Default Postbit Selectable By Members
 

Hack Support

This hack is now discontinued - this means that while it will remain available for download and use, there will be no further updates, nor will support be provided as the thread is no longer monitored. You can now check out the 3.8.x version of this hack, as it also works with v3.7.5, v3.6.12 (and maybe even earlier versions).

Please click Mark as Installed if you are using this hack.


vBulletin Version Compatibility

This hack can be used with v3.6.10 and v3.7.x. This has not been tested with earlier versions of v3.6.x, but should work.


What Does This Hack Do?

This is a hack that lets your members select the type of postbit they want displayed for themselves, just like here at vBulletin.org.

vBulletin now uses a horizontal postbit as default, but it used to display the postbit vertically in two columns (see screenshots) and some long time members prefer the old school postbit over the new one, and this hack gives them the option. You can leave the forum wide setting as the new postbit, and members can choose themselves if they want this or the old one.

Show single posts will also be affected by this setting.

Now, as an added bonus, you can choose to display the member's default postbit in posts or threads.

DEMO: You can see how this works by testing the function out right here at vBulletin.org, all you need to do is tick the Yes, I prefer old-style postbit checkbox in the Thread Display Options of User CP -> Edit Options. Then check a few threads to see what it does.


IMPORTANT NOTE: This hack will only work if you use the horizontal postbit display site-wide.
I have no plans in making it work with the postbit legacy site-wide. I have looked into it, and it would require code changes to vBulletin's core files to make it work.

So, under the Style & Language Settings section of vBulletin Options in the AdminCP:

• Ensure Use Legacy (Vertical) Postbit Template is set to No.

IMPORTANT NOTE 2: When using Quick Reply when you are in legacy layout with your postbits, posts the QR are displayed in postbit layout when submitted. This quirk is rectified with a refresh of the page (see post #46 for more info). But there is a fix in the v3.8.x version of this hack (which will work with 3.7.x).


Installation Instructions

The Default Postbit Installation Instructions 3.7.xxx.pdf instructions file is included in attached .zip (includes visual instructions).
NOTE: If upgrading then just do Step 2 and Step 3 again.

Uninstall Instructions

1. In the AdminCP, go to User Profile Fields -> User Profile Field Manager.
   • Delete the Default Postbit profile field.
2. Uninstall the product using the AdminCP Product Manager.

Version History

v3.7.002 - Thursday 4th September 2008
-- Final Release
-- Fixed: Bug where keywords being searched for were not being highlighted in the results
-- Changed: Total code rewrite
-- Changed: Instructions
-- Changed: Screenshots
-- Changed: No more editing of plugins
-- Added: AdminCP Options for user profile field ID and displaying members default postbit in post/thread
-- Added: 2 new phrases

v3.7.001 - Tuesday 8th July 2008
-- Initial Release


Show Your Appreciation

Although not required, if you have enjoyed the benefits of this hack, and would like show your appreciation for my efforts, then please feel free to click on the Support Developer link and donate any amount you feel is appropriate.

this is neat, thank you

Downloading!!! xD

Oh, nice mod Thanks!
I will install that after 4 reviews positive : )

awesome! just NOMINATED!

Will this work in reverse if the plugins are edited? That is, it would make postbit_legacy the default and allow members to select the newer postbit if they want to.

Thanks, looks neat.

Possibly, I have not tried it myself, as most sites would use the new postbit , and new sites install using the new postbit as default. I will not be looking into it myself.

So, you are welcome to have a go, but if it does not work, I suggest you use the new postbit system wide and get members to select the legacy postbit if they want it.

Heh was about to port my oooold one into this but great, someone else did it :D

thanks; installed.

That is 5 positive review now :)

If you are using this, then please click Mark as Installed.

Awesome!!!

I don't like the wording, so I am going to be editing the phrases.
If anybody would like to know what I changed it to:
*Feel free to use it.

I don't think the original wording was bad... it's just that my users most likely will not understand it. LOL

Great mod!

