DJ's Dynamic Tab Content for Postbit_Legacy
 

**As with most template edits, this modification is not version specific and will work on any vBulletin for vB3. You can find the vB4 version here.**

Ever felt your postbit_legacy template was just too long? Or maybe you'd like to add more content to your postbit_legacy, but you don't like the cluttered look or extended length of the post, especially when most posts are only a handful of sentences? Almost every decent modification here on vB.org has the option to add a link or a display to your postbit templates, and you've likely struggled, as I have, to come up with just the info you want to display, likely excluding things you thought would look real nice, but just couldn't justify the room for.

Now I've seen several good modifications that address this problem, and all of them are pretty nice. I've seen everything from a drop-down menu that displays the content, to a box that can be opened and closed just underneath the avatar. All of them are practical in their own way, and here's one more way that I worked out using a script from Dynamic Drive's website called Tab Content Script. This cleaned up my postbit_legacy just the way I wanted, and let me add even more content then I would have originally intended. It also allowed me to organize content in whatever manner I wished. I love it and I think you will too.






Difficulty: Intermediate
A few things you should know before moving forward. The instructions for this mod are not your standard template modification instructions. It's going to presume that you've edited your postbit_legacy template before and that you're somewhat familiar with its content, with HTML and how to wrap <if condition=""> conditionals. So it's not going to be a "look for this line of code, add this under it" kind of traditional tutorial. What I'm going to do is show you the basic code, how to implement it and then let you do with it what you want. That is, after all, the reason I came up with mod in first place, and I know everyone wont have the same postbit content and/or will want to set theirs up differently.

With that said, knowledge of how to modify your templates and basic HTML coding is something every vBulletin administrator should have. I'm not a coder. I'm a complete hack. But I know enough to take some of the wealth of code snippets available on the web and attempt to use them in new and inventive ways. Administrating a vB forum is that much more satisfying as a result.


Installation
To add this to your forum requires you to upload some files, make one edit to your headinclude template and one to your postbit_legacy template. If you don't know what postbit_legacy does, it's the template that controls the look of your posts when you've chosen to have avatars and user information appear to the left hand side of your posts. If you don't use that look for your forum, but instead use the one where avatars appear above your posts, then that means you use the postbit template, and this modification wasn't designed to look right on that template. (Though we have had a few users give it a try.)

Step 1.
First things first. After downloading the Attachment 83351 file, extract the contents and upload the postbit_tabs folder in your forum's root directory (Your forum root is the folder you have physically installed vBulletin in, which means that for some folks, this isn't the same thing as your site root.)

Step 2.
Right click and download this JavaScript file from the Dynamic Drive website: tabcontent.js (You can also download it from this page.) Upload it to the postbit_tabs folder you just added to your website.

Step 3.
Now to edit your headinclude template. Go to Admin CP >>> Styles & Templates >>> Style Manager >>> <<>> >>> headinclude.

Add the following block of code to the very bottom. Remember to keep the copyright intact for legal use.
Step 4.
Now to access your postbit_legacy template, go to Admin CP >>> Styles & Templates >>> Style Manager >>> <<>> >>> Postbit Templates >>> postbit_legacy.

From here, your going to add a basic set of code from which you can then customize it. You can pretty much add it anywhere in the template, but most likely your going to want to add it just below the avatar. If that's the case, your avatar code is most likely going to look something like this:

Below that add this basic set of code. This block of code will be your physical tab content.

Now go to your forum and see if your tabs are displaying properly and your not getting any errors. You should have five dot tabs that display five different sets of information when clicked.

Final Steps
Now comes the hard part. Now you have to decide what you want to put in those places called Tab 1 Content:Block A, etc. This is where knowledge of your postbit_legacy template comes into play. Your now going to move whatever content you want in the respective tabs from their current location into the tabs. This is entirely up to you, but you can use my forum as a starting point. The following posts also have some tips to help you along the way.

Post 2 has a Basic Breakdown of what the tabs do, a tutorial on how to add more tabs, default snippets of code that you can move into the tabs containers as well some snippets from common hacks.

Post 3 has some links to other sites that have implemented this hack to give you an idea of what can be done with it. And it has some additional images to use in place of the default dots.

Post 5 has Frequently Asked Questions for most problems you would encounter.




