Miscellaneous Hacks - Ultimate Side Columns

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

Welcome to Ultimate Side Columns!

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.


Features

USC uses a standard vBulletin Options Interface with minimal template editing involved, to display content in columns on your site.

USC controls both the left and right columns on your site, both of which work independently of each other, and can be displayed on a range of pages through some very simple options.

The only editing required for a standard installation is the header and footer template. For advanced users, the templates for the two columns can also be edited if required. Most users of this system will not need to do this.


Installation

Import the product-ka_ultimate_sidecolumns.xml file as a product through your product manager.

Open your header template and at the very end add

<!-- USC header edit start -->
<table width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
<tr>
$usc_left
<td valign="top">
<!-- USC header edit end -->

Open your footer template and above

$spacer_close

add

<!-- USC footer edit start -->
</td>
$usc_right
</tr>
</table>
<!-- USC footer edit end -->

That is all your template editing done.

Now, go to vBulletin Options > Ultimate Side Columns Options

Here you can set which column you wish to use, and where you want it to appear. Content is also controlled through the options on this page. HTML is allowed in all content boxes.


Configuration

As there are a number of options available, this section explains them all.

First, you have the settings for enabling and disabling the two columns. As these work independently of each other, you can have the left column turned on, the right column turned on, or both turned on. If you need to turn them off for any reason, you can also turn them off here. Also, if you need to disable plugins for any reason, the code is completely disabled meaning that no unsightly white gaps are left on your pages.

Next, we have the width settings for the two columns. If you find that your columns are too wide, or too narrow, then they can be adjusted independently here.

The display pages settings allow you to control where your columns are displayed. These are pretty straightforward, with the exception of the setting adsense appropriate. This option stops the column from being displayed on the following pages in line with the adsense TOS:
- search
- search results
- registration
- contact us
- usercp
This is correct as of todays date. Any changes in the TOS for adsense will only be reflected in any updates as appropriate.

Next are the settings for the content of the left column, followed by the content of the right column. Both sections are prefixed by a blank setting. This is by design and there is not a bug with the code or anything missing.


Adding More Blocks

By design there are five (5) blocks per column. Some people may require more than this. To allow for this, comments have been added to both the usc_sidecolumn_left and usc_sidecolumn_right templates. The comments include a commented out section of code to use as a template for additional blocks. There are also some warning comments present in both templates. Take heed of these as editing other than the places indicated will result in the templates being malformed and the USC system not working correctly.


Support

Support for this modification is extremely limited. However, as everything apart from the two small template edits is controlled directly through the vBulletin options and not through template editing, issues should be minimal.

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 the USC system.

Kerry-Anne




PLEASE NOTE: This modification is unsupported. You may not receive a reply right after posting. Please try and help each other out. I do not support custom styles. If this does not work in your style, and you can confirm that it does not work in the default style (with a link and screenshot) then you will need to resolve the problem yourself. I also do not support any versions earlier than 3.6.5 in any way, shape or form. If you are using it on a version prior to 3.6.5 then no support at all will be provided.



Version 2.0 information


Version 2.0 has been released and can be found here:
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=175181

[MPDesignZ]

Hi I need help putting in a php code inside a block in this hack. I'm using simple pie for a rss feed and want to put in the following code into the block so that it shows up in the column like regular links:

<?php

require_once('simplepie.inc'); // Change this location to match where you uploaded the simplepie.inc file to.



$feed = new SimplePie();

$feed->set_feed_url('http://ml-implode.com/rss.xml');

// For everything else, we'll assume default settings

$feed->init();



echo '<ul class="feed">';



// We'll loop through all of the items in the feed and display a linked title for each of them.

foreach($feed->get_items() as $item)

{

    echo '<li><a href="' . $item->get_permalink() . '" target="_blank">' . $item->get_title() . '</a></li>' . "\n";

}



echo '</ul>';
?>

For some reason I do not get the actual feed URL's but just the raw code that shows up. Any help would be great!

TIA!
MP

[xman_79]

Installed .

Thanks

[remlle]

is there anyway to make these floating so they stay with the user as they scroll down?

[wickland]

Awesome EmpireZ, that did the trick, now I got 20 blocks on each side, editable from the options panel.

Thanks!
Best Regards

[kholland]

Hi All,

This mod is great...just having a little trouble with it.

Does any of you have your sidebars a fixed width (I assume most would)? I can't get the middle or main section to collapse when the browser is shrunk.

Any ideas would be very appreciated!

[bruuuuce]

I have read of two others that have this slow loading issue, but no solutions. It is a result of this code

<!-- USC header edit start -->
<table width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
<tr>
$usc_left
<td valign="top">
<!-- USC header edit end -->

Right after the header loads, the forum loading pauses then continues as normal.

Anyone have a solution for this?

Originally Posted by KHALIK

Increased delayed of loading time of forum when this mod is installed.

I installed this mod with out any problems, with default columes. Only used one right-handside colum with no text or image.

I noticed there was a significent delayin the load time when that hack is installed. When I uninstalled this hack, the delay was removed.


Are you getting the same problem?

Originally Posted by deep_blue

Hi

Is there anybody else facing problem of page laoding a bot slow. The header comes first and then remaining page where sides bars are thee, appear after a lag of 10 seconds or so?? what could be the reason

[Brew]

Does anyone know of a way to get this to show only to certain usergroups?

[peterle1]

This is a great mod and works perfect.

The only problem we have is that "Display Pages For XXX Column" doesn't offer to many choices.
Maybe it would be possible in a next version to combine choices.

Another problem that we have is that we don't want the colmns to appear in the photopost addons, but we don't know how to do it.

Maybe someone has some hints for us.

[EmpireZ]

Originally Posted by Brew

Does anyone know of a way to get this to show only to certain usergroups?

Just add a array for the usergroup to show in the usc_side template.
<if condition="(in_array($vbulletin->userinfo['usergroupid'], array(6)))">

Another problem that we have is that we don't want the colmns to appear in the photopost addons, but we don't know how to do it.

Maybe someone has some hints for us.

Use a <if> condition, script for photopost in the beginning of the header template using != to stop it from showing.

[Brew]

Originally Posted by EmpireZ

Just add a array for the usergroup to show in the usc_side template.
<if condition="(in_array($vbulletin->userinfo['usergroupid'], array(6)))">

Man I have been searching for days for this bit of code to find what usergroup someone is a member of.

Thank you very much!

The whole reason I needed this is because there is not a mod for vB, that I can find, where you can have a side column with links to important parts of the site and other things (like latest X posts etc) and also have advertisements. But the part where the advertisements can be turned off for a certain usergroup (in my forum it's usergroup 9 for Sponsors).

As it is I have to use the vBAdManagement mod to show the links and adverts. And then use this to just show the links and other things without the adverts.

It would be really nice to see a mod where we can have a side column where only the adverts can be turned off leaving other things intact.

But this is working with the code EmpireZ gave me. I just changed the 6 to a 9 in the array and added the code to the top of the usc_sidecolumn_right template of the mod (and the </if> statement at the end).