HTML code needed, and that there is no inherent display-related code visible.

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>
With this system, were we to decide that we wanted to change all our text to use the italic, blue font, we would not need to edit our HTML content at all. Rather, we would simply change the style rules defined in 'myclass', and all the text with 'myclass' applied would automatically reflect the change.

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.

A page from vbulletin.com shown with and without CSS applied

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

vBulletin stores all of its CSS in templates within the Style Manager. You can edit these templates in the same way that you edit any other template. To get to them follow this process:

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

Additional.css is a special blank template that you can use for your own customizations. It will not be overwritten or merged on subsequent upgrades. You can also use this template to override the default CSS in the system. additional.css is called on every page in the headinclude_bottom template.

Body

CSS Selector: 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

CSS Selector: .page

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.

Leaving a blank value for the Page Background class results in a transparent block, inheriting the color defined by 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

CSS Selector: .tborder

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.

With a transparent background color, the margins between cells inherit the page background color.

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

CSS Selector: .tcat

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

CSS Selector: .thead

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

CSS Selector: .tfoot

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

CSS Selectors: .alt1 and .alt2

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>
The First / Second Alternating Color classes are extended by the Active First / Second Alternating Color classes, which we will look at next.

Active First / Second Alternating Color

CSS Selectors .alt1Active and .alt2Active

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:
LetterRepresentsRedirects 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]
The active cells functionality is disabled by default.

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();
to this:
    // Initialize 'Active' Table Cells
    activecells_init();
Due to browser limitations, active cells are purposefully disabled for WebTV, MSNTV and Opera browsers.

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

CSS Selector: .wysiwyg

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

CSS Selector: textarea, .bginput

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.
Example of element using this class:
<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

CSS Selector: .button

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.

Example of element using this class:
<input type="submit" class="button" value="Save Changes" accesskey="s" />
<br />
The button above uses the 'Button' class.

<select> Menus

CSS Selector: select

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

CSS Selector: .smallfont

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

CSS Selector: .time

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

CSS Selector: .navbar

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">&gt; Main Category</span>
<span class="navbar">&gt; Main Forum</span>

Highlighted Font

CSS Selector: .highlight

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

CSS Selector: .panelsurround

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)

CSS Selector: .panel

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>

CSS Selector: 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

CSS Selector: .vbmenu_control

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

CSS Selector: .vbmenu_popup

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

CSS Selector: .vbmenu_option

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

CSS Selector: .vbmenu_hilite

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.
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 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

CSS Selectors:
.fjselSelected Menu Item.fjdpth0Depth 0 Menu Item
.fjdpth1Depth 1 Menu Item.fjdpth2Depth 2 Menu Item
.fjdpth3Depth 3 Menu Item.fjdpth4Depth 4 Menu Item
The Forum Jump Menu Classes are six classes used to apply styling to the Forum Jump Menu.

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.

The colors applied to Depth0 - Depth4 items here are for illustration purposes only, and do not appear in the default vBulletin style.

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.
Example of elements using these classes:
<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 (short for Style Variables) are PHP variables that contain a single value used for controlling the appearance of some aspect of a vBulletin style. Stylevars are used in conjuction with CSS and Templates to control the look and feel of your vBulletin site.

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

vBulletin uses Style Variables to dynamically build your CSS during rendering either during page load or when the files are written to the server, if you have enabled that option. This allows you to quickly and easily build different styles that your users can choose from.

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};
}
This code contains several style variables as denoted by the {vb:stylevar} tags. The vBulletin template engine will retrieve the values of those style variables and insert them directly into the CSS as it is rendered.

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

There are different types of stylevars in the vBulletin 4.X system. The type of stylevar controls how it appears.

Simple Stylevars
Simple stylevars usually have a single option to set. These include strings, numbers, image paths, image names, colors, and others.Complex Stylevars
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.

Adding Stylevars

Note:
This is a developer feature
If you are creating your own custom style, you can also add custom stylevars as of version 4.0.0. In order to do this, your forums must be in debug mode.

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

The StyleVar Dictionary gives you the name and definition of every style variable in the system organized by the area they affect.
Ads
These style variables help control the layout and design of your ads.
NameDescription
ad_marginThis stylevar controls the margin of ads.
ad_paddingThis stylevar controls the padding of ads.
ad_post_maxWidthThis stylevar controls the maximum width of ads in forum posts.
Album
These stylevars allow you to control the layout and design of the user photo albums and their contents.
NameDescription
album_content_widthThis stylevar controls the width of the user's album column on the main album page.
albumedit_blockrow_borderThis stylevar controls the border of block rows in the edit album picture page.
albumedit_maineditor_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of the caption textbox in the edit album picture page.
albumedit_maineditor_borderThis stylevar controls the border of the caption textbox in the edit album picture page.
albumedit_maineditor_widthThis stylevar controls the width of the caption textbox in the edit album picture page.
albumlist_blockbody_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of the album list.
albumlist_entry_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of the album covers in the album list.
albumlist_entry_borderThis stylevar controls the border of the album covers in the album list.
albumlist_image_shadow_colorThis stylevar controls the shadow color of the album cover pictures in the album list.
albumtop_marginThis stylevar controls the width of the Picture URL and BB Code fields in the album picture page.
picture_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of pictures.
picture_borderThis stylevar controls the border of pictures.
picturelink_img_shadow_colorThis stylevar controls the shadow color of pictures.
AssetManager
These stylevars control aspects of the Asset Manager window when you are uploading file attachments.
NameDescription
assetmanager_attachment_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of attachments in the asset manager.
assetmanager_attachment_background_selectedThis stylevar controls the background of selected attachments in the asset manager.
assetmanager_attachment_borderThis stylevar controls the border of attachments in the asset manager.
assetmanager_attachment_colorThis stylevar controls the text color of attachments in the asset manager.
assetmanager_borderThis stylevar controls the border of the asset manager.
assetmanager_panel_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of panels in the asset manager.
assetmanager_panel_colorThis stylevar controls the text color of panels in the asset manager.
assetmanager_panel_footer_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of panel footers in the asset manager.
assetmanager_panel_footer_colorThis stylevar controls the text color of panel footers in the asset manager.
assetmanager_panel_header_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of panel headers in the asset manager.
assetmanager_panel_header_colorThis stylevar controls the text color of panel headers in the asset manager.
assetmanager_resize_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of the area between the different panels in the asset manager.
assetmanager_upload_backgroundThis 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_colorThis 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
These stylevars control the layout and display of attachments as it is displayed within content.
NameDescription
attachment_box_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of the box that contains attachments in content that supports them.
attachment_box_borderThis stylevar controls the border of the box that contains attachments in content that supports them.
attachment_box_fontsizeThis stylevar controls the font size of the box that contains attachments in content that supports them.
attachment_box_paddingThis stylevar controls the padding of the box that contains attachments in content that supports them.
attachment_image_large_maxThis stylevar controls the maximum size of inline attached images whose size is set to "Large" in their Image Settings.
attachment_image_medium_maxThis stylevar controls the maximum size of inline attached images whose size is set to "Medium" in their Image Settings.
attachment_image_thumbnail_maxThis stylevar controls the maximum size of inline attached images whose size is set to "Thumbnail" in their Image Settings.
BBCode
Allows you to control the design of block level BBCODE like QUOTE, PHP, HTML, and CODE
NameDescription
bbcode_code_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of the [code], [html] and [php] BB code blocks.
bbcode_quote_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of quotes.
bbcode_quote_borderThis stylevar controls the border of quotes.
bbcode_quote_fontThis stylevar controls the font of quotes.
bbcode_quote_paddingThis stylevar controls the padding of quotes.
bbcode_quote_postedby_fontThis stylevar controls the font of the "Originally Posted by" text of quotes.
bbcode_table_borderThis stylevar controls the border of tables created with BB code.
Blocks
The basic building blocks of many display elements in vBulletin.
NameDescription
blockbody_backgroundThis 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_paddingThis 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_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of block footers. A block footer is the bottom part of a block, which usually contains action buttons.
blockfoot_borderThis stylevar controls the border of block footers. A block footer is the bottom part of a block, which usually contains action buttons.
blockfoot_colorThis stylevar controls the text color of block footers. A block footer is the bottom part of a block, which usually contains action buttons.
blockfoot_fontThis stylevar controls the font of block footers. A block footer is the bottom part of a block, which usually contains action buttons.
blockfoot_link_colorThis 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_colorThis 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_paddingThis stylevar controls the padding of block footers. A block footer is the bottom part of a block, which usually contains action buttons.
blockhead_backgroundThis 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_borderThis 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_colorThis 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_fontThis 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_colorThis 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_colorThis 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_paddingThis 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_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of block rows. A block contains one or more rows, in which data are displayed.
blockrow_borderThis stylevar controls the border of block rows. A block contains one or more rows, in which data are displayed.
blockrow_colorThis stylevar controls the text color of block rows. A block contains one or more rows, in which data are displayed.
blockrow_fontThis stylevar controls the font of block rows. A block contains one or more rows, in which data are displayed.
blockrow_link_colorThis stylevar controls the link color of block rows. A block contains one or more rows, in which data are displayed.
blockrow_linkhover_colorThis stylevar controls the link hover color of block rows. A block contains one or more rows, in which data are displayed.
blockrow_paddingThis stylevar controls the padding of block rows. A block contains one or more rows, in which data are displayed.
blocksubhead_backgroundThis 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_borderThis 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_colorThis 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_fontThis 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_colorThis 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_colorThis 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_paddingThis 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
Style Variables that are used Globally throughout the vBulletin System
NameDescription
body_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of the body. The body is the area below the header, which contains all other elements.
body_colorThis stylevar controls the text color of the body. The body is the area below the header, which contains all other elements.
body_paddingThis stylevar controls the padding of the body. The body is the area below the header, which contains all other elements.
border_radiusThis stylevar controls the radius of borders.
doc_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of the document. The document is the outer area, that contains all other elements.
doc_marginThis stylevar controls the margin of the document. The document is the outer area, that contains all other elements.
doc_maxWidthThis stylevar controls the maximum width of the document. The document is the outer area, that contains all other elements.
doc_minWidthThis stylevar controls the minimum width of the document. The document is the outer area, that contains all other elements.
doc_widthThis stylevar controls the width of the document. The document is the outer area, that contains all other elements.
fontThis stylevar controls the font of any element.
htmldoctypeThis stylevar controls the type of the HTML document.
link_colorThis stylevar controls the link color of any element.
link_textDecorationThis stylevar controls the link text decoration of any element.
linkhover_colorThis stylevar controls the link hover color of any element.
linkhover_textDecorationThis stylevar controls the link hover text decoration of any element.
paddingThis stylevar controls the padding of any element.
shade_colorThis stylevar controls the text color of shaded text. Shaded text is usually used for option and input field descriptions.
shadow_colorThis stylevar controls the shadow color of any element.
time_colorThis stylevar controls the text color of the time.
Buttons
Define the look and feel of your Form Buttons and Action Controls with these stylevars
NameDescription
control_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of buttons.
control_borderThis stylevar controls the border of buttons.
control_colorThis stylevar controls the text color of buttons.
control_content_backgroundThis 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_borderThis 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_colorThis 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_fontThis 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_backgroundThis 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_colorThis 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_paddingThis 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_radiusThis 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_colorThis 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_fontThis stylevar controls the font of buttons.
control_hover_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of hover buttons.
control_hover_colorThis stylevar controls the text color of hover buttons.
Calendar
These style variables control the look of your Calendar and Event pages.
NameDescription
calendar_addnewcontrols_dt_marginThis stylevar controls the margin of the calendar Add New Event button.
calendar_events_a_daynum_colorThis stylevar controls the link color of day numbers in the calendar monthly view.
calendar_events_a_daynum_color_hoverThis stylevar controls the link hover color of day numbers in the calendar monthly view.
calendar_events_borderThis stylevar controls the border of days in the calendar monthly and weekly views.
calendar_events_heightThis stylevar controls the minimum height of day cells in the calendar monthly view.
calendar_events_ol_list_marginThis stylevar controls the margin of day cells in the calendar monthly view.
calendar_events_ol_list_widthThis stylevar controls the width of day cells in the calendar monthly view.
calendar_mini_othermonth_a_borderThis stylevar controls the border of other month days in the calendar.
calendar_othermonth_a_colorThis stylevar controls the text color of other month days in the calendar.
calendar_othermonth_background_colorThis stylevar controls the background of other month days in the calendar.
calendar_sidebar_widthThis stylevar controls the width of the calendar sidebar.
calendar_today_border_colorThis stylevar controls the border of the current day cell in the calendar monthly view.
calendar_week_daynum_font_colorThis stylevar controls the text color of day numbers in the calendar weekly view.
calendar_week_daynum_font_sizeThis stylevar controls the font size of day numbers in the calendar weekly view.
calendar_week_eventlist_birthdays_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of the birthday area in the calendar weekly view.
calendar_week_eventlist_birthdays_borderThis stylevar controls the border of the birthday area in the calendar weekly view.
calendar_week_eventlist_birthdays_widthThis stylevar controls the width of the birthday area in the calendar weekly view.
eventbit_dl_customfield_colorThis stylevar controls the text color of custom field names in calendar events.
Comments
These style variables affect the look of the different comments around your site. Comments are seen in the CMS, Blog, Visitor Messages, Groups, and Albums.
NameDescription
postbit_lite_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of comments. A comment is a smaller-looking type of message, such as group messages, visitor messages, etc.
postbitlite_header_backgroundThis 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_borderThis 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_colorThis 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_colorThis 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
Common Elements used through out vBulletin includes your global font definitions
NameDescription
big_fontSizeThis stylevar controls the size of big font.
content_msg_fontThis 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_colorThis stylevar controls the background of general highlighted elements.
giant_fontSizeThis stylevar controls the size of giant font.
heavy_borderThis 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_backgroundThis 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_colorThis 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_sizeThis stylevar controls the maximum size of images.
imodhilite_backgroundColorThis stylevar controls the background of the content selected with inline moderation.
light_borderThis 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_heightThis 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_borderThis stylevar controls the border of any element that does not have a specific border defined.
mid_fontSizeThis stylevar controls the size of mid font.
navlinks_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of the navigation links.
navlinks_border_topThis stylevar controls the top border of the navigation links.
navlinks_colorThis stylevar controls the text color of the navigation links.
restoreThis stylevar controls the border of table cells.
restore_paddingThis stylevar controls the padding of table cells.
small_fontSizeThis stylevar controls the size of small font.
tabslight_borderThis stylevar controls the border of tabs. This is used by the calendar tabs only.
tabslight_selected_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of the selected tab. This is used by the calendar tabs only.
tabslight_sizeThis stylevar controls the size of tabs. This is used by the calendar tabs and profile tabs only.
tiny_fontSizeThis stylevar controls the size of tiny font.
Editor
Control the look of your Editor and its toolbars.
NameDescription
editor_autosave_notice_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of the editor auto-save notice.
editor_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of the editor.
editor_button_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of editor buttons.
editor_button_background_hoverThis stylevar controls the background of hover editor buttons.
editor_button_disabled_opacityThis stylevar controls the opacity of disabled editor buttons. The entered value should be between 0 and 1.
editor_button_enabled_opacityThis stylevar controls the opacity of enabled editor buttons. The entered value should be between 0 and 1.
editor_button_selected_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of selected editor buttons.
editor_button_selected_background_hoverThis stylevar controls the background of hover selected editor buttons.
editor_popupbody_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of the editor popups.
editor_popupbody_colorThis stylevar controls the text color of the editor popups.
editor_popupbody_frame_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of the editor popup frame.
editor_popupbody_frame_colorThis stylevar controls the text color of the editor popup frame.
editor_popupbody_tab_background_hoverThis stylevar controls the background of the editor popup hover tabs.
editor_popupbody_tab_color_hoverThis stylevar controls the text color of the editor popup hover tabs.
editor_smiliebox_smiliesizeThis stylevar controls the maximum size of smilies in the editor smiliebox.
editor_text_colorThis stylevar controls the text color of the editor.
editor_toolbar_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of the editor toolbar.
editor_wysiwyg_table_borderThis stylevar controls the border of tables in the WYSIWYG editor.
Footer
Controls the look and feel of the Footer elements at the bottom of every vBulletin Page.
NameDescription
footer_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of the footer. The footer is the horizontal bar that is displayed at the bottom of every page.
footer_borderThis stylevar controls the border of the footer. The footer is the horizontal bar that is displayed at the bottom of every page.
footer_colorThis 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_colorThis 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_fontThis 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_fontThis stylevar controls the font of the footer. The footer is the horizontal bar that is displayed at the bottom of every page.
footer_link_colorThis 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_colorThis 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_colorThis stylevar controls the shadow color of the footer. The footer is the horizontal bar that is displayed at the bottom of every page.
footer_paddingThis stylevar controls the padding of the footer. The footer is the horizontal bar that is displayed at the bottom of every page.
footer_time_colorThis 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
NameDescription
form_columnleft_widthThis stylevar controls the width of the left column in forms. The left column of forms usually contains option and input field names.
form_columnright_widthThis 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_maxWidthThis 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_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of forms. A form is usually contained in a block body, and may contain one or more block rows.
formrow_borderThis stylevar controls the border of forms. A form is usually contained in a block body, and may contain one or more block rows.
input_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of input fields.
input_borderThis stylevar controls the border of input fields.
input_colorThis stylevar controls the text color of input fields.
input_focus_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of input fields when they have focus.
input_fontThis stylevar controls the font of input fields.
input_paddingThis stylevar controls the padding of input fields.
Forums
Use these stylevars to determine how your forum lists look. Forum lists are shown on the Forum Home and Forum Display pages.
NameDescription
announcement_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of forum announcements. Announcements are displayed at the top of forumdisplay pages.
forum_sidebar_widthThis stylevar controls the width of the forum sidebar.
forumbits_borderThis stylevar controls the border of forum rows in forum lists.
forumbits_shadow_colorThis stylevar controls the shadow color of forum rows in forum lists.
forumbits_text_colorThis stylevar controls the text color of forum rows in forum lists.
forumhead_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of forum list headers.
forumhead_borderThis stylevar controls the border of forum list headers.
forumhead_colorThis stylevar controls the text color of forum list headers.
forumhead_fontThis stylevar controls the font of forum list headers.
forumhead_top_corner_radiusThis stylevar controls the radius of the top corners of forum list headers.
forumicon_sizeThis stylevar controls the size of the space forum icons can take in forum lists.
forumrow_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of forum rows in forum lists.
forumrow_firstentry_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of the first forum row in forum lists.
To customize your "What's Going On" box on the Forum Home page, please see SecondaryContent
Groups
NameDescription
groups_row_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of group rows.
icon_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of group icons in the group main page.
Header
This controls the look and feel of the header at the top of each page within vBulletin.
NameDescription
header_backgroundThis 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_borderThis 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_colorThis 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_fontThis 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_colorThis 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_colorThis 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_marginThis 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_paddingThis 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_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of the links in the top right corner of the header.
toplinks_colorThis stylevar controls the text color of the links in the top right corner of the header.
toplinks_hilite_backgroundThis stylevar controls the highlighted background of the links in the top right corner of the header.
toplinks_link_colorThis stylevar controls the link color of the links in the top right corner of the header.
toplinks_linkhover_colorThis stylevar controls the link hover color of the links in the top right corner of the header.
ImagePaths
Tell vBulletin where to find the different images used to build the look and feel of the site.
NameDescription
imgdir_attachThis stylevar controls the path of the attachment image directory. This folder contains the various icons used to represent different attachment file types.
imgdir_buttonThis 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_cmsThis stylevar controls the path of the CMS image directory. This folder contains the various images used in the vBulletin CMS.
imgdir_editorThis stylevar controls the path of the editor image directory. This folder contains the button and interface images for the editor.
imgdir_miscThis stylevar controls the path of the miscellaneous image directory. This folder contains the various images that do not fit into other image categories.
imgdir_paginationThis stylevar controls the path of the pagination image directory. This folder contains the various images used by the pagination.
imgdir_ratingThis 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_reputationThis stylevar controls the path of the reputation image directory. This folder contains the various images used to display a user's current reputation.
imgdir_searchresultsThis 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_siteiconsThis stylevar controls the path of the site icon image directory. This folder contains the various common icons used across all the site.
imgdir_statusiconThis 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.).
titleimageThis 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_paddingThis 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.
faviconThis 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.
unknownsgiconThis stylevar controls the file path of the icon used as group icon by groups that do not have an icon specified.
Navbar
Navbar
These style variables control the navigation tabs and submenus shown under the Header on every page.
NameDescription
navbar_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of the navigation bar.
navbar_borderThis stylevar controls the border of the navigation bar.
navbar_colorThis stylevar controls the text color of the navigation bar.
navbar_fontThis stylevar controls the font of the navigation bar.
navbar_link_colorThis stylevar controls the link color of the navigation bar.
navbar_linkhover_colorThis stylevar controls the link hover color of the navigation bar.
navbar_marginThis stylevar controls the margin of the navigation bar.
navbar_menu_heightThis stylevar controls the height of the navigation bar menu.
navbar_popupmenu_link_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of the navigation bar popup menu rows.
navbar_popupmenu_link_colorThis stylevar controls the link color of the navigation bar popup menu rows.
navbar_popupmenu_link_hover_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of the navigation bar popup menu hover rows.
navbar_popupmenu_link_hover_colorThis stylevar controls the link color of the navigation bar popup menu hover rows.
navbar_tab_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of the navigation bar tabs.
navbar_tab_bevelThis stylevar controls the inner top border of the navigation bar tabs.
navbar_tab_borderThis stylevar controls the border of the navigation bar tabs.
navbar_tab_colorThis stylevar controls the text color of the navigation bar tabs.
navbar_tab_fontThis stylevar controls the font of the navigation bar tabs.
navbar_tab_paddingThis stylevar controls the padding of the navigation bar tabs.
navbar_tab_selected_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of the selected navigation bar tabs.
navbar_tab_selected_colorThis stylevar controls the text color of the selected navigation bar tabs.
navbar_tab_selected_top_heightThis 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_sizeThis stylevar controls the size of the navigation bar tabs.
Notices
Notices are announcements you can conditionally place on pages. This controls the appearance of those announcements.
NameDescription
notices_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of notices. Notices appear at the top of every page, if their conditions are met.
notices_shadow_colorThis stylevar controls the shadow color of notices. Notices appear at the top of every page, if their conditions are met.
Mobile
Mobile
These style variables only appear in the vBulletin Mobile Style
[table]NameDescriptionpadding_mobileThis stylevar controls the padding of any element.titleimage_mobileThis 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.htmldoctype_mobileThis stylevar controls the type of the HTML document.imgdir_button_mobileThis 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_mobileThis stylevar controls the path of the CMS image directory. This folder contains the various images used in the vBulletin CMS.imgdir_misc_mobileThis stylevar controls the path of the miscellaneous image directory. This folder contains the various images that do not fit into other image categories.imgdir_mobileThis stylevar controls the path of the mobile style image directory. This folder contains the various images used in the mobile style.imgdir_mobile_mobileThis stylevar controls the path of the mobile style image directory. This folder contains the various images used in the mobile style.imgdir_rating_mobileThis 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_searchresults_mobileThis 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_mobileThis stylevar controls the path of the site icon image directory. This folder contains the various common icons used across all the site.imgdir_statusicon_mobileThis 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.).
Page Title
Controls the look and feel of the page title on each vBulletin Page.
NameDescription
pagetitle_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of the page title.
pagetitle_borderThis stylevar controls the border of the page title.
pagetitle_colorThis stylevar controls the text color of the page title.
pagetitle_colorThis stylevar controls the text color of the page title description.
pagetitle_fontThis stylevar controls the font of the page title.
pagetitle_link_colorThis stylevar controls the link color of the page title.
pagetitle_linkhover_colorThis stylevar controls the link hover color of the page title.
pagetitle_paddingThis stylevar controls the padding of the page title.
Pagination
These stylevars control the look and feel of the Page Navigation controls.
NameDescription
pagination_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of the page navigation.
pagination_borderThis stylevar controls the border of the page navigation.
pagination_colorThis stylevar controls the text color of the page navigation.
pagination_current_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of the selected page in the page navigation.
pagination_current_borderThis stylevar controls the border of the selected page in the page navigation.
pagination_current_colorThis stylevar controls the text color of the selected page in the page navigation.
pagination_fontThis stylevar controls the font of the page navigation.
pagination_hover_borderThis stylevar controls the border of the hover pages in the page navigation.
Polls
Controls the look and feel of the poll result output within threads.
NameDescription
poll_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of polls.
pollbar1_backgroundThis stylevar controls the first background of the poll bars. This background will be used once every six poll options.
pollbar2_backgroundThis stylevar controls the second background of the poll bars. This background will be used once every six poll options.
pollbar3_backgroundThis stylevar controls the third background of the poll bars. This background will be used once every six poll options.
pollbar4_backgroundThis stylevar controls the fourth background of the poll bars. This background will be used once every six poll options.
pollbar5_backgroundThis stylevar controls the fifth background of the poll bars. This background will be used once every six poll options.
pollbar6_backgroundThis stylevar controls the sixth background of the poll bars. This background will be used once every six poll options.
pollbar_borderThis stylevar controls the border of the poll bars.
pollbar_heightThis stylevar controls the height of the poll bars.
pollbars_margin_sizeThis stylevar controls the margin of the poll bars.
pollbars_result_bit_widthThis stylevar controls the width of the poll result area.
PopupMenus
Controls the look and feel of various popup menus used in tools through a vBulletin Site. For the Navbar, see the Navbar Stylevars
NameDescription
popup_paddingThis stylevar controls the padding of popups.
popupmenu_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of popup menu.
popupmenu_borderThis stylevar controls the border of popup menu.
popupmenu_border_radiusThis stylevar controls the radius of popup menu borders.
popupmenu_colorThis stylevar controls the text color of popup menu.
popupmenu_fontThis stylevar controls the font of popup menu.
popupmenu_heightThis stylevar controls the height of popup menu rows.
popupmenu_link_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of popup menu rows.
popupmenu_link_colorThis stylevar controls the link color of popup menu rows.
popupmenu_link_hover_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of popup menu hover rows.
popupmenu_link_hover_colorThis stylevar controls the link color of popup menu hover rows.
popupmenu_paddingThis stylevar controls the padding of popup menu.
Postbit
This controls the various aspects of the postbit templates. The postbit is the code for each post within a thread. If you're looking for the stylevars to edit CMS Comments, Blog Comments, Group Comments, see Comments
NameDescription
diff_add_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of added text in the post edit history.
diff_remove_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of removed text in the post edit history.
diffadd_colorThis stylevar controls the text color of added text in the post edit history.
diffremove_colorThis stylevar controls the text color of removed text in the post edit history.
post_title_fontThis stylevar controls the font of post titles. This includes forums posts, private messages, forum announcements, calendar events and user notes.
postbit_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of posts. This includes forums posts, private messages, forum announcements, calendar events and user notes.
postbit_borderThis stylevar controls the border of posts. This includes forums posts, private messages, forum announcements, calendar events and user notes.
postbit_colorThis stylevar controls the text color of posts. This includes forums posts, private messages, forum announcements, calendar events and user notes.
postbit_control_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of the post buttons. This includes forums posts, private messages, forum announcements, calendar events and user notes.
postbit_control_borderThis stylevar controls the border of the post buttons. This includes forums posts, private messages, forum announcements, calendar events and user notes.
postbit_control_colorThis stylevar controls the text color of the post buttons. This includes forums posts, private messages, forum announcements, calendar events and user notes.
postbit_control_fontThis stylevar controls the font of the post buttons. This includes forums posts, private messages, forum announcements, calendar events and user notes.
postbit_control_hover_backgroundThis 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_borderThis 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_colorThis 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_paddingThis stylevar controls the padding of the post buttons. This includes forums posts, private messages, forum announcements, calendar events and user notes.
postbit_deleted_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of soft deleted posts.
postbit_fontThis stylevar controls the font of posts. This includes forums posts, private messages, forum announcements, calendar events and user notes.
postbit_foot_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of post footers. This includes forums posts, private messages, forum announcements, calendar events and user notes.
postbit_foot_separatorThis 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_backgroundThis 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_borderThis 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_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of post headers. This includes forums posts, private messages, forum announcements, calendar events and user notes.
postbithead_borderThis stylevar controls the border of post headers. This includes forums posts, private messages, forum announcements, calendar events and user notes.
postbithead_colorThis stylevar controls the text color of post headers. This includes forums posts, private messages, forum announcements, calendar events and user notes.
postbithead_fontThis stylevar controls the font of post headers. This includes forums posts, private messages, forum announcements, calendar events and user notes.
postbitlegacy_userinfo_widthThis 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_borderThis stylevar controls the line between the post title and the post content. This includes forum posts, forum announcements and private messages.
signature_borderThis stylevar controls the line between the signature and the post content. This includes forum posts, forum announcements and private messages.
Profile
These stylevars control the default user profile style and colors[/td]
NameDescription
profile_content_subsection_borderThis stylevar controls the line between each infraction in the user profile infraction tab.
profile_sidebar_avatar_backgroundColorThis stylevar controls the background of profile pictures in user profiles.
profile_sidebar_avatar_borderThis 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_maxWidthThis stylevar controls the width of images in the profile sidebar. This includes group icons and album covers.
profile_sidebar_widthThis stylevar controls the width of the profile sidebar.
profile_tiny_avatarThis stylevar controls the size of avatars in the profile sidebar friend block.
postbit_lite_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of the left column.Warning: this stylevar also controls the background of Comment areas.
SecondaryContent
Secondary Content appears at the bottom of the Forum Home page. This is commonly referred to as the "What's Going On" box.
NameDescription
secondarycontent_backgroundThis 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_borderThis 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_colorThis 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_fontThis 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_backgroundThis 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_borderThis 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_colorThis 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_fontThis 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_fontSizeThis 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
Sidebars are shown in the CMS, Forums and Blogs. These style variables control the global aspects of these sidebars. CMS Widgets also take their formatting from the Sidebar Style Variables.
NameDescription
sidebar_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of sidebars.
sidebar_borderThis stylevar controls the border of sidebars.
sidebar_content_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of sidebar contents.
sidebar_content_bevelThis stylevar controls the inner top border of sidebar contents.
sidebar_content_borderThis stylevar controls the border of sidebar contents.
sidebar_content_colorThis stylevar controls the text color of sidebar contents.
sidebar_content_fontSizeThis stylevar controls the font size of sidebar contents.
sidebar_content_link_colorThis stylevar controls the link color of sidebar contents.
sidebar_content_link_hover_colorThis stylevar controls the link hover color of sidebar contents.
sidebar_content_paddingThis stylevar controls the padding of sidebar contents.
sidebar_contentavatar_widthThis stylevar controls the width of sidebar content avatars.
sidebar_contentlist_separatorThis stylevar controls the line between different sidebar contents in the same block.
sidebar_contentseparator_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of the sidebar block separator.
sidebar_contentseparator_heightThis stylevar controls the height of the sidebar block separator.
sidebar_header_colorThis stylevar controls the text color of sidebar block headers.
sidebar_header_fontSizeThis stylevar controls the font size of sidebar block headers.
sidebar_header_link_colorThis stylevar controls the link color of sidebar block headers.
sidebar_postbit_header_fontThis stylevar controls the font of sidebar content titles.
sidebar_postbit_small_fontSizeThis stylevar controls the font size of sidebar content details.
ThreadBit
The Threadbit controls how your threads or discussions appear in the Forum Display and Search Pages.
NameDescription
threadbit_alt_backgroundThis stylevar controls the alternating background of thread rows in thread lists.
threadbit_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of thread rows in thread lists.
threadbit_borderThis stylevar controls the border of thread rows in thread lists.
threadbit_deleted_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of soft deleted thread rows in thread lists.
threadbit_hilite_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of sticky thread rows in thread lists.
threadbit_iconsizeThis stylevar controls the size of the space thread icons can take in thread lists.
threadlisthead_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of thread list headers.
threadlisthead_borderThis stylevar controls the border of thread list headers.
threadlisthead_colorThis stylevar controls the text color of thread list headers.
threadlisthead_fontThis stylevar controls the font of thread list headers.
threadlisthead_top_corner_radiusThis stylevar controls the radius of the top corners of thread list headers.
ToolsMenu
The tools menu contains different drop downs and controls to maintain or select actions throughout the site. An example of this is the toolbar about the posts when viewing a thread.
NameDescription
toolsmenu_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of tool menu.
toolsmenu_borderThis stylevar controls the border of tool menu.
toolsmenu_colorThis stylevar controls the text color of tool menu.
toolsmenu_fontSizeThis stylevar controls the font size of tool menu.
toolsmenu_link_colorThis stylevar controls the link color of tool menu.
toolsmenu_linkhover_colorThis stylevar controls the link hover color of tool menu.
UserCP
These are unique Style Variables for the Setting or User Control Panel Pages.
NameDescription
usercp_hr_seperatorThis 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_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of the block body in the navigation column in the setting pages.
usercp_nav_blockbody_borderThis stylevar controls the border of the block body in the navigation column in the setting pages.
Blog
These elements control the dominant elements of the Blog layout and Blog Entries. Other aspects are controlled by the Comments and Sidebar Style Variables.
NameDescription
vbblog_bloglist_avatar_widthThis stylevar controls the width of avatars in blog entry lists.
vbblog_bloglist_avatar_width_mobileThis stylevar controls the width of avatars in blog entry lists.
vbblog_bloglist_avatar_width_name_mobileBlog Entry List Avatar Width
vbblog_bloglist_borderThis stylevar controls the line between different blog entries in blog entry lists.
vbblog_bloglist_header_colorThis stylevar controls the text color of blog entry titles.
vbblog_body_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of the blog body. The body is the area below the header, which contains all other elements.
vbblog_entry_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of blog entries.
vbblog_featured_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of featured blog entries in blog entry lists.
vbblog_featured_borderThis stylevar controls the border of featured blog entries in blog entry lists.
vbblog_featured_header_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of featured blog entry headers in blog entry lists.
vbblog_featured_header_colorThis stylevar controls the text color of featured blog entry headers in blog entry lists.
vbblog_listrow_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of rows in blog lists and in blog category lists.
vbblog_pagetitle_borderThis stylevar controls the line between the page title and the rest of the page content in the blog.
vbblog_pagetitle_colorThis stylevar controls the text color of the page title in the blog.
vbblog_pagetitle_colorThis stylevar controls the text color of the page title description in the blog.
vbblog_pagetitle_fontThis stylevar controls the font of the page title description in the blog.
vbblog_pagetitle_fontThis stylevar controls the font of the page title in the blog.
vbblog_sidebar_avatar_borderThis stylevar controls the border of the blog owner avatar in the blog sidebar.
vbblog_sidebar_tabs_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of the blog sidebar tabs.
vbblog_sidebar_tabs_borderThis stylevar controls the border of the blog sidebar tabs.
vbblog_sidebar_tabs_colorThis stylevar controls the link color of the blog sidebar tabs.
vbblog_sidebar_tabs_fontThis stylevar controls the font of the blog sidebar tabs.
vbblog_sidebar_tabs_heightThis stylevar controls the height of the blog sidebar tabs.
vbblog_sidebar_tabs_selected_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of the selected blog sidebar tab.
vbblog_sidebar_widthThis stylevar controls the width of the blog sidebar.
vbcms
Controls many parts of the CMS layout. For configuring widgets and sidebars see Sidebar Style Variables. To control the look of comments see Comments.
NameDescription
vbcms_article_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of CMS content.
vbcms_article_preview_header_fontThis stylevar controls the font of titles in CMS content previews.
vbcms_article_preview_image_borderThis stylevar controls the border of CMS content preview images.
vbcms_article_preview_image_marginThis stylevar controls the margin of CMS content preview images.
vbcms_article_preview_image_outlineThis stylevar controls the outer line of CMS content preview images.
vbcms_article_preview_object_sizeThis stylevar controls the maximum size of video in CMS content previews.
vbcms_body_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of the CMS body. The body is the area below the header, which contains all other elements.
vbcms_calendarwidget_day_fontThis stylevar controls the font of days in the CMS calendar widget.
vbcms_calendarwidget_monthnav_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of the month navigation in the CMS calendar widget.
vbcms_calendarwidget_monthnav_fontThis stylevar controls the font of the month navigation in the CMS calendar widget.
vbcms_calendarwidget_weekdays_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of week days in the CMS calendar widget.
vbcms_calendarwidget_weekdays_borderThis stylevar controls the border of week days in the CMS calendar widget.
vbcms_calendarwidget_weekdays_fontThis stylevar controls the font of week days in the CMS calendar widget.
vbcms_content_separatorThis stylevar controls the line between different CMS content in CMS content lists.
vbcms_header_borderBottomThis stylevar controls the bottom border of CMS content headers.
vbcms_header_borderTopThis stylevar controls the top border of CMS content headers.
vbcms_header_colorThis stylevar controls the text color of CMS content headers.
vbcms_header_fontThis stylevar controls the font of CMS content headers.
vbcms_header_marginThis stylevar controls the margin of CMS content headers.
vbcms_header_paddingThis stylevar controls the padding of CMS content headers.
vbcms_navwidget_menuitem_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of rows in the CMS navigation widgets.
vbcms_navwidget_menuitem_bevelThis stylevar controls the inner top border of rows in the CMS navigation widgets.
vbcms_navwidget_menuitem_borderThis stylevar controls the border of rows in the CMS navigation widgets.
vbcms_navwidget_menuitem_colorThis stylevar controls the text color of rows in the CMS navigation widgets.
vbcms_navwidget_menuitem_fontThis stylevar controls the font of rows in the CMS navigation widgets.
vbcms_navwidget_menuitem_hover_backgroundThis stylevar controls the background of hover rows in the CMS navigation widgets.
vbcms_navwidget_menuitem_hover_bevelThis stylevar controls the inner top border of hover rows in the CMS navigation widgets.
vbcms_navwidget_menuitem_hover_borderThis stylevar controls the border of hover rows in the CMS navigation widgets.
vbcms_navwidget_menuitem_hover_colorThis stylevar controls the text color of hover rows in the CMS navigation widgets.
vbcms_widget_block_paddingThis stylevar controls the padding of CMS widgets.
vbcms_widget_header_paddingThis stylevar controls the padding of CMS widget headers.
vbcms_widget_marginThis stylevar controls the margin of CMS widgets.
Widgets
The look and feel of CMS Widgets and Forum Blocks are controlled by the Sidebar Style Variables.

