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

[peterska2]

Yes, it was

I'm going to be bringing out 2.2 very soon. I just need to finalize the changes and
remove the additional code I've been working on for 3.0 before packaging it up.

[peterska2]

I'm pleased to announce that USC 2.2 has been released

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

Upgrade instructions are available in the zip file.

[Chadi]

Originally Posted by chadi

Further clarification, not even this hack is able to pull the poll info in the USC block

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...=155170&page=2

So basically so far I've noticed USC does not pull info for:
- the poll hack above
- latest gallery posts (vbgallery)
- forum stats

They used to work fine in the 3.6 version of your right-side forumhome only hack. The reason I switched
is because that older hack had endless W3C errors.

Unfortunately versions 2.2 did not fix these problems. Could you please look into this Kerry? Thanks

[peterska2]

Originally Posted by chadi

Unfortunately versions 2.2 did not fix these problems. Could you please look into this Kerry? Thanks

I didn't say these would be in 2.2!

These are things that are on my 3.0 wish list. 3.0 is not yet in active development.

Please remember that the modification you were using was a simple template edit. USC is not a template edit. USC is a complex modification that is getting more complex with every major release. It is not however a portal system nor is it intended to be. I still do and always will recommend simple template modifications over complex modifications where the modification is only required on one page and is required to be able to access existing page specific and non-global functions.

[threat]

I dont see where you add the html to the blocks, no blocks for me to add the html in. This is my screenshot.

[peterska2]

edit the templates called block_*

Its in the instructions and readme file

[Scooterpig]

V2.2 working fine, thank you very much Kerry-Anne...

[threat]

PHP Code:

<tr>
<td class="alt1"><a href="http://www.superstreetbike.com/index.html"><img src="http://www.gixxerplanet.com/images/banners/ssbbanner.jpg">
</td>
</tr> 


Thats the html I put in but nothing still does not show up. Maybe its my skin. I think I might have to start over

[waza]

thanks for this product, however a little suggestion:

I know there is already extensive support for what pages the sidebar should appear on. But can't you add 2 text fields in the options page for default pages to include/exclude.

most pages have an identifier, in example 'payments.php' has:
define('THIS_SCRIPT', 'payments');

So maybe a text field:
include sidebar on pages (and then the this_script identifiers seperated with commas), like:
payments, usercp, ...

same thing for exclude.

This could be useful for modifications where you want to disable/enable the navbar...

for example, I want to see the sidebar on all pages, except on a page of a mod that hase already a 3 column layout, so the sidebar would be to much.
Then this option would be very useful...

[peterska2]

If it is a popular modification that you are referring to then let me know which one and I'll add it into the options. I'm always a bit wary of adding too many options, especially ones where there is free input allowed as it is more likely to be a failure point for people who misunderstand the setting or set it incorrectly. If I was able to provide more support time for this then it wouldn't be too much of an issue, but at the moment it is not going to be practical because it has a high likelihood of causing issues for the average user. Adding additional exceptions via the plugins is possible for people who have a moderate understanding of PHP and will be easier when more comments are added to the code in the plugins (they pretty much just contain the code with little to no comments at the moment).