In this chapter we'll be looking at how you go about developing a hack for a vBulletin installation. Being based on the PHP language and on MySQL database infrastructure makes vBulletin very versatile, so we're going to have to limit our scope. Almost anything that you would want to do with vBulletin is possible if you know how to leverage PHP and MySQL!
In particular we will look at:
- How to hack a discussion board by changing one of the template files
- How to distribute a hack by giving other programmers clear instructions about the code changes
Let's take a look at how to create a vBulletin hack. The hack we're going to be developing here is one that allows you to control how vBulletin handles private message receipts. As we saw in Chapter 3, private messages, known as PMs, are messages that one member can send to another member of the board.
The member types a message into the private message window and then clicks on the Submit Message button.
The recipient can collect the message the next time they log in (or, if they are already logged in, the next time they request a new page from the board).
But there's one feature that seems to annoy some members (especially if it's a popular board where the members make a lot of use of the PM facility). This is the read receipt feature. When a PM is submitted, a message box is displayed asking the sender whether they want to request a read receipt.
Read receipts are a useful feature, but the problem is the message box displayed—people find it gets in the way and often they won't want to send a read receipt with every message. You as the administrator can do something about this—you can hack your vBulletin installation to give your members greater control over how read receipts are handled.
Tip
You have the power …
… to disable private messaging read receipts altogether. In the left-hand menu in the AdminCP, click on Usergroups followed by Usergroup Manager. Then for each usergroup you don't want to have this feature, click on Edit Usergroup and set Can Use Message Tracking and Can Deny Private Message Read Receipt Request to No. Doing this, however, will remove the ability for members to request a read receipt. It would be much better to simply change how the request works.