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Installing Hacks.
by
13 Jun 2007
Welcome VB Noobie! Welcome to the wonderful world of vbulletin.org. Modifying a Vbulletin powered discussion board is very easy because of their easy template system and powerful product system. Every modification you come across will either have you upload a file, import a product, perform an SQL Query, or alter an existing template, or make a new one. 1- Templates The template system creates the frontend, where a php file determines what action is performed. Don't criticize me on this one, as there are exceptions to everything. You want to start off by going to your Admin Control Panel (commonly referred to as the ACP), there should be a link at the bottom of your forums.  Now, once you have logged in, take a peek at the left side of the ACP. There should be a little box near the top that says "Styles & Templates" Click the arrow on that box to expand it. Once it is expanded, click "Style Manager". Right now, it should look a something similar to this:  Right now, we are going to be working on editing a template that is already in the template system. Click "Edit Templates". To make it easy on ourselves, we are going to take a look at every template instead of just template groups. To do this, click the button highlighted in this image: Once it is expanded, you should see many more templates. Now, say installation instructions want you to go to the navbar template. The great thing about the template system is that it is alphabetical. Go to the N's section, and look for navbar. Double click the template, and take a peek for the search function. It will be right under the actual template. If your instructions don't need any searching, for example, they just want you to add something to the top, do that. If you need to search, copy and paste what they said and paste it into the search box. Once it is pasted and searched, it should highlight the text. Lets say, I need to find the following code: Code:
<td class="vbmenu_control"><a href="login.php?$session[sessionurl]do=logout&logouthash=$bbuserinfo[logouthash]" onclick="return log_out('$vbphrase[sure_you_want_to_log_out]')">$vbphrase[log_out]</a></td>
 . Anyway, this is what it should look like once it is searched and found.Now, if you cannot find the text they asked for, simply ask for help here. If you do find it, follow any instructions they may have. -Adding a new template- This is very easy, just look at the Second image, and click "Add New Template" and follow the hack authors instructions. 2-Importing A Product Simply go to your ACP (Admin Control Panel) by clicking this link on your forumhome- Look on the left side of the page and look for a little box that says "Plugins & Products". Click the arrow that is contained inside the box and it should expand. Click "Manage Products". If you look at the bottom of the page, click [Add/Import Product]. If there is a little warning on the top of the screen like this: Click the link on the warning that says: enable the plugin system. Once it takes you to the new page, click the "Yes" Button and then save. Go back to your product manager page, and you shouldn't have the error. Click [Add/Import Product], and it should take you to a screen that looks like this. Also, the picture will show you how to upload the product to your server. That is how you Import a product, it's as easy as that! 3-Uploading Files Sorry everyone, no pictures for this one, seeing as everyones FTP program differs! Although, if you installed vbulletin, you should be pretty familiar to how your FTP program works. If an author asks you to upload the files to your ROOT or the / directory, that is where you first see all of the vbulletin files. Authors usually make the files already corrospond to the correct folders, but if they don't, they will give you instructions on which folders to upload to. If the default folder that your forum is in is already the root, or /folder of your hosting, and the author's hacks are in /forums/whatever, just upload whatever is in the /whatever directory of the folder you downloaded. Also, some hacks require CHMODDING. This is usually done by right clicking the file or folder, clicking CHMOD or permissions. They will give you instructions on what you should do from there. 4-Executing an SQL Query WARNING: These CAN damage your database! Use them with caution, and try to get a second word to ask if they are safe from someone with experiance! There are some people out there who will do this just for fun! Installation: Simply go to your ACP (Admin Control Panel) by clicking this link on your forumhome- Scroll down a tad and the last box you see should be called "Maintenence". Click the arrow that is in the box, and it should expand. Click "Execute SQL Query". If you get an error that looks like this: You have to enter your UserID in the config.php file. It will usually be 1. If you don't get an error, all you have to do is copy and paste the text that the author says the query is into the "Manual Query" text box and click continue at the bottom. It will go to another page, but just click continue again. Sucsess! You just executed an SQL Query! If you get another error, it is usually a problem with the query, and you need further support from someone with experience. Well, there you have it! You can basically install any hack on vbulletin.org! Of course, this is just the start and you have to pick some of the stuff up on your own, but I definately hope this helps you on the way of becoming a better vbulletin administrator! Thanks for the cleanup Princeton! |