Creating an HTML or PHP Block

[Lynne]

The is just a quick article with some examples for creating a Custom HTML/PHP Forum Block

Creating an HTML Block

To create the block:
AdminCP > Forums & Moderators > Forum Blcoks Manager > Add Block
Select Block Type: Custom HTML/PHP
CONTINUE
Title: whatever you want
Cache Time (in minutes): whatever you want
Active: Yes
Content Type: HTML
Content: examples shown below
Template to Use: block_html
SAVE

Examples for Content for an HTML Block:
Text:

<p>Hello World</p>

An image:

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

Youtube Video[/B]:

<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 Block

To create the block:
AdminCP > Forums & Moderators > Forum Blcoks Manager > Add Block
Select Block Type: Custom HTML/PHP
CONTINUE
Title: whatever you want
Cache Time (in minutes): whatever you want
Active: Yes
Content Type: PHP
Content: examples shown below
Template to Use: block_html
SAVE

Examples for Content for a PHP Block:
Text:

$my_output = 'Hello, world.';
return $my_output; 

Using a Variable:

$my_output = '<p>Hello '. vB::$vbulletin->userinfo[username].'</p>';
return $my_output; 

Using a query:

$my_output = "Hello ". vB::$vbulletin->userinfo['username'];
$my_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>';
$my_output .= "<br />" . $threadurl;
return $my_output; 

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