vbPortal 3.6.5 (4th October 2007)
Read over all of this document
If you are new to vbPortal, please read over this readme, it could save you more time than the few minutes that will take. Visit
http://www.phpportals.com/ and read the more recent posts, in particular look in the Developer Forum
http://www.phpportals.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=227 for any bug fixes.
vbPortal is not free to distribute. If your copy of vbPortal is found to be in the possesion of another person or on warez sites, you risk losing your premium membership access.
Installation
Note: Before uploading the files open vbPortal's includes/config.php.new file in a text editor (not notepad) and check that the details in the first section - FOLDERS & PORTAL PREFIX - are all correct. vBulletin must be installed in a folder one level below vbPortal. We recommend you install vBulletin in a directory named forums and vbPortal in the root folder. Rename config.php.new to config.php before you upload the files and start the install.
If you are using IIS and not Apache web server, you may need to install vbPortal in a folder. More information can be found in the support forums, if you search for the term "IIS" (without quotes).
1) Install vBulletin 3.6.x in a directory
During the vBulletin installation, enter something appropriate when you are asked for the Home title (to be shown in the foot of each page), it is used by vbPortal. You can edit this later by going to vBulletin control panel (options -> address) if you have already installed vBulletin forums. If you need support installing vBulletin then you should ask over at
www.vbulletin.com forums or use our installation service.
2) Upload vbPortal Files
Unpack the package that you downloaded from phpportals.com to a place on your computer. If you have not installed vBulletin in a directory named forums or vbPortal is not installed at the root of your site be sure to rename and edit vbPortal's includes/config.php file and change the details in the first section. (see What Is / and /forums all about? further on)
Upload all directories and files with exception of the directory named 'forums' as is from your computer to your server.
* /includes/*.*
* /images/*.*
* /language/*.*
* /modules/*.*
* /portalcp/*.*
* /vbpinstall/*.*
* *.*
The directory named 'forums' on your hard drive has a sub-directory inside called, 'images' which has a sub-sub-directory inside called 'misc' where the images used by vbPortal's installed style are saved. Upload the 'forums/images/misc/*.*' files, to your equivalent forums/images/misc sub-directory on the server.
Nothing is overwritten, you are simply adding images to the existing directory. If you have not installed vBulletin in a directory named forums then you would still have a sub-directory called images and a sub-sub directory called misc to upload the images to.
Technical Note:
If you already have more than one selectable skin installed, clear your vBulletin 'bbstyleid' cookie (if you can select cookies individually within your browser, e.g. Firefox and Konqueror). If you do not know how to delete cookies individually delete the lot #Important# because an invalid styleid may be the cause of blank vbPortal pages immediately after the installation. It's only likely if you already have more than one selectable skin installed, and the last 'bbstyleid' cookie set is not a vbPortal skin. On a fresh vBulletin forum this is not a problem.
3) Install vbPortal
Open your browser at
http://yourdomain/vbpinstall/install.php, enter your vBulletin Customer Number if prompted. (If your customer number is already saved in a cookie you will not be prompted. This could happen if you have just installed your forum)
* -- Step 1) Intro
* -- Step 2) Connect to the Database
* -- Step 3) Creates vbPortal tables
* -- Step 4) Alters vBulletin tables, adds INDEXes
* -- Step 5) Insert Some Default Data
* -- Step 6) Obtain Some Default Settings
* -- Step 7) Import Default Settings
* -- Step 8) Obtain vbPortal Legacy skin
* -- Step 9) Import Style
* -- Step 10) Complete
(Step 11 is a stepquit)
After successfully installing vbPortal, go to your vBulletin control panel and change the vBulletin default style to Legacy. To change the default style in vBulletin to Legacy, you need to be in vBulletin control panel -> options -> "Style & Language Settings" where you see Default Style and select Legacy from the dropdown selection.
Technical Note:
Legacy theme should be style ID 2 if you only have the one, default vBulletin theme installed.
There should be little to change once you're installed. Add News forum(s) in Portal CP -> options -> "news and latest thread" options enter the News forum ID's and add a Poll forum in Portal CP -> options -> "poll options" enter the Poll forum ID. You can use existing forums for your news and/or poll forums if you already have threads/posts you wish to display in the News/Poll modules and blocks.
What Is / and /forums all about?
If you store images for your site in
http://yourdomain.co.uk/images/ then 'images' is a directory. When you upload images to your site, you're uploading them to a directory called images. The directory one-level up from 'images' is seen by the public as the top level of your site or /. It's the root of your public webspace. If I type
http://www.yourdomain.co.uk/index.html or just
http://www.yourdomain.co.uk/ in a browser, it would ask your site's server to display the index page that you uploaded to the root of your public webspace. If I type
http://www.yourdomain.co.uk/forums/index.php, the browser would display the index page of your forum's directory.
vbPortal must be installed in a folder above vBulletin, e.g. / for vbPortal and /forums for vBulletin forums, or /vbp and /vbp/forums but not /portal and /forums for example. It has been tested extensively in a subdirectory (such as /vbportal and /vbportal/forums).
