- •Table of Contents
- •Preface
- •What This Book Covers
- •Conventions
- •Reader Feedback
- •Customer Support
- •Downloading the Example Code for the Book
- •Errata
- •Questions
- •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
- •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
- •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
- •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
- •Two Changes
- •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
- •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
- •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
- •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
- •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
- •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
- •SQL Queries
- •Naming Conventions for Functions
- •Summary
- •vBulletin Directory Structure
- •Notes
- •Official vBulletin Sites
- •Main vBulletin Hack Site
- •vBulletin Styles and Templates
- •vBulletin Add-Ons
- •Index
Installing and Configuring vBulletin
Troubleshooting
If you have managed to get this far without problems, then that's great. Chances are that you won't have any problems at all because vBulletin has been designed to make installation quick and easy.
However, it would be unwise to discount the possibility that things could go wrong.
Here are some of the most commonly occurring problems that you might encounter during the installation of vBulletin
Database Access Issues
This is the commonest issue that you are likely to encounter and isn't really a vBulletin problem— it just means that you haven't made all the necessary configuration changes.
If vBulletin cannot access the database, check the following:
•You are using the correct database username. (Remember that a prefix may have been added automatically.)
•The password is correct.
•The database name is correct. (Again, a prefix may have been added automatically to the database name.)
•You have granted the database user full privileges for the database.
If problems still persist, then the problem may be that your FTP client didn't upload the files properly (especially the text files, which are uploaded as ASCII). Upload all the files again and try to run the installation script again.
Images/Styling Not Showing
This is another common problem, and it can make the site look very odd—no graphics will show, and the text will be unformatted.
The problem here is that your web server is sensitive to capitalization but your FTP program uploaded the files all lowercase.
To solve this problem navigate to the cpstyles folder and rename the following folders:
vbulletin_3_default -> vbulletin_3_frontend -> vbulletin_3_manual -> vbulletin_3_silver -> vbulletin_2_default ->
vBulletin_3_Default vBulletin_3_Frontend vBulletin_3_Manual vBulletin_3_Silver vBulletin_2_Default
PHP Errors
The most common reason for a PHP error is having white space at the end of a PHP file after the closing ?> tag. Check for this in any of the files that you have recently edited and remove it. Then resave the file, upload it and try again.
If the problems continue, then upload all the files again and try to run the installation script once more.
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