The Arcive of Official vBulletin Modifications Site.

DJ's Dynamic Tab Content for Postbit_Legacy · **Released**: 07-01-2008

**As with most template edits, this modification is not version specific and will work on any vBulletin for vB3. You can find the vB4 version here.**

Ever felt your postbit_legacy template was just too long? Or maybe you'd like to add more content to your postbit_legacy, but you don't like the cluttered look or extended length of the post, especially when most posts are only a handful of sentences? Almost every decent modification here on vB.org has the option to add a link or a display to your postbit templates, and you've likely struggled, as I have, to come up with just the info you want to display, likely excluding things you thought would look real nice, but just couldn't justify the room for.

Now I've seen several good modifications that address this problem, and all of them are pretty nice. I've seen everything from a drop-down menu that displays the content, to a box that can be opened and closed just underneath the avatar. All of them are practical in their own way, and here's one more way that I worked out using a script from Dynamic Drive's website called Tab Content Script. This cleaned up my postbit_legacy just the way I wanted, and let me add even more content then I would have originally intended. It also allowed me to organize content in whatever manner I wished. I love it and I think you will too.

Screenshots

Live Demo
Click any of the grey dots beneath the user's avatars.

Difficulty: Intermediate
A few things you should know before moving forward. The instructions for this mod are not your standard template modification instructions. It's going to presume that you've edited your postbit_legacy template before and that you're somewhat familiar with its content, with HTML and how to wrap <if condition=""> conditionals. So it's not going to be a "look for this line of code, add this under it" kind of traditional tutorial. What I'm going to do is show you the basic code, how to implement it and then let you do with it what you want. That is, after all, the reason I came up with mod in first place, and I know everyone wont have the same postbit content and/or will want to set theirs up differently.

With that said, knowledge of how to modify your templates and basic HTML coding is something every vBulletin administrator should have. I'm not a coder. I'm a complete hack. But I know enough to take some of the wealth of code snippets available on the web and attempt to use them in new and inventive ways. Administrating a vB forum is that much more satisfying as a result.

Installation
To add this to your forum requires you to upload some files, make one edit to your headinclude template and one to your postbit_legacy template. If you don't know what postbit_legacy does, it's the template that controls the look of your posts when you've chosen to have avatars and user information appear to the left hand side of your posts. If you don't use that look for your forum, but instead use the one where avatars appear above your posts, then that means you use the postbit template, and this modification wasn't designed to look right on that template. (Though we have had a few users give it a try.)

Step 1.
First things first. After downloading the Dynamic Tab Content for Postbit_Legacy.zip file, extract the contents and upload the postbit_tabs folder in your forum's root directory (Your forum root is the folder you have physically installed vBulletin in, which means that for some folks, this isn't the same thing as your site root.)

Step 2.
Right click and download this JavaScript file from the Dynamic Drive website: tabcontent.js (You can also download it from this page.) Upload it to the postbit_tabs folder you just added to your website.

Step 3.
Now to edit your headinclude template. Go to Admin CP >>> Styles & Templates >>> Style Manager >>> <<>> >>> headinclude.

Add the following block of code to the very bottom. Remember to keep the copyright intact for legal use.

Code:

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="$vboptions[bburl]/postbit_tabs/tabcontent.css" />
<script type="text/javascript" src="$vboptions[bburl]/postbit_tabs/tabcontent.js">
/***********************************************
* Tab Content script v2.2- ? Dynamic Drive DHTML code library (www.dynamicdrive.com)
* This notice MUST stay intact for legal use
* Visit Dynamic Drive at http://www.dynamicdrive.com/ for full source code
***********************************************/
</script>

Step 4.
Now to access your postbit_legacy template, go to Admin CP >>> Styles & Templates >>> Style Manager >>> <<>> >>> Postbit Templates >>> postbit_legacy.

From here, your going to add a basic set of code from which you can then customize it. You can pretty much add it anywhere in the template, but most likely your going to want to add it just below the avatar. If that's the case, your avatar code is most likely going to look something like this:

PHP Code:


			
<if condition="$show['avatar']">

    <div class="smallfont">

     &nbsp;<br /><a href="member.php?$session[sessionurl]u=$post[userid]"><img src="$post[avatarurl]" $post[avwidth] $post[avheight] alt="<phrase 1="$post[username]">$vbphrase[xs_avatar]</phrase>" border="0" /></a>

    </div>

   </if>

Below that add this basic set of code. This block of code will be your physical tab content.