Cool, glad you like it.

I just used the phrasing they use here at vb.org. You can use what you like :)

did you guys ever get a solution to the legacy being the default, and allowing users to select the new one? if so, please help me out :D

thanks

I have looked into it, and it would probably require code changes to vBulletin's core files to make it work. Even if I did work out what to change, you would need to remember to make all the file changes to the core files each and every time Jelsoft updated vBulletin.

I updated the first post to reflect this a while ago to mention that I had looked into it.

Damn, I go with Legacy as default. Nice work tho.

Very nice plug-in, thanks. I've always liked giving users this option, but hated having to do template edits over and over again.

First off very nice mod been looking for this!

I've got a bug though. Using 3.7.0 Gold

If u are using the old vertical postbit and you make a post or u edit a post, it dissapears and you have to refresh the page to see it. Is this a bug, or something i've done wrong?

I've checked the install and followed your guidelines.

I can not replicate this problem. I have tried with installations on Windows and Linux, and across a few styles as well (this hack should be style independent) and can not replicate it.

Does this occur with one style only? Does the same happen with the default vBulletin style?

I am asking as it could be a style issue, as I am pretty sure it is not this hack (it's code is applied well before the page appears on the screen, and uses vBulletin's own postbit class to allow selection of either postbit).

Also, you did do all three plugin edits, didn't you?

I did all 3 plugin edits. Changed to field6 not 8 cause it said field6 on the plugin.

I thout maybe you are right and my style is too old as it has had problems before with other mods. However I tried using classic layout on the default VB template and i replicated the same problem.

Hmm. Any ideas?

Does it occur with all other products/hacks disabled?

Works fine whit 3.7.2

same Problem, the post with QUICKREPLY is not refresh inmediatly.....

I use 3.7.2 PL1 and the Default Skin with any modifications

One idea rather than modify default vB code: if you use the vertical postbit set up in admincp, set it to the horizontal, but then run a database query to change the value over in everyone's profile so they are still on the vertical postbit, unless they go in and specifically change it. (Having not looked into this mod yet, I'm thinking this is set via an additional database field.) That will keep everyone on the vertical postbit.

I may try this myself. If so I'll come back and mark it "installed". There was an earlier mod for 3.5 or 3.6 (don't recall which), but I never got it to work. It operated off of a custom profile field...

Again, I am not able to replicate this. I will do some more testing...... but it may come to a point where I am going to have a look at forum which is experiencing this issue, because if I can not replicate this I will not be able to find out what is causing it, and will not be able to provide a fix for it.

Ok, but we can found the problem between all

I disable all my Plugin that use Postbit and now It's Work.....

Now. I going to enable one per one and try.....

Testing...............

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ok, Testing done

In my case, only the plugin

[Sniper] - Mood Manager

It's the problem U_U

The people with the same problem, try disable this Mod and comment Please

That would be cool if it works... Another forum here that is 'legacy' by default- in fact EVERYONE complained when I tried to go to the new style... Most forums I see are legacy setup, all of them except here...

I already stated in the first post that it does not work when legacy is used site-wide, and I have no plans in making it do so, but someone comes up with a solution that does not include edits to vBulletin's core files, then let me know how and I will add it to the hack.

This is a roundabout way to do it, but here goes.

IF you can run a database query, you can take an extra step to change everyone over. I did it on my forum a few hours ago and nobody noticed. :D

After you set up your custom field in the user profile, and you have the ID number, you run this simple query first:

update userfield set field26 = '1'

My custom field was "26"...substitute your own field number there, of course. This would be step #1-1/2 in your procedure. ;)

From that point, I then uploaded the XML file, modified the plugins, etc. per your instructions, then went over to the AdminCP and changed the forum over to the horizontal postbit. Since everyone's "Use the old postbit" setting is checked (set to '1' in the database), it is already turned on for them when you switch the main forum setting over to the horizontal postbit; nobody will know any better!