HTML Doctype

$stylevar[htmldoctype]

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">
Another popular doctype is that for HTML 4.0 Transtional. This doctype is less strict than XHTML, but getting consistent layout results with different browsers is more difficult using HTML 4.0 than it is with XHTML 1.0.
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
The HTML Doctype is particularly important for visitors using Microsoft Internet Explorer 6, as the inclusion of a doctype declaration at the top of an HTML page switches Internet Explorer into 'Standards Compliant Rendering' mode, causing the browser to be far less tolerant of sloppy or incorrect HTML code, and generally to render pages in a manner more similar to that used by other browsers.
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!

Main Table Width

$stylevar[outertablewidth] and $stylevar[outerdivwidth]

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%.
This StyleVar actually spawns a second StyleVar, called $stylevar[outerdivwidth]. While $stylevar[outertablewidth] is suitable for placing in the width attribute of a <table> tag, $stylevar[outerdivwidth] is suitable for use as the value for the CSS-defined width attribute of a <div> tag.

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>
Example of $stylevar[outerdivwidth] in use:
<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

$stylevar[spacersize]

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

$stylevar[cellspacing]

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>
This StyleVar can take any numerical value from 0 to 100 and upwards, although you will find that only 0, 1 and possibly 2 are useful values. Values greater than 2 tend to look extremely ugly.
Note:
Do not add 'px' to the value of this StyleVar.

Table Cell Padding

$stylevar[cellpadding]

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>
This StyleVar will accept any numeric value from 0 upwards, although the best results will be had with values between 1 and 10.
Note:
Do not add 'px' to the value of this StyleVar.

Form Element Spacer Size

$stylevar[formspacer]

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

$stylevar[formwidth]

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:Example of $stylevar[formwidth] in use:
<div style="width:$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

$stylevar[formwidth_usercp]

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

$stylevar[messagewidth]

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:
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.

User CP Message Width

$stylevar[messagewidth_usercp]

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

$stylevar[codeblockwidth]

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:
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

$stylevar[titleimage]

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:Example of $stylevar[titleimage] in use:
<img src="$stylevar[titleimage]" border="0" alt="$vboptions[bbtitle]" />
You can find this particular StyleVar here: Admin Control Panel > Styles & Templates > Style Manager > dropdown: StyleVars > Image Paths > Title Image

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 image directory path StyleVars point to directories containing groups of images on your web server.

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" />
This example shows the 'Button Images Folder' StyleVar being used to point the browser at the directory containing the button images for a style.

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" />
'Green' Style
<img src="images/greenButtons/newthread.gif" alt="Post New Thread" />
'Blue' Style
<img src="images/buttons_for_blue/newthread.gif" alt="Post New Thread" />
The image directory StyleVars can take a URL of any of the following types:
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/

Style Inheritance

Like so many other systems in vBulletin, the vBulletin Styles system works around the concept of 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

The concept of inheritance as used by vBulletin 3 styles is best illustrated with an example of a common use for the system.

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 the vBulletin styles system, each element of a style can be customized from the vBulletin default value, and each customization will be inherited by any child styles of the style in which the customization was made, unless the value is further customized in the child style.

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 ColorText ColorFont StyleHeader TemplateFooter Template
vBulletin Default#FFFFFF#00000010pt verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif<p>This is the default 'header' template!</p><div>This is the default 'footer' template!</div>
Using the example of the customized header and footer templates we used in our first look at style inheritance, we can imagine that we could represent the 'Custom Header / Footer' style like this:
 Background ColorText ColorFont StyleHeader TemplateFooter Template
vBulletin Default#FFFFFF#00000010pt 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#00000010pt verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif<p>This is my custom 'header' template!</p><div>This is my custom 'footer' template!</div>
In this example, items that have been customized in a style are shown in red. You can see that the background color, text color and font style values are all shown in black, meaning that they are unchanged from the default values, while both the header and footer templates are shown in red, meaning that they have been customized, and therefore override their default contents.

We will now add the final branch of the style tree from our previous example, namely the 'Blue' style.
 Background ColorText ColorFont StyleHeader TemplateFooter Template
vBulletin Default#FFFFFF#00000010pt 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#00000010pt verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif<p>This is my custom 'header' template!</p><div>This is my custom 'footer' template!</div>
Blue#0000FF#FFFFFF10pt verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif<p>This is my custom 'header' template!</p><div>This is my custom 'footer' template!</div>
Here we can see that both the background and text color values have been customized, and are therefore shown in red, while the font style value has not been changed and therefore is being inherited from the vBulletin default values. However, both the header and footer templates have been customized in the parent 'Custom Header / Footer' style, and so those custom versions are inherited by the 'Blue' style. This inheritance is shown as an orange value.

Furthermore, if we now decided to customize the header template in the 'Blue' style, we would have something like this:
 Background ColorText ColorFont StyleHeader TemplateFooter Template
vBulletin Default#FFFFFF#00000010pt 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#00000010pt verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif<p>This is my custom 'header' template!</p><div>This is my custom 'footer' template!</div>
Blue#0000FF#FFFF0010pt verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif<p>This is my special BLUE 'header' template!</p><div>This is my custom 'footer' template!</div>
Here we can see that the customized (red) header template in the 'Blue' style overrides not only the default vBulletin header template, but also the customized header template from its parent 'Custom Header / Footer' style, while the Footer template is still inherited from its parent.

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 ColorText ColorFont StyleHeader TemplateFooter Template
vBulletin Default#FFFFFF#00000010pt 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#00000010pt verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif<p>This is my custom 'header' template!</p><div>This is my custom 'footer' template!</div>
Blue#0000FF#FFFF0010pt 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#FFFF0014pt verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif<p>This is my special BLUE 'header' template!</p><div>This is my custom 'footer' template!</div>
Here you can see that the vBulletin default font style is inherited by the 'Custom Header / Footer' style and the 'Blue' style, but is overridden by the customized version in the 'Big Font Blue' style.

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 ColorText ColorFont StyleHeader TemplateFooter Template
vBulletin Default#FFFFFF#00000010pt 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#00000012pt verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif<p>This is my custom 'header' template!</p><div>This is my custom 'footer' template!</div>
Blue#0000FF#FFFF0012pt 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#FFFF0014pt verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif<p>This is my special BLUE 'header' template!</p><div>This is my custom 'footer' template!</div>
Additionally, were we now to revert the customized footer template in the 'Custom Header / Footer' style, its child styles would automatically inherit the vBulletin default value.
 Background ColorText ColorFont StyleHeader TemplateFooter Template
vBulletin Default#FFFFFF#00000010pt 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#00000012pt verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif<p>This is my custom 'header' template!</p><div>This is the default 'footer' template!</div>
Blue#0000FF#FFFF0012pt 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#FFFF0014pt verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif<p>This is my special BLUE 'header' template!</p><div>This is the default 'footer' template!</div>
The system does not allow you to alter the vBulletin default value for any item, so you can revert any of your customizations at any time to their original contents.

This diagram illustrates the decision system used by vBulletin when loading each element from a style.

The Style Manager

The Style Manager is the central hub for editing and creating vBulletin styles and their constituents. From here you can control every aspect of the way your vBulletin installation appears to your visitors, from simple color and font changes right through to fundamentally altering the layout of the board by editing templates.

The image above shows the Style Manager as it would appear immediately after a new vBulletin installation. Looking at the Style Manager from left to right, various controls are visible.
Note:

Creating New Styles

To create a new style, click the [Add New Style] link underneath the main body of the Style Manager.

This will bring up the Add New Style interface.

The controls on this form are as follows:
Parent StyleThis 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.
TitleHere you should enter the name you have chosen for your new style
Allow User SelectionThis 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 OrderThis 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.
When you have filled in the forum, hit the [Save] and you will be returned to the Style Manager, where your new style will be shown.

Creating Child Styles

To create a child style of an existing style, click on the style options menu for the style of which the new style will be a child, and pick Add Child Style from the popup menu.

Use the style options menu to select 'Add Child Style'

This will take you to the Add New Style interface, with the correct parent style already selected in the form.

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

If you decide at any time that you need to rename a style, alter its display order or perhaps even change its parent/inheritance arrangement, you will need to select Edit Settings from the style options menu for the style you want to edit.

This will load the Edit Style Settings interface, which appears almost identical to the Add New Style form previously described.

Using this form you can easily rename the selected style, change its display order or change the ability of users to choose this style.
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.

Deleting a Style

To delete a style, click on the style options menu in the Style Manager and choose Delete 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.
If the style you choose to delete has no child styles, a confirmation dialog will be displayed, informing you of exactly what is to be deleted and asking if you are sure. If you confirm the deletion, the style will be irrevokable deleted, along with any customizations made within it.

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.

To edit the fonts, colors and common templates of a style, open the style options menu, and look at the options under the Edit Fonts / Colors etc. section.

You will see the following options:Each of these options corresponds to a section of the style editing system, while All Style Options will load all of the sections onto a single page for you to edit all in one go. However, this page is very long and unwieldy and most people will prefer to edit each section individually.

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

The Common Templates editor allows you to edit the most commonly-customized templates quickly on a single page rather than opening up the full template editor and modifying each one in turn individually.

The 'common' templates are:To customize a template, simply edit the template in the text box provided, then hit the [Save] button when you are finished.

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 [Save] 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 StyleVars editor is extremely simple to use, due to the simple nature of StyleVars themselves.

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 [Save] 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 [Save] 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

The vBulletin CSS editor is your primary method for altering the overall look of your board without delving into the realms of template editing.

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.
Each primary CSS class is given its own control panel where you can change various fields to control the final CSS output.

You can click the color swatch next to any item that has one to bring up a color picker for easy color selection.

A full description of the functionality of the color picker and how to use it can be found here.

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 [Save CSS] button.
Note:
Clicking any of the [Save CSS] buttons, or the [Save] button at the bottom of the page will save all values on the page.
When a CSS class has been customized, its values will be shown in a different color from those that are unchanged from the default style. In addition, a Revert checkbox will be shown. Checking this box and hitting a [Save CSS] button will revert the settings in the CSS class to the default or inherited value.

CSS classes whose values are being inherited from a parent style are shown in a different color again, together with a hyperlink that when clicked will pop up a message telling you from what parent style the values are being inherited.

Fields in the CSS Editor
Each of the main CSS classes in vBulletin is displayed in its own CSS editor panel.

A variety of input fields are provided for your use, and the input types expected in each field are explained in the following pages.
Background and Font Color
The background and font color fields control the color of the text, and the style of the background on which it is placed.

The Background field corresponds to the CSS attribute background, which controls the background color and image properties of the element to which it is applied.

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:The Font Color field corresponds to the CSS attribute color, which primarily controls the color of any text to which it is applied.

This field will only accept a simple color value.

Example values:
Font Style, Size and Family
With the exception of the color, all aspects of the way that text is displayed are controlled by the Font Style, Font Size and Font Family fields.

The Font Style field is an amalgam of the font-style and font-weight CSS attributes. Any combination of values from these two CSS properties can be used.

Example values:Unsurprisingly, the Font Size field corresponds to the font-size CSS attribute.

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:The Font Family field corresponds exactly with a CSS property: font-family.

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:If values for both Font Size and Font Family are input, vBulletin will combine the values of the three font fields and use the font CSS property instead of listing each property separately.

In practice, this means that the following set of values...
Font Stylebold italic
Font Size10pt
Font Familyverdana, arial, sans-serif
... which normally be listed individually as
    font-weight: bold;
    font-style: italic;
    font-size: 10pt;
    font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif;
... will instead be output as
    font: bold italic 10pt verdana, arial, sans-serif;
Links CSS
The style of hyperlinks that are located within an element using a particular CSS class are controlled by the nine Links CSS fields.

You will notice that the same three fields are repeated across three groups, entitled Normal Links, Visited Links and Hover Links. These three groups refer to the state of individual hyperlinks, and that state is defined by visitors to your site.Each group of settings has three fields:

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:
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.
Extra CSS Attributes
If you have some knowledge of writing CSS code you may feel somewhat hemmed-in by the simple options provided to you in the form of the Background, Font Color, Font Style etc. input fields.

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
A special area is set aside for the fields that control the Forum Jump Menu CSS Classes.

Each of these mini-classes can only accept values for Background Color and Font Color, and fields for these are provided for you.

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:
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
At the bottom of the CSS Editor page you will find two large fields labelled Additional CSS Definitions.

As with the Extra CSS Attributes field found with the panel for editing each CSS class, these fields allow raw CSS code to be added to that which is generated by vBulletin.

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 vBulletin 3 CSS editor provides a pop-up color picker to make color selection as easy as possible. To open the color picker, simply click on one of the color swatches in the CSS editor.

To pick a color, simply move your mouse over the picker until the color you want is shown, then click that color to apply it.

The color picker provides various controls and feedback. The function of each control is listed here:

  1. Click this button to select transparent as your color choice
  2. This area shows a swatch of the color currently being used
  3. This area shows a swatch of the currently selected color in the picker
  4. This area shows the hexadecimal color value of the currently selected color in the picker
  5. This button changes the palette of colors displayed in the picker (see below)
  6. This button closes the color picker without making any changes
Clicking the palette-changing button on the picker will cycle the colors displayed on the picker from which you can choose. Nine different palettes are available for your use.


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
A complex CSS stylesheet can occupy quite a block of text when printed out in full. This entire block of CSS code must be included with every page viewed by your visitors, and with a lot of visitors over a long period of time this can mount up.

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 [Save], 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

In addition to the main replacement variable manager, a quick editor is provided under the Edit Fonts, Colors etc. section of the Style Manager.

A separate row will be shown for each active replacement variable in the current style, with a text box provided for each so that you can customize the replacement text.
Note:
The default vBulletin style does not use any replacement variables, so the list will appear empty on a fresh vBulletin installation.
To add a new replacement variable to the current style, click the [Add New Replacement Variable] link. This will take you to the add new replacement variable section of the main replacement variable manager.

