Preface
vBulletin is a very popular, commercial discussion forums application. Written in PHP, it is the system of choice for many of the biggest and most popular discussion forums on the Internet.
This book takes you step by step through setting up and running your own vBulletin website. In easy-to-follow language, it will show you how to select a vBulletin license, set up the site, and then customize and use it for maximum impact. You will learn how to use the powerful
administration features of vBulletin, and even see how to alter the code to create your own 'hacks'.
What This Book Covers
Chapter 1 gives you a quick overview of vBulletin's key features and benefits and helps you choose the right vBulletin license for your community's needs.
Chapter 2 shows you how to go about installing and configuring a vBulletin installation.
Chapter 3 gives you a quick tour of vBulletin from both the user's perspective and the admin side.
Chapter 4 shows you how to go about customizing almost every aspect of a vBulletin installation.
Chapter 5 is a key chapter, which shows a vBulletin forum administrator how to go about administering every aspect of their forum.
Chapter 6 looks at the vBulletin upgrade process and guides you through the successful migration of all the important settings and customizations.
Chapter 7 shows you how to go about designing a new vBulletin template.
Chapter 8 shows you how to create and then distribute new vBulletin forum hacks.
Chapter 9 provides you with an important programmer's reference of information that will be handy to you when working with a vBulletin forum.
Preface
Conventions
In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.
There are three styles for code. Code words in text are shown as follows: "On most installations the database server is located on the same computer as the web server, in which case the address should be set to localhost."
A block of code will be set as follows:
<meta http-equiv="Cache-Control" content="no-cache" /> <!-- end no cache headers -->
<title><phrase 1="$vboptions[bbtitle]">$vbphrase [x_powered_by_vbulletin]</phrase></title>
$headinclude
When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items will be made bold:
<meta http-equiv="Cache-Control" content="no-cache" /> <!-- end no cache headers -->
<title><phrase 1="$vboptions[bbtitle]">$vbphrase [x_powered_by_vbulletin]</phrase></title>
$headinclude
Any command-line input and output is written as follows:
GRANT ALL ON vb_database.* TO vb_user@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
New terms and important words are introduced in a bold-type font. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in our text like this: "clicking the Next button moves you to the next screen".
Warnings or important notes appear in a box like this.
Tips and tricks appear like this.
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