Can a private board have a public homepage?

[zsmom]

I'd like guests to be able to see my homepage, read the news stories, etc. but then they'd have to register to see the rest of the site. Is this possible? I have my board set up to be private. Thanks!

[mholtum]

Yes.
You can make your threads invisible unless registered.
You do that in the options of each thread.

[BoB]

yes
you can also add HT axx to the forums Dir and leave root open to public

[mholtum]

You can also make the threads only visible to certain "Member Groups"as well I believe. Havent checked that out yet.

[zsmom]

Modify each thread? I don't want to have to do that. Maybe I didn't give enough details because I'm not getting what you're saying.

Right now the homepage just shows up as the standard error to guests. Does anyone know if I can get it to not show the standard error page for the homepage for people who are not logged in/guests?

If it is possible, once I have the homepage showing I'll worry about what threads are showing, etc. but right now I can't get anything to show unless you're logged in. I hope I'm making sense...

[mholtum]

Now that is something different than what I thought you meant. I would wait for Brian's advice..

[Brian]

I'll have to look into this... I'll move this post to the bugs forum to be sure I don't forget about it, plus (assuming there's a somewhat easy way, which there should be) I think the vBa settings should override vBulletin's settings in this case to allow people to view the homepage.

[zsmom]

Thanks!

[zsmom]

Just wondering if you've had a moment to take a look at this. :)

[Brian]

I haven't tested this, but it *should* work...

In your global.php file look for:

if (!($permissions['forumpermissions'] & CANVIEW))


Replace that with:

if (!($permissions['forumpermissions'] & CANVIEW) AND THIS_SCRIPT != 'adv_index')

[zsmom]

I just tried it and it doesn't work... :(

[Brian]

Sorry, not sure what I was thinking. I just updated the last post with the right instructions. :)

[zsmom]

Oops, now I get a database error. :)

[Brian]

What does the error say?

[zsmom]

It is:

Database error in vBulletin 3.0.1:

Invalid SQL:
SELECT

thread.threadid, thread.title, thread.replycount, postusername, postuserid, thread.dateline AS postdateline, IF(views <= thread.replycount, thread.replycount+1, views) AS views, thread.lastposter, thread.lastpost, pollid
, thread.iconid AS threadiconid, iconpath AS threadiconpath
,thread.forumid, forum.title AS forumtitle
, post.pagetext AS preview

FROM thread as thread
LEFT JOIN icon USING (iconid)
LEFT JOIN forum AS forum ON (thread.forumid = forum.forumid)
LEFT JOIN post AS post ON (post.postid = thread.firstpostid)
LEFT JOIN deletionlog AS deletionlog ON (thread.threadid = deletionlog.primaryid AND type = 'thread')

WHERE open <> '10' AND thread.visible = 1 AND thread.forumid NOT IN(62,63,64,97,10,1,2,11,95,18,73,29,102,32,14,81,13,12,59,16,21,82,61,96,105,60 ,86,85,72,15,19,30,88,17,80,106,22,26,24,23,28,20,34,78,66,107,53,4,3,99,95,81,1 3,12,86,85,66,53,3,4,78) Array AND deletionlog.primaryid IS NULL
ORDER BY lastpost DESC
LIMIT 7

mysql error: You have an error in your SQL syntax. Check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 'Array AND deletionlog.primaryid IS NULL
ORDER BY lastpost D

mysql error number: 1064

[TrickyD]

I'll keep checking back for this as well. It is exactly what I've been wanting on my board.

[Milorad]

Sorry, not sure what I was thinking.

Things you never want to hear from your doctor, lawyer, or as it happens, vbulletin specialist ;)

[Polo]

lol

[Brian]

zsmom - Would you mind filling out a support ticket via the Member's Area here so I can have a look?

Milorad - LOL! At least in the case of a vBulletin specialist you can always use the undo key to change the files back to the way they were... Not usually the case with doctors and lawyers. :p

[zsmom]

Done!

[Polo]

LOL! At least in the case of a vBulletin specialist you can always use the undo key to change the files back to the way they were... Not usually the case with doctors and lawyers.


What an advantage! :p

[zsmom]

Everything works great now, thanks!

[Polo]

I'm glad Zsmom... by the way, nice website, keep up the good work.

[TrickyD]

Thank you for this workaround Brian, I just installed it on my site, http://www.utopiafootball.com and it is exactly what I needed in order to keep my site functional on my shared server in high traffic times.