Put a Column on the Left Side of Every Forum Page

This little PRODUCT will provide you with a template to put content in a column going down the left side of every forum page.

What you put there is limited only by your imagination.

This can easily be combined with the right column product to have a column on both sides.

To use this with the right column product , change the footer code to:

<!-- Right Column Code  -->
</td>
<td width="160" valign="top" align="left">$rightcolumn</td>
</tr>
</table>
</td></tr>
</table>
<!-- End Right Column Code -->

Changes in 1.1
Some very important changes were made to the header and footer template changes. Please modify your header and footer code to use the new version.

This is now a PRODUCT and not a plugin. Use the product manager to import it. If you are upgrading, copy the contents of your left_column template to notepad BEFORE you install the product. Then, replace the template contents with your backup.

This version now includes sample html in the left_column template. Thanks to iguanairs for that code.

[amykhar]

Originally Posted by shiva

Sorry, can't read xml files, but is this able to restrict viewing to certain membergroups?

No. But you could use template conditionals to do it.

[shiva]

Okay, not sure how to do that or where to put it though.

Could I ask for some hand holding here.

[amykhar]

Originally Posted by shiva

Okay, not sure how to do that or where to put it though.

Could I ask for some hand holding here.

It depends on what you want to do. If you only want the column to show for some groups, you wrap the header and footer code in conditionals to make sure it is only displayed to the groups you choose.

If you want to restrict the content that some groups see, you wrap the content in your left column template in the conditionals.

[shiva]

Originally Posted by amykhar

It depends on what you want to do. If you only want the column to show for some groups, you wrap the header and footer code in conditionals to make sure it is only displayed to the groups you choose.

Thanks for writing back, this is where I need help. Not to sure about what code would be needed, and where it should be placed

If you want to restrict the content that some groups see, you wrap the content in your left column template in the conditionals.

Worry about one thing at a time.

[amykhar]

Header

<if condition="(in_array($vbulletin->userinfo['usergroupid'], array(6,27)))">
<!-- Left Column Code  -->
<table width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" align="left">
<tr>
<td width="160" valign="top" align="left">$leftcolumn</td>
<td valign="top">
<table width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
<tr>
<td valign="top">
<!-- End Left Column Code -->
</if>

Footer

<if condition="(in_array($vbulletin->userinfo['usergroupid'], array(6,27)))">
<!-- Left Column Code  -->
</td></tr>
</table>
</td></tr>
</table>
<!-- End Left Column Code -->
</if>

This example would only show the column to the people in usergroups 6 and 27

[shiva]

Thanks, I will give this a shot then, once my server starts working again.

grrrr

[Cyricx]

Small note

In the template edit for the header you have $left_column

In the xml you have $leftcolumn

Hhehe, I just changed the header template edit to $leftcolumn and it works for me now

Thanks for the hack Amy

[Sovereign]

Yay, I can put my PHP-Nuke menu in without exposing vB to Nuke's security holes (and having to do major hacking!)

[cmiller1014]

This is great but what does the USER CP look like since it already has 2 columns?

[shiva]

Beat me to it Cyricx

Thing is, I would like it so the navbit is above the left column, so would adding the table code directly in the navbit template work?

Also, this doesn't look good on certain themes as well, I added my vb table code and fixed the html a bit, so the left column matches the theme design with the tables the theme uses (It's pretty standard code easy enough to find)