Known Bugs
There is one minor issue with the tabs that only occurs when using the AJAX quick reply and inline editing. Actually it's two issues, but I've only seen one or the other on my live site vs. my demo board. In one instance, the entire content of all your tabs displays all at once when posting/editing using AJAX. This is not a huge deal, as the only person who sees it do that is the person doing the posting/editing. And it will return to normal anytime he reloads or refreshes the page. The other instance is when after posting/editing through AJAX, no tab content appears, except the dot tabs. This is also not a huge deal as the same thing will happen here too; only the poster sees it and it will look normal anytime he returns or reloads the page. I think it's a minor trade off for the sleek look it gives your forum the rest of the time.

Upgrade Instructions
For those using the 1.00 version of this modification, please see this post for upgrade instructions.

Basic Breakdown
Here's a basic explanation as to how the code works. This should help you to create new tabs and what can be edited in the code to your preferences.

The Tabs: Let's take a look back at the code you just added. In Step 4 you added a bunch of lines like this one. These are your tabs, the parts that people will actually click on to change the content view. In this example we're looking at the code for Tab 2.

The code in red is your TITLE. It's what will show in the Tool Tip when someone mouseovers one of the tabs. Change this to your liking. I group my tabs by categories like Contact Info, TCG Info, General Info, etc. Do what cha' like.

The code in blue just a non-breaking space added in so people have something to click on. Users will see a background image, but what they'll actually be clicking is this non-breaking space. Change this space if you want to use text for your tabs instead of images. Otherwise just leave it be. (See FAQ)

The Containers: Now lets take a look at your containers. These are the DIVs that will display your content when a new tab is clicked. Each one is marked <!-- TAB [#] CONTENT --> and correspond to each of the tabs mentioned in the block of code above.

The code in blue, the DIV, is your container, and is needed for the tabs to work. This part you would not change.

Everything on the inside is replaceable code and can be customize to look however you want. Examples of code snippets you can move into each of these tabs can be found a little further down in this post.



Creating New Tabs
Let's take a look at the Step 4 code again. Here's the code for Tab 2 again, as well as it's corresponding container.

The green code in both blocks here is what tells Tab 2 to show container 2's content. The rel of the tab is the same as the id of the container. They're both tab2$post[postid].

So when creating additional tabs, pick up where the numbers left off on the last tab and start again. I had you install 5 tabs, so if your using all 5 and want to add another, the rel for your new tab and id for your new container would both be tab6$post[postid]. The next tab and container you add would be tab7$post[postid]. Then the next tab8$post[postid] and so on and so forth. You get the idea.



More Options
NOTE: This has since been set to false by default. Users have been reporting some login issues when this is set to true. So use at your own discretion.

This line of code sets the persistence of a clicked tab each time a user returns to that page during the same browser session. Set to true, and the last clicked tab will always display that tab on reload. Set to false, and it will show the tab with the ID selected each time. Note that each tab is unique, and having this set to true won't make much of a difference to your users view of the forum. The only tab that will ever persist is the one he/she clicked on, on a specific post in a specific thread, and only there. And only during the same browser session.


Put a number inside the parenthesis to determine how many milliseconds you want to pass between each time the tabs automatically toggle themselves. I have not tried this option yet, and I can imagine that it would be very annoying. But I figured, why not let you try it.

vBulletin IF Conditionals can be used to show/hide whole tabs, or the specific content of tabs based on a number of parameters: Usergroup Permissions, Forum IDs, User IDs, Thread IDs, Post IDs, etc. Just wrap a conditional around a whole tab and then it's container, or wrap the content of the container in any number of fashions. To learn more about what conditionals are available here are two good resources:





Default Postbit Legacy Code Bits
Here's a few of the things that come standard in vBulletin that you might want to move to the various DIV containers.

Online Status:
Posts:
Age:
Join Date:
Biography:
Interests:
Occupation:
Infractions:
Reputation:
Instant Messengers:

Common Hack Postbit Legacy Code Bits
Here's a few code bits that you'll find in some of the more common vBulletin modifications that you might have installed that you'd like to move to the DIV containers.


vBCredits:
Countries/Region Flags (Replace 8 and 9 with whatever fields your using):
ibProArcade (With some slight additions by me):

Made Up Postbit Legacy Codes:
And here's at least one I just went ahead and made up for my forum:
Send User a PM/Email/Friend Request:

If you have more examples that I can post, possible some I overlooked or mods I don't have installed, please feel free to post them and I'll add them to this post.

