Installation

As an example we use the following system layout:

vBulletin installation path

/websites/forum.example.org/public_html

vBulletin web location

http://forum.example.org

vbDrupal installation path

/websites/www.example.org/public_html

vbDrupal web location

http://www.example.org

Important note: it's best to always make a backup of your existing database before you continue.

Important note #2: depending on your setup you should make sure the vBulletin cookies are accessable by vbDrupal. So make sure the cookie domain and path are set correctly. If they are not set correctly you will not be able to complete the installation and users will not be able to log in. Also note that the old cookies must be deleted before you can succesfully continue. More information about this can be found here.

Step 1: Disable vBulletin

Disable vBulletin through the admincp. Only administrators will be able to log in. This is to prevent various errors users might trigger while the vbDrupal is being installed. It also disables vbDrupal being loaded from within vBulletin, this is required in order to perform various upgrade steps.

Step 2: Copy the files

Copy the files from the drupal directory to your desidered location.

You do not need to install drupal in a subdirectory of the forum, you can install it everywhere you like, even on a different hostname.

Note: vbDrupal requires access to the vBulletin database and it's files.

Step 3: vbDrupal system configuration

Copy the file sites/default/default.settings.php to sites/default/settings.php and make the file world writable.

Alternatively you can put

Then rename the file .htaccess_new to .htaccess. If you have a similar setup as our example setup you don't need to change a thing. If you install vbDrupal in a subdirectory you should edit the file and change the line #RewriteBase /drupal to point to the proper location (note: also remove the # prefix).

You might want to enable an option in your system to show hidden files to see the .htaccess_new file.

Step 4: Drupal installation

Next you should visit the location where you copied the vbDrupal files to and open the install.php script.

In our example case this would be http://www.example.org/install.php.

On opening vbDrupal you might be prompted to enter the path to vBulletin. Simply enter the absolute path to vBulletin and press Save configuration. If the path is correct the installation will continue.

Step 5: User synchronization

The last step requires the synchronization of the user records between vBulletin and vbDrupal.

The previous step should automatically direct you to the user synchronization script. If this is not the case simply visit the location http://www.example.org/install.php?syncusers=true.

Follow the on sceen instructions and wait.

Depending on the size of the forum this step could take a few seconds up to several minutes.

Without user synchronization the users will not be able to show up as logged in on the vbDrupal pages until they logged in on the forum.

Step 6: .htaccess

As a safe guard the .htaccess file has been named .htaccess_new. If you are using an Apache webserver you should rename the file .htaccess_new to .htaccess.

You may need to edit the contents of this file to update the RewriteBase directive if vbDrupal is installed in a sub-directory.

The .htaccess file plays an important part in the clean url feature of vbDrupal.

Step 7: Done

Now vbDrupal should be in a working state.

Do not forget to enable vBulletin again so your visitors will be able to log in.

Also remember to delete any .tmp files you might have created during the installation.