PHP Code:


			
<!-- BEGIN POSTBIT TABS -->

<div id="postbittabs$post[postid]" class="djdot">

 

<ul>

<li><span title="View Tab 1"><a href="#" rel="tab1$post[postid]" id="selected$post[postid]">&nbsp;</a></span></li>

<li><span title="View Tab 2"><a href="#" rel="tab2$post[postid]">&nbsp;</a></span></li>

<li><span title="View Tab 3"><a href="#" rel="tab3$post[postid]">&nbsp;</a></span></li>

<li><span title="View Tab 4"><a href="#" rel="tab4$post[postid]">&nbsp;</a></span></li>

<li><span title="View Tab 5"><a href="#" rel="tab5$post[postid]">&nbsp;</a></span></li>

</ul>

 

<br style="clear: left" />

 

</div>

 

<div class="smallfont">

 

<!--TAB 1 CONTENT -->

<div id="tab1$post[postid]" class="tabcontent">

 

<div class="info">Tab 1 Content:Block A</div>

<div class="info">Tab 1 Content:Block B</div>

<div class="info">Tab 1 Content:Block C</div>

 

</div>

 

<!-- TAB 2 CONTENT -->

<div id="tab2$post[postid]" class="tabcontent">

 

<div class="info">Tab 2 Content:Block A</div>

<div class="info">Tab 2 Content:Block B</div>

<div class="info">Tab 2 Content:Block C</div>

<div class="info">Tab 2 Content:Block D</div>

 

</div>

 

<!-- TAB 3 CONTENT -->

<div id="tab3$post[postid]" class="tabcontent">

 

<div class="info">Tab 3 Content:Block A</div>

<div class="info">Tab 3 Content:Block B</div>

<div class="info">Tab 3 Content:Block C</div>

<div class="info">Tab 3 Content:Block D</div>

<div class="info">Tab 3 Content:Block E</div>

<div class="info">Tab 3 Content:Block F</div>

 

</div>

 

<!-- TAB 4 CONTENT -->

<div id="tab4$post[postid]" class="tabcontent">

 

<div class="info">Tab 4 Content:Block A</div>

<div class="info">Tab 4 Content:Block B</div>

<div class="info">Tab 4 Content:Block C</div>

 

</div>

 

<!-- TAB 5 CONTENT -->

<div id="tab5$post[postid]" class="tabcontent">

 

<div class="info">Tab 5 Content:Block A</div>

<div class="info">Tab 5 Content:Block B</div>

<div class="info">Tab 5 Content:Block C</div>

<div class="info">Tab 5 Content:Block D</div>

<div class="info">Tab 5 Content:Block E</div>

<div class="info">Tab 5 Content:Block F</div>

<div class="info">Tab 5 Content:Block G</div>

<div class="info">Tab 5 Content:Block H</div>

<div class="info">Tab 5 Content:Block I</div>

 

</div>

 

</div>

 

 

<script type="text/javascript">

var mytabs=new ddtabcontent("postbittabs$post[postid]")

mytabs.setpersist(false)

mytabs.setselectedClassTarget("link")

mytabs.init()

</script>

 

<!-- END POSTBIT TABS -->

Now go to your forum and see if your tabs are displaying properly and your not getting any errors. You should have five dot tabs that display five different sets of information when clicked.

Final Steps
Now comes the hard part. Now you have to decide what you want to put in those places called Tab 1 Content:Block A, etc. This is where knowledge of your postbit_legacy template comes into play. Your now going to move whatever content you want in the respective tabs from their current location into the tabs. This is entirely up to you, but you can use my forum as a starting point. The following posts also have some tips to help you along the way.

Post 2 has a Basic Breakdown of what the tabs do, a tutorial on how to add more tabs, default snippets of code that you can move into the tabs containers as well some snippets from common hacks.

Post 3 has some links to other sites that have implemented this hack to give you an idea of what can be done with it. And it has some additional images to use in place of the default dots.

Post 5 has Frequently Asked Questions for most problems you would encounter.

