vBulletin: A Users Guide

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, Kathy Kingsley-Hughes

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Overview

Table of Contents

Author

Reviews

Support

Sample Chapters

Get your own forum up and running quickly
Extensive coverage of the Administration Control Panel to put you on the right track for managing your board
Customize the appearance of your vBulletin forum
Change the site's behavior by developing and installing hacks

Book Details

Language : English
Paperback : 244 pages [ 235mm x 191mm ]
Release Date : April 2006
ISBN : 1904811671
ISBN 13 : 9781904811671
Author(s) : Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, Kathy Kingsley-Hughes
Topics and Technologies : All Books, Content Management (CMS), Open Source

Preface
Chapter 1: Introduction to the vBulletin Board
Chapter 2: Installing and Configuring vBulletin
Chapter 3: A Tour of vBulletin
Chapter 4: Customizing Your vBulletin Board
Chapter 5: Administering Your Forum
Chapter 6: Upgrading vBulletin
Chapter 7: Changing the Look of vBulletin
Chapter 8: Developing a Hack
Chapter 9: Programmer's Reference
Appendix A: vBulletin Directory Structure
Appendix B: vBulletin Resources, Hacks, Add-ons, and Templates

Preface

Chapter 1: Introduction to the vBulletin Board
- What is vBulletin?
  - Why Have a Discussion Board?
    - Benefits of a Discussion Board
  - Why vBulletin?
  - History
  - Development
- The vBulletin Advantage
  - Versatile
  - Performance
  - Customizable
  - Easy to Maintain
  - Other Features
- vBulletin Licensing Options
  - Leased License
  - Owned License
  - Choosing a License
- Example vBulletin Sites
- Summary

Chapter 2: Installing and Configuring vBulletin
- Requirements
  - Disk Space
  - Bandwidth
  - System Resources
    - Shared Hosting
    - Semi-Dedicated Hosting
    - Dedicated Hosting
    - Other Options
- Installing vBulletin
  - Tools
  - Downloading the Installation Files
  - File Extraction
  - Upload Preparation
  - Creating the Database
    - Command-Line Database Creation
    - cPanel Database Creation
  - File Editing
  - Uploading the vBulletin Files
  - Running the vBulletin Installation Script
- Troubleshooting
  - Database Access Issues
  - Images/Styling Not Showing
  - PHP Errors
- The vBulletin Control Panel
- Importing Data into vBulletin
  - Downloading the ImpEx Script
  - Compatibility
  - Preparing for Upload
  - Editing the Configuration File
  - Upload the ImpEx Script
  - Running the ImpEx Script

Default Usergroups
Securing vBulletin
Help & Support
Summary

Chapter 3: A Tour of vBulletin
- The vBulletin User Experience
  - How to Get to the Board?
  - What the End Users See
    - Site Logo
    - Forum Title, Login Box, and Navbar
    - Welcome Banner
    - Main Body of the Forum
    - What's Going On
    - Footer
  - Touring the Main Forum—Unregistered Users
    - No "New Threads" for Unregistered Users
  - Registering on a vBulletin Board
  - Touring the Forum—Members
    - New Threads
    - Replying
    - Editing a Message
    - Private Messages
    - BB Code
    - User Tools
    - Display Modes
    - Navbar Changes for Members
- The vBulletin Administrator Experience
  - Forum and Thread Tools
  - The AdminCP
    - Control Panel Home
    - Latest Version Information
    - vBulletin Options
- Forum Management
  - Editing and Adding Forums
    - Editing Existing Forums
    - Moderation Options
    - Forum Styling
    - Access Control Options
    - Forum Posting Options
    - Enable/Disable Features
- Branding
  - Changing the Logo
    - Undoing the Change
- Summary

Chapter 4: Customizing Your vBulletin Board
- Types of Customization
- CSS Modifications
  - Changing the Table Title Text
  - Viewing Changes
  - Undoing the Changes
- Phrase Modifications
  - Searching for Phrases
  - Making Changes
  - Viewing the Changes
  - Undoing Changes
- Template Modifications
  - Accessing Templates
  - Exploring a Template
  - Template Structure
  - Adding a FORUMHOME Sidebar
- PHP Code Modifications
  - PayPal Modification
  - File Modification
- Hacks
  - Pros and Cons of Hacking a vBulletin Board
  - Finding a Hack
  - Installing a Hack
  - Backing Up a Hack
  - Commercial Hacks
- Summary

Chapter 5: Administering Your Forum
- Setting Up a Forum
  - Creating the Forum
  - Forum Permissions
    - Viewing Permissions
  - Opening the Forum
- Super Administrators
  - Creating a Super Administrator
- Other Changes to the config.php File
  - Admin Log Viewing Permission
  - Admin Log Pruning Permission
  - Query Running Permission
  - Undeletable and Unalterable Users
- Maintaining the Database
  - Backing Up the Database
  - Repairing and Optimizing the Database
- Some Maintenance Issues
- Smilies
  - Editing a Smilie
  - Adding a New Smilie
  - Uploading a Smilie
  - Creating Your Own Smilies
- Avatars
  - Adding Avatars
  - Storing Avatars
- Summary

