End-User Options - Navbar Forumjump- Adds a DHTML "Forum Jump" menu to your Navbar

Navbar Forumjump

This mod adds a popup menu to the navbar with quick links to all your forums.



If you like this, you can show your support by Rating it, Marking it as installed, Nominating for MOTM, and/or Donating to the author. Thanks, you rock.

Why would you want to install this?

1. Increases usability for your members.
2. Decreases server resources/usage.

How does this increase usability?

In forums I often find myself clicking on the "forum home" link to see the list of forums and then choose one to visit. With this mod, you simply click the "Forum Jump" menu, and down drops a dynamic menu with all your forums (represented in correct hierarchy of parents/children, and organized by category). The user can more easily visualize the structure of your forums, and can get to where they want to go quicker. And this is a lot prettier and better placed than the forum jump at the bottom of the pages.

How does this reduce server resources?

With this mod installed, the users will go directly to the next forum they want to visit without first going to the forum home. This saves the HTTP requests associated with a pageload, as well as the database queries required to generate the page.

All Features.

• Installation is a snap, just import the XML file
• The popup menu looks identical to the other built-in vB popup menus.
• Automatically generates the menu, if you add or remove forums, that's automatically reflected in the menu.
• The menu can optionally display a small icon that links to the last post next to the forum name.
• Respects forum permissions, hidden forums, etc. If the user is not permitted to view the forum, it won't show up, just like on the forum home page.
• No template edits needed.
• Admin control panel that explains everything, and offers many configuration options:
  • Enable / disable the mod
  • Show menu to everyone or only to logged-in members.
  • Optionally specify forums to exclude from the menu.
  • Choose to display the forumjump popup on the left or the right side of the navbar.
  • Choose to display the menu as one column, or separate each category (with its sub-forums) into its own column. You may also specify how many categories to display per column.
  • You define the characters to prepend to the forum titles to show the indented hierarchy of forums
  • Options to configure CSS styles and sizes for the menu. This allows you to shrink the menu if you have many forums by reducing the font size and the cell padding in the menu.
  • You may optionally style the currently selected forum differently than the rest (with CSS).
• The mod is fully phrased, including the ACP options and descriptions.

Changes it makes

Adds one plugin and a control panel options section (and its associated phrases). The menu is attached to the navbar using a template hook.

Installation

1. Download and uncompress the zip file.
2. Import the XML product file in the Admin Control panel.
3. Visit the Options page and see if you want to change any of the default settings. (If you're using less than vB 3.6.8 you'll need to visit the options and see how to manually insert the menu into your templates.)

Changelog/History

Version 1.0.8 Bug fix (Oct. 13, 2007)

Fixed bug when using the forumjump with vBa. (See post #145)

Version 1.0.7 Bug fixes and workarounds (Sept. 18, 2007)

Integrated fix for Smoothie's problems (Post #76 and on)
Fixed display bug from post #101
Workaround for logging out display problem (post #104)
Completely separated the auto-insert code from the manual template inserting.

Version 1.0.6 New Features (Sept. 17, 2007)

Workaround for menu display problem in Opera
New option to add a relative URL to prepend to links (helps when using vBa)
New option to not auto-display menu via template hooks. Provides better compatibility for vB < 3.6.8 and when not displaying menu in the navbar template.

Version 1.0.5 Internal Development - Not released

Version 1.0.4 New features (Sept. 12, 2007)

Added optional link (icon) to the latest post in each forum
Added admin options panel help system.
Added compatibility with vB 3.6.0 to 3.6.8

Version 1.0.3 New features (Sept. 11, 2007)

All error messages output as HTML comments (better end user experience)
You may now specify how many categories are displayed per column

Version 1.0.2 Bug fix (Sept. 10, 2007)

Fixed bug introduced in Version 1.0.1
Added more error checking
Added useful error messages for debugging.

Version 1.0.1 Bug Fixes and Enhancements (Sept. 10, 2007)

Fixed a bug when URLs have session IDs in them.
Added Option to disable the menu for non-logged-in visitors
Added Option to exclude forums

Version 1.0.0 Initial Release


Screenshots



Menu with the icon link to last post enabled.

[Analogpoint]

Originally Posted by ChessMess

I'm not sure why but this isn't displaying the majority of our boards, even though you can easily browse to them.

http://www.stgu.com

Any ideas?

