Most of the best discussion boards on the Web have been customized in one way or another. Some have only basic customizations to give the place a specific look and feel, while others have been heavily modified and customized to look, feel, and work exactly how the owners want them to.
At this stage you probably want something in the middle—you want a certain level of customization but don't want to take on too much too soon, right? That's fine—the great thing about customizing vBulletin is that you can start small and keep on adding to it until you get what you want.
In this chapter we will look at:
- Modifying CSS stylesheets
- Editing the default text on the board
- Modifying templates
- Changing the board's PHP code
- Hacks
Tip
Warning—make sure you have a backup!!!
Remember that anything you do can have consequences that you might not expect! If you make a change to something, then there are things that can (and sometimes will) go wrong. Usually just undoing the changes will fix the problem, but this isn't always the case.
The data is the most important thing on your website, so make sure you take care of it! Most web hosts allow you to do this easily though the control panel.
Also, don't just have a backup—have up-to-date backups. If your site is important, try to make a backup at least once a week. If your site is very important, then do it daily, and make sure you keep at least the last three backups in case the most recent carries the problem you are trying to fix. This way, if something does go wrong, you just reload the backup, and you are away again in minutes rather than days.
In the next chapter we will cover in detail how to recover your site from a disaster, but for now just be aware that it's a good idea to have a backup of both your website and the database—just in case!
By now you're probably well aware of the fact that vBulletin is very versatile, and in keeping with this, you won't be surprised to learn that there are several different ways you can customize a vBulletin installation. In fact, there are five different types of change you can make.
These are:
- CSS stylesheets—CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets, and it is a technology that enables web developers to decide how their web pages are displayed. This style information is stored in a stylesheet, which controls the way that things look on the final page outputted to the browser (and other devices such as printers).
- Phrases—Nearly all the default text strings that are displayed by vBulletin are stored in the database as distinct phrases.
- Templates—Templates control the layout and structure of almost every different page that vBulletin can show the end user.
- PHP code—You can edit and add to the underlying PHP code of the vBulletin installation.
- Hacks—Finally , you can modify the board using a 'hack'.
Sometimes you will find yourself only needing to make a change in one area. Other times you will want to make several changes in order to accomplish what you desire. Either way, the power is there for you to use.
Let's take a look at how to modify your forum using each of these.