Introduction to vBulletin 5 Connect's Template Hook system.

[Wayne Luke]

While previous versions of vBulletin have had template hooks which allowed administrators to insert data within existing templates, these have been revamped and improved in vBulletin 5 Connect. In older versions, you needed PHP code to pull, process and render your code or a sub-template and then pass it to the original template. In vBulletin 5 Connect, the system can do all that for you. All you have to do is create your sub-template and vBulletin's engine will handle all the back-end work for you. To demonstrate this, I have create a little tutorial that will add a "Back to Top" link to the bottom of your footer navigation. Works on every page and doesn't require any PHP code to pull URLS.

1. On the drop down in the Style Manager add a new template.
2. Give it the title of: footer_goto_top.
3. Add this code to the template and save it:
   

   <style>
   #toTop {
     float:right;
   }
   
   div#toTop:hover { cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; }
   #toTop:after {clear:both;}
   
   </style>
   <script type="text/javascript">
   $(function() {
   	$(window).scroll(function() {
   		if($(this).scrollTop() != 0) {
   			$('#toTop').fadeIn();	
   		} else {
   			$('#toTop').fadeOut();
   		}
   	});
    
   	$('#toTop').click(function() {
   		$('body,html').animate({scrollTop:0},800);
   	});	
   });
   </script>
   <div id="toTop">^ Back to Top</div><div class="clear"></div>

4. In the Admin CP goto: Products & Hooks -> Hook Manager.
5. Select Add New Hook.
6. Set the Hook Location to "footer_end"
7. Give it a title... Such as "Go To Top Link"
8. In the Template Name field enter footer_goto_top to reference the template that you made above.
9. Save your new template hook.

While this is a simple tutorial, you can do anything in your template that vBulletin 5 is capable of accomp"shing in templates. This includes API calls using the vb:data tag.

[IggyP]

hmm, it seems to not working for me :/
the link shows up but nothing happens when i click it....
its a simple enough tutorial and ive went over it several times cant imagine whats messed up

btw was pretty hard to even find this blog, idk whats going on with search/nav in vb5

EDIT: also to note it gave me an error when trying to post here, first time i tried posting in a blog here so idk....something about subscriptions but it posted anyway apparently

Same issue here. Tried it over and over again. But it doesn't do anything.

Maybe this is not the ideal solution, but it is working:

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/forum/vbulletin-5-connect/vbulletin-5-connect-questions-problems-troubleshooting/vbulletin-5-customization/4021450-working-back-to-top-link-in-the-footer-here-is-how-you-do-it

[Wayne Luke]

This is working in my test site. The main goal though is using template hooks. There are a number of things you can add to the system using them. I'll come up with a better tutorial once a bug is fixed that is preventing me from creating new blog entries.