Originally Posted by ChessMess

Well I upgraded and did the other items and still no dice. A new error shows on the menu now , you can see it as I'll leave the menu there for now. When I set to multi-column it doesn't show the error but the other boards don't appear either.

I'm pretty sure this is not a bug in the product. I just looked and the vB Forum Jump (at the bottom of the pages) is displaying the exact same forums as the Navbar Forum Jump. What you need to do is go to the Forum Manager and edit each forum. Go to the very last option on the page Show this Forum and Child Forums on the Forum Jump Menu and make sure it's set to 'Yes'.

[Analogpoint]

Originally Posted by Mecho

Thank u ... 1.0.2 works fine ( u forgot to change the Admin Screeshot )

suggestion > Usergroup permission instead of Show To Logged In Members Only so we can exclude usergroups too ... just to make it perfect otherwise it s ok now

Thanks Mecho. I've updated the Admin screenshot to match 1.0.3 now. Also, about being able to exclude members based on usergroup could be added but I don't think I'll do it. The only point of adding the Show To Logged In Members Only option was to not display the extra HTML to bots/one-time visitors. There's really no reason not to show it to all your members, since it only gives them a shortcut to all the forums they have access to and improves their user experience. If other request the same option, I may consider adding it. I hope you understand.

Originally Posted by soulface

hmmm working fine now...

I'd like to make one feature request...

If Display Main Categories in Separate Columns is set YES, then we can choose how many categories to show in each row before its makes to next column.

That sounds like a really useful option. Added in 1.0.3.

Originally Posted by Smoothie

The instructions you gave in post #10, seem to be a bit off with the latest version you just released.

I'll update those instructions.

[soulface]

thanks Analogpoint, for adding that option. its working gr8 now

[Mecho]

Originally Posted by Analogpoint

If other request the same option, I may consider adding it. I hope you understand.

yea , u right . thanks for explaining

also i would like to know how can i add a color or make a title italic for current forum's link ?? i dunno about CSS

thank u

[killugood9000]

I am using vbulletin 3.6.8 and I cannot seem to get the forum jump menu to show up in my navbar. I do have a very modified navbar. Actually I have two navbars. Does this add-on use a link (in the navbar template) to show up in the navbar? If so when I import the xml it is not changing anything in the navbar template. What should I add to the template to get it to show in the navbar?
Thanks cant wat to get it working

[Mecho]

Originally Posted by killugood9000

What should I add to the template to get it to show in the navbar?

i had this problem too bcoz of many edits that i did in navbar . but u can use this line to show that option :

$template_hook[navbar_buttons_left]
or
$template_hook[navbar_buttons_right]

simply go for edit the navbar Template and put ONE of those line in the template .

hope it helps

[pipedreams]

fab add-on!

Am wondering would it be possible to have an option in a future version that will allow users to select if link to the forums in the DHTML drop-down, link to a new thread for the forum, instead of the forum itself?

I say I could change the links in the product templates to do this myself, but said I would say it here first...

[Analogpoint]

Originally Posted by Mecho

yea , u right . thanks for explaining

also i would like to know how can i add a color or make a title italic for current forum's link ?? i dunno about CSS

thank u

If you want to make the current forum's link bold, italicized, and green, try this:

font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: #090;

Here's some examples of CSS http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_examples.asp

[killugood9000]

Thanks Mecho, but still no luck It doesnt matter where I put
$template_hook[navbar_buttons_left]
or
$template_hook[navbar_buttons_right]
the forum jump menu refuses to show itself

I DO have "Use 'vBMenu' DHTML Popup Menus?" enabled in vboptions.
and
I do have "Enable Navbar Forumjump Popup Menu" set to yes

[Analogpoint]

Originally Posted by killugood9000

Thanks Mecho, but still no luck It doesnt matter where I put
$template_hook[navbar_buttons_left]
or
$template_hook[navbar_buttons_right]
the forum jump menu refuses to show itself

I DO have "Use 'vBMenu' DHTML Popup Menus?" enabled in vboptions.
and
I do have "Enable Navbar Forumjump Popup Menu" set to yes

If you'd like, PM me with your URL and I'll take a look at the source code to see if any error messages show up. If you want to look yourself, view the page source code and search for navbar_forumjump Tell me if any error messages are showing up.