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 [Save] 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 Text Editor Control Styles interface allows you to specify the CSS values that will be applied to the toolbar of the WYSIWYG and standard text editors in vBulletin.

There are eight groups of settings, each of which is tied to a particular control type or control state - the labels should be fairly self-explanitory. Each group has four CSS fields in which values can be entered, and the name of each field corresponds to a CSS property.

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:The Font Color field is equivalent to the color CSS attribute, and expects a simple color value to be entered. It works in the same way as the Font Color attribute on other vBulletin CSS classes.

Example values:The Padding field is equivalent to the CSS padding property and controls the amount of space between an element's content and its border.

Example values:The Border field controls the value of the CSS border property. It defines the width, style and color of the border around an element (in that order).

Example values:When a group of settings has been customized or is inheriting its value from a parent style, the color of the text in the fields will change to reflect this.

Editing the Templates

To edit any of vBulletin’s templates directly, select [Edit Templates] from the style options dropdown or click the [« »] button.

Other template related options in the drop down include:The template list will look similar to this:

On the left, you will see a list of templates (white background) and template groups (black background). On the right, you will see 5 buttons. Any buttons you cannot use will be grayed out.You may also double click the template or template group name on the left and the appropriate action will be executed; templates will be Customized or Edited and template groups will be Expanded/Collapsed.

Templates are color coded as follows:You may modify this color scheme by editing your control panel styles.
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

Editing a template is simply like editing regular HTML. Each template represents XHTML bits with PHP-style ($varname) variable names. For more information on what you can use in the templates, see the Templates Introduction.

Comparing Templates

vBulletin allows you to store multiple historical versions of a template. You can use these to compare template changes across versions and to keep track of your edits. The feature lets you quickly and easily see the differences between two versions of the template. This feature is accessed by clicking the [View History] in the template editor.

When you first enter it will give you a list of all the template revisions stored. Each row will give you the following information:Each historical revision will also provide a delete checkbox so that you can remove it from the database if you wish.

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 mode

The default mode is a diff format (or View Inline mode) which will look similar to the image below

Mobile Style

In vBulletin 4.1.2, a mobile style was introduced. This is a streamlined style that allows easier browsing on smartphones and other small screen devices. The Mobile Style is meant to be complementary to your vBulletin installation and simplify access for your users.

Installing the vBulletin Mobile Style

Mobile Style Install
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

If you do not wish to use the mobile style, you can disable it following these steps:
  1. Admin CP -> Settings -> Options -> Style & Language Settings -> Default Style for Old Mobile Browsers. Set 'None'.
  2. Admin CP -> Settings -> Options -> Style & Language Settings -> Default Style for Modern Mobile Browsers. Set 'None'.
  3. Admin CP -> Styles & Templates -> Style Manager. Edit any style in the mobile style list and set "Allow User Selection" to No.
Admins will always be able to use the mobile style, as they can always use any existing style and because it is not possible to delete the last mobile style.

Enabling the Mobile Style

If you do wish to use the mobile style, you can enable it following these steps:
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

Why does the Mobile Style have its own Style Manager?
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

The Styles & Templates > Search in Templates group lets you search for strings in templates from the style(s). Additionally you can run a "find and replace" search which allows you to replace all instances of a certain string with another string.

Search Templates

When you do not know which template resides in which style, or which template to modify, than use the Styles & Templates > Search in Templates > Search Templates system to find the template in one or more styles.

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

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.
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.

Replacement Variable Manager

Replacement variables are useful in representing commonly used values in templates. Use the Styles & Templates > Replacement Variable Manager group to add / modify / delete replacement variables.
Note:
To learn more about Replacement Variables, please read the Replacement Variables Introduction
The Replacement Variable Manager lists all of your styles, together with any replacement variables defined within them. This allows you to see at a glance the way in which any replacement variables you have defined are being inherited by child styles.

Refer to the Color Key at the top of the Replacement Variable Manager page to see how colors are used to indicate whether a replacement variable is customized in a particular style, or inherited from a parent style.

Add New Replacement Variable

To add a new replacement variable, click the [Add New Replacement Variable] link next to any style listed on the Replacement Variable Manager main page.

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.
When you click the [Save] button, any child styles of the style to which you added the new replacement variable will automatically inherit the new variable, while parent styles will be unaffected. This is the principle of inheritance in action.

Customizing a Replacement Variable

When a replacement variable is inherited by a style, you may customize it in that style and have the changes automatically appear in any of its child styles.

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

This section covers how to download and 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

If you have created a style of which you are proud, you may want to share it with other vBulletin administrators. Alternatively, you may simply want to back up all your templates and style settings to a file on your computer.

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.
StyleUse this menu to pick the style you want to download
TitleBy 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.
FilenameThis field allows you to specify the name of the XML file vBulletin will send to your web browser when you click the [Download] button. However, most browsers allow you to rename a file as you download it, so this field may be irrelevant to you.
OptionsThe 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.
Clicking the [Download] button will instruct vBulletin to package your style up into an XML file and start downloading it to your web browser.
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

If you have downloaded a vBulletin 3 XML style file from another vBulletin installation, or if you want to restore a style backup that you made yourself, you will have need of the vBulletin 3 Style Importer.

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 computerIf 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 serverIf the XML style file you want to import is located on your web server, enter the file path to the file here.
Merge Into StyleIf 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 VersionWhen 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 StyleIf 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 SelectionThese 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

vBulletin's default templates are often updated during upgrades. This page shows you what customized templates may need to be reverted and recustomized as a result of the default templates changing.

If the page displays no modified templates then all your templates are up to date.

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

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.

An Introduction to Languages and Phrases

vBulletin 3 has introduced the ability to translate your board or modify the text displayed via the control panel, all without having to delve into the templates and HTML. This section will cover everything you need to know to translate your board, edit existing phrases, and add new phrases

The 'Master Language' and 'Custom Master Language'

Beyond any user-created languages, there are 2 that always exist. These are master languages and are generally hidden from being directly edited.

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

When editing phrases, you will notice strings such as {1} or {2}. These represent variables, and will be replaced with specific examples at runtime.

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

Phrases are generally straightforward to use in templates. Simple phrases (without any variable portions) can be referenced like regular $variables; complex phrases are referenced similarly to template conditionals.

When referencing a phrase in a template, there are two things you have to know.
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
To use a phrase in a template, you need to use the following constructs -

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

To manage your languages, go to Languages & Phrases > Language Manager in the admin control panel. You will be presented with this:

Here you can add or edit existing languages, change the default language, view a language quick reference, or rebuild all languages.

Adding or Editing a Language

To reach this page, visit Languages & Phrases > Language Manager > click [Add New Language] or [Edit Settings].

The form to add or edit a language contains many settings that are specific to a locale. For example, some people might prefer the mm/dd/yy date format, while others prefer dd/mm/yy.

General SettingsDate / Time Formatting
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

Translating a Language

To begin translating a language, click Languages & Phrases > Language Manager > click [Edit / Translate <language name> Phrases]. This will take you to a page that looks like this:

This page contains a list of phrases for the language. On the left is the phrase’s variable name; on the right are the default value (top) and the translated value (bottom). If a phrase has not been translated yet, the default value will be in the bottom as well.

Once you have translated a page, simply click [Save]. 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

The language quick reference can be reached by going to Languages & Phrases > Language Manager > click [View QuickRef]. This will popup a window like this:

On the left, you will see a list of phrase variable names. Once you click one, the code to use in a template will appear on the right, along with the phrase’s text.

At the bottom, you can change the language and phrase group being viewed.

Rebuilding All Languages

Rebuilding all languages can be accomplished by going to Languages & Phrases > Language Manager > click [Rebuild All Languages]. This option will regenerate all cached language data. Generally, this is not necessary. However, if you have edited the language information in the database directly, you will need to run this setting for your changes to take effect.
Note:
Running this option, even when unnecessary, will not harm your forum.

Managing Phrases

The phrase manager is generally just another interface for doing translations. Data is just grouped by phrase instead of by language.

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

Adding a phrase is straight forward.
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.
Below this is a text area for each language on the board. Here you may create any translations necessary; if you leave the box blank, the value from the Text box will be used. You may specify a translation at any point.
Note:
To delete a translation, simply remove the text in the translation box.

Orphan Phrases

Orphan phrases are phrases that exist in the database but don’t have a default value in the Master Language or the Custom Master Language. This is most commonly caused by phrases becoming obsolete and being removed by an upgrade. In most cases, these phrases will no longer be used, but if you need to edit or delete these phrases, you should search for 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.
You may Keep the phrase, which will allow you to designate a translation as the default version to be moved into the Custom Master Language, or Delete the phrase, which remove all translations of it from the database.

Search in Phrases

The phrase search page (Languages & Phrases > Search in Phrases) allows you to search through the phrases used in all languages.

Downloading and Uploading Languages

Languages can be downloaded (exported) and uploaded (imported) like styles. This allows you to share your translations with others or use someone else’s translation to save time. To upload or download a language, go to Languages & Phrases > Download / Upload Languages.

To download a language, simply select it and an appropriate filename and click [Download].
Note:
Only translated phrases will be in a downloaded language.

Data Format

Languages are downloaded in XML. The XML for a language contains a <language> tag that provides information about the language, multiple <phrasetype> tags that denote each phrase type/group, and many <phrase> tags that describe the individual phrases.
Note:
The <phrase> tags here are very different from the <phrase> tags used in templates.
An example language XML file looks like this:
<?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

vBulletin's default phrases are sometimes updated during upgrades. This page shows you what customized phrases may need to be edited or retranslated as a result of the default phrases changing.

If the page displays no modified phrases, then all your phrases are up to date.

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

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.

Each entry for a FAQ-item can be translated into other languages that are installed on your board.

Introduction to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

vBulletin includes a fully-dynamic Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) system. This system allows you to expand and edit the FAQ located at http://www.example.com/forums/faq.php via the admin control panel. You may cover generic vBulletin questions and even site-specific questions.

FAQ entries can have an infinite amount of nesting, similar to regular forums.

FAQ Manager

The FAQ manager can be found at FAQ > FAQ Manager.

Two levels of FAQ entries will be displayed at a time. If the title of an entry is linked, then you may click it to display any child entries; if the title is not linked, then the entry does not have any children.

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

To add a FAQ item, click FAQ > Add New FAQ Item. You will be presented with a screen like this:

Below this, there will be a title and text box for each language. If you leave a box blank, the default text specified above will be used.

Notices

Notices are a system that allows the administrator to create messages that will be displayed to forum users when specific criteria are matched.

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

Admin CP > Notices > 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 [Add New Notice] 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

Admin CP > Notices > Notices Manager > Add / Edit

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.

The lower part of the form contains controls to set up display criteria.

To activate a criterion, put a tick in the box next to the criteria text, then fill in any controls that are part of that criterion.

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.

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.

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

Announcements are a method of distributing news and updates to your users. Announcements may be forum-specific or board-wide (global). The title of each announcement is displayed above all threads in a forum for as long as the announcement is active.

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 [New] 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 [New] 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

To add an announcement, go to Announcements > Add New Announcement. This form will be displayed:

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.

An Introduction to Forums

Creating a usable forum structure is one of the integral parts of running a successful bulletin board. vBulletin allows you to create an infinite depth of forums and configure numerous settings related to the forum.

Some of the most common ways to setup individual forums include:

Forum Manager

The forum manager, accessible via Forums & Moderators > Forum Manager, is where you will do the majority of forum management. When you enter this section, you will be presented with a screen similar to this:

Each row in the table is a forum in the database. In the first column, Title, you will see the name of the forum; clicking the name will allow you to edit the forum’s information.

The next column, Controls, allows you to:

Adding or Editing a Moderator

To add a new moderator, go to Forums & Moderators > Forum Manager > Add Moderator in the Moderator column.

All other settings should be self explanatory. If you are unsure of an option, simply click the inline help icon for a further explanation.

Adding or Editing a Forum

To add a new forum, go to Forums & Moderators > Add New Forum. You will be presented with numerous settings. These settings are detailed below

Forum Permissions

This page (Forums & Moderators > Forum Permissions) is simply a link to the Forum Permission Manager. That section is detailed here.

Show All Moderators

To quickly view all moderators and each forum they moderate, go to Forums & Moderators > Show All Moderators, this also shows any super moderators and allows permissions to be edited accordingly.

Each moderator listed is in a group which has super moderator permissions. To edit these permissions click [Edit Permissions].
Note:
Super moderator permissions can be combined with regular moderator permissions for a more granular approach.

Each moderator will be listed on this page, with each forum he or she moderates listed below. If you wish to remove this person from moderating all forums, click [Remove this Moderator from All Forums]. To edit or delete a moderator from a specific forum, click [Edit] or [Delete] next to the appropriate forum.

View Permissions

The View Permissions (Forums & Moderators > View Permissions) section allows you to view what permissions a specific usergroup will have in a forum. This allows you to check that you have setup your forum-permission structure correctly.

Select the Forum and Usergroup you want to test. Now choose the individual permissions you want to check; if you are not sure what to select, click [Check All]. Now click [Find] and you will be presented with a screen like this:

This displays what each permission you selected is set to. In this example, the Administrators group has full permissions in the Main Forum.

Podcast Settings

The Podcast Settings (Forums & Moderators > Forum Manager > Podcast Settings) section allows you to configure iTunes specific settings for your forums.

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.

Warning:
There are several caveats that you must be aware of for this process to be successful.
Requirements:
  1. vBulletin Options > External Data Provider > Enable RSS Syndication must be enabled.
  2. vBulletin Options > External Data Provider > Enable Podcasting must be enabled.
  3. The forum in question must be viewable by guests.
  4. You must set Enabled to Yes and select a Category.
  5. 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
  6. iTunes only support six filetypes: .m4a, .m4v, .mp3, .mp4, .mov, and .pdf
There are two options to add the enclosure to the podcast. The first option is to add an attachment to the first post of the thread. This option is limited in that:
  1. Attachments in the forum must be viewable by guests.
  2. 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.
The second option is to enter a URL in the Podcast URL field when submitting a new thread in the podcast forum.

Thread Prefixes

This page (Forums & Moderators > Thread Prefixes) is simply a link to the Thread Prefix Manager. That section is detailed here.

Calendars

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.

An Introduction to Calendars

The vBulletin Calendar system is a full featured system, comparable to many stand alone calendar packages on the market today.

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:The choice is up to you and don't think you are limited to just these examples. You can create a calendar that displays holidays, birthdays and events, all at the same time!

Managing Calendars

The first step in managing calendars is the Calendar Manager (found at Calendars & Moderators -> Calendar Manager).

From here you can add, delete and modify your calendars, modify calendar permissions, and manage calendar moderators. Yes, calendars can have moderators also!

Creating a New Calendar

After pressing the [Add New Calendar] button, you are presented with the following options:

Title - Choose what you want to call this calendar. This will appear at the top of the calendar as well as in the calendar jump menu at the bottom of the 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.

Date Range - Sets the minimum and maximum years that the calendar supports. Due to limitations of various operating systems, the choices are 1970 - 2038.

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

vBulletin Calendars give you the option of adding your own custom fields to events. These fields allow you to ask for specific information that pertains to your type of events. While you could expect the user to give this information in the event description, you can bring more attention to what you expect by adding custom fields.

For example, you could ask for any of the following:To add custom fields, you press the [Add New Custom Field] link found on the Add/Edit screen of the Calendar Manager.
Note:
When creating a new calendar, you must first save it before you can add custom fields to it

Title - This is displayed on the Event add/edit screen.

Description - Tell the user how you expect them to answer this choice.

Options - There are two types of field that you may create:To create a simple text box for the user to enter some information into, leave this field blank and select <Yes> for the next option. To create a menu of choices, enter each choice into this area, placing each on a new line. If you wish to also allow the user to enter their own text instead of choosing one of your options, select <Yes> for the next option.
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.
Max length of allowed user input - This option limits the amount of text the user can enter if the previous option is set to <Yes>.

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

If you wish to modify an existing calendar, select <Edit> from the dropdown menu to the right of the Calendar name. Please refer to the option descriptions in the Creating a New Calendar section above.

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

You can specify moderators for your calendars in the same way you can have moderators for forums. Calendar moderators have fewer tasks to perform than a forum moderator does but they are just as important to the operation of your forum. Tasks include:You would want to add moderators to any calendars of the following types:You wouldn't add any moderators to a private calendar as the moderators would only be able to see their own events.

Adding a New Moderator

To add a moderator to a calendar, you select the <Add> option in the
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

If you wish to modify an existing Moderator, select the <moderator's name> from the dropdown menu to the far right of the Calendar name. Please refer to the option descriptions in the Adding a New Moderator section above.

To delete an existing moderator click the <Delete Moderator> button, found at the top of the screen that is displayed after you select the moderator's name as instructed above.

Calendar Permissions

Calendar permissions follow forum permissions in that inheritance and multiple group membership are supported. In simplest terms, this means that a user can belong to multiple groups at once which gives them the combined permissions of all of their groups. There are also global calendar permissions specifiable at the usergroup level (Usergroups->Usergroup Manager->Edit->Calendar Permissions). You can then override any usergroup permission for a specific calendar by creating custom permissions for just this calendar.

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

The first level of calendar permissions is at the Usergroup Level.

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 second level of Calendar permissions is at the calendar level. With these permissions you can override the usergroup permissions for any specific calendar.

The calendar permissions manager is found at Calendars & Moderators->Calendar Permissions

You 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 [Save].

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 [Save], otherwise the group will continue to use the default usergroup permissions for this calendar.

Holiday Manager

The only holidays that vBulletin Calendars contain by default are the built in holidays that you enable/disable in the Calendar Manager. We leave it up to the admin to add any holidays that they find important for their calendars. Since vBulletin is a global product, we could not possibly cover all cultural differences that apply to holidays.
Note:
Any holidays that you add through the Holiday Manager can be enabled/disabled per calendar in the Calendar Manager.

Adding a New Holiday

To add a new holiday, select the [Add New Holiday] button on the main Holiday Manager screen.

Varname - This field is an unique identifier for the holiday. You will most likely want to call this something similar to the holiday title. You may only use a-z, A-Z, 0-9, and _ (underscore) in this field.

Title - What you wish to call this holiday.

Description - Describe the holiday.

Recurring Option - There are two types of holidays that you can setup.Allow Smilies - This controls whether or not any smilies that you enter into the description will be converted into their graphical representations.

Modifying Existing Holidays

If you wish to modify an existing holiday, select <Edit> from the dropdown menu to the right of the holiday name. Please refer to the option descriptions in the Creating a New Holiday section above.

To delete an existing holiday select <Delete> from the dropdown menu to the right of the holiday name.

Practical Examples of Calendar Permissions

This section will detail a few examples of setting up various calendars.

A Birthdays Only Calendar

To keep your calendars from becoming cluttered with events and birthdays, you may wish to setup one calendar for just displaying birthdays.
1Click Calendars & Moderators->Calendar Manager.
2Click [Edit] next to the calendar you wish to setup this way.
3Click <Yes> next to Show Birthdays on this Calendar.
4Click [Save]
5Click Calendars & Moderators->Calendar Permissions.
6Find the calendar you with to modify and choose the usergroup you wish to deny posting events for (probably the Registered Users group) by clicking [Edit]
7Make sure Can Post Events is set to <No>.
8If it is not, select Use Custom Permissions, then select <No> next to Can Post Events.
9Click [Save]
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

A private calendar allows your users to post events for themselves that no other users can view.
1Click Calendars & Moderators->Calendar Permissions.
2Find the calendar you wishto modify. You need to complete the next step for each usergroup by pressing [Edit].
3If you want this group to be able to post private events, make sure Can Post Events is set to <Yes>.
4If it is not, select Use Custom Permissions, then select <Yes> next to Can Post Events.
5Make sure Can View Others' Events is set to <No>.
6If it is not, select Use Custom Permissions, then select <No> next to Can View Others' Events.
7Click [Save]
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

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.

Mass Prune Threads

If you wish to delete (prune) a large amount of threads based on various criteria, go to Threads & Posts. You will be presented with two options for pruning.

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.
Once you have searched for threads/posts, you will be told the number of threads and posts that match your criteria. At this point you may select to prune all matching threads/posts automatically or prune selectively.
Warning:
You may not undo a prune. Make sure you only prune exactly what you want to!
If you chose to prune selectively, you will be presented with a screen like 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 pruned. Once you are ready, click [Go].

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

The Move Threads (Threads & Posts > Move) section is similar to the Prune Threads section, but instead of deleting the threads, they are simply moved to a different forum.

The search criteria are the same as pruning.

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 [Go].

Once the moving is complete, you should run Rebuild Forum Information in Update Counters.

Unsubscribe Threads

To quickly manage thread subscriptions for specific users or specific threads, go to Threads & Posts > Unsubscribe. Here you will be presented with two options.

Unsubscribe All Users from Specific Threads allows you to quickly remove all thread subscriptions from specific threads. Enter the thread IDs of the threads you wish to unsubscribe all users from; separate each with a space.

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:

Strip Poll from Thread

If you wish to remove a poll from a thread, go to Threads & Posts > Strip Poll. You will be presented with a simple form:

To remove the poll from a thread, you simply need to enter the thread ID that the poll is contained in. To obtain the thread ID, find the thread you want to remove the poll from. 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.

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

If you wish to find out who voted on a particular poll, you can do this by going to Threads & Posts > Who Voted. Here, you will be presented with a list of polls:

The dropdown contains the poll’s ID and name; the text box is the name of the thread that contains that poll. Once you have found the poll you want to view, click [Who Voted]. You will now see a results screen such as this:

This page displays each poll option that has at least one vote, along with each person who voted for it.

Tags

Thread tagging is a system that allows user to apply their own keywords (tags) to threads. See Wikipedia for more information on the ideas behind tagging. This can allow users to categorize threads based on the actual content. As such, if used consistently, could be a better way to find a specific topic than a full-text search.

Tags can contain any character except a comma, which is used to separate multiple tags. Additionally, you may not create tags which:This page allows you to manage the existing tags:

By default, tags are shown alphabetically and paginated. If you wish to see what tags have been added recently, you can click the Display Newest link.

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

Inline Moderation gives Administrators and moderators the ability to moderate multiple threads and posts without the need to enter the Moderator Control Panel. This is achieved by selecting individual threads from forumdisplay or posts from showthread. Threads or posts from multiple pages can be selected if the moderator has Javascript support enabled. Selected threads or posts will display highlighted in a yellow color as well.

At the bottom of the page, a moderation drop down box shows the available actions. Next to the moderation drop down box is a [Go] 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

On the forumdisplay.php pages where threads are listed each thread will have a checkbox at the end of the row. Checking the checkbox will add the thread to the list of threads to be moderated. The row color will also change to yellow to signify that the thread has been chosen.

Above all the listed threads there is a dropdown quick-selection box with various options to choose from, which apply only to that page. These options allow you to quickly choose multiple threads that match the selected criteria without having to manually click each thread.

If there are threads on other pages, that you would like to add to the list, you can go to those pages and add the threads as well. Your browser must have Javascript enabled for this to work. You are limited to working with just the threads on one page if Javascript is disabled.

Once threads have been chosen, the Moderation drop down at the bottom of the page is used to perform the desired action.

Note:
The number of chosen threads will be listed in parenthesis inside the [Go] button. If this number exceeds the number of threads that you have chosen, you may have clicked on other threads by mistake.
After successfully completing one of the above options, the value in the [Go] will be reset to 0. All selected threads will also now be unselected.
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

On the showthread.php pages, where posts are listed, each post will have a checkbox at the top right. Checking the checkbox will add the post to the list of posts to be moderated. The post color will also change to yellow to signify that the post has been chosen.

Above all the posts is a dropdown quick-selection box with various options to choose from, which apply only to that page. These options allow you to quickly choose multiple posts that match the selected criteria without having to manually click each post.

If there are posts on other pages, that you would like to add to the list, you can go to those pages and add the posts as well. Your browser must have Javascript enabled for this to work. You are limited to working with just the posts on one page if Javascript is disabled.

Once posts have been chosen, the Moderation drop down at the bottom of the page is used to perform the desired action.

Note:
The number of chosen threads will be listed in parenthesis inside the [Go] button. If this number exceeds the number of posts that you have chosen, you may have clicked on other posts by mistake.
After successfully completing one of the above options, the value in the [Go] will be reset to 0. All selected posts will also now be unselected.
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

If you wish to prune the Post Edit History for one or more forums, go to Threads and Posts > Prune Post Edit History You will be presented with the options for pruning this.

Once you have completed the options and clicked [Prune Post Edit History] you will then be told the number of posts with edit histories which have been selected

Clicking [Prune All Post Edit Histories] will remove all post edit histories for all selected posts.
Warning:
You may not undo a prune. Make sure you want to do this!

Thread Prefixes

Thread prefixes are a structured way to specify how certain topics are discussed within a forum. You create prefix sets which contain many prefixes and can be tied to any number of forums.

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

The thread prefix manager is where you create new and edit prefixes or edit your existing prefix sets. Prefixes and prefix sets are shown in the order they will actually display in; you can quickly change this order by changing the numbers in the text boxes and clicking "Save Display Order".

Adding or Editing a Prefix Set

Before you can create any prefixes, you must create one or more prefix sets. Prefix sets are simply a way of tying together related prefixes. When you select which forums will allow prefixes, you will enable one or more prefix sets for the forum.

Adding or Editing a Prefix

Once you have created a prefix set, you may add any number of prefixes to that set. If a thread has a prefix applied to it, the prefix will show anywhere the thread title shows. For that reason, you must define two versions of the prefix: a plain text version and a rich text version. See below for more information.

If the thread title is a link to view the thread, the prefix will generally not be linked. However, the prefix will be included in the link if the thread title is used in the navigation bar.

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

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.

Moderate Threads / Posts

If you have enabled moderation of new threads or posts in one or more forums, go to Moderation > Moderate Threads or Moderation > Moderate Posts to view the threads and posts in the moderation queue. Each link leads to the same page but different spots on the page, so they will both be described in this section.

At the top of this page, you will see the moderate threads section.