Additional Live Demos
Here's some additional examples of how people have utilized the script on their forums

http://www.cogonline.net/forums/showthread.php?t=44718
http://www.glamrocktalk.com/showthre...?p=177#post177
http://jpicforum.info/lots-humor/why...road-6801.html
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=300
http://www.phinzmania.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42794
http://www.stickskills.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3392


Additional Dot Images
Here's a few additional Dot Images in different colors for your convience.

Attachment 85834 Attachment 85835 Attachment 85836 Attachment 85837 Attachment 85838 Attachment 85839 Attachment 85840 Attachment 85841 Attachment 85842 Attachment 85843 https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/external/2010/03/67.jpg https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/external/2010/03/67.jpg

For those users who implemented my 1.00 version of this modification, here's what you need to do to upgrade. The upgrade includes changes to address the login issue that some users where experiencing and validates the the code to comply with XHTML standards. (That's geek-speak that means it makes the code compatible across all browser types.)

Upgrade Instructions
Upgrading is not all that hard, you just need to be a little careful. All that needs to be done is move a few of bits of code around, so read closely. Other then that, you shouldn't have too much trouble. Some of you have already taken these steps. Open your postbit_legacy template.

Step 1.
Take the code in red and move it to the bottom of your headinclude template. Delete the opening and closing <head></head> tags.


Step 2.
Reverse the order of each instance of $post[postid]tab#, so that it reads tab#$post[postid] instead. Also reverse the order of $post[postid]postbittabs so that postbittabs comes first.

TIP: The find feature and CTRL+V (Paste) come in handy when finding and replacing lines of code.


Step 3.
Do the same for each TAB CONTENT block. Reverse the order of $post[postid]tab#, so that they read tab#$post[postid] instead.

Step 4.
Reverse the order of $post[postid]postbittabs to postbittabs$post[postid]. Change true to false.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

1. Some of the content of my postbit_legacy was done automatically by some modifications. How do I move that content into one of the tabs?

   Answer: Modifications that add content to your postbit automatically do so using one of your template hooks. Search your posbit_legacy template for a template hook close to the area the content you want to move is displayed and try moving it around to see if that's where it's controlled. The most common hooks to be used by modifications are:
   
   $template_hook[postbit_userinfo_left]
   $template_hook[postbit_userinfo_right_after_posts]
   $template_hook[postbit_userinfo_right]
   

2. I have a lot of content that uses the template hooks, so everything ends up in one place. I can't split it up. How do I move the content where I want it to go?

   Answer: What you can try to do is check each of your modifications plugins that use the postbit's template hook. The easiest way to do this is to go through your Plugin Manager and peruse each of your product's plugins. Look for the plugins that use the postbit_display_complete hook. Disable them one at a time, each time checking to see if something disappears from your forum's postbits. You've likely found the right plugin.
   
   Now the next part is trickier. In some cases, the plugin calls a template to display it's information. So in those cases, you can turn the plugin off and look for the template it calls and copy and paste that template information into your postbit_legacy template instead. For instance, DownloadsII postbit information is controlled via the downloads_postbit_display_complete plugin. And all that plugin says is:
   
   

   PHP Code:

   ---

   global $vbulletin;
if ($vbulletin->options['ecshowmemberinfo'])
{
 eval('$template_hook[postbit_userinfo_right_after_posts] .= " ' . fetch_template('downloads_memberinfo_postbit') . '";');
} 


   ---

   Notice the fetch_template part calls a template called downloads_memberinfo_postbit. That's the template you can go into and copy and paste what's in there into your postbit_legacy, in turn turning this plugin off.
   
   In other cases, the plugin might reference a PHP file, in which case you'd have to go to that file and search for the code to duplicate. Another case might have the postibit code worked right into the plugin itself. In all cases though, provided you can find the HTML code used, you can just disable that one plugin and post the HTML code wherever you want (and however you want it to look) in your postbit_legacy template, removing any extraneous code inherent to PHP, like escaped quotations \"

3. Can I use text or different images for the tabs?

   Answer: Absolutely. If you want different images, all you have to do is replace the two images in the postbit_tabs folder. If you want text instead, type what you want to appear in place of the &nbsp; in between the <li></li> tags. Just remember to remove the references to background images in the CSS file.
   

