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.

[TitanJeff]

Okay, different question...

Is there any options to this hack if you need a side column on your index?

[0xid0]

Is it that nobody is going to help us? :ermm: :ermm: :ermm: :ermm:

[reesev]

i have the same issue with the gap on the right side..

[DefenceTalk]

The vB php includes function doesnt work if you place the include in the columns for this mod.

[0xid0]

There is no alternative to this hack? As that it has many failures and nobody helps us to solve them.

[metropost]

was able to put up a left column using this, only problem is behavior of column, when site loads and when a person clicks on a forum link, the new left column starts in the middle pf the screen and floats to the left - everytime! Slows users down and feels a bit strange. Am I doing something wrong or is this normal? Is there a quick fix? Example is at http://metroforum.com/main

[Thug]

Anyone post a modifyed left column template with forum stats,welcome message and todays birthdays please

[Thug]

anyone no why the forum stats code wont work on this colomn

[Snake]

Originally Posted by peterska2

@ StarBuG: I'll look into it but it won't be till w/c 02 Jan 06 as I'm offline till then after today.

Well no news yet? We're still waiting.

[tgmorris]

After thinking this was going to be easy I wound up working on this for 3 hours before I finally came up with a solution that works in both FF and IE.

In my case I wanted the vb navbar to extend full width so I made one of my changes at the bottom of that template. If you want the navbar shoved over by the left column then make the change to the header template instead.

After installing the existing product do the following.

Append at bottom of navbar template.
This portion controls the spacing between the left column and the forum.

<!-- Left Column Code  -->
<div style="width: 100%">
<table border="0" width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" align="left">
  <tr>
    <td valign="top" align="left">
      $leftcolumn
    </td>
    <td><img src="$vboptions[cleargifurl]" width="10"></td><!-- adjust width as desired -->
    <td valign="top" width="100%">
      <table width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
        <tr>
          <td valign="top">
<!-- End Left Column Code -->

Insert at top of footer template

<!-- Left Column Code  -->
          </td>
        </tr>
      </table>
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>
</div>
<!-- End Left Column Code -->

Revised template: left_column.
This template controls the width of the left column. Modify the settings to provide the desired appearance (borders, spacing, etc.)

<table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="120">
  <tr>
    <td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff">

<!-- Begin custom code -->
Your custom code goes in here.
<!-- End custom code -->

    </td>
  </tr>
</table>

BTW - This in no way is meant to diminish the work that was done to come up with the original work. It was workling fine for me in FF but I was installing it on another site. Testing in IE revealed the situation where the "All times are GMT" text was pushed out to the right of the forum. After reading all 14 pages of the thread I discovered nobody had really solved it - at least the posted solution didn't work for me.