Creating and Modifying Templates

Creating Your Own Templates

If you want to insert a whole block of HTML rather than a simple value, it’s generally better to create your own template.

Templates are usually created in the _install() function. They can be created like this:

global $db;

$template = '<strong>{$hello_world}</strong>';

$insert_array = array(
    'title' => 'hello_world_template',
    'template' => $db->escape_string($template),
    'sid' => '-1',
    'version' => '',
    'dateline' => time()
);

$db->insert_query('templates', $insert_array);

The template can be deleted in your _uninstall() function using:

$db->delete_query("templates", "title = 'hello_world_template'");

Once your plugin has been installed, you should now be able to see the template you created in your Admin CP under Templates & Style > Templates > Global Templates.

To replace a variable inserted into another template with your custom template you must do the following from your hook function:

global $templates, $myVar;

$hello_world = 'foobar';
eval('$myVar  = "' . $templates->get('hello_world_template') . '";');

Note that $hello_world does not have to be global, yet it’s passed to your custom template.

If all has worked correctly you should see the following at the top of your index page:

<strong>Hello World</strong>

Working with a Template Group

It is easier to scale when implementing many templates by creating a template group for all relevant templates.

A template group can be created like this:

$template_group = array(
    'prefix' => $db->escape_string("hello_world"),
    'title' => $db->escape_string("Hello World"),
    'isdefault' => 0
);

$db->insert_query('templategroups', $template_group);

The above code example will create a template group titled ‘Hello World’ and will include all templates that use the unique prefix of ‘hello_world’.

An example of creating one template group and two templates:

global $db;

$template_group = array(
    'prefix' => $db->escape_string("hello_world"),
    'title' => $db->escape_string("Hello World"),
    'isdefault' => 0
);

$db->insert_query('templategroups', $template_group);

$insert_array_first = array(
    'title' => 'hello_world_first',
    'template' => $db->escape_string($template_first),
    'sid' => '-2',
    'version' => '',
    'dateline' => time()
);

$db->insert_query('templates', $insert_array_first);

$insert_array_second = array(
    'title' => 'hello_world_second',
    'template' => $db->escape_string($template_second),
    'sid' => '-2',
    'version' => '',
    'dateline' => time()
);

$db->insert_query('templates', $insert_array_second);

Deletion of a template group is done separately from templates. If there is a need to delete a template group but not its matching templates, change the sid on the templates, or else they will not show up in the Admin CP.

Example of deleting a template group and changing sid for relevant templates:

global $db;

$db->delete_query("templategroups", "prefix = 'hello_world'");

$update_array = array(
    'sid' => '-1'
);

$db->update_query("templates", $update_array, "title like '%hello_world_%'");

Editing Templates

Most plugins require some changes to the front end of the site, typically to display some extra information.

Modifying Templates to Add a Variable

A variable can easily be inserted into a template using the find_replace_templatesets() function, which looks for a string and replaces it in a given template.

For this purpose, you usually replace the string with itself plus your variable, for example:

require_once MYBB_ROOT."/inc/adminfunctions_templates.php";

find_replace_templatesets(
    "index",
    "#" . preg_quote('<body>') . "#i",
    '<body>{$myVar}'
);

This would insert {$myVar} after <body> in the index template.

It is important to make sure the string you search for is unlikely to change between templates, otherwise users will have to manually edit their templates to insert the variable if the string doesn’t exist in their template.

Passing Simple Values to a Template

Global variables can be accessed from templates, so the easiest way to access a variable in your hook function from a template is to make it global:

global $myVar;

$myVar = 'Hello World!';

This will insert Hello World! where the {$myVar} variable is in the template. $myVar can, of course, be any value, such as one dynamically generated or from a database query.

An alternative solution is to modify an existing global variable such as $user. For example, you could insert {$user['favorite_colour']} into a template, then do the following in your hook function:

global $user;

$user['favorite_colour'] = 'Blue';

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