New users who sign up will get the newer postbit, but if they look through their options, they'll find the checkbox and activate it themselves. I did change the wording so that everyone could understand it better.

So the short version is--insert that database query instruction above as #2 in your procedure, and it's an easy workaround when most people are used to the left-hand postbit.

It still does not get around guests viewing the board in legacy view (forum-wide legacy view), as far as I can see, which is what people have been asking for, and that does not seem achievable without edits to the core files.

Thanks for posting this though, as I am sure it will be useful for some people :)

Also, as you seem to be using this hack, please click Mark as Installed.

True. I figure newer members won't notice the difference, but the existing members are already set to stay at the old view. For now that's good enough for me. I think this should have been a user-selectable option in vB itself, as I know a lot of users (including myself) prefer the postbit over on the side (either left, or on the right like phpBB3 does) as it makes reading posts much easier. I prefer signatures off as well, but being an admin means I have to monitor those, as does my staff.

I may hit the database in a few weeks to see who is using the horizontal vs. the vertical postbit layout.

The only other swap I can think of, would be to copy the contents of the postbit_legacy template to postbit, and vice versa. That would mess up future upgrades (you'd have to revert templates, redo the swap, then re-insert any custom template edits by hand), but it may be another quick and dirty way to handle it. If there are hooks in both that are specific to postbit and/or postbit_legacy, those would have to be renamed as well. Untested, of course...and I'm not brave enough to try it even on my test forum. ;)

Has anyone else had a problem where you lose the search results highlighting when this plugin is enabled? One of my admins pointed this out, and members noticed it as well. Not sure if it's a conflict with other plugins, or if it's this one in particular, but when I disable it, the search highlighting begins working again. (Search highlighting is when you do a forum search, and your search word is highlighted in the text of the post.) What happens is, the < span class="highlight" > code around the search word is missing.

I'll experiment more to see if this is indeed the case or not.

I have just replicated this too.... did not test for it originally, but thought I had it covered when I created it.... oh well :(

It is just when the legacy postbit is selected when this hack is enabled.

I have to hand 3 assignments in for university tomorrow, but I will be looking at this at the weekend and see if I can fix it.

I don't see how they could affect each other, but they do. I'm glad that you could replicate it though--I was thinking it might be incompatible with another plugin I had installed. I even uninstalled a couple of old ones, but still, no highlights came back.

The only manual change I made to both postbits was adding a display for the iTrader ratings. If you want to compare notes on which plugins we might have installed, let me know.

No problem--school comes first! :up:

I am definitely going to have to dig deeper, as I can not for the life of understand why this is happening, the words should be highlighted by they are not, and I am really hoping that the solution does not include core file edits.

This may take a while, but I will get back to you.

omg been waiting for this. admin and me just had a fight over which postbit to use. this solves that problem. ;)

thoughI too would love if legacy were default :(

I wish the legacy postbit were the default also. The horizontal is just clutter--posts interrupted by avatars, usernames, locations, etc. I wouldn't even mind a right-hand postbit, as long as it's off to one side and out of my way. Imaging reading an interview in the newspaper where, every couple of sentences, a strip of information were placed above each reply. *sigh*

One of my online buddies who runs a vB forum found a template modification that will show a user's signature only once within a thread (or page within a thread). Another way of reducing the clutter.

I found a bug with this mod while using TfSEO...

If a user is using the legacy postbit, they get uncached templates:

Uncached templates: pagenav (1)
Uncached templates: pagenav_pagelink (1)

Well, they are cached for me, so I am pretty sure it is not a bug. There is only one confirmed bug in this hack at the moment, and that is when searching the key words are not highlighted, and I am currently looking into that.

I have debug mode enabled on my testbed and those are not un-cached when this hack is enabled and in postbit_legacy mode.

I also have over 20 hacks enabled as well (I always like to test my hacks in a mixed environment, just in case there is a problem with other hacks I write).

This hack does not have anything to do with pagination at all, so I am pretty sure it is another hack that is doing this.

thank you