Moving a vbDrupal Installation

When moving your vbDrupal installation you need to be careful to update all the configuration paths. You may need to do this if you change hosting companies or plans, or if you just want to update the directory structure of you site (maybe to change your forum location from www.example.com/forums to forums.example.com and your hosting company has explicit sub-domains directories).

Originally post at Moving a vbDrupal installation, used with permission.

1. First, use your favorite FTP or file manager program (or by using a shell account if you prefer) to move the folders to the new locations. Make sure that all file and directories still reside in your 'public' or 'html' directory and that the structure of Drupal and vBulletin are maintained. Also, you must not have both Drupal and vBulletin reside in the same directory since their index.php files will conflict with each other.
2. Then you need to update your server or hosting package to map your URLs to the new locations. Typically your base URL of www.example.com should point to the drupal folder, and forums.example.com or www.example.com/forums URLs point to the new vbulletin folder.
3. Next, update your config.php file in the vBulletin ‘includes’ directory to have the $config['Misc']['forumpath'] variable point to the new location (this must be the full system path, not a URL). If you have changed hosting companies, this path may have changed drastically.
4. Now, you need enter the admin control panel of vBulletin (if the page does not display, then your server configuration is not set correctly). Enter the vBulletin Options page in the Admin Control Panel and open the vbDrupal section of the Options. Update both the Drupal URL path (may not have changed) and definitely the Drupal system path to the new location by typing the new infomation in the appropriate text boxes.
5. Lastly, update the Drupal settings.php file located in the ‘sites/default’ directory. Find the $vb_dir variable and update this path to the new location. Repeat this step for each site if you have a multi-site configuration.
6. Now open your browser and navigate to your Drupal installation (www.example.com). If you have been careful and entered everything correctly, the Drupal portion of your site should open. If not, try running the Drupal update.php script. It should automatically update your Drupal paths in vBulletin. It will also tell you if it can't find the vBulletin installation.

You should now have your vbDrupal system back up and running.

vbDrupal 4.7 Comments Configuration

One module that comes with the core distribution of vbDrupal is the comment_vb module which replaces the regular Drupal comments modules. The comments_vb module creates new vBulletin threads for node comments, thus making forums posts and comment posts equivalent. Also, in the default configuration the first post of the new thread will have the teaser and a link to the original Drupal node that created it.

Originally posted at vbDrupal Comments Configuration, used with permission.

NOTE: Only one of these two comment modules can be active at a time. Conflicts and database corruption may occur if both are active at once. Any Drupal module that is built around the original Drupal comments module can NOT be used.

Follow these simple steps to get vbdrupal comment threads working quickly and correctly.

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First, you must inactive the comments module and activate the comments_vb module from the admin/modules page.

Now you must configure the comment_vb module by going to the admin/comments page. In the Thread Creation section, follow the instruction and select all the forums that you want to make possible targets for node comment thread creation. Also choose the thread creator (leave blank for the author of the node to be the author of the thread), the default template (leave as it is if not sure), and also choose if the thread should be deleted when the node is deleted.

These options will affect all comment threads.

Next, you should set up the default comment behaviour for each node type. Go to the admin/settings/content-types page. For each type of node, choose wether commenting will be on or off by default and to which forum the threads will show up in if created. Only forums that were selected at the admin/comments page will show up in this list.

These are just the default settings. Anyone with the 'administer comments' permission can override these settings, but normal users will be forced to use these defaults.

Repeat the above step for each node type that you want to be enabled.

Lastly, you must of course create new nodes. For an example of creating a Drupal node and its resulting vBulletin thread, go to node/add and select a type to create the new node. Enter you title and text as normal and Submit the node. Normal users will not have any other choices and the thread will be created in the default forum. Admins and those with the 'administer comments' permission will have extra options under 'Comment Settings'.

The option to turn on or off the comments for this particular node are available, along with the forum it will reside in. Only forums that were selected at the admin/comments page will show up in this list.

You can also append comments from this node to an already existing thread. Enter the thread id in the appropriate place. If you enter a thread id, then the teaser of the new node will NOT be added to the thread. Only new comments to the node will be added. Also, if the thread id does not exist, then no thread will be created for comments, and commenting will be disabled.

If at a later time, you disable comments for a particular node, the link to the comments thread will discarded, breaking the tie between the article and the comments thread.

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Your forums and content now have another strong link between them, increasing the flow of information on your site, and hopefully the visit lengths of your members.