Known Bugs
There is one minor issue with the tabs that only occurs when using the AJAX quick reply and inline editing. Actually it's two issues, but I've only seen one or the other on my live site vs. my demo board. In one instance, the entire content of all your tabs displays all at once when posting/editing using AJAX. This is not a huge deal, as the only person who sees it do that is the person doing the posting/editing. And it will return to normal anytime he reloads or refreshes the page. The other instance is when after posting/editing through AJAX, no tab content appears, except the dot tabs. This is also not a huge deal as the same thing will happen here too; only the poster sees it and it will look normal anytime he returns or reloads the page. I think it's a minor trade off for the sleek look it gives your forum the rest of the time.

Upgrade Instructions
For those using the 1.00 version of this modification, please see this post for upgrade instructions.

Digital Jedi · #**322** 09-24-2009, 06:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MissKalunji

I can't seem to see what change in the new version?

I explained what changed in the notification I sent everyone. It's a minor edit and it's in big bold letters in the post above.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mobo

Thank you! I've got it all sorted out now!

Just let us know if you run into any other issues.

tagknife · #**323** 10-02-2009, 08:46 PM

Hmm When i click on the diffrent Tabs the Page Refreshs And goes to the top any help?

Digital Jedi · #**324** 10-03-2009, 01:26 AM

Likely this is one of the problems addressed in the FAQ. Check the location of your JavaScript file.

TheChaosFactor · #**325** 10-03-2009, 10:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Digital Jedi

If you have more examples that I can post, possible some I overlooked or mods I don't have installed, please feel free to post them and I'll add them to this post.

Code:

<if condition="$post['age']"><div class="info">$vbphrase[age]: $post[age]</div>
  <else />
<div class="info"><b>Age:</b> N/A</div>

</if>

For displaying users age. Users can remove the else statement to have it come up blank if the field is not filled in.

The else statement could also be added to any other conditional for showing profile fields as well

Also for the homepage field:

Code:

<if condition="$post['homepage']"><div class="info">Homepage: $post[homepage]</div>
  <else />
<div class="info"><b>Homepage:</b> N/A</div>

</if>

I was curious though if there was a way to make that come up as a clickable link instead of standard text. I tried wrapping an html link tag around

Code:

$post[homepage]

That just made the field come up with the text "Homepage:", but no link or text

Great mod, I love this one. A lot of my members wanted the arcade icons, but some of them have 50-70 and I didn't want to stretch my pages unreasonably. This has really helped with that.

Edit: Installed and nominated.

TheChaosFactor · #**326** 10-03-2009, 10:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tagknife

Hmm When i click on the diffrent Tabs the Page Refreshs And goes to the top any help?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Digital Jedi

Likely this is one of the problems addressed in the FAQ. Check the location of your JavaScript file.

Also check the javascript file itself. When I right clicked I didn't have an option for download, so I saved the link. It came down as a .js, but I was having this same problem. So I open it up and find the 404 error inside instead of the javascript.

If this is the case for you you can go to the site referenced as the "other" place to get the file, find the actual script, copy/paste it into the file you dl'ed, and reupload it to the appropriate directory. Worked for me.

Digital Jedi · #**327** 10-03-2009, 07:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheChaosFactor

Also for the homepage field:

Code:

<if condition="$post['homepage']"><div class="info">Homepage: $post[homepage]</div>
  <else />
<div class="info"><b>Homepage:</b> N/A</div>

</if>

I was curious though if there was a way to make that come up as a clickable link instead of standard text. I tried wrapping an html link tag around

Code:

$post[homepage]

That just made the field come up with the text "Homepage:", but no link or text

It would need to be some variation of what's in the drop down menu under the Username. Something like:

HTML Code:

		<if condition="$show['homepage']">
		<div class="info"><b>Homepage:</b> <a href="$post[homepage]">$post[homepage]</a></div>
	</if>

Maybe even put in a target="_blank" to open it in a new window.

They, of course, would need to make sure to put the complete URL in, including the http://. You'll notice that on vB.org that happens sometimes, and people forget to put the http://, so it tries finding the page relative to vbulletin.org.

Quote:

Great mod, I love this one. A lot of my members wanted the arcade icons, but some of them have 50-70 and I didn't want to stretch my pages unreasonably. This has really helped with that.

Edit: Installed and nominated.