4. Can I use different images for different tabs?

   Answer: Yes, but you would need to add the image code for each image to the posbit_legacy template. Replace each of the &nbsp; in between the <li></li> tags with the images of your choice. You may also need to remove the references to the background images in the CSS file. Note, though, that this has some limitations. For example, all your images would look the same all the time. Though they would be different from each other, they would not change when clicked on or deselected.
   

5. I've made the template edits, but the tabs don't show. They just stretch out underneath each other like a list.

   Answer: This is because your CSS file can't be found. Are you sure you uploaded the postbit_tabs folder to your forum root? Your forum root is the folder you have physically installed vBulletin. For a lot of us, this is the same as our site root, but for those of us who have installed vBulletin in a subfolder, (such as a folder named forums) then that's where our postbit_tabs folder should be located. Also check to make sure your FTP client didn't drop any files during transfer by re-uploading the files.
   

6. I've made the template edits, but when I click the tabs, nothing happens or the forum just jumps to the top of the page.

   Answer: This is because your Javascript file can't be found. Are you sure you uploaded the postbit_tabs folder to your forum root? Your forum root is the folder you have physically installed vBulletin. For a lot of us, this is the same as our site root, but for those of us who have installed vBulletin in a subfolder, (such as a folder named forums) then that's where our postbit_tabs folder should be located. Also check to make sure your FTP client didn't drop any files during transfer by re-uploading the files.
   

7. My forum doesn't display those little boxes.

   Then you probably don't have the CSS code for .info on your forum. It's a commonly used CSS class name in many styles, but not all have it, or have different names. First take a moment to look at your forum and see if you don't have a box style somewhere that's being used and just use it's class (presuming it has one) rather than .info. Alternatively, you can use the following code, but change the color codes to match your forum:
   

   PHP Code:

   ---

   /* Info Boxes CSS */
.info {
font-size:10px;
font-face:Arial;
color: #CCCCCC;
padding-left: 3px;
padding-right: 3px;
padding-top: 3px;
padding-bottom: 3px;
background-color: #181818;
border-top: 1px solid #000000;
border-right: 2px solid #000000;
border-left: 1px solid #000000;
border-bottom: 2px solid #000000;
margin-bottom: 3px;
} 


   ---

   Remember that this goes in your Additional CSS Definitions way down at the bottom of your Main CSS controls in the Style Manager.

there is no javascript file in the zip file;)

There's not supposed to be. See Step 2. ;)

Your css is calling for .gif files when there are none in the zip file attached

The CSS might just have a line or two I didn't clear out yet. I thought I'd cleaned it up completely, but you shouldn't have need for the referenced .gif file.

It's possible I didn't add the cleaned up CSS file to the ZIP. Seems I had a few different copies lying around. I'll try to add the cleaned up one for sure, but functionally it shouldn't make any difference to your forum when trying to edit. The only things you'd need to change, practically speaking, would be the images your using. In this case, the two PNGs.

uhhh, a fantistic template, is it possible you can make it for 3 blogs made? pleaseeeeeee! it would be fantistic

I don't have the blog installed, so I don't know what that would entail. I imagine, though, that the code would be the same, just in a different template.

very nice idea!

hmmmm - This looks really really good!
Thanx for sharing.

Jacquii.

very cool DJ, thanks!

A+

Mod of the month, for vb3.7.x

Great Work !!! Keep it up !!!

Thanks

very nice mod

/me bookmarked

11 installs in 24 hours. I don't know the average rate, but I'm glad you all are liking it so far.

After I address one of my older threads updates, I hope to add some alternate background images for you to download. Also, I'd like to see your sites if you wouldn't mind posting them so I can add them to the alternate examples post towards the start of the thread.

Oh, feel free to post your testimonials on how difficult you found the install.

=D Thanks will install later =]

MOTM

Your add a header tag in the middle of a users page. This is a no no.

Also users should be inserting the information in the CSS file directly into the vbulletin extra css fields to maximize load times.

Also please follow the standards of vb, the javascript should be under /clientscript.

