Miscellaneous Hacks - Sidebar Anywhere (Formerly Sidebar for Activity Stream) by BOP5

Brought to you by BirdOPrey5
www.Qapla.com

Version 2.2.0

The new Activity Stream for VB 4.2.0 is very nice but it feels like it is missing something- and what it is missing is a sidebar. Ideally at some point VB will release a custom sidebar built just for the Activity Stream but until then this quick mod will let you use the built in forum sidebar on the Activity Stream.

As of version 2.0 besides just working on the Activity Stream the mod can now add a sidebar to ANY vBulletin page including forums, threads, groups, albums, who's online, forum leaders, and more. In fact you can easily add the sidebar even to custom pages from custom mods.

New Features

• Now works on ANY vBulletin Page (except blogs which have their own sidebar)
• Option to align sidebar with page content or top of page
• Option to Disable Sidebar Collapse Option (By Usergroup in 2.1.0)
• Collapsed sidebar state now "remembered" on different pages
• Option to enable Sidebar by Usergroup
• Option to disable Sidebar by Forum (if enabled for forums/threads)
• Option to disable Sidebar in specific styles
• Options to disable sidebars if mobile devices detected*

NOTE: To enable mobile device detection options you must install the Mobile Browser Detector mod.

Live Demo: Qapla.com Activity Stream

You can enable or disable the Sidebar Anywhere independently of the forum sidebar but they will both display the same content (blocks.)

NEW - If you need to have different blocks on different pages check out this add-on.

You must have at least 1 block setup and active for the sidebar to show.

Unlike most of my other mods this mod is enabled by default upon installation. Be default it is setup to show only on the Activity Stream and register.php pages.

I am aware there is already a mod out there "Everywhere Sidebar" by another coder. This is completely different code and I made this because my "Staff Online Sideblock" mod did not work on Sidebar Everywhere but it does work on this mod.

This mod requires at least VB 4.2.0 to work on the Activity Stream but should work on older VB 4.x.x versions on other pages.

Full view of admin cp options: http://www.qapla.com/mods/ss/sidebar...tings_full.jpg.

The old version Zip file Sidebar for Activity Stream by BOP5 v11.zip works only on the Activity Stream.

PLEASE READ THE INSTRUCTIONS INCLUDED WITH THIS MOD- THEY ANSWER MOST OF THE QUESTIONS ABOUT HOW TO USE IT.

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Please "Mark as Installed" if you use this.
Donations always appreciated. :up:
Nominate MOTM if you LOVE it!

[SimonB]

I have tried to add the sidebar on custom pages (or at least a page associated with another product)

In this case it is DownloadsII, which has a THIS_SCRIPT name defined as below

define('THIS_SCRIPT', 'downloads2');

So for the "custom" page I have the following in the config

register|register*30 <-- this was here originally
downloads2|smoothred

Now this is being ignored. So I assume it is because of the incorrect template name, which is actually Smooth Red. I have tried enclosing in quotes but this doesn't work either.

Is this a problem with the specified template name, or is the problem likely somewhere else?

Thanks

[moonfox]

Originally Posted by djbaxter

True. But that's not gonna help that cough of yours...

In the meantime:

AdminCP -> Style Manager -> Style Variable Editor -> Sidebar -> forum_sidebar_width

and repeat for cms and blog if you have the suite and use those elements.

FYI - I am not able to change width. I am using custom style.

[tpearl5]

Originally Posted by BirdOPrey5

My bad- I understand how "THIS_SCRIPT" works- that is in most of my mods. I meant in my programming of this mod I didn't come across anything that would let me choose which forum-blocks load per page. I know everywhere sidebar has that option but at this moment I don't know how I would begin to implement such an option- truth be told this is a fairly simple mod all things considered- I was not planning on complicating it by allowing per-script options.

gotcha No prob, I was just hoping to see something that is put together better

[wolfe]

Originally Posted by BirdOPrey5

1) That is by design- why add code to do something vbulletin already does itself?

it looks better when it shows up next to the shoutbox how can i make it work on the forums index i tried

index|forumhome now luck also tried FORUMHOME

[BirdOPrey5]

Originally Posted by SimonB

I have tried to add the sidebar on custom pages (or at least a page associated with another product)

In this case it is DownloadsII, which has a THIS_SCRIPT name defined as below

define('THIS_SCRIPT', 'downloads2');

So for the "custom" page I have the following in the config

register|register*30 <-- this was here originally
downloads2|smoothred

Now this is being ignored. So I assume it is because of the incorrect template name, which is actually Smooth Red. I have tried enclosing in quotes but this doesn't work either.

Is this a problem with the specified template name, or is the problem likely somewhere else?

Thanks

Smooth Red sounds like the name of a style... I am certain the Template Name of downloads2 is not "smoothred."

To find out the template name go to Admin CP -> Settings -> Options -> General Settings -> Add Template Name in HTML Comments -> Yes

Now open the Downloads II page, and view the source in your web browser.

The first or second line will be something like:

<!-- BEGIN TEMPLATE: iframer_bop5_vb4 -->

In this example the template name is iframer_bop5_vb4. (An example from my IFRAMEr mod.)

Originally Posted by moonfox

FYI - I am not able to change width. I am using custom style.

Custom width hasn't been implemented yet.

Originally Posted by wolfe

it looks better when it shows up next to the shoutbox how can i make it work on the forums index i tried

index|forumhome now luck also tried FORUMHOME

To use it on Forum Index turn on the default vBulletin Forum Sideblock. It will be the same thing.

[pete_brady]

A quick request: Would it be possible to show / hide the sidebar collapse button based on group membership?

[thecore762]

Originally Posted by pete_brady

A quick request: Would it be possible to show / hide the sidebar collapse button based on group membership?

At this point based on BOP5's last post I'd suggest putting this suggestion vBulletin's JIRA.

[SimonB]

Originally Posted by BirdOPrey5

Smooth Red sounds like the name of a style... I am certain the Template Name of downloads2 is not "smoothred."

DOH!!!! There is a phrase in my home country that, loosely translated, means "There ain't no pills for stupidity":erm::erm:

Yes, I had templates and styles confused

[BirdOPrey5]

Originally Posted by pete_brady

A quick request: Would it be possible to show / hide the sidebar collapse button based on group membership?

I can probably add that in, yes. Next update.

[pete_brady]

Originally Posted by BirdOPrey5

I can probably add that in, yes. Next update.

awesome, thanks