The directory name of your vBulletin installation is set in vbPortal's includes/config.php, near the top of that file, along with some other needed variables that also set directories.
* $portal = ''; // need this set in stone, but you only need to put anything between '' if vbPortal is installed in a sub-directory (the default = '', a sub-directory example would be $portal = '/vbportal' the default is $portal = ''
* $forums = '/forums'; // change it here if you did not install vBulletin in a directory named forum, but don't put anything in front of /forums, even if vbPortal is installed in a sub-directory (the default is $forums = '/forums'
* $portalcp = '/portalcp'; // change it here if you need to rename the Portal CP directory, but don't put anything in front of /portalcp, even if vbPortal is installed in a sub-directory (the default is $portalcp = '/portalcp'
There is no need to change ANY of the values of the three 'directories' if you are installing vbPortal in the public root - / and /forums for the vBulletin board.
If you are installing vbPortal in a directory (ex. /portal) rather than the public root - /, of your site and the vBulletin board in a sub-directory of vbPortal (ex. /portal/forums) you only need to change the value of $portal in includes/config.php. Leave $forums and $portalcp alone. If you install the forums in /portal/forums for example then you would set $portal = '/portal'; with no trailing / however the leading / is required.
Upgrade
The template names have all changed in vbPortal 3.6.4. If you are running an earlier version I would recommend you import the Legacy style as a new style rather than replace the existing style, so that you can copy and paste your template modifications. You can discuss this further at the phpportals forums (visit the site and login with your premium membership account).
Note: I highly recommended that you test vBulletin after upgrading it to version 3.6.x prior to upgrading your vbPortal 2.x or 3.x to vbPortal 3.6.x. Please make a good backup of your database and your themes.
Much the same as the installation (above) so read it anyway before going for the upgrade. Your opening
http://yourdomain/vbpinstall/upgrade.php in a browser, which may ask you for your vBulletin Customer Number before redirecting you to the correct upgrade script for your version of vbPortal. The customer number is requested so as to stop unauthorised users from running the upgrade scripts.
Note: If your customer number is already saved in a cookie you will not be prompted. This could happen if you have just upgraded your forum.
If there is more than one upgrade script to run this will happen automatically. Proceed until you are redirected to the portal control panel.
You can upgrade:
* vbPortal 3.6.4 (18th May 2007) to vbPortal 3.6.5 - upgrade371.php
* vbPortal 3.6.3 (2nd March 2007) to vbPortal 3.6.4 - upgrade370.php
* vbPortal 3.6.2 (24th November 2006) to vbPortal 3.6.3 - upgrade369.php
* vbPortal 3.6.1 (4th October 2006) to vbPortal 3.6.2 - upgrade368.php
* vbPortal 3.6.0 (21st September 2006) to vbPortal 3.6.1 - upgrade367.php
* vbPortal 3.6.0 Release Candidate 2 (17th September 2006) to vbPortal 3.6.0 - upgrade366.php
* vbPortal 3.6.0 Release Candidate 1 (4th September 2006) to vbPortal 3.6.0 Release Candidate 2 - upgrade365.php
* vbPortal 3.6.0 Beta 3 (22nd August 2006) to vbPortal 3.6.0 Release Candidate 1 - upgrade364.php
* vbPortal 3.6.0 Beta 2 (10th August 2006) to vbPortal 3.6.0 Beta 3 - upgrade363.php
* vbPortal 3.6.0 Beta 1 (17th June 2006) to vbPortal 3.6.0 Beta 2 - upgrade362.php
* vbPortal 3.5.2 (22nd August 2006) to vbPortal 3.6.0 Beta 1 - upgrade361.php
* vbPortal 3.5.1 (10th August 2006) to vbPortal 3.5.2 - upgrade356.php
* vbPortal 3.5.0 (7th October 2005) to vbPortal 3.5.1 - upgrade355.php
* vbPortal 3.5.0 Beta 3 (28th September 2005) to vbPortal 3.5.0 - upgrade354.php
* vbPortal 3.5.0 Beta 2 (8th September 2005) to vbPortal 3.5.0 Beta 3 - upgrade353.php
* vbPortal 3.5.0 Beta 1 (8th August 2005) to vbPortal 3.5.0 Beta 2 - upgrade352.php
* vbPortal 3.0.5 (1st August 2005) to vbPortal 3.5.0 Beta 1 - upgrade351.php
* vbPortal 3.0.4 (15th July 2005) to vbPortal 3.0.5 - upgrade13.php
* vbPortal 3.0.3 (15th May 2005) to vbPortal 3.0.4 - upgrade12.php
* vbPortal 3.0.2 (21st March 2005) to vbPortal 3.0.3 - upgrade11.php
* vbPortal 3.0.1 (30th January 2005) to vbPortal 3.0.2 - upgrade10.php