Below this is the moderate posts section.

The options in the section are similar to the moderate threads section. Specific changes include an additional Thread field, which tells you which thread this post came from, and the lack of the Notes field.

Moderate Attachments

If you have chosen to moderate attachments anywhere, you may view the attachment moderation queue at Moderation > Moderate Attachments. A screen such as this will be displayed:

Moderate Events

In addition to moderating threads, posts, and attachments, you may also moderate new calendar events. To do this, go to Moderation > Moderate Events.

Moderate Visitor Messages

In addition to moderating threads, posts, and attachments, you may also moderate new visitor messages. To do this, go to Moderation > Moderate Visitor Messages.

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.

An Introduction to Attachments

One of the more popular features of vBulletin is its attachment system. Some of the many features are:

General Attachment Settings

There are three sections in the Admin CP that are relevant to controlling how attachments function on your forum.

Message Attachment Options

Follows is a listing of the options, to view details on their usage, please view the descriptions for each or view the inline help.

Attachment Manager

As an administrator, you have the ability to specify what types of attachments you wish to allow, as well as the maximum filesize. In regards to images, you can specify the maximum dimensions for popular image formats.

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 [Add New Extension] 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

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 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 [Save] when you have finalized your new attachment file type.

Extensions & Sizes

As an administrator, you have the ability to specify what types of attachments you wish to allow, as well as the maximum filesize. In regards to images, you can specify the maximum dimensions for popular image formats.

Navigate to Attachments->Extensions &amp; Sizes.

You will be presented with the current file types that your forum allows for message attachment.

Editing and Adding a New Filetype

To add a new file type for message attachment, press the [Add New Attachment Type] button.

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 [Update] when you have finalized your new attachment file type.

Attachment Permissions

There are two usergroup permissions that pertain to attachments.Both of the permissions are controllable at the forum and usergroup level, meaning you can allow viewing of permissions by specific usergroups in specific forums and view versa.

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

Managing your attachment permissions is similar to editing global usergroup permissions, but allows more control. If you click Attachments > Attachment Permissions, you will see a screen similar to this:

Here, you will see each attachment extension on your forum with a list of all usergroups under each extension. Notice the color key at the top. In this example, red indicates that a usergroup has a custom attachment permission specified for this forum. No attachment permission has been specified, so the group will be using the default attachment extension permissions.

Next to each extension, you will see 2 links:To edit or add an attachment permission, simply find the appropriate extension and usergroup, and click [Edit]. This will lead you to this screen:

If you are unsure of what a specific option does, click the inline help icon for more information.
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

vBulletin allows you the choice of storing attachments in either your database or in your file system. You are able to change your storage method at any time by navigating to Attachments->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:Storing in File system:

Moving Attachments to the Filesystem

By default vBulletin stores attachments in the database for maximum compatibility. In order to store attachments in the file system, your server will need to have SAFE_MODE disabled. This is something that only your host can do.

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 [Go]

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.
The attachment file path is the location on your server that you wish to store attachments in. We suggest you create a path that is above your web root, which means a directory that is not below public_html. If you wish to create the directory in your web root, we then suggest you place a .htaccess file to block people from accessing it directly. If you do not do this, then anyone will be able to open your attachments directly by navigating this directory in their browser.

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 [Go] 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 [Go] on this page, the moving of files from the database will begin.

After you press [Go], 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 [Go]. 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

Moving attachments from the file system to the database follows the same process as moving from the database to the file system except for the first step.

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 [Go]. You will be presented with a screen asking your for a pathname, displaying the current attachment directory. Enter your new directory and press [Ok].
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

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 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

To add a new user, go to Users > Add New User. You will be presented with a form like this:

ProfileImage Options
Warning:
Choosing one of these options will automatically submit any changes.
User Profile Fields
Allows you to set the values for any custom profile fields.

Usergroup OptionsReputationBrowsing OptionsTime Options

Quick User Links

If you are editing a user, you will be presented with a Quick User Links section:

This allows you to:

Editing Access Masks

Note:
General information on access masks is available here.
To edit a user’s access masks, go to Users > Search for Users > enter criteria that will find this user. From the search results page, select [Edit Access Masks] from the user’s profile page, select [Edit Forum Permissions (Access Masks)]. A page similar to this will be displayed:

Each forum will be listed on this page. There are three possible access masks for each forum:
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

The user change history allows you to see the previous values of several pieces of user data. These include:To access the user change history, go to the standard "User Edit" page and click the View Change History link:

You will then be taken to a page that looks like this:

This shows what data has been changed, by whom, and when.

Search for Users

To search for users with advanced criteria, go to Users > Search for Users. You will be presented with a screen containing two options, quick search and advanced search.

Quick Search

Quick search provides you with several commonly-used, canned searches. These options include:

Advanced Search

Advanced search allows you to search for users using almost any profile field as search criteria. If you do not enter a value for a field, it will be ignored.

Additionally, you may choose to display most fields inline on the search results page.

Search Results

The search results page will display the users who match your search criteria. The columns that are displayed depend on what you chose on the advanced search screen. By default, user name, email, join date, last visit, and post count are displayed. In addition, the Options column contains links to manage a user. These links include:

Merge Users

If you wish to merge two users’ accounts into one, perhaps because one user registered twice, go to Users > Merge Users.

Simply specify the source and destination users. Posts, threads, calendar events, and private messages of the source user will be changed to appear to have come from the destination user. The source user’s post count, reputation, buddies, and ignored users will be added to the destination user.

Permissions will not be changed and moderator status will not be transferred; these must be respecified.

Ban User

To prevent a user from viewing any page of your board, go to Users > Ban User.

To ban a user, specify:

View Banned Users

The View Banned Users panel, accessible via Users > View Banned Users, allows you to view and modify the status of all currently banned users on your site.

<<<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:Below each table is a [Ban User] button. Click this button to go to the b]Ban User[/b] form to ban a new user. For more information about this form, see the Ban Users article.

Prune / Move Users

If you wish to delete multiple users or move a number of users to a different usergroup, Users > Prune / Move Users allows you to do this.

You may search for users based on the following criteria:Once you submit the search page, you will see a results page like this:

Each user that matched your search criteria will be shown here. On the right, you will see a check box; this allows you to select whether or not this user will be moved or deleted. At the end of the form, you may select whether you want to move the selected users to a different usergroup or delete them.
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

Private message statistics allows you to view what users have the most private messages stored. You will not be able to view the actual messages though. To view these statistics, go to Users > Private Message Statistics. A screen such as this will be displayed:

This is the summary screen. It groups users by the number of private messages they have stored. To see details about a specific group, click the link on the right. That will take you to a detailed screen, showing you every user with that amount of private messages:

Options for each user include:

Referrals

If you have enabled the referral system, you can see what users have the most referrals over a specific time frame. To access this page, go to Users > Referrals.

This form allows you to specify the time frame to search over. Results will look like this:

Users with referrals over this time frame will be displayed here. Users with the most referrals will be displayed first. To see detailed information about a user’s referrals, click his or her username:

Search IP Addresses

To search for the users who have had a specific IP address or to list what IP addresses a user has had, go to Users > Search IP Addresses.

This form presents three options:

Send Email to Users

To send mass emails to your users, go to Users > Send Email to Users. You will be presented with a page that looks like this:

The options are:Below this you will see a list of search criteria. The section behaves similarly to the form on the Search for Users page:

Generate Mailing List

If you simply wish to gather a list of email address based on search criteria, but don’t wish to send out emails now, go to Users > Generate Mailing List. At the top of this section, you will see this:

The only option available here is the Text to separate addresses by option. The text that you specify here will be uses to separate each email address. For example, if you use ', ', the mailing list will look like this:Below this is the standard search criteria form. This is the same form as is used on the Send Email to Users page.

Access Masks

Note:
General information on access masks is available here.
This section allows you to edit or remove existing access masks more quickly. It is accessible through Users > Access Masks.

At the top, you will see this Additional Functions table; these options are detailed in the following section.

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:

Additional Functions

Two additional functions are provided to manage access masks:

Usergroups and Permissions

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.

An Introduction to Usergroups and Permissions

Access to various parts of your vBulletin installation is controlled by a rich and flexible permissions system. The basic unit which controls permissions is a usergroup. As you would expect, a usergroup is really just a group of any number of users.

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 most important concept in vBulletin’s permission system is inheritance. There are several levels at which you may specify usergroup permissions.

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

Users in vBulletin may also belong to multiple usergroups. This is one method of creating exceptions to your permission scheme.

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

While membership to multiple groups is a very handy tool for creating exceptions to the rules setup by usergroup permissions, they may be too powerful for some situations. In the cases where you simply want to give a specific user access to a forum that he or she wouldn’t normally have access to, you can use access masks.

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:

How Permissions are Applied (in a Nutshell)

Permissions are applied with a flow-chart-like structure:

Managing Usergroups

Usergroups can be managed in the admin control panel by going to Usergroups > Usergroup Manager. This will bring you to a page that looks similar to this:

In the top table, you’ll see the usergroups that vBulletin automatically creates. These 7 groups are:Next, you will notice the Primary Users and Additional Users columns. This simply counts the number of users who have this group as their main usergroup or are a secondary member of this group, respectively.

Finally, you will see the controls column. This column provides the following options:Below this, you will see a table for any custom usergroups. Everything in this table is the same as the Default Usergroups table, except there is an additional Delete Usergroup control. If you choose to delete a usergroup, any members of the group will be moved back to Registered Users.

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:

Adding or Editing a Usergroup

To add a usergroup, click Usergroups > Add New Usergroup. To edit an existing group, click Usergroups > Usergroup Manager > Edit Usergroup for the group you wish to edit. Both links will take you to a similar page:

This is part of the form to add a new usergroup. If you are editing a usergroup, the form will already be filled out for you.

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

This page is used to manage join requests for moderated, public usergroups. If you enter directly (Usergroups > Join Requests), you will be prompted to select a usergroup to view requests for. If you enter through Usergroups > Usergroup Manager > [View Join Requests] link, then you will be taken directly to the join requests for a group.

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 [Accept], [Deny], and [Ignore] buttons to quick select an option for each request.

Usergroup Promotions

vBulletin also allows you to setup automatic usergroup promotions, so that users who meet specific criteria are moved into or become a secondary member of another usergroup, generally with greater permissions. By default, promotions are checked hourly.

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.
This is the page where you detail specifics of your promotion. The fields are used as follows:

Managing Forum Permissions

Managing your forum permissions is similar to editing global usergroup permissions, but allows more control. If you click Usergroups > Forum Permissions, you will see a screen similar to this:

Here, you will see each forum on your board with a list of all usergroups under each forum. Notice the color key at the top. In this example, red indicates that a usergroup has a custom forum permission specified for this forum, while orange indicates that the group is inheriting a permission from a parent forum. Otherwise, no forum permission has been specified, so the group will be using its global usergroup permissions.

Next to each forum title, you will see 2 links:To edit or add a forum permission, simply find the appropriate forum and usergroup, and click [Edit]. This will lead you to this screen:

These permissions will likely look familiar to you because they are a subset of the options you can specify when editing global usergroup permissions. If you are unsure of what a specific option does, click the inline help icon for more information.
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

At the top of the forum permissions page (Usergroups > Forum Permissions), you will see a box that looks like this:

This section will describe each of these options in detail.

Permission Duplication Tools

This page allows you to quickly duplicate existing permissions, both by usergroup and by forum. This is helpful if you are setting up a usergroup or forum that is similar to an existing entry.

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

The permissions quick editor is simply another interface to view existing permissions and quickly edit or delete them. You can sort the page by forum or usergroup by clicking the Forum and Usergroup links at the top, respectively. The checkbox on the left can be used to delete many permissions at once. Finally, the [Edit] link takes you to the same page as the [Edit] link in the forum permission manager.

Quick Forum Permission Setup

The quick forum permission setup page allows you to specify one set of permissions in a forum for multiple usergroups simultaneously. This is useful in situations such as setting up a private forum where you are denying several groups access to the forum (that is, all permissions are set to no).

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

The section will cover a few examples of things commonly done with vBulletin’s permission system.

An Announcement Forum

This forum will be viewable by all, but only administrators will be able to post new threads (the announcements). To allow discussion, any user will be able to respond to the announcements.
1Click Usergroups > Forum Permissions > find the forum you want to setup this way > click Edit next a usergroup other than Administrators.
2Set 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.
3Click [Save].
4Repeat this process for each group other than Administrators.

A Private Forum

This forum will only be accessible by administrators and moderators. This could be used to discuss internal board affairs.
1Click Usergroups > Forum Permissions > find the forum you want to setup this way > click Edit next a usergroup other than Administrators or Moderators .
2Click [All No].
3Click [Save].
4Repeat this process for each group other than Administrators and Moderators.

Registration-Required Board

This will setup your board so that only users who have been registered may view it. This is helpful for tracking users more efficiently, but may stifle the forum's growth because of the additional effort required for new users to become involved.
1Click Usergroups > Usergroup Manager > Edit Usergroup next to (COPPA) Users Awaiting Moderation.
2Change Can View Forum to no; you can set any other setting as you like.
3Click [Update].
4Repeat this process for Unregistered / Not Logged In and Users Awaiting Email Confirmation.

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.

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:
  • The user’s amount of activity on the board (Junior Member, Senior Member). This is usually set through the default user title ladder that will be described in this section.
  • The user’s relationship to the board (Administrator, Moderator). This is usually set through a usergroup-specific user title that overrides the default user title ladder.
  • A custom title, specified by the user; this can refer to anything the user desires. The user may not have permission to set their own user title; it is controlled by a usergroup permission.

User Title Manager

To edit existing user titles, go to User Titles > User Title Manager. You will be presented with a screen similar to this:

The columns represent the following:

Adding or Editing a User Title

Adding a new user title is a simple process. Go to User Titles > Add New User Title and you will be presented with a form that looks like this:

User Infractions

The User Infraction system is designed to automate the management of misbehaving users.

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 User Infraction system is designed to automate the management of misbehaving users.

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

The following screen is presented to you after navigating to User Infractions->Add New User Infraction Level.

Title - This is the title of the infraction. Translations can be entered after the infraction level is created by editing the infraction level and selecting [Translations].

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

The following screen is presented to you after navigating to User Infractions->Add New User Infraction Group.

Points - This is the number of points that will be added to the user's infraction points.

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

The following screen is presented to you after navigating to User Infractions->Add New Automatic Ban.

Amount - This is the number of points or the number of infractions that will trigger this ban. This trigger will happen any time that the user goes from being below this points/infractions to over it.

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.
Lift Ban After... – the ban’s length. This ranges from 1 day to 2 years to permanent.

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

If you wish to see which users have received infractions, you may navigate to User Infractions > View Infractions. You will be presented with a form, allowing you to search based on criteria such as the user the infraction was left for or by (optional) and a range of dates to search across.

Once you submit this form you will receive results in a table like this:

This shows:You may also delete or reverse the infraction that was left.

Issuing User Infractions

There are two ways to issue infractions to a user after you have completed the setup in the Admin Control Panel. You can give a general infraction or a per post infraction.

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

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.

An Introduction to User Ranks

User ranks are images or text that are assigned to your users based on their post count. The most common usage of ranks is that of stars that increase or change color based on the user's post count and usergroup.

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

The following screen is presented to you after navigating to User Ranks->Add New User Rank.

Number of Times to Repeat Rank - This generally applies to ranks that are images. This is the number of time the image will be repeated. If you wanted 4 stars to appear, you would either create an image of 4 stars and set this to 1 or you would create an image of 1 star and set this to 4.

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)
Minimum Posts - This is the minimum number of posts that the user must have to obtain this rank. If you set this to 20 and then created a second rank for the same usergroup that had a minimum posts of 30 then this rank would be shown only for users in this usergroup that have from 20 to 29 posts.

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.
User Rank File Path - This is the file path to the image you wish to use. It is relative to your forum directory, i.e. images/smilies/biggrin.gif.

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

This example will demonstrate how you would setup a group of ranks for all users, based on post count. Administrators will get a special rank and will not have the rank that everyone else has.

Since we have set the Display Type of the All Usergroups ranks to Displaygroup, we have invoked the special setting mentioned in Modifying User Ranks. The All Usergroups ranks will display for everyone except for those in the Administrator group since that group has a rank explicitly defined, the ADMIN rank. Since we have set Stack Rank to No for both ranks, that means that the rank will appear all on one line.

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

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.

An Introduction to User Reputation

User Reputation in its simplest form is a ranking of your user's benefit to your forum. Its basis comes from the opinions of all of your forum users that choose take part in it.

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

As users, gain and lose reputation, they are associated with a moniker that describes their current level. These levels are modifiable by navigating to User Reputations->User Reputation Manager.

In the above example, we have all of the levels that users on this forum can achieve. For example, a user with a reputation of 55 would have the level of will become famous soon enough. A user with a reputation of -5 would have a level of has a little shameless behaviour in the past. Since the lowest level in this example is -99999, any user with a reputation lower than this would use the default undefined level that is set in the reputation section of the vBulletin Options.

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 [Update]

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 [Update] 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

If you wish to see which users are leaving reputation for others and the comments they are making, you may navigate to User Reputation > View Reputation Comments. You will be presented with a form, allowing you to search based on criteria such as the user the reputation was left for or by (optional) and a range of dates to search across.

Once you submit this form you will receive results in a table like this:

This shows:You may also edit or delete the reputation that was left.

User Albums

Album Picture Storage Type

Starting with vBulletin 4.0, the user album storage is controlled by your Attachment Storage option. There is no longer a separate option for this.

When Pictures are in the Database

By default vBulletin stores album pictures in the database for maximum compatibility. In order to store pictures in the file system, your server will need to have SAFE_MODE disabled. This is something that only your host can do.

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 [Go].

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.
Press [Go] when you have entered a valid directories. vBulletin will test the directories 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 [Go] on this page, the moving of files from the database will begin.

After you press [Go], 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 [Go]. At the point all pictures will be removed from the database.

When Pictures are in the File System

When pictures are in the file system, you have several options:

Rebuild Thumbnails

If you change any thumbnail settings, you will want to rebuild your existing thumbnails so they are consistent with newly uploaded thumbnails.

To rebuild your user album thumbnails, you would want to rebuild all attachment thumbnails under Maintenance -> Update Counters

Custom 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.

An Introduction to Custom Profile Fields

vBulletin features a wide array of input options for you to gather information from your members through the creation of custom profile fields. With these fields you can present a list of options for the user to choose from or you can ask the user to give their own input. You can even combine the two options for maximum usability.

There are six input options for you to choose from to tailor your required data collection method.These fields can be required at registration or you can have them be shown after registration via the user's profile and options in the User CP. Administrators can make profile fields able to be edited only during registration or anytime.

Adding a New Custom Profile Field

To add a new profile field, navigate to User Profile Fields->Add New User Profile Field

At this screen you pick which of the six types of input that you wish to use.

Depending on which type of input field you choose to create, you will presented with varying configuration options.

Single-Line Text Box

Title - The name of your profile field.

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]$|[1-4][0-9]|50)$
The following regex would only accept a 7 or 8 digit number:
^([0-9]{7,8})$ 

Multiple-Line Text Box

Title - The name of your profile field.

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)$
The following regex would only accept a 7 or 8 digit number:
^([0-9]{7,8})$ 
Note:
Multiple-Line Text box fields can not be listed on the memberlist.

Single-Selection Radio Buttons

Title - The name of your profile field.

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]$|[1-4][0-9]|50)$
The following regex would only accept a 7 or 8 digit number:
^([0-9]{7,8})$ 

Single-Selection Menu

Title - The name of your profile field.

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: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)$
The following regex would only accept a 7 or 8 digit number:
^([0-9]{7,8})$ 

Multiple-Selection Menu

Title - The name of your profile field.

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

Title - The name of your profile field.

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

Editing a profile field follows the same procedures as adding a profile field. Navigate to User Profile Fields->User Profile Field Manager and select <Edit> next to the field you wish to edit.

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.Any other conversions are not supported.

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 [Modify]. Pressing the [Modify] 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

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.

An Introduction to Subscriptions

The Subscriptions system present in vBulletin allows the owner of the board the opportunity to create income via the forums.

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

This section will explain how to setup the appropriate variables to integrate with external Payment Gateways.

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

1Log in to your PayPal account
2Click on the Profile subtab
3Click on the Instant Payment Notification Preferences link in the 'Selling Preferences' column
4Click Edit

You should now be presented with a screen containing the following:

Setting callback URL

Note:
If the Instant Payment Notification link is not present you will need to apply for Premier Account or a Business Account from PayPal.
Check the checkbox to activate Instant Payment Notification and enter the following URL below the checkbox.

http://www.example.com/forums/payment_gateway.php?method=paypal

Click [Save]
5Go to Paid Subscriptions > Payment API Manager > PayPal in your AdminCP where you will be presented with the following screen:

PayPal Settings

6Enter 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.
7If 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 either

Setting PayPal Emails

where the PayPal email address used for your forum is the same as the primary email address for your PayPal account, or

Setting PayPal Emails

where the PayPal email address is different to the primary email address for your PayPal account.
8Finally, to activate the PayPal API for paid subscriptions, change the Active setting to Yes.

NOCHEX

1Log in to your NOCHEX account
2Click 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.
Enter the following URL in the input box:

http://www.example.com/forums/payment_gateway.php?method=nochex

Click [Save Changes]
3Go 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.
4Finally, change the active setting to Yes to activate payments via NOCHEX in vBulletin
Note:
NOCHEX does NOT support recurring payments.

Worldpay

1Log in to the WorldPay CMS


You should now be presented with a screen containing the following:

2Click Configuration Options next to the Installation which has (Select Junior). This will lead you to the configuration screen which should look like the following:

3Enter the following URL in the 'Callback URL' field:

http://www.example.com/forums/payment_gateway.php?method=worldpay
4Check the 'Callback enabled?' checkbox.
5Within the 'Callback password' field enter an appropriately secure password, this will be used for verifying transactions.

Click [Save Changes]
6Go to Paid Subscriptions > Payment API Manager > Worldpay in your vBulletin AdminCP where you will be presented with the following screen:

7Enter 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.
8To activate WorldPay payments in your forum, change the Active setting to Yes
Note:
WorldPay does NOT support recurring payments.

Authorize.Net

1Log in to Authorize.Net merchant account
2Click Settings on the left menu
3Under the 'Transaction Response' group click Relay Response

You should now be presented with a screen containing the following:

4You should now enter the following URL, adjusted to your forum:

http://www.example.com/forums/payment_gateway.php?method=authorizenet

Click [Submit]
5You 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.
6To 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:

7Complete 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.
8If 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.
9Finally, to activate Authorize.Net payments, change the Active setting to Yes.
Note:
Authorize.Net does NOT support recurring payments.

2Checkout

1Log in to your 2CO account
2Click on "Account"
3Click on "Site Management".
4Find the option labeled "Direct Return". Set this option to "Header Redirect".
5Find the option "Approval URL", place the URL to your gateway.php. Example:
http://www.yourforum.com/payment_gateway.php?method=2checkout
6Save these options
7Locate and click the "Products" link to go to your "Products List" page.
8Choose 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.
9Next 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.

10Go to Paid Subscriptions > Payment API Manager > 2Checkout where you will be presented with the following page:

11Enter your 2Checkout Vendor ID Number and 2Checkout Secret Word in the fields provided.
12To activate payments using 2CO change the Active setting to Yes.
Note:
2Checkout does NOT support recurring payments.

CCBill

Setting up CCBill to work properly with vBulletin can be moderately difficult to accomplish. CCBill is designed to manage the user accounts of payments it receives. This conflicts with vBulletin since vBulletin needs to handle its own user accounts. Still, this can be worked around for the most part to allow CCBill to successfully work as a payment processor with vBulletin.
1Login to your CCBill account.
2Go to CCBill Admin > Account Setup > Choose Subaccount

In 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 [Next >>] when this page is completed.
3CCBill Admin > Account Setup > Website Info

This 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 [Next >>].
4CCBill Admin > Account Setup > User Management

vBulletin manages user accounts so we need to disable user management within CCBill for this sub account. Press [Modify].
5CCBill Admin > Account Setup > User Management - Modify

User 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 [Next >>].
6CCBill 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 [Next >>].
7CCBill 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 [Next >>].
8CCBill Admin > Account Setup > New Single Pricing Option

Choose 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 [Next >>]
9CCBill 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.
When done, press [Next >>].
10CCBill 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 [Next >>].
11CCBill Admin > Account Setup > Standard Form Theme

You must now choose a theme for your form. Choose the theme that appeals to you and click [Next >>].
Note:
You may customize your form in greater detail later
12CCBill Admin > Account Setup > Standard Index Page

This page is not used by vBulletin so click [Next >>].
13CCBill Admin > Account Setup > Final Instructions

Click [Finish].
14CCBill 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 [Update].
15Click View Subaccount Info on the left side of the menu.
16CCBill Admin > Subaccount

On the right side of the screen, find the box that contains your form. It will appear similar to

Write 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.
17At 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 [Update].
18Next 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.

vBulletin and CCBill should now be configured properly to process payments together. The next step is configuring CCBill and vBulletin so that vBulletin can be notified when a CCBill payment is refunded, voided, or charged back. This is necessary so that these subscriptions can be ended on the vBulletin side. Most payment processors will contact vBulletin when this situation occurs but CCBill works in the opposite direction. vBulletin must contact the CCBill server on an ongoing basis and ask for a list of reversed transactions.

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
1CCBill Admin

Click on the Premium Features link at the top of the CCBill Admin screen
2CCBill Admin > Premium Features

Click on Value Added Features link on the upper left side of the screen.
3CCBill Admin > Value Added Features

Click on Data Link Services Suite at the bottom of the page.
4CCBill Admin > Value Added Features > Data Link Services Suite

Under Sub Account select the account that you previously setup for vBulletin in step 2 at the beginning of this document. Click [Add User].
5CCBill Admin > Value Added Features > Data Link Services Suite > Add New User

Enter 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 [Store User].
Note:
CCBill does NOT support recurring payments.

