[Billspaintball]

Edit: This usage and trouble shooting guide has been updated as of 24th of April 2007


Usage

The hack is pretty useless without some usage instructions so here they are.

We can use conditionals to hide or display depending on a number of things such as
Logged in or out status,
or restrict to members of a specific usergroup.

We do this by using conditionals in php tags where the normal content of a webpage would go.


If you want something only accessable to a certain usergroup, use this code in your webpage. This example is only visible to members of usergroup 6.

Block Disabled:      (Update License Status)
Suspended or Unlicensed Members Cannot View Code.

You can use a simple variation of this to restrict entire pages to a certain usergroup.
For example,

Block Disabled:      (Update License Status)
Suspended or Unlicensed Members Cannot View Code.

You can of course use multiple usergroups by just modifiying the if statement a little.
For example:

Block Disabled:      (Update License Status)
Suspended or Unlicensed Members Cannot View Code.

Another use is to display different content to users depending on if they are logged in or not. For example

Block Disabled:      (Update License Status)
Suspended or Unlicensed Members Cannot View Code.

Another use is to restrict advertising to people who are not logged in.
For example

Block Disabled:      (Update License Status)
Suspended or Unlicensed Members Cannot View Code.

Of course you can play around with conditionals to do a whole range of things, these are just brief example snippets.



Troubleshooting

If your reading this chances are you are having problems.

Here are some common causes and fixes.

1. Headers already sent or cookies already sent errors. Chances are that there is something, even just a space before the 4 lines of code in part 1. Edit this and ensure that there are no spaces before it.
   
   
   
2. Path problems are the next biggest problem. Your paths must be exact else it will not work. Double check that all paths are correct.
   If you are unsure what the path is place the following code in a page all by itself.
   
   

   Block Disabled:      (Update License Status)
   Suspended or Unlicensed Members Cannot View Code.

   
   Name this file something like path.php then upload it to your website, browse to it and it will show you the exact path to your sites root.
   
   
   
3. Appears to login ok, but wont show you as logged in
   Often caused by the vB cookie path setting.
   To fix log into you vB admin area;
   
   

   Block Disabled:      (Update License Status)
   Suspended or Unlicensed Members Cannot View Code.

   
   
   
4. Subdomains and cross site logins
   This is a known issue with many scripts (not just this one), sometimes fixable sometimes not. Its caused by vB, PHP and your hosts security measures.
   
   First change your "cookie domain" settings.
   vB Admin > Control Panel > Cookies and HTTP Header Options > Cookie Domain
   Change it from being blank to
   
   

   Block Disabled:      (Update License Status)
   Suspended or Unlicensed Members Cannot View Code.

   
   You may need to set a post referrer in your whitelist.
   vB Admin > Control Panel > General Settings > Post Referrer Whitelist
   Instructions on what to enter are listed where you change this setting.
   
   That should fix it if your forum is a subdomain.
   
   If that fails then,
   Open your /forum/login.php file and look for this code:
   
   

   Block Disabled:      (Update License Status)
   Suspended or Unlicensed Members Cannot View Code.

   
   Below that add
   
   

   Block Disabled:      (Update License Status)
   Suspended or Unlicensed Members Cannot View Code.

   
   Now save this and overwrite the file on the server with this one.
   
   A further reported work around is to make a copy of the required Forum Forum files on your second Server. Then you must set in the config.php on the second server to use the ip of the server with which the VB-Database is running.
   
   
   
5. 404 Error on expiring passwords
   Cause - When redirected for expired password you are redirected to the directory that your login script is located in, not your forums root.
   
   Fix - Edit phrase called
   

   Block Disabled:      (Update License Status)
   Suspended or Unlicensed Members Cannot View Code.

   
   Your current phrase should be
   
   

   Block Disabled:      (Update License Status)
   Suspended or Unlicensed Members Cannot View Code.

   
   change it to
   
   
   

   Block Disabled:      (Update License Status)
   Suspended or Unlicensed Members Cannot View Code.

   
   where ../forums/ is your forums directory.
   
   
   
6. Still got problems?
   It may be a conflict with somthing already in your site.
   To check this we can just make a simple page.
   Call it test.php and use just this code in it.
   (Make sure there is no whitespace before the 1st line)
   
   

   Block Disabled:      (Update License Status)
   Suspended or Unlicensed Members Cannot View Code.

   
   Naturally, change paths to fit your forums, then upload it.
   Browse to it and run it.

[Zacarias]

Thanks, I'll test it out!

[iankh]

I know this is proabably a dumb question, but I am not technical. Does the basic web page have to be set up as a .php page or can this be used in an html page?

[Billspaintball]

Originally Posted by iankh

I know this is proabably a dumb question, but I am not technical. Does the basic web page have to be set up as a .php page or can this be used in an html page?

Yes the webpage must be a php page else it wont work.

You can of course have HTML and PHP mixed on the same .php page, PHP is only parsed if its inside the <?php ?> tags. Outside of these, normal HTML will work as normal.

[Snake]

Great work!

[hoangminh]

Great work, thanks you.

[reeps]

hmmm why do i get

Warning: chdir(): No such file or directory (errno 2) in /home/site/public_html/site/index.php on line 2

i've entered the path to the forums, full url and just /forums/ but still same error

[Billspaintball]

Originally Posted by reeps

Warning: chdir(): No such file or directory (errno 2) in /home/site/public_html/site/index.php on line 2

Edited:

Thats the same error message I get if I change the path to my forums so that its incorrect.

Double check the path to your forums.

Edited again:

I've added information to the opening post on how to find the correct path to your forums.

[MOREAGA]

ok after i login it brings me back to the login page with the form. isn't it supposed to recognize you're logged in?

[Billspaintball]

Yes it is supposed to recognise when your logged in or out.

See these 2 pics to see what it should show when you are logged in or out.

I would suspect it may be a cookie / cached files / browser security issue.
In you browser settings, try deleting temp internet files and cookies.

[MOREAGA]

i think it's because i use my domain for my site, and a sub domain for my forums, that's the feedback everyone keeps telling me, any way around this problem? besides and iframe.

[R1D1]

got a little java-error in there... any ideas? script runs fine so there is missing a "(" on line 9 (read via right-mouse-click) while showing login-form... yellow sign left bottom... error... page shows up correctly but an java-error occured in the background...

[Billspaintball]

Originally Posted by MOREAGA

i think it's because i use my domain for my site, and a sub domain for my forums, that's the feedback everyone keeps telling me, any way around this problem? besides and iframe.

Ive read about other scripts having this issue if one of them was in a diffrent subdomain.
Im not sure if they ever found a solution, but I will look.

[roosevelt]

Originally Posted by iankh

I know this is proabably a dumb question, but I am not technical. Does the basic web page have to be set up as a .php page or can this be used in an html page?

If you want PHP to work in your .html pages, and if you are on apache server you can make your server to parse php scripts in your html files. Insert this code in your .htaccess file, to make php work in .html files:

Block Disabled:      (Update License Status)
Suspended or Unlicensed Members Cannot View Code.

A demo of this parsing is here: http://www.photoshopcity.com/content...ml?parent_id=7. See those ?parent_id vars... .