* vbPortal 3.0.0 (11th December 2004) to vbPortal 3.0.1 - upgrade9.php
* vbPortal 3.0.0 Release Candidate 1 (30th November 2004) to vbPortal 3.0.0 - upgrade8.php
* vbPortal 3.0.0 Beta 6 (7th November 2004) to vbPortal 3.0 Release Candidate 1 - upgrade7.php
* vbPortal 3.0.0 Beta 5 (8th October 2004) to vbPortal 3.0 Beta 6 - upgrade6.php
* vbPortal 3.0.0 Beta 4 (12th September 2004) to vbPortal 3.0 Beta 5 - upgrade5.php
* vbPortal 3.0.0 Beta 3 (25th July 2004) to vbPortal 3.0 Beta 4 - upgrade4.php
* vbPortal 3.0.0 Beta 2 (16th April 2004) to vbPortal 3.0 Beta 3 - upgrade3.php
* vbPortal 3.0.0 Beta 1 (28th March 2004) to vbPortal 3.0 Beta 2 - upgrade2.php
* vbPortal 2.3.0 Candidate Release 2 to vbPortal 3.0 Beta 1 - upgrade1.php
Technical Note:
If you are using vbPortal pr8.1 (formally known as vbPortal 3.0b) or an earlier vbPortal 2.x release than candidate_release_2, you would need to upgrade to vbPortal 2.3.0 candidate_release_2 prior to upgrading both vBulletin and vbPortal to versions 3.x. (there is a detailed post about Versions at
http://www.phpportals.com/forums/) in the 3.0.x Developer Forum titled Can I upgrade my existing portal to vbportal 3.x.x for vbulletin 3.x.x.
Examples
I'll give three basic examples of an upgrade here.
Note:The forums contain up to date help on upgrading and are the best source at this time or you can take advantage of vbPortal's low cost installation service.
Example 1) You have upgraded vBulletin to the latest 3.6.x and have a previously installed vbPortal 3.0 beta 1 (28th March 2004) or above
Backup your database using ssh, telnet etc, from the command line using mysqldump, then backup your site and themes. Unpack the package that you downloaded from phpportals.com to a place on your computer. If you have not installed vBulletin in a directory named forums or vbPortal is not installed at the root of your site be sure and edit vbPortal's includes/config.php file and change the details in the first section. Upload all directories and files with exception of the directory named 'forums' as is from your computer to your server.
Open your browser at
http://yourdomain/vbpinstall/upgrade.php and you will be redirected to the actual upgrade script. Follow each step by clicking the [Next] button and when you are asked to Obtain The Legacy Skin Settings - do not create a new style (just follow my lead for now). Instead select the 'Legacy' style as the one to be replaced then click Next. If you get an error, read it then go back and correct your selections.
Note: If you have the vbportal_demo style installed but not the Legacy style then you should create a new style instead. Legacy is now the standard theme packaged with vbportal and the vbportal_demo style is now obsolete.
That's pretty much all there is to upgrading vbPortal 3.0.0 beta 1 and above.
Example 2) You have upgraded vBulletin to the latest 3.6.x and have a previously installed vbPortal 2.3.0 candidate_release_2 (tables with prefix 'vbp_' in the database).
Backup, as in example 1). Unpack the package that you downloaded from phpportals.com to a place on your computer. If you have not installed vBulletin in a directory named forums or vbPortal is not installed at the root of your site be sure and edit vbPortal's includes/config.php file and change the details in the first section. Upload all directories and files with exception of the directory named 'forums' as is from your computer to your server.
Open your browser at
http://yourdomain/vbpinstall/upgrade.php and you are then redirected. Follow each step by clicking the [Next] button. When you are asked to Obtain The Legacy Skin Settings - accept the defaults and click next (just follow my lead for now). If you get an error, read it then go back and correct your selections. You now have a new style 'Legacy'. Follow the rest of the steps and when you finish this update, you will be redirected to the next upgrade script. Follow each step by clicking the [Next] button and when you are asked to Obtain The Legacy Skin Settings - do not create a new style (just follow my lead again for now). Instead select the existing 'Legacy' style as the one to be replaced then click Next. If you get an error, read it then go back and correct your selections. (Basically, the first install/upgrade to vbPortal 3.x you would import a new skin then subsequent upgrades you would replace the installed skin).