Moneybookers

1Log into your MoneyBookers account and set up a secret word
2Go to Paid Subscriptions > Payment API Manager > MoneyBookers where you will get the following screen:

3Enter your MoneyBookers Email and Moneybookers Secret Word in the fields provided.
Note:
The Moneybookers Secret Word must be entered in lowercase.
4To activate payments using MoneyBookers, set the Active setting to Yes.
Note:
MoneyBookers does NOT support recurring payments.

Adding or Editing a Paid Subscription

To add a Subscription, click Subscriptions > Add New Subscriptions. You will be presented with a screen like this:

The access masks for a user may also be changed so that the user may gain access to a private forum.

Please read the permission system section for further information regarding access masks and usergroups.

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:

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

We will assume that the appropriate payment gateways have been setup and that one of them is enabled within the Settings section of the Admin Control Panel.

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
1Login to the Admin Control Panel
2Open the Usergroups menu and click "Add New Usergroup"
3At the top of the screen choose "Registered Users" from the Create usergroups Based off of Usergroup menu and click [Go]
4Adjust usergroup permissions appropriately, increasing attachment space, avatar dimensions and private messaging space
5Click [Save]

Creating the subscription
1Open the Subscriptions menu and click "Add New Subscription"
2Enter the appropriate title, description, length and cost for your subscriptions
3On 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
4Click [Save]

Visible within the User Control Panel should be the Paid Subscriptions which should display the following:

Subscription Manager

To edit existing subscriptions or to perform any management on subscription users, go to Subscriptions > Subscription Manager. This will display all subscriptions setup in the system with the number of currently active subscriptions and those which are inactive.

Manually Adding A Subscribed User

A user can be manually added to a subscription in the case that they have transferred funds in another way. From the Subscription Manager select Add User from the Controls menu.

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

The Transaction Log is where all successful payment transaction posted to your forum can be viewed. This log is the actual history of transactions posted to your forum by the payment processors. These transactions are comprised of successful charges and reversals.

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.
User Name - Include transactions that pertain to all users or limit transactions to those
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.
From this screen you may also directly look up a transaction. The transaction lookup accepts the transaction id that pertains to the transaction performed on the payment processor side. You can often find this ID in any email that is sent you when a signup is received or in the admin center of your payment processor.

Transaction Stats

Transaction Stats allows you to track how many transactions are being performed.

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

Managing your subscription permissions is done by simply selecting yes or no for usergroup access. If you click Paid Subscriptions > Subscription Permissions, you will see a screen similar to this:

Here, you will see each subscription on your forum with a list of all usergroups under each forum. Notice the color key at the top. In this example, red indicates that a usergroup does not have permission to purchase the subscription. Otherwise, usergroups listed in black have access to purchase the subscription.

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

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.

An Introduction to Avatars

Avatars are small images which can be assigned to a members' profile. When a member selects or uploads an avatar the image will be displayed on every message the members' post on the bulletin board.

Implementing Avatars on vBulletin

The administrator can choose to implement avatars a number of ways, they can opt to disable avatars completely, allow users to select from a list of predefined avatars or allow users to upload their own custom avatars. The administrator can assign the avatar permissions on a per-usergroup basis.

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:If avatars are enabled the administrator can also choose to include avatars in the registration options. This will set the defaults for new members during the registration process.

To enable avatars for member registrations:
AdminCP > vBulletin Options > User Registration Options > Default Registration Options > Display Avatars > Tick the box

Adding Avatars

vBulletin offers two ways off adding avatars to you bulletin boards:Add New Avatar

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

To add a single avatar enter the following details and click the Add Avatars button:

Adding Multiple Avatars

This option allows you to add more than one avatar in one operation. Enter the following information and click the Add Avatars button:

The next screen will display all the avatars from the location specified in the previous form.

It will apply a title to each of the images using the filename which you may change if required and show the selected catetory.

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

Avatars and their associated permissions are maintained via the Avatar Manager.

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
Avatar Manager

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

Avatar Mass Move

Selecting the Mass Move option will display all the avatars from the selected category.

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

The View option displays all the avatars from the selected category. Within the view page you can change the order in which the avatars are displayed in the UserCP Edit Avatar screens.

The View screen also allows gives you further options to Edit or Delete each individual avatar.

Avatar Category Edit

The Edit option enables you to change the category title and the display order.

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

The delete option allows you to remove an entire category. You can choose to either delete the category and all of it's contents or move the avatars to another category before deleting the selected category.

To move the avatars in the selected category ensure that the 'Delete all avatars from this category?' option is set to No. Then from the drop down menu select the category that the avatars should be moved to. Then click the 'Delete' button. If you do not wish to keep the avatars that are included in the selected category set the 'Delete all avatars from this category?' option to Yes.

Avatar Category Permissions

Avatars Permissions are defined at the usergroup level.

When the Avatar Permission option is selected a list of all the defined usergroups will be displayed. Select Yes for each usergroup you want to be able to use this avatar.

Uploading Avatars

This option allows you to upload avatars from your local machine to your webserver.

The following detailed should entered:Once all the information has been entered and checked click the 'Upload' button. The avatar will then be uploaded to the specified folder.

User Picture Storage Type

vBulletin allows you to choose which storage type you want to use for your user picture images (avatars and profile pictures). You can either opt to have the user pictures stored in the database or in a file system on your server. You can change the storage type at anytime.

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

Moving items from the database to a 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)

The page requires you to enter the following details:Once the details have been entered click the 'Go' button.

Before the images are transferred to the file system, you may specify the number of users to be processed for each cycle. Enter the number of users to process and click the 'Go' button.

Move User Pictures in a file system to the database

If you are currently storing you user picture images in a file system, you can either choose to move them back into the database or move them to a different directories on your server.

The process is same whether you are moving user pictures from a database to a file system or vice versa.

Move Avatars to a Different Directory

Selecting the Move Avatars to a Different Directory option will display the current storage location for your avatars and allow you to change it.

Once the new location details have been entered click the 'Go' button.

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

Selecting the Move Profile Pictures to a Different Directory option will display the current storage location for your avatars and allow you to change it.

Once the new location details have been entered click the 'Go' button.

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

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.

Introduction to Post Icons

A post icon is a small image file that appears next to the post title and in the post icon column of the main forum page.

Implementing Post Icons on vBulletin

The administrator can choose to enable or disable Post Icons for at the forum level and can also choose which Post Icons can be used by which usergroups if Post Icons are enabled.

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 Features

Set 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

vBulletin offers two ways off adding Post Icons to you bulletin boards:Add New Post Icon

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

To add a single Post Icon enter the following details and click the Add Post Icon button:

Adding Multiple Post Icons

This option allows you to add more than one Post Icon in one operation. Enter the following information and click the Add Post Icons button:

The next screen will display all the Post Icons from the location specified in the previous form.

A title is applied to each of the Post Icons that are to be added using the images’ filename which you may change if required and shows the selected category.

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

Post Icons and their associated permissions are maintained via the Post Icon Manager.

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
Post Icon Manager

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

Post Icon Mass Move

Selecting the Mass Move option will display all the Post Icons from the selected category.

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

The View option displays all the Post Icons from the selected category. Within the view page you can change the order in which the Post Icons are displayed in posts and the Private Message screens.

The View screen also allows gives you further options to Edit or Delete each individual Post Icon.

Post Icon Category Edit

The Edit option enables you to change the category title and the display order.

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

The delete option allows you remove an entire category. You can choose to either delete the category and its contents or move the Post Icons to another category before deleting the selected category.

To move the Post Icons in the selected category ensure that the 'Delete all Post Icons from this category?' option is set to No. Then from the drop down menu select the category that the Post Icons should be moved to. Then click the 'Delete' button. If you do not wish to keep the Post Icons that are included in the selected category set the 'Delete all Post Icons from this category?' option to Yes.

Post Icon Category Permissions

Post Icon permissions are defined at the usergroup level.

When the Post Icon Permission option is selected a list of all the defined usergroups will be displayed. Select Yes for each usergroup you want to be able to use Post Icons included in this category.

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

This option allows you to upload Post Icons from your local machine to your webserver.

The following details should entered:Once all the information has been entered and checked click the 'Upload' button. The Post Icons will then be uploaded to the specified folder.

Smilies

The Smilies group allows you to manage the smilies on your board.

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!

This section will show you how the smilies can be arranged in categories. It will also show you how you can process one or more smilies that you have uploaded to your web server or how to manually upload one through the smilie upload manager.
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

You can manage your smilies here. The smilie images can be arranged in categories.

The above image shows a list of your smilie categories.At the bottom of the page (see above figure) you will see two additional links which allows you to add a new smilie category and to display all the smilies from all categories.

Click on the [Add New Smilie Category] 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 [Save] button to add this new smilie category. You will then return to the initial overview of all the smilie categories.

Click on the [Show All Smilies] 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

This screen allows you to add one or more images at a time. These images must already reside on the server, having been uploaded Using the Upload Smilie option or by FTP prior to doing this.

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.
Adding a single new Smilie (Admin Control Panel > Smilies > Add New Smilie > Add a Single Smilie)

When these details are entered press the [Add Smilie] button to add the smilie to the selected smilies category.

Adding Multiple Smilies (Admin Control Panel > Smilies > Add New Smilie > Add Multiple Smilies)

When these details are entered press the [Add Smilies] button to add the smilie to the selected smilies category which will load a page where you can select and deselect smilies.

Smilie Display Order

Unlike many other items in vBulletin, the display order of a smilie actually affects the final HTML output generated by your board.

Consider this example where you have two smilies:
Smilie NameSmilie TextSmilie Image
Smilie 1
:o
Smilie 2
:o)
The smilie display order controls the order in which smilies will be parsed. If Smilie 1 were to be parsed first, not only would all instances of :o be converted to , but also the first two characters of Smilie 2 would be matched and converted, leaving you with ).

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

On this screen, you can upload one image at a time through your browser for use on your forum. To do this, both your web server and PHP must have permission to write files to disk. If they do not, this will fail.
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.
Uploading a single new Smilie (Smilies > Upload Smilie)

When these details are entered press the [Upload] button to add the smilie to the selected smilies category.

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.

Here is a list of all the default BBcode, http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/misc.php?do=bbcode

An Introduction to BB Codes

BB (Bulletin Board) codes, sometimes referred to as vB codes, are meant to replace HTML for providing formatting such as bold, italics, and images in posts. Additionally, you may map multiple HTML tags to a single BB code to provide more complex formatting without forcing your members to include many tags.

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 Code Manager

To edit your existing BB codes or perform tests to ensure they function correctly, go to Custom BB Codes > BB Code Manager. At the top of this page you will see a list of your custom BB codes.

Below this you will see an area to test your BB codes.

This is equivalent to making a test post on the board to ensure that everything works correctly. However, you do not actually have to make the post public!

Adding or Editing a BB Code

To add a new BB code, go to Custom BB Codes > Add New BB Code. The form will look similar to this:

RSS Feed Posting Robot

vBulletin includes a system through which RSS feeds from remote sources can be imported into your own board as threads or announcements.

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

To access the RSS feed manager, navigate to RSS Feeds > RSS Feed Manager.

From here, you will find a list of any RSS feeds that have already been added to the board, together with controls to manage those feeds. There is also a control to add a new RSS feed to the board if you wish to do so.

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 [Save Enabled Status] 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 [Add New RSS Feed] 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

To add a new RSS feed, or edit an existing one, either click the name of the existing feed on the RSS Feed Manager page, or click the [Add New RSS Feed] button to add a new feed.

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.

RSS feeds can contain a lot of information, and in order to be as flexible as possible, vBulletin provides two simple template fields in which you can specify exactly what information you would like extracted from each RSS item, and how to format it.

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]
There are two templates to complete - one for the title of the item to be posted, and one for the message body.

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

To post RSS items for the current feed as threads, first select the radio button labelled Post Items as Threads. The options below will then apply to the posted items.

Posting RSS Items as Announcements

To post RSS items for the current feed as announcements, you must first select the radio button labelled Post Items as Announcements, which will the allow the options below to be set.

Saving and Previewing RSS Feeds

After setting all the options for an RSS feed, you can either choose to save it straight away using the [Save] button...

...or you can preview the results of the options you have set by pressing the [Preview Feed] button.

The preview function allows you to quickly see how your templates are working, whether the feed URL is correct, etc.

Occasionally, the preview may also give you useful information about the feed, such as suggestions for options.

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.

Introduction to Scheduled Tasks

Scheduled tasks allow you to run scripts at specific intervals. It is essentially equivalent to ‘cron jobs’ in Unix and ‘scheduled tasks’ in Windows®.

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.

Managing Scheduled Tasks

When going to Scheduled Tasks > Scheduled Task Manager, you will be presented with a screen like this:

The columns mean the following:

Adding or Editing a Scheduled Task

To add a new scheduled task, go to Scheduled Tasks > Add New Scheduled Task. You will be presented with a screen like this:

Scheduled Task Log

The scheduled task log is simply a way to see when tasks are run and what effect they had. When you go to Scheduled Tasks > Scheduled Task Log, you will be presented with a screen similar to this:

Here, you may view previous log entries or prune old entries.

To view log entries, select the criteria you want and click [View]. This will lead you to a screen that looks like this:

Plugin System

From version 3.5, 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.

The following sections detail some of the methods in which this can be done.

The Product Manager

The product manager, found at Admin Control Panel > Plugin System > Manage Products, is a tool for dealing with the installation, removal, enabling and disabling of products.

Each row of the product manager interface shows the details of a product you have installed into your vBulletin system.

Product Manager

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

Having downloaded a product from vBulletin.com's Members Area or vBulletin.org, the product manager contains a link labelled [Add/Import 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.

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 [Browse] 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 [Browse] 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 [Import] 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

It is possible to temporarily disable / deactivate a product through the product manager without totally removing it. This makes debugging simpler, as problems can be isolated to specific products by disabling all products and then re-enabling them one by one until the problem reappears.

To disable a product, simply select Disable from the popup menu next to the product you want to deactivate.

Disable Product

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.

Re-enable Product

Removing / Uninstalling a Product

If you no longer have any need for a product you have previously installed, you can remove it from the system easily and cleanly.

Uninstalling a product will automatically and permanently remove the following:Any additional files uploaded as part of the product installation will need to be removed manually in the same manner as they were uploaded.

To uninstall a product, select the Uninstall option from the popup menu corresponding to the target product.

Uninstalling a 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

vBulletin contains a number of hooks, to which can be attached chunks of code to extend or change the functionality of vBulletin. These chunks of code are called plugins. The plugin manager is the system through which plugins can be added, modified and removed.

Plugin manager

Adding or Editing a Plugin

To add a plugin, navigate to Plugin System > Add New Plugin. This will take you to the Add New Plugin form.

Add Plugin

The fields on the Add New Product form are all required for successful plugin operation. Each field is described here:
ProductUse 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 LocationThe 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;
TitleUse the title field to give your plugin a meaningful name to help you identify it at a later date.
Execution OrderThis 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 CodeUse 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 ActiveYou can use this control to disable an individual plugin without removing the code. This can be helpful in debugging.

Plugin Summary View

When multiple plugins are added, they can all be viewed at a glance through the plugin manager. The manager's main page will display

Plugin manager

From here you can also activate or deactivate one or more plugins without having to visit the full editor page. To do this, simply change the status of one or more of the plugin checkboxes, then click the [Save Active Status] button at the bottom of the form. The plugins saved with the checkbox unchecked will now be disabled.

Plugin manager

Help! I've broken my board!

Hopefully you'll never have the misfortune to break your board with a plugin containing an error, but if you do you could potentially find yourself unable to log into correct the problem because your plugin has broken the login system.

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); 
With this code in config.php, no plugins will run at all.

To re-enable the plugin system, remove the code again from config.php.

Creating a Product

To create a vBulletin 'product' that can be downloaded and installed by others, there are several stages to be performed.

In summary, they are these:
  1. Add a product record and title it accordingly
  2. Add plugin code for the product
  3. Add templates and phrases for the product
  4. Add options for the product
  5. Add control panel navigation entries for the product
  6. Add bitfield permissions for the product
  7. Export the product XML file

Adding a Product

The first step when creating a product for others to install is to create the product record.

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.

Add Product

The fields to complete are as follows:
Product IDThis 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.
TitleThe title field is used to give your product a recognizable name for the purposes of identification.
VersionThe 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.
DescriptionFairly self-explanitory, the description field is used to give a little more detail about your product than the title field.
Product URLThis 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 URLIf 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>
Where x is the product ID, and 1.2.3 is the latest version of your product.
When all fields are complete, hit the [Save] button and your product record will be inserted and will be listed in the product manager.

Writing Plugin Code

Plugin code is regular PHP, and should be written as if editing the vBulletin scripts directly.

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') . '");');

?>
Using this code, when the script terminates, $foo will equal 1 and $bar will equal 2.

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;

When PHP runs the script now, the code will appear in effect as this, where the red code is the plugin code:
<?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') . '");');

?>
At the termination point of the script, if the IP address of the visiting browser is 192.168.0.1, $foo will now equal 10 and $bar will equal 20, though the original PHP code remains unmodified.

Optimizing Plugin Memory Usage

The plugin system works by storing all plugin code for all scripts in memory, so you can quickly find your plugins using large amounts of memory if they contain a lot of code.

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 ")
"
); 
or alternatively, that code could be placed into a file called (for example) plugins/my_script.php, and the plugin itself would contain this:
include('./plugins/my_script.php'); 
Naturally, the second option will use up far less memory than the first, and this saving will become more and more beneficial as the amount of code to be run increases.

Product Dependencies

If the product you are developing has specific requirements, such as PHP/MySQL/vBulletin versions or dependencies on other products, the new product dependencies system allows you to simply manage these checks.

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

If the product you are developing requires additional code, such as database queries, to be run during installation or uninstallation, this section will cover how to accomplish this.

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

In vBulletin 3.5, the navigation frame is built dynamically using XML files that define what links to show in what groups. This means that new links can be added without any modification of the stock vBulletin files.

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>
This block of XML defines a navigation group containing two links, as seen here:

The root node in the XML file is <navgroups>, which also has an attribute of product, which should correspond to the name of the product in the filename - so for example, cpnav_myproduct.xml should have a root group of <navgroups product="myproduct">.

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.
Within each <navgroup> node can be any number (greater than one) of <navoption> nodes. Each of these define a single link within the navigation group. A single <navoption> node looks like this:
<navoption displayorder="50">
    <phrase>phrase_varname</phrase>
    <link>product.php?do=action</link>
</navoption>
Much like the <navgroup> tag, the displayorder attribute here controls the order of the links within the navgroup. A link with displayorder = 10 will be displayed before a link with displayorder = 20.

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

Prior to vBulletin 3.5, the bitfields used for systems such as usergroup forum permissions (database: usergroup.forumpermissions) and user options (database: user.options) were defined in includes/init.php. This meant that in order to define additional bitfields, a core file in vBulletin needed to be modified. Needless to say, this was not an ideal system, as the modifications would need to be re-applied after every vBulletin upgrade.

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>
In this example XML file, we define two bits for a new usergroup.myproductpermissions bitfield. After completing the following steps, vBulletin will be able to reference these two permission bitfields using $vbulletin->bf_ugp_myproductpermissions['canfoo'] and $vbulletin->bf_ugp_myproductpermissions['canbar'].

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:
nameThe 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'].
groupThe 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.
In order to be able to use and edit these newly-defined permissions, we must first prepare the system.
1The first thing to do is to define the product using the product manager, if you have not done so already.
2We 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;
3Now 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.

4With 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.

5The 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

When your product is complete (and fully tested of course!) the final step is to export it into a format that is easily usable by people who may want to install your product for themselves.

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:To export a product, simply select the Export option from the product's popup menu.

Export product

This will pop up a dialog asking if you would like to save an XML file. Click the [Save] button and save the XML file to a safe place on your computer's hard drive.

Save XML

The resulting XML file can then be packaged up with any bitfield or cpnav XML files, additional PHP, Javascript and CSS scripts and zipped for distribution.

Product Zip

The following is an example of an exported product XML file containing a plugin, two templates and six phrases:
<?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 & Logs provides the storage point for any system generated messages and statistics regarding your forum

Statistics

When going to Statistics & Logs > Statistics you will be presented with a screen like this:

These links are used to display various statistics regarding your board, the descriptions are provided below:
Note:
User Activity Statistics will show 0 for any entries prior to your upgrade to vBulletin 3
The statistics viewer allows both a range of dates to be defined for reporting, the scope in which they should be displayed and the order of the sorting on date.

Control Panel Log

The Control Panel Log is where all actions performed within the Admin Control Panel and the Moderator Control Panel can be viewed or deleted.

Control Panel Log ViewerPrune Control Panel Log
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.
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

The Moderator Log is where all actions performed on threads on your board are stored. This does not include actions performed within the Admin Control Panel and Moderator Control Panel, these are logged within their respective sections.

Moderator Log ViewerPrune Moderator Log
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.

Scheduled Task Log

The Scheduled Task Log is covered in detail within the Scheduled Task section of this manual.

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.

Database Backup

To perform a backup of your database, you can go to Maintenance > 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:
 ### VBULLETIN DATABASE DUMP COMPLETED ###
If it does not, we recommend backing up using SSH and mysqldump.
You will be presented with a screen similar to this:

Here you are presented with two methods of backing up:
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

CSV stands for Comma Separated Values. This is a format for representing a table of data and is generally viewable in spreadsheet programs, such as Microsoft Excel. The following options are provided:An example CSV file for the access table with the default form settings looks like this:
'userid','forumid','accessmask'
'1','1','1'
'1','2','0'

Repair / Optimize Tables

If you are receiving strange errors or feel that your forum has recently become slightly more sluggish, go to Maintenance > Repair / Optimize Tables. You will be presented with a screen similar to this:

In the upper table, you select the tables to repair/optimize along with the amount of disk space used by each table. In the lower table, you may select:

Update Counters

Update Counters (Maintenance > Update Counters) is a page that allows you to rebuild some of vBulletin’s caches should they become out of date (generally because of option changes). In normal, day-to-day operations, you do not need to run any of the functions on this page.

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:

Diagnostics

This section is designed to diagnose and help you resolve some of the most common problems. It is accessible via Maintenance > Diagnostics.

The diagnostic tests provided are:

Execute SQL Query

This section allows you to run arbitrary queries on your database. This is often helpful for making many changes quickly or troubleshooting. It is accessible via Maintenance > 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.
Upon entering this section, you will see a page like this:

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.
If your query returns a result set, you will see a page similar to this after running it:

At the top, you will see the query you ran. At the bottom, you will see the results of your query. Each column in the table is a column of data being returned by the query. Thus, in this example, avatarid, title, minimumposts, avatarpath, imagecategoryid, and displayorder are columns in the vb3_avatar table.

View PHP Info

This section (Maintenance > View PHP Info) provides information about your PHP installation, including version information and php.ini settings. In general, this information is only used for troubleshooting and values for specific settings will be asked for.

To obtain more information on the PHP function used to gather this information; phpinfo(), click here.

Podcasting

A podcast is a method for distributing media files over the internet using syndication feeds, such as RSS. Podcasting originated as a way for creators to push their audio files out to iPods. Podcasting is not limited to iPods, as users may download your media files to any player that supports your media as well as choose to play the media on their computer.

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
  1. 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.
    1. Set Enabled to Yes
    2. Select a Category
    You may ignore the rest of the settings if you like. If you would like to configure them so that iTunes works with your podcast, see Podcast Settings for detailed instructions of each option.

    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.
  2. vBulletin Options > External Data Provider > Enable RSS Syndication must be enabled.
  3. vBulletin Options > External Data Provider > Enable Podcasting must be enabled.
Setting up a Test Podcast

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.

You have two options for specifying your media file:
  1. 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.
  2. 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
Testing Your Podcast

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
Further Details

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

Over the course of time there may be problems with your software. Proper maintanence and upgrades will help minimize these but they can still occur. This section of the manual will outline the most common problems that can occur and give the solution or workaround for them to get your site back up and running.

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); 
This will allow your forum to work and you can then login and delete the plugin via the plugin manager.

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); 
When viewing my board, it has an error that says "There has been a slight problem with the database."
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

Common Questions about Upgrading from 3.0.X to 3.5.X

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

Users say that they do not receive emails from my site. What do I do?

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.

Image Manipulation Issues

No Fonts Appear with GD Library

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

Here are the known causes of 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

This section will outline common issues with MySQL and their solutions. Most issues with MySQL are outside the control of vBulletin though and may require assistance from your hosting provider or server administrator to resolve.

Common MySQL Error Messages

A comprehensive list of MySQL error codes can be found in the MySQL Documentation. Here are some of the more common ones that can affect your vBulletin installation.

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
This error means either:
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
But if you still have problems after that, you will need ask your host to raise the maximum number of connections they allow.

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); 
Error code 1153: Got a packet bigger than 'max_allowed_packet' bytes
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

When I run my forum I get 'Link-ID == false, connect failed' error.

This error could be caused by any of the following:Almost all the problems that cause the Link-ID == false error are beyond our power to resolve, and must be dealt with by your host.

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

I keep getting 'The database has failed to connect' error.


This error means either:

Duplicate entry 'XXX'

MySQL Error : Duplicate entry 'XXX' for key 1


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

The most common reasons for the MySQL server has gone away error are:

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

If you are getting this error, it means either:

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.
If you have purchased the branding option after installing vB then you should not need to remove the branding manually. However if for some reason you need to do this manually here are the instructions.

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>
NOTE: You need to edit the footer template this way:

Admin CP -> Styles & Templates -> Edit Templates -> footer

2. In your headinclude template remove this line:
<meta name="generator" content="vBulletin {vb:raw vboptions.templateversion}" />
3. And remove this from the printthread template:
<meta name="generator" content="vBulletin {vb:raw vboptions.templateversion}" />
And this:
<div id="footer_copyright" class="shade">
    <!-- Do not remove this copyright notice -->
    {vb:rawphrase powered_by_vbulletin}
    <!-- Do not remove this copyright notice -->    
</div>
4. Change this phrase:

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>
Notes:

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.

Restoring the Required Copyright Notice

Missing 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

An override for forum permissions based at the user level. You would change a user's access masks from within the User Editor.

