Creating an HTML or PHP Widget

[Lynne]

The is just a quick article with some examples for creating Static HTML and PHP Direct Execution Widgets

Creating a Static HTML Widget

First, create the widget:
AdminCP > vBulletin CMS > Widgets > Create New Widget
Widget Type: Static HTML
Title: whatever you want
SAVE

Now, find your widget in the list and click on Configure Next to it and enter valid HTML into the text area there.

Examples of HTML Widgets:
Text:

<p>Hello World</p>

An image:

<img src="http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/images/misc/vbulletin4_logo.png" alt="" />

Youtube Video:

<object width="240" height="240"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/GpcJNEWKzCY&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/GpcJNEWKzCY&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="240" height="240"></embed></object>

<br />

Creating a PHP Direct Execution Widget

First, create the widget:
AdminCP > vBulletin CMS > Widgets > Create New Widget
Widget Type: PHP Direct Execution Widget
Title: whatever you want
SAVE

Now, find your widget in the list and click on Configure Next to it and enter valid PHP into the text area there.

Examples of PHP Direct Execution Widgets:
Text:

$output = "Hello World"; 

Using a Variable:

$output = "Hello ". vB::$vbulletin->userinfo['username'];
$output .= "<br />How are you today?"; 

Using a query:

$output = "Hello ". vB::$vbulletin->userinfo['username'];
$output .= "<br />Your last post was in this thread:";
$myquery =  vB::$db->query_first("
        SELECT
            post.threadid, thread.title 
        FROM " . TABLE_PREFIX . "post AS post
        INNER JOIN " . TABLE_PREFIX . "thread AS thread ON (thread.threadid = post.threadid)
        WHERE post.userid = ".vB::$vbulletin->userinfo['userid']. "
        ORDER BY post.dateline DESC
    ");
$threadurl = '<a href="' . fetch_seo_url(thread, $myquery) . '" title="'. $myquery[title] .'">'. $myquery[title] .'</a>';
$output .= "<br />" . $threadurl; 

Note: Depending on what your widget does, you may want to change the setting "Cache refresh time (minutes)" on the Configure screen also.

If you need help writing the code for one of these widgets, you should request help over on vbulletin.org, the modification site.