Advanced Concept

If you have a mix of different topics, with the comment threads needing to go into particular forums, the best way to handle this is to make new node types by using either the Drupal Flexinode or CCK modules. These modules allow you to create new content types that you can then associate their default publication and comment threads into different forums at the admin/settings/content-types page.

vbDrupal Permissions

vbDrupal is the Drupal fork project that combines the content management of Drupal with one of the best community forums-- vBulletin. In this article we will explore how vbDrupal preserves all the independent permission and access controls of both Drupal and vBulletin while adding a way to bind permission roles together. Exercise care to keep exact control of your website.

Originally posted at vbDrupal Permissions Configuration, used with permission.

Note: This article assumes that you understand and can implement:

1. Usergroups in vBulletin and roles in Drupal
2. Be able to set/edit their permissions and access controls

In vbDrupal, the ability to associate vBulletin usergroups to specific Drupal roles enhances the functionality of the two systems. At the time of this writing, this association only points in one direction, from vBulletin to Drupal. A vBulletin usergroup can imply a Drupal role, but not vise-versa.

Administration Settings:

The first user labeled userid 1, will be the system administrator. It will have all access abilities throughout the Drupal and vBulletin areas. Any members whose primary group is the Administrators usergroup, id 6, will have full access to the Drupal area, as well. The system administrator must be available or at least one person must be a member of the Administrators usergroup to set up the Drupal area initially.

Configuration:

Create the vBulletin usergroups that you desire, and any additional Drupal roles that you may need. You can of course create new roles and usergroups at any time.

As an example, we have created a new role called blogger and have given that role the ability to make blog entries in Drupal.

In the past to give users this Drupal role, we would have to edit each Drupal profile for all users we would want to include, as shown below.

With vbDrupal, we can go to the admin/access/roles page and edit the desired role for updating. All the defined vBulletin usergroups will be displayed, as shown below.

In this example, we have used vbDrupal to associate the Administrators, SuperModerators and Moderators usergroups with the blogger role. Note that we can imply multiple usergroups to any particular role.

All users in Administrators, SuperModerators and Moderators usergroups are now automatically included in this Drupal role. Now when we go to a particular user who is in one of those usergroups we will see that the blogger role is implied.

Using vbDrupal in this fashion, you can set up your site so you only need to manage the usergroups in vBulletin with the Drupal roles. Permissions automatically update for the users!

Of course, if you want to include others into the blogger role, you can manually add them by editing their profile, without including them into any of the above vBulletin usergroups.

Extra:

One exciting way to automatically enable more access is to link Drupal roles with more privileges in with the vBulletin usergroups that are associated in the ‘Promotions’ system in vBulletin . Thus, when someone is promoted (due to post count, reputation level or some other criteria) they are automatically given more access and privileges in the Drupal portion of your site. Likewise, if they are demoted, they are automatically stripped of privileged access.

How do I make the vB Drupal style look like my forum?

You will need to modify drupal_header and drupal_footer templates, to match the customization done on your forum style. Make sure not to cut and paste any links, as absolute links from vB will not work, you just need to add $vboptions[bburl] to any vB links.

How to set permissions for usergroups

Create new roles for each seperate set of permissins you want each usergroup to have:

Go to vB Drupal -> Administer - > Access control

Click "roles". Type the role name in the box, like "Bloggers" and hit "add role". Then click "edit" next to the new role, and type in the vB groupids who will use this role. You can enter multiple groupid's seperated by a comma. Now go to the permissions section, and tick each permission you want that group to have. To be able to create blogs, tick the box next to perrmission "edit own blog" (assuming the blog module has been activayed.

My navbar items are different from my forum!

Edit the drupal_header template, and change it's navbar items to match yours.

How to install modules

Drupal has an extensive set of modules that plug-in directly with Drupal, without code changes. Many of these modules will work without any problems with vB Drupal. But some will not work. Make sure you test them carefully, and try all their options and settings.

Here are some tips to help you install the modules.

1. Follow the included readme.txt and install.txt for the module
2. If the module instructions tell you to create new tables, make sure you add your vB table prefix plus "drupal_" to it. Example: If your vB prefix is "vb_", and the new table is called "module_table", then create it as "vb_drupal_module_table".
3. If the module is specifically made for user accounts, or Drupal profile fields, it will most likely not work out of the box, and may require some customization.
4. If you try a module and it doesn't work, and can no longer view any page (so you cannot deactivate it), simply delete that module file, from FTP or SSH.