The vBulletin Control Panel

Now that you have come this far, you are probably eager to access the Control Panel and get started.

Click on the link on the Step 13 page to access the Control Panel. (You will need to have deleted the install/install.php file before being able to continue.)

After clicking on the link you will then need to enter the username and password you assigned to the administrator during the installation of vBulletin.

Logging into the control panel

Once you log into the Control Panel, you are faced with a lot of information! Don't worry though—it is well organized, and you will quickly learn where everything is.

The vBulletin Control Panel

Down the left hand side you have a menu that allows you access to all the important features of vBulletin.

Here they are organized into categories and sub-categories.

• vBulletin Options
  • vBulletin Options
  • Search Type
• Styles & Templates
  • Style Manager
  • Search in Templates
  • Replacement Variable Manager
  • Download / Upload Styles
  • Find Updated Templates
• Languages & Phrases
  • Language Manager
  • Phrase Manager
  • Search in Phrases
  • Download / Upload Languages
• FAQ
  • FAQ Manager
  • Add New FAQ Item
• Announcements
  • Announcement Manager
  • Add New Announcement
• Forums & Moderators
  • Forum Manager
  • Add New Forum
  • Forum Permissions
  • Show All Moderators
  • View Permissions
• Calendars & Moderators
  • Calendar Manager
  • Add New Calendar
  • Calendar Permissions
  • Holiday Manager
• Threads & Posts
  • Prune
  • Move
  • Unsubscribe
  • Strip Poll
  • Who Voted
• Moderation
  • Moderate Threads
  • Moderate Posts
  • Moderate Attachments
  • Moderate Events
  • Moderate Users
• Attachments
  • Search
  • Moderate Attachments
  • Attachment Statistics
  • Attachment Storage Type
  • Extensions & Sizes
• Users
  • Add New User
  • Search for Users
  • Merge Users
  • Ban User
  • Prune / Move Users
  • Private Message Statistics
  • Referrals
  • Search IP Addresses
  • View Banned Users
  • Send Email to Users
  • Generate Mailing List
  • Access Masks
• Usergroups
  • Usergroup Manager
  • Add New Usergroup
  • Join Requests
  • Promotions
  • Forum Permissions
  • Administrator Permissions
• User Titles
  • User Title Manager
  • Add New User Title
• User Ranks
  • User Rank Manager
  • Add New User Rank
• User Reputations
  • User Reputation Manager
  • Add New User Reputation
  • View Reputation Comments
• User Profile Fields
  • User Profile Field Manager
  • Add New User Profile Field
• Paid Subscriptions
  • Subscription Manager
  • Add New Subscription
  • Payment API Manager
  • Test Communication
• Avatars
  • Avatar Manager
  • Add New Avatars
  • Upload Avatar
  • Avatar Storage Type
• Post Icons
  • Post Icon Manager
  • Add New Post Icon
  • Upload Post Icon
• Smilies
  • Smilie Manager
  • Add New Smilie
  • Upload Smilie
• Custom BB Codes
  • BB Code Manager
  • Add New BB Code
• Scheduled Tasks
  • Scheduled Task Manager
  • Add New Scheduled Task
  • Scheduled Task Log
• Plugin System
  • Manage Products
  • Plugin Manager
  • Add New Plugin
  • Download / Upload Plugins
• Statistics & Logs
  • Statistics
  • Control Panel Log
  • Moderator Log
  • Scheduled Task Log
  • Log Manager
• Import & Maintenance
  • Database Backup
  • Repair / Optimize Tables
  • Update Counters
  • Diagnostics
  • Execute SQL Query
  • View PHP info

In the right-hand pane you get information about the version—notice how we are being told that there is a newer version of vBulletin available. That's a really handy feature, and later on we'll show you how to upgrade the forum software quickly and easily.

We suggest that you spend some going through the menus and familiarizing yourself with the options and settings available—especially if this is your first installation of vBulletin. We will pick up the tour of the vBulletin Control Panel in Chapter 3. Now we need to go and look at importing data from another discussion board into vBulletin.