Multiple Looks per board?

[ExtremeFactor]

Hello,
Is it possible to setup vBulletin pro to use multiple layouts.... that is to make a different look for each category? if so, how?

If this can not be done then I recommend it be added soon.

[WebStyles]

Definitely possible, and pretty easy too. ;)

What you have to do is make new templates for whatever you want... Then, in the forum options, you can tell vBulletin to use the new templates you have made. :)

[ExtremeFactor]

Sounds simple.... any chance of being a bit more detailed on just how to link them in the options tab.

[WebStyles]

Sure thing... :)

To add a template, go to [b]Templates > Add[/b] and input your template HTML code. You might find it helpful to copy the default template HTML in and just edit that, then you'll know what all the variables are.

To attach a template to a forum, go to [b]Forums > Modify[/b], then click the [b]edit[/b] link right by the name of the forum you want to attach the template to. Then, scroll down to the bottom the page, and you'll see text fields that you can input different templates for that particular forum.

[Edited by WebStyles on 06-27-2000 at 11:02 PM]

[ExtremeFactor]

Now I feel really stupid :eek:

Thanks a ton

[ExtremeFactor]

Hum... after lots of working, I found that changing all the templates was possible but annoying.

However, although I figured out how to change the forum layout, I could not change the category looks. I'm still not sure if it is possible to do everything I need. I know in ubb you can change it so each category displays it's image and its style on the main display page.

It this possible?

[WebStyles]

I'm not sure what you mean... You can change the forumdisplay, and everything associated with it in the place I showed you. What do you mean by:

[quote][i]Originally posted by ExtremeFactor[/i]
[b]...so each category displays it's image and its style on the main display page.[/b][/quote]

Is there an example you can show me? :)

[ExtremeFactor]

Ok... my forum is [url]www.scubaboard.com[/url]. As you can see, the top image is for scuba board. I also run several other sport sites and want to run one giant forum with categories for each site.

This means that dependant on the forum, the entire main category page must change. Now I see how to change templates for each forum but not for the top level categories.

Does this make any sense?

[Freddie Bingham]

I don't understand -

When a person enters your forum at index.php they will see all the categories - so - why would you have different looks for each 'sport' on the main page which is served by the forumhome template.

Now when you click on a forum of a specific category, say 'air tanks' under Scuba, you can attach a custom 'forumdisplay' template for that page and each page under it so users will only see scuba graphics when looking at the scuba threads.

[ExtremeFactor]

Like I figured... vb doesn't support it...

basically, my goal was to have a link to each sport category from each sport's webpage. This meant only one link would let the users see all the forums for that category (there are many forums per category sport).

for that reason I wanted a different look for each category... lots of sites do something like this to avoid installing multiple script copies.

thanks for the help though

[Freddie Bingham]

Ted I don't think it would be hard to make templates to handle this...I may try something like this I have two different 'categories' on my site. Let me think about it a bit. As it is now if you link directly to a category it just closes up the other categories so that their forums aren't shown but it does not allow any customization for that particular category.

I think this feature needs to be added but it may not because the lack of it 'encourages' you to buy multiple copies of vB.

[Edited by rangersfan on 06-28-2000 at 01:09 AM]

[ExtremeFactor]

cool :) :) :)

let me know if you get anything done

[Mark Hewitt]

Take a look at what I am doing with my boards, use the link below, email me if this is what you are thinking of doing.

[George L]

Hi there Ted :D ... i am also looking for per forum/category colour schemes like with the UBBs...

i wish there's an easier way to do it in the control panel rather than templates

[Freddie Bingham]

This is what you need to do to make a different forum homepage for each category:

Make a copy of index.php for each forum home that you want. Also make a copy of the forumhome template for each category you want to have a homepage for. Remember the name you give it since you will need to modify each category index page with it later on.

find the line that says:
[code]
$categorys=$DB_site->query("SELECT categoryid,title,displayorder FROM category WHERE displayorder<>0 ORDER BY displayorder");
[/code]

[b]Change to[/b]

[code]
$categorys=$DB_site->query("SELECT categoryid,title,displayorder FROM category WHERE displayorder<>0 AND categoryid=$yourcat ORDER BY displayorder");
[/code]

Ok before that line insert this (or at the top to make it easier to modify multiple indexes):

[code]
$yourcat = 2;
[/code]

Change '2' to the ID of your category. You can find it by looking in your category table in your database or just click on the category on the main page and you will see the id in the url at the top.


Now if you open this index you will only be shown that specific category. If you want this index to have different 'lightbulbs' than normal go to this line:

[code]
// do light bulb
if ($lastvisitdate=="Never") {
$onoff="on";
} else {
if ($bblastvisit<$forum[lastpost]) {
$onoff="on";
} else {
$onoff="off";
}
}
[/code]

Change instances of 'on' and 'off' to match the filenames of your lightbulb graphics. Just leave the .gif extension off though.

To assign a forumhome template to this, take the name you gave the new template when you copied at the start and find this line at the bottom:

[code]
eval("echo dovars(\"".gettemplate("forumhome")."\");");
[/code]

Change "forumhome" to the name you have your new template.
Now modify that new template to match your specific category and you should have what you were looking for. If for some reason you want the part that lists the forums of the categories to be different you will have to copy the forumbit template and change "forumbit" in the following code to match the name of your new forumbit template.

[code]
eval("\$tempforumbits .= \"".gettemplate("forumbit")."\";");
[/code]


You can see my forums here
[url]http://www.hedgehogwheels.com/forums[/url]

and you can see just one category here:

[url]http://www.hedgehogwheels.com/forums/hedgehogs.php[/url]

The only customization I did was change the title graphic but you can do anything you want by modifying the new forumhom template that you have created to go with the new index.php (mine is named hedgehogs.php for example)

If you want to list some of your categories but not all than we can do that also. You just need to change the SQL in this line:

[code]
$categorys=$DB_site->query("SELECT categoryid,title,displayorder FROM category WHERE displayorder<>0 ORDER BY displayorder");
[/code]

to something like this, note the usage of 'OR'

[code]
$categorys=$DB_site->query("SELECT categoryid,title,displayorder FROM category WHERE displayorder<>0 and (categoryid=2 OR categoryid=3 OR categoryid=4) ORDER BY displayorder");
[/code]

[Edited by rangersfan on 06-28-2000 at 12:47 PM]