You can also give the DIV container a max-height and set scrolling to yes, and you'll have a fixed size container that wouldn't stretch the page. Maybe even look into some of the JavaScipts on Dynamic Drive and use one of their custom scrolling containers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheChaosFactor

Also check the javascript file itself. When I right clicked I didn't have an option for download, so I saved the link. It came down as a .js, but I was having this same problem. So I open it up and find the 404 error inside instead of the javascript.

If this is the case for you you can go to the site referenced as the "other" place to get the file, find the actual script, copy/paste it into the file you dl'ed, and reupload it to the appropriate directory. Worked for me.

It seems to be doing that for some people and not for others. I noticed it did it in FF and not in IE for me a couple of times. I guess I'll have to throw that in the FAQ too.

TheChaosFactor · #**328** 10-07-2009, 12:22 PM

What about putting the contact/buddy list in one of the tabs? I've been experimenting with this for a day now, but can't seem to figure out how it would be done.

skylab · #**329** 10-09-2009, 09:19 PM

Works perfectly!! Thanks! /installed
One small question, the links to the buttons are underlined and I can't seem to find where it's coming from in the css. example is here http://www.nightlifevibe.com/forums/...ead.php?t=2394

skylab · #**330** 11-15-2009, 07:26 PM

I'd imagine this would work on vb4. Trying now but haven't had much luck as of yet

TheLastSuperman · #**331** 11-15-2009, 11:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by skylab

I'd imagine this would work on vb4. Trying now but haven't had much luck as of yet

Yes it will

My mod found here https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...31#post1914931 is nearly identical to DJ's except it's for sig's

DJ just needs to change a few snippets of code to get this working

you can view my mod for an indication.

Mike

X vBulletin 3.8.12 by vBS Debug Information
Page Generation 0.09487 seconds Memory Usage 2,427KB Queries Executed 26 (?)
More Information
Template Usage: (1)SHOWTHREAD (1)ad_footer_end (1)ad_footer_start (1)ad_header_end (1)ad_header_logo (1)ad_navbar_below (1)ad_showthread_beforeqr (6)bbcode_code (1)bbcode_html (2)bbcode_php (9)bbcode_quote (1)footer (1)forumjump (1)forumrules (1)gobutton (1)header (1)headinclude (1)modsystem_post (1)navbar (4)navbar_link (120)option (1)pagenav (1)pagenav_curpage (4)pagenav_pagelink (1)pagenav_pagelinkrel (11)post_thanks_box (11)post_thanks_button (1)post_thanks_javascript (1)post_thanks_navbar_search (11)post_thanks_postbit_info (10)postbit (2)postbit_attachment (11)postbit_onlinestatus (11)postbit_wrapper (1)spacer_close (1)spacer_open (1)tagbit_wrapper Phrase Groups Available: global inlinemod postbit posting reputationlevel showthread	Included Files: ./showthread.php ./global.php ./includes/init.php ./includes/class_core.php ./includes/config.php ./includes/functions.php ./includes/class_hook.php ./includes/modsystem_functions.php ./includes/functions_bigthree.php ./includes/class_postbit.php ./includes/class_bbcode.php ./includes/functions_reputation.php ./includes/functions_post_thanks.php Hooks Called: init_startup init_startup_session_setup_start init_startup_session_setup_complete cache_permissions fetch_threadinfo_query fetch_threadinfo fetch_foruminfo style_fetch cache_templates global_start parse_templates global_setup_complete showthread_start showthread_getinfo forumjump showthread_post_start showthread_query_postids showthread_query bbcode_fetch_tags bbcode_create showthread_postbit_create postbit_factory postbit_display_start post_thanks_function_post_thanks_off_start post_thanks_function_post_thanks_off_end post_thanks_function_fetch_thanks_start post_thanks_function_fetch_thanks_end post_thanks_function_thanked_already_start post_thanks_function_thanked_already_end fetch_musername postbit_imicons bbcode_parse_start bbcode_parse_complete_precache bbcode_parse_complete postbit_attachment postbit_display_complete post_thanks_function_can_thank_this_post_start pagenav_page pagenav_complete tag_fetchbit_complete forumrules navbits navbits_complete showthread_complete
Messages:

The Arcive of Official vBulletin Modifications Site.

It is not a VB3 engine, just a parsed copy!