Admin Control Panel

The Admin Control Panel (AdminCP) is, as the title suggests, the area of your vBulletin installation where the administrator configures and sets up their board.

Only administrators have access to the AdminCP.

Administrator

An administrator is person with permissions to access the AdminCP where he/she can control the configuration and settings of their forums and users.

Avatar

An avatar is a small image that users can include in their profile and will be displayed on every post they make.

There are two types of avatars, predefined and custom:

BB Code

BB Codes, sometimes referred to as vB Codes, are a used to replace the need for html tags when formatting text in posts.

Examples:

In html to make text bold, italics or underlined you would use:
<b>Bold</b>
<i>Italic</i>
<u>Underlined</u>
With BB Code you use:

[b]Bold[/b]
[i]Italic[/i]
[u]Underlined[/u]

Buddy List

This is a list of users you wish to identify as your Buddies. To add a user to your buddy list, go to your User CP and in the left Nav Panel under Miscellaneous, select [Buddy / Ignore Lists], type the username you wish to add in the Buddy List blank and click [Update 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

A Bulletin Board is a software package designed to allow users to carry on conversations via the internet. Unlike chat software, the threads and messages are stored on the server and can be accessed by users until the board administrator deletes them, allowing the conversations to continue over long periods of time.

Category

A Category is a heading used to group forums that are similar in content or theme.

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

Conditionals are a comparison test that you can use to control how your templates work. See Template Conditionals

Customer Number

A customer number is a unique number allocated to everyone who purachses a vBulletin license. The customer number, along with a password is required to access the vBulletin Members' Area.

Customer Password

See Customer Number

Data APIs

Data APIs / Data Managers are object-oriented PHP classes that act to centralize the manipulation of object data within vBulletin.

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

A Forum is a heading used to group threads that are similar in content or theme.

Guest

A 'guest' is any visitor to your board who is not logged-in as a member.

This could be because they have not yet registered, or because they are a registered member who has logged out.

Hook

A hook is a location in the vBulletin PHP code that triggers events, which can be used to execute external scripts or code; such as for a plugin. The code is executed within the context and scope of the location of the 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

This is a list of users you wish to ignore. To add a user to your ignore list, go to your User CP and in the left Nav Panel under Miscellaneous, select [Buddy / Ignore Lists], type the username you wish to ignore in the Ignore List blank and click [Update Ignore List]

Posts from users that you are ignoring are hidden from view when logged into the forums.

Inline Moderation

Inline Moderation allows administrators and moderators to moderate the threads and posts in forums using inline moderation without having to login to a admin or moderator control panel. The inline moderation allows them to select individual threads or posts from one or multiple pages by checking a checkbox at the top-right of a thread or post. Selected threads or posts will display highlighted in a yellow color.

The following actions can be performed on threads with inline moderation from forumdisplay:The following actions can be performed on posts with inline moderation from showthread:

Member

A member is a registered user on your board.

Members' Area

The Members' Area is a private part of the vBulletin.com site for registered licensed customers. The area is security protected and requires members to enter their customer number and password to again access.

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

A Moderator is a user appointed by the Administrator who is put in charge of maintaining a forum or forums. The duties can include deleting offensive or inappropriate posts, pruning old threads and banning users from their particular forum(s).

Moderator Control Panel

The Moderator Control Panel (ModCP) is an area of your vBulletin installation where board Moderators can administer certain aspects of board.

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

A vBulletin plugin is a code snippet to be executed within a specific hook.

Plugins allow code to be added to vBulletin without actually modifying the PHP files.

Post

An individual message entered by a user, making up a part of a thread.

Post Icon

A post icon is a small image file that appears next to the post title and in the post icon column of the main forum page. An Administrator may choose to allow or disallow use of post icons for posts and or private messages in the Admin Control Panel.

Product

A product is a downloadable package containing code snippets (plugins), templates, options, phrases, admin help, control panel navigation entries and bitfields definitions.

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

Prune is to delete a large number of posts and/or threads from your message board. This is often used as a step in maintaining a small database. To prune messages you would do so through the Admin Control Panel under the Threads / Posts heading or from the Forum Tools menu within a particular forum. This option only shows up if you have permission to use it.

Replacement Variable

Replacement Variables allow you to globally replace text with alternative text anywhere in your forum. See Replacement Variables.

Smilies

Smilies are small icons that can be used in posts that denote a persons emotional state, eg happy, mad, sad.

Sticky Thread

A sticky thread is a thread that always shows at the top of the threads listed in a forum.

Making a thread sticky is part of the Thread Tools that are available to Adminstrators and Moderators.

StyleVar

StyleVar is short for Style Variable. This is an array of variables created in the Style Manager. Stylevars control image paths, forum width and other aspects of your forum's look and feel. For more information see StyleVars.

Super Administrator

A superadministrator is essentially another administrator but with additional permissions. For example only a superadministrator can manage other admins.

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

A supermoderator is essentially another moderator but with additional permissions that the administrator has assigned in the Usergroup and Forum Permissons.

Thread

A thread is a collection of posts usually with a common subject matter.

User

A User is a registered member of the Forum.

User Control Panel

The User Control Panel (UserCP) is the area of the forums where members can administer there own profile preferences, such as signatures, avatars.

Usergroup

A usergroup is a means of grouping users together, all of whom will have the same permissions.

General Internet-Related Terms

AJAX

AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript and XML) allows your browser to send data to and receive data from a server without reloading the current page. This technology, whose use is being pioneered by Google, allows developers to create rich, fast-responding interactive pages.


Cookie

A cookie is a file that is created and stored on a computer that contains information about a user or users' preferences when viewing certain web pages.

CSS

CSS is short for Cascading Style Sheets. These are a means of controlling the display qualities of a webpage. vBulletin makes extensive use of CSS.

Domain

A domain is a name leased to identify your website on the intenet.

FTP

FTP is short for File Transfer Protocol. This is a means of uploading files to your website.

HTML

HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language. This is the language behind the World Wide Web. It defines how a page should look to visitors with a web browser.

HTTP

HTTP stands for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol. This protocol defines how computers communicate with each other over the Internet when web pages are requested by a web browser.

IP Address

An IP Address is a 4 section string of numbers used by the internet to locate a website. It is much like a telephone number for your site.

An example would be IP Address 66.135.192.87 is for ebay.com

Javascript

Javascript is a web scripting language that interacts with HTML source code, allowing the browser to create dynamic content. vBulletin offers many enhancements that will only function when Javascript is enabled.

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

See Spider

Server

A server is a computer that accepts connections from other computers for the purpose of exchanging information.

Spider

A spider is a program or script that systematically follows URLs on a page gathering information.

Typically search engines use spiders to gather information from web sites to increase there search index.

example search engine spiders:Normally these spiders show on your board as guests. If you want to be able to see search engine spiders that are browsing your forum pages there is a setting under the vBulletin Options section in the AdminCP.

AdminCP > vBulletin Options > Who's Online Options

SSH

SSH (Server Shell) is a secure server-side application that allows you to run command line functions on your website.

You will need to check with your hosting company to see if it is available with your hosting package.

Telnet

Telnet is a server-side application that allows you to run command line functions on your website.

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.

URL

URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator. This is the address of a server and it allows computers to route traffic between each other on the Internet.

XHTML

XHTML stands for Extensible Hyper Text Markup Language. This is a language similar to HTML but with stricter rules. To find out more about XHTML please visit the World Wide Web Consortium.

XSS

XSS stands for Cross Site Scripting. Cross Site Scripting is usually a sign of vulnerability in a software application or script. This allows information to be exchanged with one or more computers without verifying the factuality of that information.

XML

XML is an acronym of Extensible Markup Language. It is a markup language for documents containing structured information which enables the use of user defined tags. To find out more about XML please visit the World Wide Web Consortium

Miscellaneous Terms

AIM

AOL Instant Messenger

ASCII

American Standard Code for Information Interchange

CGI Shebang

A CGI Shebang is the path to your PHP installation. If your server is running PHP as CGI you may be required to have this at the top of your website's php pages.

COPPA

COPPA stands for Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.

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

Daylight Savings Time

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Firewall

A firewall is an application running on a computer to prevent unwanted connections to be made to that computer. Firewalls protect both incoming and outgoing traffic on a computer.

ICQ

I Seek You. It is a buddy chat program used by millions of people to communicate on the internet.

Import

The term Import can be applied in a few ways regarding vBulletin:

Localhost

localhost is the default host address of a computer on which a service is running.

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

MSN Instant Messenger. It is a buddy chat program used by millions of people to communicate on the internet owned by Microsoft.

MySQL

MySQL is a database management system that uses SQL. vBulletin uses this to store and retreive all the data from your board.
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 Hypertext Preprocessor

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

Graphical User Interface (GUI) for MySQL available from http://www.phpmyadmin.net

RSS Enclosure

RSS enclosures are a method for including media files withing RSS feeds. The media is not actually contained within the feed but rather is linked via a hyperlink to another source.

Thumbnail

A Thumbnail is a small preview image of an attachment in a post.

WYSIWYG

Acronym for: What You See Is What You Get

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

Yahoo! Instant Messenger. It is a buddy chat program used by millions of people to communicate on the internet.

Appendix: Feature List

General Features

General Features

General Forum Features

Front-end Features

GeneralThreadsPostsMembers

Calendar Features

Calendar Features

User Control Panel Features

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 MessagingUser Options
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 ManagementAvatar OptionsView and manage subscribed threads and forums

Signature Editor

Email and password changes require current password

Joinable Public User Groups

Admin Control Panel Features

Admin Control Panel Features

Styling & TemplatesLanguage & Phrase ManagementUsers & UsergroupsBoard MaintenanceModerationImport FacilityAttachmentsGeneral

Appendix: Technical Documents

Securing Your vBulletin Installation

vBulletin has many features built-in to help keep your data safe but if your server is not secure then your data can be jeopardized. There are several steps to secure your vBulletin Installation. Most of them involve server configuration and settings outside your the vBulletin Application. Securing your server will provide the foundation that your site security will be built on.

Securing Your Server

Securing or "Hardening" your server is beyond the scope of this document but is an important step to creating a secure environment for your data.
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

How you access your server can undermine any security protocols you put into place. It is recommended that you use SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol) and SSH (Secure Shell) access to directly access your server and files. These are secure versions of the common FTP and Telnet protocols. SFTP and SSH will send passwords in an encrypted format whereas FTP and Telnet send them in plaintext.

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

Restricting unauthorized access to your files is one of the most important things you can do. If someone has access to your files, they can alter them to send data to them or they can access your database directly with the information given.

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 *
This tells the server that the owner of the file (you) has permission to read and write to the files but everyone else only has permission to read them.

If your hosting provider tells you that you need Read and Write permissions on your files then you would use this command:
chmod 755 *
A more indepth tutorial on CHMOD can be found here: http://catcode.com/teachmod/index.html

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

The config.php has several settings that can help protect your vBulletin installation. These settings are listed below. Since these are security features, less is more. Give out as few permissions as possible, otherwise your forum will not be as secure. Ultimately you should only include yourself as the owner in any of the settings. It is recommended to leave the "Users with Query Running Permissions" setting empty until you need to actually run a query. At that time, change the setting and reupload your config.php. The change will take effect immediately. When you are done running your queries, change the setting back to the default. With this one setting and your password, an attacker has complete control of your database.
// ****** 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'] = '';
Securing your config.php file
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>
Apache 2.4:
<Files "config.php">  
  Require all denied
</Files>
For details on securing this file in IIS on a Windows Server please see:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/en/server/iis/htm/core/iidfpsc.htm

Moving Servers

There are two major parts to successfully move your vBulletin forums from one server to another. These are:

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.

1) Backing Up and Moving the Files

You can use FTP or your hosts' file manager to move your vB files from one server to another. You need to download all the appropriate vB files and directories (making sure to retain the current directory structure) then upload these files and directories to the new server. Make sure you transfer all the image files (.gif, .jpg, .png, .ico, .attach, .thumb) in Binary format and the non-image files in ASCII format. Most FTP programs are set to recognize the correct file types automatically but it does not hurt to double-check.

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

1Telnet/SSH into the server where your vBulletin is currently installed. We will call this machine1.
2Type:
mysqldump --opt -Q -uUSERNAME -p DATABASENAME > /PATH/TO/DUMP.SQL
In this line, you should change the following:
  • USERNAME – this is the username you use to access MySQL. It is specified in your config.php file.
  • DATABASENAME – the name of the database which your vBulletin is installed into. It is specified in your config.php file.
  • /PATH/TO/DUMP.SQL – this is the path to the file that will be outputted. If you are unsure what to put here, simply use vb_backup.sql or something similar.
Once you press enter, you will be prompted for the password you use to access MySQL. This is also specified in your config.php file.
3Once 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

3) Transferring to the New Server

1Telnet/SSH into machine1 if you have not already.
2Type:
ftp MACHINE2
Replace 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.
3Type the following:
asc
cd /PATH/TO/NEW/DIRECTORY
put /PATH/TO/DUMP.SQL
Here you should change:
  • /PATH/TO/NEW/DIRECTORY – this is the path to the directory in which you want to place the database backup. If you are unsure what to specify here, you can usually omit the entire cd /PATH/TO/NEWDIRECTORY/ command.
  • /PATH/TO/DUMP.SQL – this is the same path that you specified in step 1.
4Once these commands have finished, type:
close
quit
5Verify that DUMP.SQL is in /PATH/TO/NEW/DIRECTORY on the new server.

4) Restoring the Database on the New Server

1On 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.
2Telnet/SSH into machine2.
3Type:
mysql -uUSERNAME -p NEWDBNAME < /PATH/TO/NEW/DUMP.SQL
You should change the following parts of this line:
  • USERNAME - this is the new username which you will use to access MySQL. If you do not know this value, you should contact your host.
  • NEWDBNAME - the name of the new database that you created in the first part of this step.
  • /PATH/TO/NEW/DUMP.SQL - this is the path to the backup file that you transferred to this server in step 2.
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

1Open 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.
2Upload the new config.php and the rest of the files (if they still need to be uploaded).
3Login 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 cover installing PHP and Apache from source onto a Unix/Linux system. This requires SSH/Telnet and super user (e.g., root) access to your server.

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.
For more information on installing PHP, see http://www.php.net/manual/en/installation.php. For more information on installing Apache, see http://httpd.apache.org/docs/install.html.

1) Downloading PHP and Apache

1We 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.
2Go 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

1Telnet/SSH into your server if you have not already.
2From the shell prompt, type the following:
cd /usr/local/src
tar xfz apache_xxx.tar.gz
tar xfz php-xxx.tar.gz
3Now we need to figure out where Apache is currently running, so we can configure the new version for the same location. Type:
ps –ef
Look for a line like this:
nobody 32319 340 0 19:48 ? 00:00:00 /usr/local/etc/httpd/bin/httpd
This 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.
4Now type:
cd /usr/local/src/apache_xxx
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/etc/httpd
This will configure Apache and get ready for compiling in a later step.

3) Compiling and Installing PHP

From the shell, type the following:
cd /usr/local/src/php-xxx
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/php --with-config-file-path=/usr/local/php --with-mysql --with-apache=../apache_xxx
make
make install
Now PHP 4 is installed and we are ready to compile and install Apache.

4) Compiling and Installing Apache

1From the shell, type:
cd /usr/local/src/apache_xxx
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/etc/httpd --activate-module=src/modules/php4/libphp4.a
make
2Now shut down Apache to install in new binaries:
/usr/local/etc/httpd/bin/apachectl stop
3Now install Apache:
make install

5) Completing the Installation

1Now we just want to copy our PHP configuration file:
cd /usr/local/src/php-xxx
cp php.ini-optimized /usr/local/php/php.ini
If you have any modifications you wish to make to your php.ini file, you may make them now.
2
cd /usr/local/etc/httpd/conf
Edit your httpd.conf file and make sure the following line is added:
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
3You can now reboot your system, or simply re-start Apache with:
/usr/local/etc/httpd/bin/apachectl start

Installing PHP under IIS using FastCGI

The recommended method to use PHP on an IIS server under Windows is using FastCGI. This method allows you to reuse resources similar to an ISAPI module but does not have the instabilities introduced through a multi-threaded PHP installation.

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

MySQL is freely available for Linux from http://www.mysql.com on the downloads page at http://www.mysql.com/downloads/index.html. Download the latest stable release (listed as recommended on the download page). You should grab the tarball source download version, with filename mysql-version.tar.gz.

1) Compiling and Installing MySQL

With the program downloaded, you should make sure you're logged in as root before proceeding with the installation, unless you only want to install MySQL in your own home directory. Begin by unpacking the downloaded file and moving into the directory that is created:
tar xfz mysql-version.tar.gz
cd mysql-version
Next 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:
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql
After sitting through the screens and screens of configuration tests, you'll eventually get back to a command prompt. You're ready to compile MySQL:
make
After 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 install
MySQL 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_db
With 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

With MySQL installed and ready to store information, all that's left is to get the server running on your computer. While you can run the server as the root user, or even as yourself (if, for example, you installed the server in your own home directory), the best idea is to set up a special user on the system that can do nothing but run the MySQL server. This will remove any possibility of someone using the MySQL server as a way to break into the rest of your system. To create a special MySQL user, you'll need to log in as root and type the following commands:
/usr/sbin/groupadd mysqlgrp
/usr/sbin/useradd -g mysqlgrp mysqlusr
By 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):
cd /usr/local/mysql
chown -R mysqlusr.mysqlgrp var
chmod -R go-rwx var

3) Starting the MySQL Server

Everything's set for you to try launching the MySQL server for the first time. From the MySQL directory, type the following command:
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 status
A 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

If you want to set up your MySQL server to run automatically whenever the system is running (just like your Web server probably does), you'll have to set it up to do so. In the share/mysql subdirectory of the MySQL directory, you'll find a script called mysql.server that can be added to your system startup routines to do this.

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=mysqlusr
Setting 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/
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
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.

Creating a New MySQL Database for vBulletin to Use

Depending upon your web server, you may need to create a new MySQL database into which vBulletin can be installed.

The following pages describe the process needed to do this under a variety of systems.

Setting-up a MySQL Database on the Command Line

If you have root access to your web server, you can set up a new database for vBulletin to use via the MySQL command line.
1Firstly, 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.
2Next, you will need to start the MySQL command line tool by typing something along these lines:
/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql -uroot -p
on Windows it willl be similar to:
c:\mysql\bin\mysql -uroot -p
The system will then ask you to provide the MySQL root password to continue.
3When 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.
4After 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;
5Having 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.*
TO example_user@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'p4ssw0rd';
Your new database and new user are ready to be used. Based on the example names given in this document, you should enter the following values into config.php:
$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

For purposes of this manual, I am using screenshots from the cPanel X theme. Your cPanel theme may differ, but the instructions will remain virtually the same.
The only notable difference is if you are using the cPanel Advanced theme. If that's the case, click the [Advanced Tools] then the [MySQL Databases] 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 [MySQL Databases] icon.

On this screen, you will enter the database name you want in the blank next to [db:] then click [Add DB].

Once you have clicked [Add DB] you will be brought to a redirect screen confirming the creation of the database. Click the [back] or [Go Back] 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 [Add User].

Once you have clicked [Add User] you will be brought to a redirect screen confirming the creation of the username and password. Click the [back] or [Go Back] 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 [Add User to DB].

Again, you will be sent to the redirect screen confirming the addition of the user to the database. Again, click the [back] or [Go Back] 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 [forums] and the database username [user] your database will be [mainusername_forums] and your database username will be [mainusername_user]

Setting-up a MySQL Database in Plesk

When you first log into Plesk, you will see this screen. Click the [DATABASES] button to begin setting up your database:

Note:
If the [DATABASES] button is greyed out, it means that your account does not have MySQL database access. Please contact your host to correct this.
This will bring you to the database create screen. Enter the name you want for your database and click the [ADD] button.

Now you must create your database user. Enter the database username you want and click the [ADD] button.

Now you must create a password for the database username. Enter it in the first blank, reenter it in the second blank for confirmation and click the [UPDATE] button:

You have now created your database and will be redirected to this screen:

The database name, username and password you created here are what you input into your config.php file.

Setting-up a MySQL Database in Ensim

There are 2 possible ways to set up a MySQL database in Ensim. In most Ensim configurations, you will have links on the left as well as icons on the main screen. Some hosts, however, don't use the icon set up, so I will cover both.

When you load your control panel you should see something resembling the screen in the following figure. Most people will click the [MySQL Admin Tool] link next to the icon. Others may have to click the [Services] link in the left side nav panel.

If you had to use the [Services] link in the left side nav panel, you will see the following screen:

Click the following button in the row labeled [MySQL]

This will bring up the following screen:

Click the [Create Database] link.

This will bring the screen where you create the database:

Type the database name you want in the blank and click the [Save]. 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 [yourdomain_com_-_] so if you choose [forums] as your database name, the actual name of the database may be [yourdomain_com_-_forums]
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

Here you will find instruction for backing up your database.

Backing Up The Database via SSH/Telnet

In order to back up your database via SSH or Telnet you will require 2 things:

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

For purposes of this instruction,I am using phpMyAdmin version 2.5.6-rc1.

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 [Go] and you will be prompted to save the backup on your local computer.

Restoring your MySQL Database Manually

In this section we will cover methods to restore your database backup.
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

In order to restore your database via SSH or Telnet you will require 2 things:

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
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.

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

For purposes of this instruction,I am using phpMyAdmin version 2.5.6-rc1.

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 [Browse] button, navigate to and select the backup file on your home computer and click the [Go].
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

To improve performance, vBulletin caches certain information which isn't updated often in the datastore, so that it doesn't have to be rebuilt every time it's needed.

Examples for this areThe datastore data is stored in the datastore database table by default, but certain settings in the config.php file allow this to be saved in other places, to improve performance:
/* #### 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'; 
In version 4.2.5, five options are available:

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'; 
vB_Datastore_APCu
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'; 
...with this one:
$config['Datastore']['class'] = 'vB_Datastore_APCu'
vB_Datastore_Memcache
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'; 
...with this one:
$config['Datastore']['class'] = 'vB_Datastore_Memcache'
Additionally, the following section of the config.php file has to be set up with the correct IP/Servername and Port respectively. All lines need to be uncommented.
/* #### 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.    
vB_Datastore_XCache
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'; 
...with this one:
$config['Datastore']['class'] = 'vB_Datastore_XCache'
vB_Datastore_Redis

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'; 
...with this one:
$config['Datastore']['class'] = 'vB_Datastore_Redis'
To configure this, the following section of the config.php file has to be set up with the correct IP/Servername and Port respectively. All lines need to be uncommented.
/* #### 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.

Running your forums in multiple directories.
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

When developing for vBulletin or troubleshooting issues, you often have to enter Debug Mode. Debug Mode provides you with more information about how vBulletin runs some examples include: page generation times, templates used on a page, the memory used on a page and how many queries it took to generate the page. Debug Mode should not be used on a live production site unless absolutely necessary. It can expose information that could weaken security on your site.
Note:
The config file is located in your includes directory.
Entering Debug Mode
To do this, you need to edit your config.php file and add the following line:
$config['Misc']['debug'] = true
This line of code can be anywhere in the file after the <?php and outside of a comment. Once done, save the file and overwrite the copy on your server.

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 standard vBulletin 3 graphics started life as 3D objects and scenes created in Lightwave 3D. The resulting rendered images were then post-processed using Adobe Photoshop.

Due to the nature of 3D graphics, the edges of the images do not end in a sharply defined pixel border, but rather they are matted to a specific background color.

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:
  • New Posts
  • Top Note
  • Bottom Note
Meanwhile, to create the statusicon/forum_new_lock.gif image, all layers should be hidden apart from:
  • No New Posts
  • Bottom Note
  • Top Note
  • FORUM LINK ARROW
In order to create the matted versions of your graphics, you should follow the following steps.
1Firstly, 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.

2Secondly, selecting each visible layer in turn, apply a sharpening filter. We recommend that you use Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask with the following settings:

3Finally, 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.
The Graphics Developer Kits can be downloaded from the Members' Support Page.