Chapter 6: Upgrading vBulletin
- When to Upgrade
- Preparing for Upgrade
- Migrating Changes
  - File Compare Utilities
- Uploading the Files
- Running the Upgrade Script
- Testing the Upgrade
- Unveiling the Upgrade
- Summary

Chapter 7: Changing the Look of vBulletin
- Styling vBulletin
- Template Lifecycles
  - Lifecycle 1—Constant Change
  - Lifecycle 2—Working Behind the Scenes
- Editing the Default Style
  - Changing Image Paths
  - Other Editable Elements
  - Some Tips about Editing Styles
- Adding a New Style
  - Editing the Style
  - Saving the Style
  - Downloading the Style
- Making the New Style into the Default
- Distributing a Style
- Installing a New Style
- Summary

Chapter 8: Developing a Hack
- Hacking vBulletin
- Making the Changes
  - Locating the Template
  - Hacking the pm_newpm Template
  - Testing the Hack
- Hack Distribution
  - Tips for Hack Distribution
- Plugins and Products
  - Getting Plugins and Products
  - Adding a Product
  - Adding a Plugin
  - What If Things Go Wrong?
- Summary

Chapter 9: Programmer's Reference
- Default Usergroup Settings
  - (COPPA) Users Awaiting Moderation
  - Administrators
  - Moderators
  - Registered Users
  - Super Moderators
  - Unregistered / Not Logged In
  - Users Awaiting Email Confirmation
  - Banned Users
- Default vBulletin Database Tables
- Moving Servers in Six Easy Steps
  - Cookie Check
  - Back up Database
  - Download the vBulletin Files
  - Transfer to New Server
  - Database Restoration
  - Back Online
- Graphics
- Global Post Text Find and Replace
- Programming Standards
  - Braces
  - Indenting
  - Give Operators Space
  - String Quoting
  - Return Values
  - AND and OR
  - AS
  - SQL Queries
  - Naming Conventions for Functions
- Summary

Appendix A: vBulletin Directory Structure
- vBulletin Directory Structure
- Notes

Appendix B: vBulletin Resources, Hacks, Add-ons, and Templates
- Official vBulletin Sites
- Main vBulletin Hack Site
- vBulletin Styles and Templates
- vBulletin Add-Ons
- General Discussion BoardRelated Sites

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Adrian and Kathie Kingsley-Hughes have over a decade of experience in web development and programming, having firsthand experience of most of the popular community-building and blogging platforms currently available. They both work for a UK company specializing in internet development, workflow streamlining, and security. They have authored and co-authored a number of books in the web development, programming, and PC area and have written dozens of coaching manuals that are in use by Fortune 500 companies.

Kathy Kingsley-Hughes

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Submit Errata

Please let us know if you have found any errors not listed on this list by completing our errata submission form. Our editors will check them and add them to this list. Thank you.

Errata

- 1 submitted: last submission 08 Apr 2013

page 0	Dennis Popel: reviewer	28 Feb 07


page 23	Database name error	31 May 06

Sample chapters

You can view our sample chapters and prefaces of this title on PacktLib or download sample chapters in PDF format.

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What you will learn from this book

Building Forums with vBulletin does exactly what it says on the cover. You will:

Install and configure vBulletin
Learn the your way around vBulletin with a thorough guided tour
Customise your forum to meet the unique requirements of your community
Administer users and posts, appoint staff to moderate your forum â€“ or moderate it yourself
See how to upgrade your vBulletin installation, or upgrade other forum systems to vBulletin
Create a beautiful forum by designing templates or adjusting existing ones
Install hacks to change vBulletin's behaviour or add new features â€“ you will even see how to create your own hacks

In Detail

Written specifically to allow you to create a discussion forum, vBulletin, provides all of the tools, features and functionality for you to set up and develop a vibrant community. Because it specializes in this one aspect of your website, all the features are geared towards this goal, and you can leave the improvement and additions to the vBulletin developers while you get on with managing the rest of your website. If you are either already running a community forum based on vBulletin, or are planning on establishing one, then this is the book for you. This book will guide you through installing, configuring, managing and maintaining a vBulletin discussion forum on your own website. The book begins with the initial installation and configuration of vBulletin on your system. You will then go on a tour of vBulletin and its features, for both users and administrators. This will grow your understanding and familiarise you with the power and possibilities of vBulletin. vBulletin's Administration Control Panel is where you can control every aspect of your board. From users, forums and word filters to skins, templates and maintenance, everything can be done through the web-based control panel. The book devotes significant sections to covering these, getting you up to speed on the options available to you, and offering advice to help you make the right choices with your board administration. To make your forums stand out from the rest, we cover skins and templates to take your first steps in customising your forum. vBulletin is one of the most popular forum platforms available. Well known for its power and speed, it drives many of the most popular discussion forums on the Internet.

A step-by-step guide to running your own vBulletin installation

Approach

Using a highly graphical, practical style the experienced authors show you how to get the most out of vBulletin.

Who this book is for

This book is written for new and intermediate users of vBulletin, who want to manage and maintain a vBulletin discussion forum as easily as possible. No experience of web programming is required.