Member Bots 1.0 - Allow bots to act as members
This small mod allows you to treat search engine robots (i.e. GoogleBot, Yahoo Slurp)
as registered users instead of guests, as they are treated by default in VBulletin.
This is handy if your site allows limited access to guests, but full access to registered
users. By default, a search engine robot would only be allowed to index what a guest could
see, but with this mod, it would allow them to fully index your site as a registered user.
WARNING! This mod requires a very small edit to a VBulletin core file. This means whenever
you upgrade to a new version of VBulletin, you'll need to re-do this edit, if you overwrite
this file. If the idea of editing a VBulletin core file bothers you, don't install this mod!
To install:
1. Unzip the product-memberbot.xml file on your system.
2. Go to your VBulletin AdminCP and click on Manage Products under the Plugin Manager section.
3. Click on Add/Import Product.
4. Click on Browse on the first line (Upload the XML from your computer) and locate the
product-memberbot.xml file. Click on Import to upload it to the system.
5. Click on Plugin Manager, and ensure that the new plugin named Bot Checker, which
is found under the init_startup hook, is enabled.
6. Now the fun part, you'll need to edit the core VBulletin file init.php which is located in
the includes directory under your forum home.
For example, if your forum home is located in /home/blah/forum, then init.php is in
/home/blah/forum/includes
If you can edit the file on the server without having to download it, more power to you.
In init.php, find this line (should be near the very bottom of the file, line 403 in mine):
Add ABOVE this line:
NOTE: My registered users group is ID #2. Yours may be different, you may change this to
any group ID you like.
7. Save init.php and upload back to your server if you had to download the file to edit it.
If you're editing on the server, save it, and that's it!
=================================================================================================
That's it! Search Engine bots should now "see" your forum as a regular user, not a guest.
Enjoy!
Code:
http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=108070
as registered users instead of guests, as they are treated by default in VBulletin.
This is handy if your site allows limited access to guests, but full access to registered
users. By default, a search engine robot would only be allowed to index what a guest could
see, but with this mod, it would allow them to fully index your site as a registered user.
WARNING! This mod requires a very small edit to a VBulletin core file. This means whenever
you upgrade to a new version of VBulletin, you'll need to re-do this edit, if you overwrite
this file. If the idea of editing a VBulletin core file bothers you, don't install this mod!
To install:
1. Unzip the product-memberbot.xml file on your system.
2. Go to your VBulletin AdminCP and click on Manage Products under the Plugin Manager section.
3. Click on Add/Import Product.
4. Click on Browse on the first line (Upload the XML from your computer) and locate the
product-memberbot.xml file. Click on Import to upload it to the system.
5. Click on Plugin Manager, and ensure that the new plugin named Bot Checker, which
is found under the init_startup hook, is enabled.
6. Now the fun part, you'll need to edit the core VBulletin file init.php which is located in
the includes directory under your forum home.
For example, if your forum home is located in /home/blah/forum, then init.php is in
/home/blah/forum/includes
If you can edit the file on the server without having to download it, more power to you.
In init.php, find this line (should be near the very bottom of the file, line 403 in mine):
PHP:
if (!empty($db->explain))
Add ABOVE this line:
PHP:
if ($is_bot == 1) {
$vbulletin->userinfo['usergroupid'] = 2;
}
NOTE: My registered users group is ID #2. Yours may be different, you may change this to
any group ID you like.
7. Save init.php and upload back to your server if you had to download the file to edit it.
If you're editing on the server, save it, and that's it!
=================================================================================================
That's it! Search Engine bots should now "see" your forum as a regular user, not a guest.
Enjoy!