Table of Sizes and Matte Classes

DirectoryImage NameWidthHeightMatte Class
buttons
buttonsnewthread11026page
buttonsreply11026page
buttonsthreadclosed11026page
buttonsedit7022alt2
buttonsreply_small7022alt2
buttonsforward7022alt2
buttonsquickreply2522alt2
buttonssendpm7022alt2
buttonsemail7022alt2
buttonshome7022alt2
buttonsfind7022alt2
buttonsmode_hybrid1616vbmenu_option
buttonsmode_linear1616vbmenu_option
buttonsmode_threaded1616vbmenu_option
buttonsprinter2117vbmenu_option
buttonssendtofriend2117vbmenu_option
buttonsaddpoll2117vbmenu_option
buttonssubscribe2117vbmenu_option
buttonsreport2117thead
buttonsreputation2117thead
buttonsip1817thead
buttonssortasc1212thead
buttonssortdesc1212thead
buttonsfirstnew1212alt2
buttonslastpost1212alt1
buttonscollapse_alt1111alt1
buttonscollapse_alt_collapsed1111alt1
buttonscollapse_tcat1515tcat
buttonscollapse_tcat_collapsed1515tcat
buttonscollapse_thead1313thead
buttonscollapse_thead_collapsed1313thead
icons
iconsicon11616alt1
iconsicon21616alt1
iconsicon31416alt1
iconsicon41616alt1
iconsicon51616alt1
iconsicon61616alt1
iconsicon71616alt1
iconsicon81616alt1
iconsicon91616alt1
iconsicon101616alt1
iconsicon111616alt1
iconsicon121616alt1
iconsicon131616alt1
iconsicon141616alt1
misc
miscbirthday3030alt1
miscbirthday_small1317alt1
misccalendar3030alt1
misccalendar_icon1317vbmenu_option
miscim_aim1717alt1
miscim_icq1717alt1
miscim_msn1717alt1
miscim_yahoo1717alt1
miscmenu_open117vbmenu_control
miscmultipage1212alt2
miscnavbits_start1515alt2
miscnavbits_finallink3015alt2
miscpaperclip713alt2
miscpoll_posticon1616alt1
miscquestion_icon1616alt1
miscstats3030alt1
miscsticky1212alt2
miscsubscribed1212alt2
miscsubscribed_event1717alt1
miscwhos_online3030alt1
rating
ratingrating_06012vbmenu_control
ratingrating_16012vbmenu_control
ratingrating_26012vbmenu_control
ratingrating_36012vbmenu_control
ratingrating_46012vbmenu_control
ratingrating_56012vbmenu_control
reputation
reputationreputation_off810alt1
reputationreputation_highpos810alt1
reputationreputation_pos810alt1
reputationreputation_balance810alt1
reputationreputation_neg810alt1
reputationreputation_highneg810alt1
smilies
smiliesbiggrin1616alt2
smiliesconfused1621alt2
smiliescool1616alt2
smilieseek1616alt2
smiliesfrown1616alt2
smiliesmad1616alt2
smiliesredface1616alt2
smiliesrolleyes1616alt2
smiliessmile1616alt2
smiliestongue1616alt2
smilieswink1616alt2
statusicon
statusiconannouncement_new1818alt2
statusiconannouncement_old1818alt2
statusiconforum_old2930alt1
statusiconforum_new2930alt1
statusiconforum_old_lock2930alt1
statusiconforum_new_lock2930alt1
statusiconforum_link2930alt1
statusiconsubforum_old1111alt2
statusiconsubforum_new1111alt2
statusiconsubforum_link1111alt2
statusiconpm_old1616alt2
statusiconpm_new1616alt2
statusiconpm_replied1616alt2
statusiconpm_forwarded1616alt2
statusiconpost_old1011thead
statusiconpost_new1011thead
statusiconuser_offline1515alt1
statusiconuser_online1515alt1
statusiconuser_invisible1515alt1
statusiconthread2020alt2
statusiconthread_dot2020alt2
statusiconthread_dot_hot2020alt2
statusiconthread_dot_hot_lock2020alt2
statusiconthread_dot_hot_lock_new2020alt2
statusiconthread_dot_hot_new2020alt2
statusiconthread_dot_lock2020alt2
statusiconthread_dot_lock_new2020alt2
statusiconthread_dot_new2020alt2
statusiconthread_hot2020alt2
statusiconthread_hot_lock2020alt2
statusiconthread_hot_lock_new2020alt2
statusiconthread_hot_new2020alt2
statusiconthread_lock2020alt2
statusiconthread_lock_new2020alt2
statusiconthread_moved2020alt2
statusiconthread_moved_new2020alt2
statusiconthread_new2020alt2
statusiconwol_lockedout1717alt1
statusiconwol_nopermission1617alt1
statusiconwol_error1616alt1

vBulletin 2 Graphics Kit

Welcome to the vBulletin Graphics Developer's Kit. This document will take you through the steps needed to get you started with customizing the vBulletin graphics to suit the colors of your own board.

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 [Ok] 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

The following documents are intended as a guide for people who are writing code to integrate with vBulletin.

Code Examples Color Key:
$code = red_code($var); Don't code like this
$code = normal_code($var); Code like this

Braces

Braces should be placed on a new line in all cases.
if ($condition_one)
{
    // do something
}
else if ($condition_two)
{
    // do something else
}
else
{
    // don't do anything
}
Always use braces, even for loops / branches that contain just a single line of code.
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

Always use a single tab for indenting.
function construct_something($var)
{
    global $vboptions;
    
    if ($vboptions['somevar'])
    {
        if ($var == 'something')
        {
            return true;
        }
        else
        {
            return false;
        }
    }
    else
    {        
        return true;
    }
    
}

Loops and Branches

Loop and branch commands (including foreach) should be followed by a space before the opening parenthesis.
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 => $val)
{
    // do something
}
'else if' should be used, rather than 'elseif'.
if ($condition)
{
    // do something
}
else if ($condition_two)
{
    // do something else
}

Use of Spaces

Operators should always be surrounded by spaces with the exception of ++ and --.
$a = 1;

$b += $a;

$c = $a . $b;

$d = $b . 'something' . $c;

$e = $d * $b;

$f = $e / $a;

$g = ($f + $e) * $b;

$h++;

$i--;
Function calls and definitions should not have a space before the opening parentheses.
$x = htmlspecialchars($y);

$item = $DB_site->fetch_array($items);
Function arguments should have a space after each comma.
$x = fetch_something($a, $b, $c);

$i = construct_something(strtoupper('something') . ' ' . substr($var, 0, $b));
Unnecessary spaces around parentheses should not be used.
$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

Strings should be quoted with single quotes if they contain no variables or control characters, otherwise use double quotes.
$flat_string = 'Hello, this is a string';

$dynamic_one = "Hello,\nthis is a string.";

$dynamic_two = "Hello $username,\n this is a string.";
The choice between using string evaluations or string additions is yours to make, depending upon the circumstances.
$string_one = "The time is $timenow and the date is $datenow.";

$string_two = 'The time is ' . time() . ' and the date is ' . $datenow . '.';
SQL Queries should always be double-quoted.
$results = $DB_site->query("SELECT field FROM " . TABLE_PREFIX . "table AS table");
Variables should not be quoted if they do not need to be.
$var = "$x";

$result = strtoupper("$string");

$var = $x;

$result = strtoupper($string);

$string = fetch_something("something$var");
Eval() calls should be single-quoted if possible, to avoid unncessary character escaping.
eval("\$template = \"" . fetch_template('template') . "\";");

eval('$template = "' . fetch_template('template') . '";');

Quoting Array Keys

Array keys should be quoted if they are strings or variables, even if you know that the variable evaluates to an integer. Quoting should follow the same rules as defined for string quoting. Note that $var = $array[$key]; will cause a parse error if $key is not quoted and is a negative integer, and will cause a notice if $key is a string and is unquoted.
$a = $userinfo[12];
$b = $userinfo['username'];
$c = $userinfo["$field"];
Compound array keys should quote the outermost variable.
$a = $userinfo["$var[12]"];
$b = $userinfo["$var[username]"];
$c = $userinfo["$var[$field]"];
Compound arrays within strings should be avoided if possible by breaking out of the string with the dot operator, although if absolutely unavoidable, the {...} array syntax can be used.
$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

In order to insure that data is in the expected format, the following PHP Superglobal arrays are not to be accessed directly under most situations:The only direct access to these variables is with $_POST['do'] and $_GET['do'], which is used as the controlling variable for deciding which branch of a script is executed. There may also exist very specific cases where direct access is required but should be avoided if at all possible. Do not use $_GET / $_POST / $_REQUEST etc. variables in templates.

clean_gpc() and clean_array_gpc(), members of the vBulletin input class are used to sanitize all user submitted data.

Valid data types are:Each of the data types other than TYPE_NOCLEAN, also have a corresponding Array data type that forces an array of that data type, e.g. TYPE_ARRAY_BOOL.

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'];
$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

Unless there is a good reason to use 1/0, such as the possibility of a return value of 2, use true/false as return values for functions.
function is_three($var)
{
    if ($var == 3)
    {
        return 1;
    }
    else
    {
        return 0;
    }
}

function is_three($var)
{
    if ($var == 3)
    {
        return true;
    }
    else
    {
        return false;
    }
}
Use lower-case true/false rather than upper-case TRUE/FALSE. Reserve upper-case for custom constants.
if ($var === TRUE)

if ($var === true)

AND/and/&& OR/or/|| etc.

Use 'AND' rather than 'and' or '&&', and 'OR' rather than 'or' or '||'.
if ($var1 && $var2 || $var3)

if ($var1 and $var2 or $var3)

if ($var1 AND $var2 OR $var3)
Capitalize 'AS' in foreach statements.
foreach($array AS $key => $val)
{
    // do something
}

Commenting Code

Use the // comment type for single-line or short comments, and the /* .... */ syntax for large block comments.
// 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...
*/
Comments should precede the code they describe, rather than following it.
$var = 0; // initialize $var

if ($var) // check $var

// initialize $var
$var = 0;

// check $var
if ($var)
When commenting loops and branches, it is acceptable to put the comment inside the braces.
if ($var)
{
    // $var is true so do the following code
    echo $var;
}
Separate 'do' branches and major code blocks with the comment string shown here. I suggest you copy this line and add it as an insertable code snippet in your PHP editor. If you want to insert a short definition of what the 'do' code will do, add it immediately following the separating comment line.
require_once('./global.php');

// #############################################################################

if (empty($_REQUEST['do']))
{
    $_REQUEST['do'] = 'modify';
}

// #############################################################################

if ($_REQUEST['do'] == 'edit')
{
    // do edit code
}

// #############################################################################
// lists items in a table

if ($_REQUEST['do'] == 'modify')
{
    // do modify code
}
Prefix PHP function definitions with the comment string shown here. Once again, you should create a code snippet with this string.
// ###################### Start is_something ######################
function is_something($var)
{
    return iif($var, true, false);
}

// ###################### Start fetch_uppercase ######################
function fetch_uppercase($var)
{
    return strtoupper($var);
}

Variable Comparison etc.

The following standards should be followed:
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 $boolean is false
If data type is crucial, use === and !==.
if ($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'
Note the following:
$integer = 0;
if ($integer == '') // will return true

$string = '';
if ($string == 0) // will return true

$string = '0';
if ($string == '') // will return false

SQL Query Syntax

Always double-quote SQL queries, even if they contain no dynamic text.
$db->query_read('SELECT field FROM ' . TABLE_PREFIX . 'table ORDER BY field');

$db->query_read("SELECT field FROM " . TABLE_PREFIX . "table ORDER BY field");
SQL function calls should not be followed by a space.
$db->query_read("SELECT COUNT(*) AS records, SUM(field_one) AS total FROM " . TABLE_PREFIX . "table");
If a query string is long and would be better written on more than one line, separate it onto separate lines, putting the clause keyword at the start of the line in the following manner: double-quote, newline, indent, [query string], newline, outdent, double-quote.
$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
");
Additional 'AND' clauses for the 'WHERE' clause should be intented if the query spans multiple lines.
$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
");
Do not quote numeric values in SQL queries, use intval() or $var += 0; to ensure that the variable is safe.
$db->query_first("SELECT something FROM table WHERE tableid = '$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");
Do not specify a length for numeric fields unless you have specified 'UNSIGNED ZEROFILL'.
$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
");
Do not use the 'AFTER' keyword in 'ALTER' statements. Some servers seem to have problems with 'AFTER' so it is best avoided.
$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
");
Format INSERT / REPLACE queries like this:
$db->query_write("
    INSERT INTO " . TABLE_PREFIX . "table
        (field_one, field_two, field_three)
    VALUES
        (1, 2, 'moo'),
        (1, 2, 'baa'),
        (3, 5, 'quack')
");
Always list the field names in INSERT / REPLACE queries. Never assume that you are inserting all the fields into a table.
$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')
");
If a field in an INSERT query is AUTO_INCREMENT, do not include it in the query.
$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

Most vBulletin scripts contains 'do' branches. The following naming standards should be followed.
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 possible, keep the branches in the order listed above, with 'modify' (the default action) at the very bottom of the 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 ($_REQUEST['do'] == 'editstyle')
{
    // show form to edit a style
}
If a the functionality of a 'do' branch does not tally with edit, update, add, insert, delete or kill, give it a name that summarised the functionality of the branch.
if ($_REQUEST['do'] == 'rebuildstylecache')
{
    // rebuild style cache
}

// #############################################################################

if ($_REQUEST['do'] == 'updatetemplateparentlists')
{
    // update template parent lists
}
Keep groups of branches applicable to a single item type together in the script.
// if (empty($_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 (as far as possible) describe what they are going to do, so that a person reading the code would have a good idea of how to use and what to expect from a function simply by looking at the name.

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);
Custom function names should adhere to the following standards
Group PrefixGroup ExplanationExample Functions
print_Functions that directly print out code to the browser or output buffer via echo or print statements.
  • print_input_row
  • print_standard_error
  • print_cp_header
construct_Functions that return variables containing HTML for later printing.
  • construct_edit_toolbar
  • construct_forum_jump
is_
contains_
Functions that return true/false based on conditions.
  • is_valid_email
  • is_wysiwyg_compatible
  • contains_bbcode_img_tags
can_Functions that return true/false based on permissions.
  • can_moderate
  • can_administer
  • can_announce
verify_Functions that check conditions and directly drop out to an error message if certain conditions are met.
  • verify_ip_ban
  • verify_post_errors
  • verify_word_allowed
convert_Functions that convert the input variable from one data format to another.
  • convert_kb_to_mb
  • convert_html_to_bbcode
  • convert_bits_to_array
cache_Functions that read data from the database (usually) and create PHP cache variables to lighten the SQL load.
  • cache_templates
  • cache_forums
  • cache_birthdays
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.
  • fetch_template
  • fetch_user_search_sql
  • fetch_user_location_array
process_Functions that perform actions upon an array in order to prepare it for later reference.
  • process_thread_array
  • process_post_preview
  • process_online_location
build_Functions that save data back to the database for later retrieval, such as caching birthdays into the datastore, rebuilding the style table etc.
  • build_bbcode_cache
  • build_new_post
  • build_attachment
delete_Functions that delete something from the database.
  • delete_thread
  • delete_post_index
  • delete_user_pms
undelete_Functions that reverse a soft deletion.
  • undelete_thread
  • undelete_post
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.
  • import_thread
  • import_post
  • import_user
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.
  • sanitize_perpage
  • sanitize_url
  • sanitize_reminder_date
parse_Functions that initialize the bbcode parsing process in some way.
  • parse_bbcode
  • parse_usernote_bbcode
  • parse_pm_bbcode
handle_Functions that are called by the bbcode parser to deal with a particular bbcode type.
  • handle_bbcode_img
  • handle_bbcode_list
  • handle_bbcode_parameter
file_Functions that deal directly with the filesystem.
  • file_read
  • file_download
  • file_append
log_Functions that append to one of vBulletin's logs.
  • log_admin_action
  • log_vbulletin_error
  • log_upgrade_step
exec_Functions that actually perform an action rather than returning something.
  • exec_shutdown
  • exec_queries
  • exec_cron
sort_Functions that sort data.
  • sort_search_items
  • sort_threaded_posts
strip_Functions that strip elements from strings
  • strip_bbcode
  • strip_blank_ascii
  • strip_empty_bbcode
xml_Functions that work to read or output XML.
  • xml_import_style
  • xml_parse_language_otag
  • xml_escape_cdata
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'.
  • vbmail
  • vb_number_format
  • vbsetcookie
js_Javascript functions defined within the PHP code (rather than being in one of the .js files).
  • js_dots
  • js_confirm_clear_db
  • js_forum_jump

Data Managers

Data Managers (DMs) are an interface to various data objects used within vBulletin. They enforce necessary constraints and administrator-set options on the data to ensure that the data is valid.

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:This list may be expanded in future versions.

Programming with a Data Manager

Programming with a data manager should make your code smaller, easier to read, and more bug proof as all the error checking and data validation is handled within the data manager itself.
Note:
PHP experience is assumed here. You should understand procedural programming as well as have a handle on object-oriented programming.
The general process for using a data manager from start to finish is as follows:
  1. Create the data manager object.
  2. If you are updating an existing record, set the existing data.
  3. Set the values for the fields you wish to change.
  4. Depending on the error handling method chosen, check for errors and abort the save if errors are found.
  5. Save the updated/new data.
Most of these steps are handled via single line function calls. Each of these steps are detailed below.
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.
1Creating 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:
  1. $classtype - the name of the data manager you want to create. This is only part of the class name. For example, if you wish to create vB_DataManager_User, you should send "User" as this value.
  2. $registry - the main registry object used by vBulletin to hold application-level data. In most cases, this will be the variable $vbulletin.
  3. $errtype (optional) - the type of error handling the data manager will use. With certain types, execution will stop once an error occurs and a message will be displayed; other types allow more control over errors. The following constants are valid values for this argument:
    ERRTYPE_ARRAY - Execution continues after an error occurs as all errors are placed in the $errors member of the data manager. Be sure to prevent saving if necessary, as calling the save method will cause a fatal error. A good example of this usage is when an error occurs while posting a new message.

    ERRTYPE_STANDARD - Execution stops once an error occurs and the error message is displayed to the user using the front-end error page.

    ERRTYPE_CP - This is the same as ERRTYPE_STANDARD, except that the error is displayed as a control panel error message.

    ERRTYPE_SILENT - This is similar to ERRTYPE_ARRAY, except that if the save is called while there are errors will simply prevent the save from occurring instead of stopping execution. This is useful if placing a data manager within another data manager and you can't allow an error to be displayed if something goes wrong.
  4. $forcefile (optional) - this controls the name of the file that is read to retrieve the data manager class. If you do not specify this, the filename is based off the class type. If you specify this argument, the file that will be read is includes/class_dm_[forcefile].php. This argument is not needed for most classes.
This function will return a reference to the data manager object that was created. Be sure to use =& when you assign the value returned to a variable!

Example usage:
$dataman =& datamanager_init('Thread'$vbulletinERRTYPE_ARRAY'threadpost');

// or...

$dataman =& datamanager_init('User'$vbulletin); 
2Setting 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(
    
'userid' => 1,
    
'username' => 'Admin',
    
'usergroupid' => 6,
    
// ...and all the other fields related to a user
); 
The data manager will automatically pick out the field or fields that uniquely identify a record and update it upon saving (instead of inserting a new record).

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); 
3Setting 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.
  1. $fieldname - the name of the field you are updating (eg, userid, username). The list of fields a data manager can handle are listed in the $validfields member.
  2. $value - the value you are changing this field to. Unless you specify the $clean argument, this value will be type cleaned to the correct data type. For example, if you specify a new user ID, it will be forced to an integer before saving.
  3. $clean (optional) - this controls whether the data specified in $value is cleaned to the correct data type. Normally, you will want this to be true (cleaning performed), however if you want to perform something like a relative value update (field = field + 3), you will need to make this be false.
  4. $doverify (optional) - controls whether to verify the data is valid before saving. For example, if you normally had a minimum of 10 characters in a post and you wanted to avoid that (and the other checks on the post text), you would set this argument to false.
These functions will return true on success and false on failure. However, note that this is the first step where the selected error handling type applies. If verification of the data fails and you have selected an error handler that displays the error immediately, execution will stop before these functions return!

Example usage:
$dataman->set('username''Admin');
$usergroupid 6;
$dataman->setr('usergroupid'$usergroupid); 
Another method of setting fields applies to yes/no options stored in a bit field. A bit field is a way of storing 32 yes/no options in a 4-byte integer value. To set a bit field value, call this method:

set_bitfield($fieldname, $bitname, $onoff)
  1. $fieldname - the name of the entire bit field you are updating (eg, userid, username). The name of the bit fields managed by a data manager are specified in the $bitfields member.
  2. $bitname - the name of the specific bit in the bit field that you wish to update. The bit field associated with a specific piece of data is also listed in the $bitfields member. Each member is defined in the includes/xml/bitfield_*.xml files.
  3. $onoff - Whether to set the option to on/yes/1 or off/no/0.
This function returns true on success and false on failure. Bit fields do not use the verification functions used by the set and setr functions, so this function will return true unless you try to write to a field that is not a bit field.

Example usage:
$dataman->set_bitfield('options''receivepm'true);
$dataman->set_bitfield('options''emailonpm'false); 
Note that some more complicated data managers have special functions to set specific fields as they require extra information that cannot by provided via set or setr. Documenting those functions is beyond the scope of this document.
4Checking 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:
$dataman->pre_save();
if (
count($dataman->errors) > 0)
{
    
// Errors occurred. Do not proceed with the save.
    // You may want to loop through $dataman->errors and 
    // display the results the user.
}
else
{
    
// No errors occurred.
    // Proceed with the save (see the next step).

5Saving 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:
  • All cases when the save fails - returns 0 or false. Note that if you are using the ERRTYPE_ARRAY error handler, a fatal error may occur first.
  • Updating a record successfully - returns true.
  • Inserting a new record when there is a unique identifier column - this occurs when the main table for the data contains a column marked as AUTO_INCREMENT. The value returned is the value inserted into this column. Most data manager inserts will follow this.
  • Inserting a new record when there is no unique identifier column - this occurs when the main table for the data does not contain a column marked as AUTO_INCREMENT. The value returned is -1. This does not occur very often.
Example usage:
// inserting a new user
$userid $dataman->save();

// updating an existing record
$dataman->save(); 

Data Manager Example

This is an example of an actual use of a data manager in vBulletin. It is a partial excerpt of the code used to register a new user.
// init user datamanager class
$userdata =& datamanager_init('User'$vbulletinERRTYPE_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

Data managers are very complex internally. They encompass a lot of functionality and options that aren't needed in many cases. This section will discuss some of the more advanced usages of data managers, including discussing how to extend them to include additional functionality.

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).
  • $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.
These functions return nothing.

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:
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
Example usage:
$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:
  1. &$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.
  2. $errorphrase - this is the name of the phrase describing this error. It has not be changed into the browsing user's language.
Note that the names of the variables received by this function are up to you; these are simply recommendations.

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 takes place within the moderator data manager

function post_save_each()
{
    
// ...
    
    
$userdata =& datamanager_init('User'$this->registryERRTYPE_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);

This code undoes the moderator insert if the user can't be updated and then displays an error.


Structure of the $validfields member
The most important aspect of each data manager is the $validfields member. This is an array that controls:
  • 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
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:
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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]().
Note that keys in this second array are not explicitly specified.

An example of a $validfields array:
// ... this is within a data manager
    
var $validfields = array(
    
'forumid'           => array(TYPE_UINT,       REQ_INCRVF_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;'),
    
// ...
); 
The following section will describe how you can use hooks to add valid fields to the data manager without modifying the source code directly.


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.
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!
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.
  • 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_STRREQ_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;
            }
        }
    }
    $this->validfields['myfield3'] = array(TYPE_STRREQ_NO'return dm_verify_myfield3($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.
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.

Appendix: ImpEx Import System

The ImpEx (Import / Export) system is the core system for importing from other forum software into vBulletin version 3.8.7 or higher. PHP 4.3.3 or higher are required to run ImpEx.


There are three tiers of importer systems within ImpEx, check to see which one your system falls into


Planning the import

This section should be read fully before an import to understand the process and what steps should be taken to ensure a smooth transition. This is vital to performing a smooth import and minimizing the disruption to your community.

The three most important things to do now are:
Note:
  1. LEAVE THE ORIGINAL BOARD RUNNING UNTIL YOU HAVE READ THIS AND DONE SOME TEST IMPORTS.
  2. Back up your target database.
  3. Read the rest of this manual for importing.
  4. Testing an import before shutting down the source forum is the best way to go.
  5. 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.
  6. 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

Once again .......
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

Set up a board for practicing an import into.

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

Prior to beginning the import, make sure that your attachment storage type is set to the database instead of the file system.

Installing ImpEx

Before you can use the vBulletin Import / Export System for vBulletin version 3.5 you first have to download it to your hard drive, prepare the files for your import and upload it to your web server.

Downloading the ImpEx Package

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

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

Once logged in, you will see a list of Current Licenses. For each active license that you own, there will be a Download 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: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 ImpEx files for upload

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

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

To extract the files from the package, open the folder on your computer where you saved the 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

Before uploading the ImpEx files to your web server, you must edit the ImpEx configuration file (upload/impex/ImpExConfig.php) to tell ImpEx how to communicate with your database(s).

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.
Source Database Information (From which database do we import?)
$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.
The error logging can be used by the support or development team to understand an import issue or to gain clues during debug.

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 ?)
impexdebugPrints out to the screen any debug added to an install of ImpEx.
emailcasesensitiveWhen 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).
forcesqlmodeSome 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 = '' '
skipparentidsThe 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.
When you have finished editing the ImpExConfig.php file you should save it again and prepare to upload the file to your web server.

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

After your ImpExConfig.php file has been edited and saved it is time to upload the ImpEx files to your web server ready for being run.
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.
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 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 [transfer] 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/
Most FTP client applications will handle the file transfers automatically, but if for some reason your application does not, you should make a note of the following:
Note:
The web publishing folder is usually called public_html, www or htdocs and is located within your home directory. If you are unsure of where to find your own web publishing folder, your host will be able to help you. Upload the ImpEx folder inside the installed vBulletin version 3 folder. Like public_html/forum/impex/
Depending upon the speed of your internet connection, uploading all the files could take several minutes to complete. After completion, you should see that the web server now contains a folder called impex containing a perfect copy of the files in the upload folder on your computer's hard disk.

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

From your Admin Control Panel (admincp/ by default), select Import > Import and select the system you wish to import, from the list.

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

ImpEx is the import/export system for vBulletin.

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

From your Admin Control Panel (admincp/ by default), select Import > > Import.

Select the system you wish to import from the list and click on the [Begin Import] button to confirm your choice and start the import procedure.

001 - Check and Update DatabaseThis module will check and alter the tables in the databases as well as the connections. After clicking on the [Start Module] 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.

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.
002 - Associate usersYou 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.
Go through each module one by one (starting at 001) and let each page load 100% before clicking on any links, do not press the [back] button and don't move away from the screen when it is running. Read carefully what is on each screen and write down any error in full before contacting support.

To start the import click on the [Start Module] button and when that module has been completed, the statistics will update and the name of the button will change.

Re-running modules

When you re-run a module, for what ever reason it will clean up any previous data imported of that type.

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.
Permissions

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

Imported passwords

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 ?

Now you have done an import, the main ImpEx page will give you an idea of how long it takes, plus you re-configuring and post install setup.

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

Note: The cleaner.php is located in the impex/tools/ directory. After modifying it as per the instructions below, you run it from your browser like this:

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]",
            
""    => "",
            
""    => "",
            
""    => "",
            
""    => ""
); 
This is where cleaner.php is configured on what to replace, in out example we will configure it like this :
$replacer = array(
            
"<B>"    => "[B]",
            
"pirates"    => "ninjas",
            
'<a href="http://www.example.com/badpage.html">advert</a>'    => ""

); 
Note, where we have entered the HTML to find, because it contains double quotes, the quotes used in the array have been changed to single quotes, this is done or PHP will have a parse error as it will prematurely end the key variable value.

