Answered Topics

In vBulletin 5.6.5, we added a new feature - Answered Topics.

Topics can now be marked as "Answered." This is a special status applied to a specific post within the topic. The post that is marked as the Answer will be highlighted and show directly under the starting post in the topic.

The ability to mark posts as the Answer in a topic is controlled by permissions. There are three different permissions to control this.
Usergroup and Channel Permissions both...

In 5.7.2, we have added a new feature - Custom Node fields.

This new feature allows Administrators to define text and text area fields that are assigned to channels (eg forums).
When a user creates a new topic, defined custom node fields will be available.

1. The Administrator will create Field Categories in the AdminCP. Each category is assigned to one or more channels.
2. Within each category, the Administrator can create one or more fields that will get assigned

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User ranks allow the administrator to set up image and HTML rewards for their users once they reach specific goals. In versions before vBulletin Connect 5.7.1, ranks could only be triggered by the number of posts and the usergroups assigned to the user. In vBulletin Connect 5.7.1, User Ranks have been expanded to allow more flexibility in creating individual ranks. Now you can build combinations of different criteria to create unique ranks for your site.

Ranks can be created using th...

Debug mode is useful for development purposes- it is required if you will be creating VB5 Modifications you intend to distribute for others to download. However it is also useful for trouble-shooting issues with your site as debug mode often provides more specific error messages when something goes wrong- as such if you are having trouble support will often ask you to put your site into debug mode.

Debug mode requires two small file edits in vBulletin 5. This is because VB5 has two...

If you have custom files, you can create an md5 sums for your smilie directory if you want. Inside the /do_not_upload folder of your download package is a checksum sub-folder. That will create custom md5_sums files.

1. Copy the included sample_checksum_config.php file to smilies_config.php.
2. Enter in your forum root.
3. Give it a product id like 'smilies'.
4. Delete the existing directories and files in the scanpaths.
5. Add in '/core/images/smilies', under the directories comment.
6. Run the command

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In older versions of vBulletin, you could specify a URL to redirect a forum to another location. This could be on your site or elsewhere. With the release of vBulletin 5, this functionality was removed. You can recreate this functionality using Template Hooks. I will outline the steps to create a channel redirect here.

Note: This functionality is not available on vBulletin Cloud at this time.

This tutorial involves changing options, creating custom templates and building a temple hook. Allowi...

vBulletin 5's user output is created using a system of pages that are customizable by the site administrator. This system is called Site Builder. By breaking the system down into pages, a lot of control is given to the system administrator. By using Site Builder, you can create a unique site without any knowledge of HTML or CSS.

vBulletin's pages are created using layers built upon a grid layout. Each page starts with a layout which defines the content areas of the page. Layouts define...

vBulletin 5.3.0 and higher will allow site owners to enable Two-Factor Authentication for Administrator and Moderator functionality. This is an extra layer of security provided to make sure your user data remains as safe as possible. Two-Factor Authentication works in conjunction with an app on the user's smartphone, tablet, or computer. These apps provide a security token that lasts a limited time before expiring. The security token is created using industry standard algorithms and a unique string...

To help combat spam, many users opt to have new user’s posts moderated until they’ve made a specific number of posts. This allows the Admin/Moderator team to keep potentially malicious posts out of the public eye until a user has effectively passed a ‘probationary period’ as a member of the site.

In order to do this, you will need to create a custom usergroup and a promotion.

Creating a Custom Usergroup
First, you need to setup the usergroup for your non-Moderated...

From time to time, we will need to update the indexing schema for the Sphinx server. In order for this fix to take effect, you will need to update the sphinx schema for the index. Follow these steps to rebuild your Sphinx Search Schema.

1. Stop the Sphinx service on your server.
2. Replace your existing Sphinx configuration file (vbulletin-sphinx.php) with the one provided in the current version of vBulletin 5 Connect. You can find this file in the do_not_upload directory.
3. Update the file as provided

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