Miscellaneous Hacks - Ultimate Side Columns 2.2

Ultimate Side Columns
By Kerry-Anne www.peterska2.co.uk

Welcome to Ultimate Side Columns 2.2 !

USC 2.2 has now been released!!!!

Introduction

Following the success of the left and right side column modifications, and building on their weaknesses, the Ultimate Side Columns system was born.

Ultimate Side Columns (USC) is your one stop shop for all your side columns needs. It is an easy to configure, all in one solution.

USC 2.0 was born through the evolution and bug fixing of USC 1.0 for vBulletin 3.6 and is for vBulletin 3.7.0 RC1 and later only. It is not supported with earlier versions and may not work with them.

Features

USC 2.0 is fully customizable, can use conditions and variables (not available in USC 1.0), has greater flexibility in where it can be omitted from (after requests received), and contains new functionality of both independently collapsible columns and user defined custom links to be displayed on a per user basis in the column location of the administrators choosing.

A maximum of 20 blocks spread over the two columns are available at this time. However, if more are required then an expansion pack will be provided. The blocks can be reordered and moved between the templates with ease through simple template edits.

USC 2.2 Change Log:
Fixed bug with profile.php?do=editattachments
Added All Pages options

USC 2.1 Change Log:
Fixed blank page caused by missing template in the XML
Added compatibility with 3.7.0 Stable/Gold
Manual Template Edit instructions added to package
Enhanced the display page choices to allow exact selection of the pages where USC is to be displayed
Added usergroup permissions in addition to the global options for viewing the left column, viewing the right column, and using the custom contents block.

USC 2.1 has additional files. You need to upload the files first BEFORE importing the product

Upgrading from USC 2.0
Upload the contents of the upload folder, except the admincp directory, then import the XML.

Go to vBOptions > USC Options and set the display pages using the new options
Go to Usergroups > Usergroup Manager and set the permissions for each usergroup as desired. By default no permissions are given to any usergroups.

Upgrading from USC 1.0

USC 2.0 has been rewritten from the ground up and therefore all the blocks have been moved from the settings into the templates. Therefore, a unique upgrade script has been provided which must be run before importing the new product. Importing the new product first will result in the loss of your existing USC contents.

The upgrade script is located in the admincp directory after uploading the USC files and is ran by pointing your browser to admincp/usc_upgrade.php

Full upgrade instructions are included in the upgrade readme file in the zip.

Installation Instructions

Download the zip, unzip it and upload the contents of the upload folder to your forum directory. Import the product, all done.

Full instructions are included in the install readme in the zip.

Support

This modification has limited support only and is therefore flagged as unsupported. Support will be given when possible although it is always preferable when users of USC support each other. This was very successful with USC 1.0 and therefore is continued with USC 2.0

If you have any other combinations of pages that you would like to see available for the column options, please post them in the support thread ensuring that you add the title "USC Page Combination Request" to your post, or use this as the first line of your post ensuring that it is in bold text. This is very specific as due to the limited nature of support and time, the support thread will only be quickly skimmed through and therefore requests may be missed if it is not clear what they are.


The screenshots attached to this post and the next one show a range of pages with a range of column combinations. They are not labeled but they are pretty self explanatory.

Enjoy USC 2.0.

Kerry-Anne


PLEASE NOTE: This modification is unsupported. You may not receive a reply right after posting. Please try and help each other out.



Problems with your side columns not showing?
For your side columns to show, you need to update your usergroup permissions from the usergroup manager for each usergroup

Problems with errors in your vBOptions?
Point your browser to admincp/index.php?do=buildbitfields then try again

[eXoOutsider]

Thank you very much for your help. I voted this for MOTM, by the way.

[peterska2]

USC 2.1 has been released

USC 2.1 Change Log:
Fixed blank page caused by missing template in the XML
Added compatibility with 3.7.0 Stable/Gold
Manual Template Edit instructions added to package
Enhanced the display page choices to allow exact selection of the pages where USC is to be displayed
Added usergroup permissions in addition to the global options for viewing the left column, viewing the right column, and using the custom contents block.

Upgrading from USC 2.0
Upload the contents of the upload folder, except the admincp directory, then import the XML.

Go to vBOptions > USC Options and set the display pages using the new options
Go to Usergroups > Usergroup Manager and set the permissions for each usergroup as desired. By default no permissions are given to any usergroups.

The following new screenshots have been added to the first post:
Attachment 80252
Attachment 80253

[docvader]

Nice job on 2.1.

You mentioned before, when trying to make a $photopostfeature code work, to

making the code work in a global plugin with an execution of 5 or less.

Anyone have any idea how to do that?

I'm a little lost with this plugin stuff....

[peterska2]

I can't help with photopost code as I don't have a photopost license so do not have access to their code or their modifications. Sorry!

[Scooterpig]

Thanks for the update Kerry-Anne looks great now and just for your info the new .xml isn't an .xml file, you have it in the zip as a .txt. Easily saved as an .xml but just for your info in case others ask..

Also if you do another update down the track, any chance you can add - Select All - for the Display Pages options?...

[peterska2]

argh! that's because I noticed a typo when I had exported it and edited it manually. I'll fix it now. Thanks

[edit] fixed and new zip uploaded.

[docvader]

Understand. I think, LOL. This plugin stuff throws me.

JBLdesign mentioned above, a similar thing. He wanted to know what "global variables" would work in the side columns. I guess not all of these variables will operate in the UCS areas. (I'm assuming this $photopostfeature code is a variable that doesn't work).

Is there a list somewhere of what we can put in the UCS boxes? I'm currently just using HTML code, and it works great (www.russbo.org/vb/index.php), but has anyone figured out how to put other stuff in here? Like Last Posts, Statistics, Random Photo, etc??? Do we have to change any of the plugin stuff in vbulletin to make this usual forumhome stuff work in the side columns? Again, I apologize for my ignorance; I just don't fully understand the plugin system yet.

You might need a new area just for mods for the UCS columns.

Thanks!

[peterska2]

Originally Posted by Scooterpig

Also if you do another update down the track, any chance you can add - Select All - for the Display Pages options?...

Sure, I'll add an all pages too as I know there are a handful of pages that have been missed out.

I've got 2.2 planned, it just will need some serious coding to do what I want to do with it so it wasn't put into 2.1. Every time I change something I think of something else. It's taking on a life of it's own now but it is fun coding it especially as I am learning so much while doing it.

I'm not letting on what will be in 2.2 yet though as the chances are that it will change again before I start and morph into something else again by the time I have finished it.

[kollam003]

oh atlast worked

[peterska2]

Originally Posted by docvader

Understand. I think, LOL. This plugin stuff throws me.

JBLdesign mentioned above, a similar thing. He wanted to know what "global variables" would work in the side columns. I guess not all of these variables will operate in the UCS areas. (I'm assuming this $photopostfeature code is a variable that doesn't work).

Is there a list somewhere of what we can put in the UCS boxes? I'm currently just using HTML code, and it works great (www.russbo.org/vb/index.php), but has anyone figured out how to put other stuff in here? Like Last Posts, Statistics, Random Photo, etc??? Do we have to change any of the plugin stuff in vbulletin to make this usual forumhome stuff work in the side columns? Again, I apologize for my ignorance; I just don't fully understand the plugin system yet.

You might need a new area just for mods for the UCS columns.

Thanks!

Standard forumhome variables are not global. They would need to be made into plugins in either the global_start or global_complete hook location to allow them to be used.

Things that do come up more than a couple of times are being considered for inclusion in future releases.

If people start making UCS addons then that would be really cool!