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

[Jason92s]

Originally Posted by ecky

Are there any plans to update this, or is there a comparable side column mod available for vB4.0.2?

Same question I have....I love USC for my 3.8.4 board and would really like something for my 4.0.2 board.

[DefenceTalk]

Originally Posted by Cricistan

Question: Is it possible to enable it for one style and disable it for another?

Not sure if you figured it out yet or not and why would you want to have two templates on same site (would hate to make changes to both!!!) but its possible.

Login to Admincp, then Ultimate Side Columns options and scroll down to where it says:

I will edit the templates myself - thanks anyway

Then add the appropripate code for side columns in each template that you want to show side columns in.


An update to this mod would be nice, to 8.x version.

[piratarg]

How do I create a space between a block and another? I tried several ways but not achievement.
Can anyone help please?

[moleculo]

Originally Posted by Jason92s

Same question I have....I love USC for my 3.8.4 board and would really like something for my 4.0.2 board.

Any news on a VB4 version? This is one of the mods I use that is holding me back from VB 4 upgrade.

[Jon12345]

This mod has slowed down my page loading somewhat. Currently, I am only using one side column (Block 11). If I go to Plugins & Products>Plugin Manager>Edit USC Block Display, can I just delete out all the other blocks and therefore speed up this plugin?

[grey_goose]

Anyone willing to share things they've done with this?

[KerryAnn]

I am trying to change the background color on my columns, and I can't figure out which option it is in the style manager. Can anyone help?

[taylor_smith]

Originally Posted by moleculo

Any news on a VB4 version? This is one of the mods I use that is holding me back from VB 4 upgrade.

Likewise.

[brandorlz]

This is awesome and a great solution to what I'm looking from; however, I'm running into a problem during the install steps. I'm not seeing in my footer the

$spacer_close

I'm running the latest version vbulletin and just recently downloaded/uploaded the USC 2.1 for a fresh install... Is this going to cause me grief if I just drop it into the header at the very end?

[brandorlz]

Well - I took the plunge and added all the information to the site without the "$spacer_close in my footer file, and it completely broke the formatting of my site. If I disable the plug-in the site goes back to normal.

I tried installing the first version of the plugin and everything as far as the formatting is concerned works; however, the plugin does and gives some code at both the header and footer of the site....so this is obviously needed. Thoughts?