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

[Chris04S]

Sweet.. thank you very very much!! it works like a charm now.. thanks!!

Chris

[lstintxs100]

you are welcome.

[trigatch4]

I want the only LINKS people are able to choose for the CUSTOM BLOCK to be links to forums and/or sub forums on my site. How could I accomplish this?

I have a TON of forums on my site and it'd be nice to use the CUSTOM BLOCK in the upper left to be a "quick reference" so people can set their favorite forums and always have access to them.

Instead of the complicated link entry featured now, you would just tick off check marks next to the forums you wanted to add and they would be added.

Anyone? Help appreciated!

[ChandlerDog]

I don't know how you do the screen shots so I copy and paste. Now I'm getting this error in
Ultimate Side Columns Options

Display Pages For Left Column
Using this setting you can determine the pages where the left column will be displayed. An error occurred while processing the bitfield files, the following information was returned:
Error:
1
Display Pages For Right Column
Using this setting you can determine the pages where the right column will be displayed. An error occurred while processing the bitfield files, the following information was returned:

[raman911]

Any one tell me where is Ultimate Side Columns permissions located?

[raman911]

I installed it but it has made two right columns...one tothe right side where its supposed to be but it has also added one at the bottom of my page directly above hte "styles" box where you can change skins. When I enter info in box 1, it goes in both places. How did this happen? I checked for duplicate code but the code is in how it says it's supposed to be. help...

[d-wiz]

Originally Posted by lstintxs100

please, Pm me a link to your site. you have me curious now.

Thank you for the help mate!
----------------------------------
I thought I'd figured out how to add a new box with the same header as right/left column but now it pulls the footer up. Here is the hmtl code I thought would work, perhaps someine can see where I went wrong:

<table width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
<tr>
$usc_left
<td valign="top">
<br>

<table class="tborder" border="0" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="1" width="160">

<tbody><tr>
<td class="tcat">titel</td>
Place content!!! 

</td>
$usc_right
</tr>
</table>

[UaECasher]

Originally Posted by lstintxs100

You have to enable each user to be able to see the columns in their user group settings.

The blocks will not show unless they have some content in them. If the blocks have no content then they will not show up. Find a usc template for a block and paste an add code in it and it will show up. I just enabled admins to see them as I was installing and testing.

say i want to link (http://casherz.com/forums/vbplaza.php?) and in the Column i want it to appear Vbplaza what code should I add

Thank you for the help i really need to install the column

[lstintxs100]

Originally Posted by d-wiz

Thank you for the help mate!
----------------------------------
I thought I'd figured out how to add a new box with the same header as right/left column but now it pulls the footer up. Here is the hmtl code I thought would work, perhaps someine can see where I went wrong:

<table width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
<tr>
$usc_left
<td valign="top">
<br>

<table class="tborder" border="0" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="1" width="160">

<tbody><tr>
<td class="tcat">titel</td>
Place content!!! 

</td>
$usc_right
</tr>
</table>

I have no idea if this is the proper way to do it but. try this :

<tr>
<tr>
<td class="tcat">your title here</td>
</tr>
<td class="alt1">

This is where content will go.

</td>
</tr>

[Hornstar]

When I enable column start point with: below header and above navbar
All my pages show good. eg. footer is not messed up.

However, when I choose below navbar and below notices or below notices and forum descriptions almost all my other pages, eg. registration page, calendar page are showing up weird, eg. my footer is all messed up. Even with it disabled to not show on those pages they are still showing up weird.

So currently I have it set to below header and above navbar however ideally I like the setting: below navbar and below notices better.

What code is it looking for when it is set to this option? Maybe one of my templates does not have the needed code? or maybe I will need to make the template edit manually in which case, what templates and code do I need to edit?

Thanks.