Member Avatar for BigBlueBall

How do you create custom pages like http://www.daniweb.com/mediakit/ that appear to be integrated with vBulletin?

I'm fairly new to vBulletin and am currently migrating one of my websites from ASP to PHP. I can see some advantages to the integration, but I'm not sure how you accomplished it.

  • 3 Contributors
  • 3 Replies
  • 272 Views
  • 1 Day Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by mikeSQL

Dani AI

Generated

Two practical approaches have been used to make standalone pages appear and behave like part of a vBulletin site: 1) bootstrap the forum so the custom page runs inside vBulletin’s environment (templates, sessions, user data), or 2) serve a separate static/PHP page that mimics the forum skin (or use a community add-on to manage pages from inside vB). correctly noted that community solutions exist; described the simpler “top-level PHP” route. Bootstrapping is the most robust for keeping navigation, login state, and templates identical.

Example bootstrap skeleton (adjust the path to match the forum install):

<?php
// include the forum bootstrap (path must point at the forum install)
require_once('/path/to/forum/global.php');

// render the forum header template
eval('?>' . fetch_template('header'));

// custom page content (escape any dynamic data)
echo '<h1>Media kit</h1>';
echo '<p>' . htmlspecialchars($some_safe_variable) . '</p>';

// render the forum footer template
eval('?>' . fetch_template('footer'));

Notes and trade-offs: bootstrapping gives access to the forum’s globals (templates, session/user info and DB functions) and keeps a single set of templates. It adds PHP/memory overhead and requires correct paths and version compatibility. A dedicated admin-facing “custom pages” add-on can simplify management; copying header/footer into standalone files is fragile and requires manual updates when the skin changes.

Troubleshooting and cautions: ensure the include path is correct and allowed (open_basedir), check file permissions, enable PHP error logging for blank pages, sanitize all output, and test on a staging site before deploying. Back up templates and the database before applying mods or changes.

Recommended Answers

All 3 Replies

Member Avatar for Atomica

There is a hack lie that called Cutsom Pages. It can be found found at vbulletin.org (Don't know if this is breaching rules etc - If it is, welcome to remove it) - there are also loads of other hacks.

Member Avatar for BigBlueBall

I searched all over vbulletin.org but came up empty handed. The closest thing I found was this mod on vbulletintemplates.com.

Is that what they use here at daniweb, or are there other options?

Member Avatar for mikeSQL

well, if your good at MySQL and HTML or PHP, you can make your own front page and just put it toplevel like: public_html/index.php.
Have your MySQL scripts and codings placed onto the index.php and custom how you want it to look.

When I mean by "your MySQL scripts and codings placed onto the index.php", you want to have your Database that your forums using connection onthe index.php.
and just like DAni, you can customize your own. You dont need ot spend all that ime loking for somting very similar. Beside, she might have done just what I said. Or maybe not. Whocares, itll look the same.

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.