Miscellaneous Hacks - Ultimate Side Columns 2.2

Ultimate Side Columns
By Kerry-Anne www.peterska2.co.uk

Welcome to Ultimate Side Columns 2.2 !

USC 2.2 has now been released!!!!

Introduction

Following the success of the left and right side column modifications, and building on their weaknesses, the Ultimate Side Columns system was born.

Ultimate Side Columns (USC) is your one stop shop for all your side columns needs. It is an easy to configure, all in one solution.

USC 2.0 was born through the evolution and bug fixing of USC 1.0 for vBulletin 3.6 and is for vBulletin 3.7.0 RC1 and later only. It is not supported with earlier versions and may not work with them.

Features

USC 2.0 is fully customizable, can use conditions and variables (not available in USC 1.0), has greater flexibility in where it can be omitted from (after requests received), and contains new functionality of both independently collapsible columns and user defined custom links to be displayed on a per user basis in the column location of the administrators choosing.

A maximum of 20 blocks spread over the two columns are available at this time. However, if more are required then an expansion pack will be provided. The blocks can be reordered and moved between the templates with ease through simple template edits.

USC 2.2 Change Log:
Fixed bug with profile.php?do=editattachments
Added All Pages options

USC 2.1 Change Log:
Fixed blank page caused by missing template in the XML
Added compatibility with 3.7.0 Stable/Gold
Manual Template Edit instructions added to package
Enhanced the display page choices to allow exact selection of the pages where USC is to be displayed
Added usergroup permissions in addition to the global options for viewing the left column, viewing the right column, and using the custom contents block.

USC 2.1 has additional files. You need to upload the files first BEFORE importing the product

Upgrading from USC 2.0
Upload the contents of the upload folder, except the admincp directory, then import the XML.

Go to vBOptions > USC Options and set the display pages using the new options
Go to Usergroups > Usergroup Manager and set the permissions for each usergroup as desired. By default no permissions are given to any usergroups.

Upgrading from USC 1.0

USC 2.0 has been rewritten from the ground up and therefore all the blocks have been moved from the settings into the templates. Therefore, a unique upgrade script has been provided which must be run before importing the new product. Importing the new product first will result in the loss of your existing USC contents.

The upgrade script is located in the admincp directory after uploading the USC files and is ran by pointing your browser to admincp/usc_upgrade.php

Full upgrade instructions are included in the upgrade readme file in the zip.

Installation Instructions

Download the zip, unzip it and upload the contents of the upload folder to your forum directory. Import the product, all done.

Full instructions are included in the install readme in the zip.

Support

This modification has limited support only and is therefore flagged as unsupported. Support will be given when possible although it is always preferable when users of USC support each other. This was very successful with USC 1.0 and therefore is continued with USC 2.0

If you have any other combinations of pages that you would like to see available for the column options, please post them in the support thread ensuring that you add the title "USC Page Combination Request" to your post, or use this as the first line of your post ensuring that it is in bold text. This is very specific as due to the limited nature of support and time, the support thread will only be quickly skimmed through and therefore requests may be missed if it is not clear what they are.


The screenshots attached to this post and the next one show a range of pages with a range of column combinations. They are not labeled but they are pretty self explanatory.

Enjoy USC 2.0.

Kerry-Anne


PLEASE NOTE: This modification is unsupported. You may not receive a reply right after posting. Please try and help each other out.



Problems with your side columns not showing?
For your side columns to show, you need to update your usergroup permissions from the usergroup manager for each usergroup

Problems with errors in your vBOptions?
Point your browser to admincp/index.php?do=buildbitfields then try again

[tommythejoat]

The readme does leave out the bit about the usergroups, but it is well covered here. The rest of the readme seems quite useful to me.

I have noticed on several examples here a problem that I have also. The left and right collapse buttons do not line up the same. The left collapse is above the column, but the right collapse is to the right of its column. I think that is a glitch in the template, but I could not find it. I liked the idea that one user suggested of using a separate button to condition the columns. He put the button in the user login bits at the top of the screen. A nice little set of buttons would have a screen icon with a column on each side that changed color and controlled its respective column display.

I would also love to see some nice full examples of how to generate a text stream from some of the local information. I tired using an iframe with the result that all my Ajax controls were disabled. I will look on vb.com to see if I can find the technique mentioned earlier for displaying the contents of a thread. It would be good to have a nice dictionary of the conditionals information useful for controlling block contents. That may require just reading on my parts.

In reading all these posts I have been surprised at how often examples have been posted with bad html. i.e. <tr><td>some stuff</tr></td> instead of correctly nesting the tags. The other common error was leaving off the closing tag on an <a href=.......>Link stuff </a>.

I am surprised that any browsers allow such code, but browser developers must try to be tolerant of errors.

If someone has a clue how to fix the collapse button positioning I would appreciate seeing that. One of my users is giving me fits over it. If anyone has a site where the buttons are used and display correctly, that would be useful too.

In any case, thanks Kerry Ann for this fine addition.:up:

[Collectors]

I'm using the Geek Advertising Banner System (GAB). When I put the GAB code ($GAB_ads[0]) in one of the usc blocks my banner doesn't show up. Has anybody found a way to display banners using GAB and USC?

[rzpvile]

Well I give up officially since at first there might be help but this thread has officially gone full non support

[lowlight]

How can we make just certain bars collapsible?

[raugusto]

does any one have this working on 3.7.x?
I tried everything in my power. Forum permissions are on, edited the templates by hand, or by the hack... nothing shows up.

[dt-pain]

How can i set this to only display on certain threads/forums?

[Davey-UK]

Originally Posted by raugusto

does any one have this working on 3.7.x?
I tried everything in my power. Forum permissions are on, edited the templates by hand, or by the hack... nothing shows up.

Try the usergroup permissions. Look at the very bottom and find the setting to show side columns.

[raugusto]

Hi

Already did, not showing. Nothing shows up no left or right column no custom block... weird

[dt-pain]

When viewing sub forums the ads display under the sub forums. How can we fix this?

See here

http://www.sacpaintball.com/forum/fo...play.php?f=138

Thanks

[Graphictr]

thanks and installed..