Note: If you have the vbportal_demo style installed but not the Legacy style then you should create a new style instead. Legacy is now the standard theme packaged with vbPortal and the vbportal_demo style is now obsolete.
You should then update the vBulletin counters (vBulletin control panel -> Import & Maintenance -> update counters), set the vBulletin default style (vBulletin control panel -> vBulletin Options -> Style & Language settings) and verify the vbPortal options (Portal CP -> Options Manager), then update the vbPortal counters (Portal CP -> Handyman). All this is explained further and maintained in the developer forum because it would quickly become out of date here.
Example 3) You are currently running vBulletin 2.x with vbPortal 2.x (all vbPortal tables start with a prefix 'vbp')
Backup, as in example 1). You need to upgrade vBulletin to the latest version 3.6.x first and test it works as expected. If you need support upgrading vBulletin then you should ask over at
www.vbulletin.com forums or use our installation service. Once you are satisfied that vBulletin is working correctly, I recommend you make an additional backup of your database, which can save you some time should your vbPortal upgrade go wrong. Unpack the package that you downloaded from phpportals.com to a place on your computer. If you have not installed vBulletin in a directory named forums or vbPortal is not installed at the root of your site be sure and edit vbPortal's includes/config.php file and change the details in the first section. Upload all directories and files with exception of the directory named 'forums' as is from your computer to your server.
Open your browser at
http://yourdomain/vbpinstall/upgrade.php and you are then redirected. Follow each step by clicking the [Next] button. When you are asked to Install the Legacy Skin Settings - accept the defaults and click next (just follow my lead for now). If you get an error, read it then go back and correct your selections. You now have a new style 'Legacy'. Follow the rest of the steps and when you finish this update, you will be redirected to the next, subsequent upgrade script. Follow each step by clicking the [Next] button and when you are asked to Obtain The Legacy Skin Settings - do not create a new style (just follow my lead again for now). Instead select the 'Legacy' style as the one to be replaced then click Next. If you get an error, read it then go back and correct your selections. (Basically, the first install/upgrade to vbPortal 3.x you would import a new skin then subsequent upgrades you would replace the installed skin).
Note: If you have the vbportal_demo style installed but not the Legacy style then you should create a new style instead. Legacy is now the standard theme packaged with vbPortal and the vbportal_demo style is now obsolete.
You should then update the vBulletin counters (vBulletin control panel -> Import & Maintenance -> update counters), set the vBulletin default style (vBulletin control panel -> vBulletin Options -> Style & Language settings) and verify the vbPortal options (Portal CP -> Options Manager), then update the vbPortal counters (Portal CP -> Handyman). All this is explained further and maintained in the developer forum because it would quickly become out of date here.
Will I run into issues when I upgrade vbPortal 2.x to 3.6.x and why ?
You might do, because we have no idea what hacks or addons you may have installed. Backup first and the worst that can happen is you need to restore your database. As a precaution, if you can, test your backup you have made by importing it into a new, empty database to make sure it works! Then backup your backup.
Last Words
It's fairly straightforward (famous last words) to install or upgrade if you just accept the defaults. When upgrading you would normally be replacing the Legacy style so as to update any templates. You have a reasonably free hand here and can simply upload the style as a new skin and not replace any, so you can later compare template sets from different versions.
Note: after successfully installing or upgrading vbPortal you might want to remove the vbpinstall folder from your site so that the scripts can not be run should anyone find out your customer number.
Technical Note:
If you want to start all over again, either run vBulletin's install script and wipe absolutely everything, then install vBulletin again then vbPortal or if you want to install vbPortal again just run vbPortal's install script and when it says vbPortal exists, you would click 'wipe #core# vbPortal tables', then continue with the install as normal.
If you run vbPortal's install script again, but you forget to delete the previously installed Legacy style prior (in vBulletin control panel style manager), instead choose to replace the existing Legacy skin (ID 2 if your vBulletin board was a clean install) when importing the style (step 9), before clicking the import button.
If you want to import the Legacy style with a different name you can do that too.
If you don't set your vBulletin default style to Legacy using the vBulletin style manager after installing vbPortal, then the forums and portal will use different skins. (this can be convenient sometimes).
For the latest instruction, updates, bug fixes and support visit
http://www.phpportals.com/forums/ and login with your premium members name and password. You should take a little time to read over the threads in the Developer Forum
http://www.phpportals.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=227 If there are any fixes since this package release, they will be posted in sticky threads in the Developer Forum and marked as [fix].
The online Documentation can be found at
http://www.phpportals.com/modules.php?name=Documentation.
A How To and Frequently Asked Question forum can be found at
http://www.phpportals.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=227
You can also contact the developers and staff at the forums or by email (visit the site and login with your premium membership account for details).