Help.php

The Database cleanup & restart appears at the top of very ImpEx page, you can also browse to it directly if there is an error with ImpEx, by going to www.example.com/forum/impex/help.php , assuming that you board is installed in the directory forum/ on your web site.

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

Database Index

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`);
Also if you are adding and removing these it is advisable to add the indexes show below in "dupe_checking".

Display

Set the following in your ImpExConfig to lower the amount of display data sent to the browser.
define('shortoutput', true);
Memory

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.Possibly ;All of these take up memory (PHP has a large overhead for arrays) and this is before its even tried to select any source data to process and import.

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` ) 
Stand alone

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 quick guide to running an import for people who are comfortable with vBulletin and have experience with technical administration of a web site.

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.

ImpEx relies on import id's during an import so that it can match one set of data to another.

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

Clean import

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
In the new board, topic 84050 will become importthreadid 84050 and will get a new thread id dependant on the state of the target database.

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
and that's all there is to 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

These are the currently 3 tiers of import 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

Tier 1
Eve 1.3.4 / Groupee 4.0.31.3.4 - 4.0.3
fusionBB 22.1
Ikonboard (MySQL)3.x
Invision Board 33.0.3
Invision Board 22.3.0
Photopost5.1
phpBB11.4.x
phpBB22.0.22
phpBB33.0.5
Simple Machines Forum1.9
SMF2.0
Snitz Mysql & MSSQL3.4.04
Text file importer0.0
Infopop UBB.threads6.5
Infopop UBB.threads7.2
vBulletin3.7.x
WoltLab Burning Board2.3.3
wbb33.0.3
YaBB 22.1
YaBB SE1.5.5
Tier 2
ASPPlayground2.5.5
DCForum+ MySQL1.27
InstantForum4.1.4
Invision Community Blog1.2.4
MyBulletinBoard (MyBB)1.4
Allaire3.1
ASP-DEV2.0
ASP-DEV2.0
bbpress0.9.0.1
beehive0.5
Community Server2.1
CuteCast2.x
Discuz2.5
dotnetBB2.42
dotnetBB2.42
dragonfly9.2.1
Drupal4.7.0
dzoic3.5
eshare0.0
ExpressionEngine1.6.2
FUD Forum2.x
FuseTalk2.0
fusion BB1.0.3
JForum2.1.5
Jive5.5
Jive Forums4.0.0
megaBBS1.69-2.2
Phpwind3.3.1
Simple Board1.0.4
vBulletin3.0.* - 3.5.*
wowBB1.63
YaBB Gold1.3.1
Tier 3
CHC Forum0.0
DiscusWare 4.x Pro tab file data4.x
MxBoard1.1.4
Infopop Open Topic4.0
PNphpBB2 (Post Nuke)2
Advanced Electron Forum1.05
w-Agora4.1.7
BuildACommunity0.0
bbBoard2
CFBB1.3.1
Deluxe Portal2.0
DigiPost2.0
DiscusWare (file based)4.00.6
Discuz4.0.0
e1070.7.8
Edge CMS13-11-2005
EncoreII2
fireboard1.0.4
freethreads0.0
Geeklog1.3.10
Invision Power Board1.3
Seditio (LDU)121
Max Web Portal0
mercuryboard1.1.4
miniBB2.0.1
mmforum0.1.5
mvnforum1.0.2
mysmartbb1.50
MyTopix1.3.0
openBB1.0.7
Oxygen1.1.3
Phorum 33.4.8
Phorum 55.0.16
phpMyForum4.0.1
PHP Fusion6.00.301
PunBB1.2.10
SiteFrame3.1.8
SiteNet BBS2.0.3
ThWboard3.00
Toast Forums1.6
Tritanium BB22 Alpha 7
trollix XForum2.0
TruBB1.1
ttCMS3.1
Infopop UBB classic6.3 - 6.7
Ultraboard2000
versatile Bulletin Board1.0 RC 1
vBJournal1.0.2
vBulletin Forum 2 Blog3.6.8
vBlogetin1.0 Beta 3
vanilla1.1.4
vBulletin 22.3.10
vBulletin lite1.0
vbzoom1.1
webbbs5.30
Webcrossing5.0
Web Wiz Forums9.08
WordPress2.3.1
XMB forum1.9
Xoops - Newbb2.0
Xsorbit X5x5
Yet Another Forum1.9.0
Yahoo Groups access dB download0.0
Yahoo groups (raw text)0.0
zeroforum2.1.0

EVE & Groupee

Version supported : 1.3.4 UBB.x forum module : 4.0.3

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

Version supported : 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

Version supported : 2.2.2

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

Version supported : 1.4.x


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

phpBB2 Importer 2.0.22 (MySQL & MSSQL)

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

Version supported : 3.0.5


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

Version supported : 2.0


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

Version supported : 3.4 MySQL & MSSQL


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

Version supported : 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

Version supported : 7.0.1


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

Version supported : 2.3.x


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

Version supported : 3.x.x

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 :Development :
None.

vBulletin 3.6.4

Version supported : 3.x.x

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 :

WoltLab Burning Board 2.3.3

Version supported : 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

Version supported : 3.1

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

Notes:
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 = 2.5.5CHC Forum
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 0.0DCForum+ MySQL
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.27DiscusWare 4.x Pro tab file data
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 4.xInstantForum
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 4.1.4Invision Community Blog
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.2.4MxBoard
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.1.4MyBulletinBoard (MyBB)
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.4Infopop Open Topic
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 4.0PNphpBB2 (Post Nuke)
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 2Advanced Electron Forum
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.05w-Agora
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 4.1.7Allaire
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 3.1ASP-DEV
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.0ASP-DEV
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.0BuildACommunity
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 0.0bbBoard
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 2bbpress
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 0.9.0.1beehive
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 0.5CFBB
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.3.1Community Server
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.1CuteCast
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.xDeluxe Portal
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.0DigiPost
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.0DiscusWare (file based)
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 4.00.6Discuz
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 4.0.0Discuz
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.5dotnetBB
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.42dotnetBB
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.42dragonfly
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 9.2.1Drupal
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 4.7.0dzoic
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 3.5e107
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 0.7.8Edge CMS
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 13-11-2005EncoreII
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 2eshare
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 0.0Eve 1.3.4 / Groupee 4.0.3
Tier = 1
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.3.4 - 4.0.3ExpressionEngine
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.6.2fireboard
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.0.4freethreads
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 0.0FUD Forum
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.xFuseTalk
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.0fusion BB
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.0.3fusionBB 2
Tier = 1
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.1Geeklog
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.3.10Ikonboard (MySQL)
Tier = 1
Source version support in ImpEx = 3.xInvision Power Board
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.3Invision Board 2
Tier = 1
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.3.0Invision Board 3
Tier = 1
Source version support in ImpEx = 3.0.xJForum
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.1.5Jive
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 5.5Jive Forums
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 4.0.0Seditio (LDU)
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 121Max Web Portal
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 0megaBBS
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.69-2.2mercuryboard
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.1.4miniBB
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.0.1mmforum
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 0.1.5mvnforum
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.0.2mysmartbb
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.50MyTopix
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.3.0openBB
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.0.7Oxygen
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.1.3Phorum 3
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 3.4.8Phorum 5
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 5.0.16Photopost
Tier = 1
Source version support in ImpEx = 5.1phpBB1
Tier = 1
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.4.xphpBB2
Tier = 1
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.0.22phpBB3
Tier = 1
Source version support in ImpEx = 3.0.3phpMyForum
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 4.0.1PHP Fusion
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 6.00.301Phpwind
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 3.3.1PunBB
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.2.10Simple Board
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.0.4SiteFrame
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 3.1.8SiteNet BBS
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.0.3SMF
Tier = 1
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.0Snitz Mysql
Tier = 1
Source version support in ImpEx = 3.4.04ThWboard
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 3.00Toast Forums
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.6Tritanium BB2
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 2 Alpha 7trollix XForum
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.0TruBB
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.1ttCMS
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 3.1Text file importer
Tier = 1
Source version support in ImpEx = 0.0Infopop UBB classic
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 6.3 - 6.7Infopop UBB.threads
Tier = 1
Source version support in ImpEx = 6.5Infopop UBB.threads
Tier = 1
Source version support in ImpEx = 7.2Ultraboard
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 2000versatile Bulletin Board
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.0 RC 1vBJournal
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.0.2vBulletin Forum 2 Blog
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 3.6.8vBlogetin
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.0 Beta 3vanilla
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.1.4vBulletin 2
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.3.10vBulletin
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 3.0.* - 3.5.*vBulletin
Tier = 1
Source version support in ImpEx = 3.7.xvBulletin lite
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.0vbzoom
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.1WoltLab Burning Board
Tier = 1
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.3.3wbb3
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 3.0.3webbbs
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 5.30Webcrossing
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 5.0Web Wiz Forums
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 9.08WordPress
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.3.1wowBB
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.63XMB forum
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.9Xoops - Newbb
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.0Xsorbit X5
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = x5YaBB 2
Tier = 1
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.1YaBB Gold
Tier = 2
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.3.1YaBB SE
Tier = 1
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.5.5Yet Another Forum
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 1.9.0Yahoo Groups access dB download
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 0.0Yahoo groups (raw text)
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 0.0zeroforum
Tier = 3
Source version support in ImpEx = 2.1.0

CMS Importers

Currently all CMS Importers are consider to be Tier 2. Only the versions listed are supported. We are evaluating ongoing support for these import modules.

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

What does ImpEx Stand for ?

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

The following documents will take you through this process step-by-step.
Note:
These installation instructions only apply to version 2 of vBulletin.

Downloading the vBulletin Package

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

When the unzipping progress is complete, you will find that the process has created a new folder called 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

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

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

Editing the config.php file is one of the few times in vBulletin where you will need to edit raw PHP code. The file is 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:
$servernameThis 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.
$dbusernameThis variable contains the username provided to you by your host for connecting to your database server.
$dbpasswordThe password that accompanies the database username should be entered here.
$dbnameThis value should be altered to state the name of the database that will contain your vBulletin installation on the database server.
$technicalemailAn 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.
The remaining variables in config.php do not need to be edited in order to make a working vBulletin configuration and it is recommended that you do not alter them until after the installation process is complete unless you are confident that you know what you are doing beforehand. A description of these remaining variables follows.
$usepconnectSetting 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
$canviewadminlogAll 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';
$canpruneadminlogIn 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 = 
''
When you have finished editing your config.php file you should save it again and prepare to upload the file to your web server.

config.php

<?php
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// 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

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

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

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

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:
Note:
The web publishing folder is usually called public_html, www or htdocs and is located within your home directory. If you are unsure of where to find your own web publishing folder, your host will be able to help you.
Depending upon the speed of your internet connection, uploading all the files could take several minutes to complete. After completion, you should see that the web server now contains a folder called upload containing a perfect copy of the files in the upload folder on your computer's hard disk.


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

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

Running the vBulletin Install Script

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

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

The first thing you will see from the install script is a 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 [update] 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 TitleThis is the title you will give to your vBulletin forums. It appears in the title of every page, and items such as notification emails sent from vBulletin to your members will identify the sender using this name. (BB Title is short for bulletin board title).
Homepage TitleLess important than the BB Title, this setting is used for a link at the bottom of every page which points to the address specified in Home URL (see below). It represents the title of your web site.
BB URLThe BB URL setting is very important. It represents the URL that people should visit in order to find your vBulletin forums. The system will make a best-guess at filling-in this setting automatically, so you should only change it if the given value is definitely wrong. Note that this setting should not end with a slash (/) character.
Home URLThis is the web address of your main web site, and is used in conjunction with the Home Title setting to create a link to your web site from the bottom of each forum page.
Note:
You can change these after installation through the Admin Control Panel.
Click on the [Submit options and continue] button to continue.

The final page is where you can enter the first board user. This user will be the administrator of the board. So pick your desired username, set your unique password and set your email address.
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.
Click on the [Submit form and continue] button to finalize installation.
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
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

vBulletin is totally customizable through a web based control panel. This manual is designed to explain how to administrate and maintain your vBulletin bulletin board using this control panel.

There are certain terms used through out the documentation that you should understand:This documentation should be used as a reference manual - it is not designed to be read from start to finish.

The Control Panel

After installing the vBulletin software on your server, the first main task is to log into the admin control panel - to do this, visit http://www.yourwebsite.com/vbulletindirectory/admin/. You will be presented with a log in form:

Type in the username and password you specified during the vBulletin installation procedure, and click the "Log In" button. All being well, you will be transported into the vBulletin admin control panel:

Take a moment now to familiarise yourself with the admin control panel interface. The screen is divided vertically into two sections... the section on the left hand side contains numerous links to functions within the control panel. The right hand side of the screen contains the "Welcome to the control panel" page by default. When you click on any of the links in the left hand section of the screen, the corresponding page will appear in the right hand side. Easy eh?

In the remainder of this document, we'll be examining in detail each of the admin function available via the left-hand links:

Control Panel Options

One of the best features of vBulletin is that it puts you in total control. There are over 150 general setting options that allow you to control every aspect of your community, under the following sections:To view the options page, log into the admin control panel and click on the "Options" link on the left hand side of the screen. You will then be able to view a complete description for each of the available options.

Forum Announcements

Announcements are static posts that you can use to relay important information to your members. Announcements can be made on a per forum basis or globally. Only the latest announcement will be shown in a forum to conserve space but once a member opens the announcement they will be able to see all current 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

In this section of the control panel, the administrator can create and edit forums.

Adding Forums

To add a new forum to the bulletin board, click on the "Add" link under the "Forums and Moderators" section in the left hand menu. A form will then appear in the right hand pane of the admin control panel (below), where you will be able to input all the parameters for the new forum:

Modifying Forums

If you would like to edit an existing forum, click on "Modify" under the "Forums and Moderators" section of the control panel. A "tree" display of all your current forums will appear in the right hand pane of the screen.

From here, you can now click on a link adjacent to the forum you wish to modify. The available links are:

From the modify forums screen it's also possible to Edit and Remove existing moderators - simply by clicking on the relevant link adjacent to the moderator's name (under the forum that the moderator is assigned to).
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

The administrator can choose to prune (delete) and move (threads between forums) using the options under the Threads section in the admin control panel.

Pruning Threads

If you would like to remove threads older than a certain date, or all threads/posts created by a certain user, click on the Prune link. You will be presented with the following screen on the right hand pane of the control panel:

The first form on this page will allow you to delete all threads from a forum (or all forums) that are older than a specified number of days.

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

If you would like to move threads from one forum to another that are older than a certain date, or have been posted by a certain user, click on the Move link under the Threads section of the control panel. Once you have clicked on the link, the following screen will appear:

The first form on the page will allow you to move all threads from one forum to another that are older than a specified number of days.

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

This section of the admin control panel allows you to add, edit, find and email your bulletin board users.

Adding Users

If you would like to create a new user account in the vBulletin database, click on the Add link under the Users section of the admin control panel. The following form will then appear on the right hand side of the screen:

This form accepts the following parameters:It's also possible for you to add an unlimited number of extra fields to the user account. In the example screen shot above, the administrator has added Biography, Location, Interests, Occupation and Version of vBulletin as extra fields. These User Profile Fields will be explained in more detail later on in the manual.

Finding Users

To search for a particular user / range of users, click on the Find link under the Users section in the admin control panel. The following screen will then appear:

From here, you have two options - the first option is to click on one of the six links at the top of the page to run a standard search:Alternatively, you can form to search for a user (or users) matching a certain pattern. The form will allow you to restrict the search based on the following fields:Of course, all these fields are optional - so you can search for a user with whatever information you know. For example, if you ran a search on the vBulletin.com forums for all users with email address vbulletin.com and user title developer, the search script will return the following results:

Let's take a look now at the functions of each of the links adjacent to the search result:

If you would like to give the user access to a forum, click the yes option box next to the relevant forum. If you would like to deny access to a certain forum, click the no option box next to the relevant forum. If the default option is selected, the user permissions are inherited from the user group that the user is a member of.

Find Users by IP Address

The IP Addresses section of the admin control panel allows administrators to search for all users that have visited/posted to the bulletin board using a certain IP address (or vice versa). Click on the IP Addresses link (under the Users section), and you'll be presented with the following form:

This form accepts the following parameters:After pressing the [Find] button, you'll be taken to the search results page. From here, you'll be able to view which users have accessed the forum with the same IP address, and you'll even be click on the Find more IP's by this user link if you wish to narrow down the search to a particular username.

User Referrals

vBulletin includes a feature that will allow your community members to be rewarded for recruiting new users to your bulletin board. A user can gain a referral by attracting a new user to the vBulletin forum via a special referral link. A typical referral link looks a bit like this:

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.
In addition, a Referrer field will be included on the initial user registration screen that will allow visitors to grant a referral point to an existing user even if they haven't visited the bulletin board via the specially coded URL.
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:

This form will allow you to return a list of all users who have earned referral points during the time period you define using the two form fields - the results form will also detail the number of points earned by each user.

Emailing Users

vBulletin offers administrators the facility to send an email newsletter to all/certain users who are registered on the bulletin board. Click on the Email Users link (under the Users section), and the following form will appear:

This form accepts the following parameters:The remainder of the form fields are used to define a set of users that will receive the email message. If you leave all the fields empty, all your registered users will receive the email message - alternatively, you can specify the following parameters to narrow down the list of recipients:All these fields are optional.

Generate Mailing List

This option is similar in concept to the Email Users feature, but instead of actually sending the emails, the Generate mailing list facility will simply output a list of email addresses. You can specify the text that will appear between each of the email addresses on the output.

An Introductions to User Titles

In order to reward frequent posting of messages, it's possible for forum administrators to set up a number of User Titles that will be assigned to users based on the total number of messages that they have posted. The user title appears next to every message posted by the user, like so:

In addition, the user title will be included as the Status on the user profile page (visible to all users of the bulletin board):

Adding User Titles

To add a new user title to vBulletin click on the Add link under the User Titles section of the control panel. You will then be presented with the following form:

This form contains two fields:

Modifying / Removing User Titles

If you would like to modify/remove an existing user title, click on the Modify link under the User Titles control panel section. A screen will appear listing all the user titles running on the software:

In this case, three user titles have been set up - All members that have under 30 posts will have the Junior Member title. Users that have posted between 30 and 100 messages will be granted the Member title, and all users that have posted over 100 messages will earn the Senior Member title.

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

As an administrator, you may wish to collect extra information from your users (in addition to all the standard fields). With the new user profile fields feature, you can provide extra fields for the user to fill in when he/she registers for the bulletin board.

For example, we have created five user profile fields in the vBulletin.com/forums/ bulletin board:Now, when a new user registers for the forum, they have the chance to fill in these fields:

(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

To add a user profile field to your vBulletin board, click on the Add link under the User profile fields section in the admin control panel. The following form will then appear:

The form fields are as follows:

Modifying / Removing User Profile Fields

If you would like to add a new profile field, or remove an existing profile field, click on the Modify link under the User profile fields section in the admin control panel. The following screen will then appear:

Now, you can choose to either Remove or Edit any of the existing user profile fields by clicking on the relevant link. If you click on the Edit link, you'll be taken to a form where you can edit any of the profile field options (as discussed above): Title, Description, Maximum Input, Field Length, Display Order, Field required and Field hidden.

User Groups and Permissions

Do you want to set up a private forum that can only be viewed by your moderators? Would you like all users to have to register in order to view your bulletin board forums? Would you like to give two users access to a private forum?

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:In order to control user's access to your bulletin board, each group has a comprehensive set of options that influence exactly what a member of the group has permission to view/do on your bulletin board. For example, a user that belongs to the "Registered" user group has permission to view the board and post messages, but he/she can't access the control panel or post public events on the vBulletin calendar.

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

For permission changes that affect all of the forums, you can edit the actual user group (instead of using custom forum settings). Click on the Modify link (under the User Groups and Permissions section of the control panel. The following screen will appear:

From here, you can choose to Edit the user group options or List All Users assigned to the group. If you've created a custom user group (i.e. a group that isn't one of the core seven listed above) you can delete the group from this screen.

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:Please remember that these options will affect the global permissions of all users assigned to this user group. If you wish to change the settings for a user group for a certain forum (i.e. to set up a private area for moderators and administrators), you can set up a custom setting for each forum affected.

Modifying Forum Permissions

As stated above, if you wish to set a user groups' options for the whole of the bulletin board, you can modify the user group directly. If you would prefer to configure certain option differently for certain forums, you can set up custom 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:As a practical example, please take another look at the screenshot above. In this example, the administator has turned off the Can post new threads permission for the Registered user group in the Announcements Discussions forum. This will prevent all standard users from posting new messages in this particular forum.
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

Finally, let's take a look at how to add a new user group to vBulletin. If you wish to define a new group of users (i.e. seveal software developers), and grant them special permissions, you can use the control panel to create a new user group. Click on the Add link under the User Groups and Permissions section of the vBulletin control panel - the following screen will appear:

Avatars

vBulletin now gives users the chance to assign a small image (an avatar) to their user account - after a user selects/uploads an avatar, the image will be displayed next to every message the user posts in the bulletin board. For example:

The administrator can choose to implement the avatar feature in a number of ways: he/she can choose to disable avatars completely, allow users to select an avatar from a list, or upload their own image to use as an avatar. To configure the avatars feature, click on the Change Options link under the Options section of the control panel, and then click on Avatars to move down the page to the relevant section:

From here, you can set the following options:Once you have selected the options as required, scroll to the end of the page and click on the [Save Changes] button.

Adding Avatars

vBulletin allows administrators to add a selection of avatars that users can choose from to vBulletin - once there are some avatars in the system, users will be able to select which avatar to use via their user control panel. There are many ways to add avatar(s) to vBulletin:Let's take a look at these two options in a bit more detail.

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.
If you would like to upload an avatar from your local computer to your server, click on the Upload link under the Avatars section of the vBulletin control panel. You'll be presented with the following screen:

You'll be prompted to fill in the following fields:Once you've filled in all the fields, click on the [Upload Now] button. Your browser will take the image from your hard disk, and pass it to the vBulletin software, which will then save the image on your servers hard disk.
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

By clicking on the Add link under the Avatars section of the control panel, you can import images that have already been uploaded onto a web server into vBulletin. After clicking the Add link, the following forms will appear:

If you would like to import a single image from either a local of remote web server into vBulletin, fill in and submit the first form. This form accepts the following three fields:If you would prefer to add multiple avatars to your vBulletin installation at once, you can use the second form on this page (Add multiple avatars). This form accepts the following two fields:On the next page, you'll be able to select which images to import into vBulletin:

Tick the check box next to each image you wish to import into vBulletin. You can also type in a title for each of the images as well (although this is optional). After ticking all the images you wish to import, click the "Save" button at the end of the page. If there are more images in the directory that you haven't yet viewed or selected, they will now been shown. You can repeat the ticking and saving process until you have imported all the avatars that you wish to offer your users.

Modifying / Removing Avatars

If you would like to modify or remove any of your existing avatars, click on the Modify link under the Avatars section of the vBulletin admin control panel. When you click the link, the following screen will appear:

From this screen you can Edit or Remove any of your existing avatars. If you click on the Edit link, you'll be able to edit the following avatar properties:

Styles & Templates

What is a style set?

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

When you click Add Style in the control panel, you will see the following form:

This form allows you to enter a name for your new style set, as well as choose which template and replacement sets to use for the style. You can also choose whether to let users choose to use this style set or not. If you'd like to use the same colors and fonts for your new template set, then you can change the option for Replacement Set to Default. You could also set the Template Set option to Default, which would allow you to use the exact same layout and design for your new template set, just with a new color scheme. I chose not to do either of these, so created both a new template set and replacement set. This will allow me to create a totally different design in my new 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

In order to spice up a message, a user can choose to assign a small graphical image (or Icon) to each post that he/she makes in the bulletin board. Icons assigned to the first posts in a thread are displayed next to the thread title in the forum threads list, like this:

Administrators can configure icons using a similar procedure to configuring avatars - such that you can add, upload, edit and remove them in the same way.

Smilies

Smilies, sometimes known as emoticons, are small images that can be used to convey emotion in messages. Short strings of characters, such as :), ;), :P, :rolleyes: are converted into a small face that represents the emotion or action.

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

BB code is the system by which users can add basic formatting to their posts, without risking your forum layout by allowing them to use HTML.

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

After clicking the Add link, the following page will appear showing four text input boxes, and a radio button option. The following steps will take you through an example of how to create a bbcode tag which will allow users to create center-aligned content.

Press the save button, and the new [center] tag will be added to your existing list of bbcode tags.

Modifying BB Codes

After you have created some custom bbcodes, you can modify and test them.

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

A form is provided on the modify bbcodes page, which allows you to enter bbcode, and then see how it will look when displayed on forum pages.

Simply enter a string of valid bbcode, and click the [test this text] button to see how it will appear in the forum.

Importing data into vBulletin 2

vBulletin 2.0 has several import systems available in the members area, which allow you to import members, forums, posts etc. from other bulletin boards. These scripts are not provided with vBulletin by default, but you can find a complete listing in the members area.

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 [begin import] 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

The instructions for the different import systems vary, but they all follow a common formula.

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 [start import] 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.The final step of the import process will be to clean up the database and update the counters.

For more information about updating counters, see the 'Maintenance' section of this manual.

Updating Counters

You will not need to use this particular vBulletin admin control panel area much during normal operations. Exceptions to this are after completing an import or after completing a mass move or prune of threads. Click on the Update counters... link (under the Import & Maintenance section) in the control panel. The following forms will appear:

From this screen, you can complete the following tasks:

Stats

vBulletin allows you to retrieve statistical information about your online community from within the control panel - including the number of new user registations, posts or threads per day, week or month. The information can be displayed to you within the vBulletin control panel, or you can download it into Microsoft Word.

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:When you click the submit button, the report will be generated. Please note that this is a fairly intensive process, and so the report may take several seconds to be generated. If you chose to view your stats in a MS Word style report, you will be prompted to save the file to your hard disk, and you will then be able to open it from there into Microsoft Word. The document will look a little like this:

If you chose to view your stats in a HTML format, the following screen will appear:

The bars that are colored red are those which indicate a number of posts/users/threads that is below the date range average. Blue bars indicate an above average number of posts/users/threads.