What I've done is make the instructions as simple as possible for users with less experience to be able to use this as a starting point for other things and can easily edit/remove later. Admins with more coding experience can put the contents where it is more suited, as I have with a number of modifications here on vB.org.

There is no such thing as a "no no" here. It works, and they can fix it as they become more knowledgeable. That is, if they come to even care about such things. Knowledge of validation and the like come later, as you learn more. You don't slam people with it all at once for a perceived sense of etiquette that doesn't exist. People who know better, can adjust it themselves, with little to no effort.

The javascript of a great many mods here on this site are not in the clientscript folder for one very good reason. In case they want to remove it or replace it, they can easily find it. There's no reason I should have to put the javascript anywhere specific, for functionality or validation reasons.

If you wanted to make a suggestion, that's one thing. But the way you've phrased it is more reproving then instructive, with the spirit more inclined to engender confrontation then edification.

This looks like just what I need! Will give a try later tonight. :)

Marked as INSTALLED - thanx again for the sharing!

Jacquii.

Marked Installed.

But when I click on a dot to view the info, it refreshes the pages and takes me to the begining of a thread.

Any ideas, on how can I change this just like on your site. click on dot, info is there.

Thanks

Would it be possible to see a link to your site where your having the problem?

Ah, nevermind this, I found the actual issue with the code. :P

Greaaaaaaat mod!

One question I do have though, how would I go about making the Arcade only show the individual blocks of each game the user is champion of, rather than showing the block & text combo?

I like this. Is it possible to get a guide for the regular postbit?

The issue on hand that I'm experiencing is as follows.

If the link is just something regular like...

http://stickskills.com/v2/showthread.php?t=1

Only one dot shows up, but you can still click the rest if you know where they're at.

If the link is something like...

http://stickskills.com/v2/showthread.php?t=1?

Then all of the dots actually show up.

Is there a fix for this?

Well, if your running ibProArcade, then that's controlled in the Admin CP for your Arcade.


If you want it for posbit, there's no real change in the code. The only difference would be the style choices you decide to make for it, as it will probably look a tad odd on postbit without a little tweaking. But as far as coding goes, there wouldn't be any changes.


They both seem to show up fine for me, in both IE and FireFox. What browser are you using?

I'm using Firefox 3.0. It shows up fine with the question mark attached, but only shows the first dot on the original.

Digital Jedi;

Instead of using dots, I would like to use tabs( eg System Info Personal Info Awards Misc.).
Can this be accomplished? I would greatly appreciate the help!

Okay here is an issue I have.

In Firefox 3.0 if you click the dots they disappear, then I load it in Safari when I click the dots it takes me to the top of the page. This works fine on the example page though, and now the dots don't appear on the threads I clicked them on in Firefox.

BTW here is my code, its Postbit but I am going to modify it, I tried it with legacy same issue.

Could be a number of things, though I'm not seeing the problem in FireFox 2.0. Could be anything from the odd placed <head> tags to an issue with 3.0. I'm going to post an update for this after I update my XML Definition thread. Let's see if the new version creates the same issue for you, if you don't mind waiting on me.


Of course, whatever images or lack of images you want. Just replace the images I'm using with the images you want to use instead. You'll notice in the code that I have the <span> tags surrounding non-breaking spaces (&nbsp;). Change that to the text you want to use on top of the images. Or just one of the other. Any further style changes you want to make can be done in the CSS file.

Hrm, tested your postbit code on my demo board and I'm not finding that problem either. But again, it could be the same as I mentioned above, being a 3.0 issue, so maybe the problem with be corrected with my update, again, if you don't mind waiting just a bit.

Thanks Jedi, I appreciate it. I won't be launching these new boards for probably at least about 2 weeks, so that'll be fine. :)

Awww ok Ill try and be patient I wonder if it's another plug in I have maybe.

Jedi I think the JS file from Dynamic Drive is F'd up can you post your version?

I got it working... the Dynamic Drive link was not working!

Worked like a champ!! .... Thanks Digital Jedi!! :)

<li><span title="View Tab 1"><a href="#" rel="$post[postid]tab1" id="selected">&nbsp;</a></span></li>

What do i do with this line? I have no clue and you don't say it in the directions you just explain which ones confilict with eachother.