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

[PVTRoger]

I have this installed and the results for me are shown in the image attached. Any idea as to where I should look to correct this?

I'm a neophyte at this, so really appreciate the help.

[movslow]

Different scripts/etc have different sizes. Is there a way to unify all teh sizes of the boxes regardless of the items inside?

[black_diamond]

Followed all the install instructions for USC 2.2 within VB 3.7.4, even with it all turned on I get one title block on the left side at the top which has a black gap that is too wide and one at the bottom on the left, not the top right where it should be. Also mucks up the size pushing the whole forum off one page view.

Any ideas how to get the block at the bottom over to the right where it should be and make the black gaps smaller? (sorry I'm not an expert so excuse the terms used) Thanks.

[dt-pain]

Originally Posted by dt-pain

Hi. Great mod. I am having to add the code in myself or this mod will not work with my style I guess.. the code I'm using is

<!-- USC header edit start -->
<table width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
<tr>
$usc_left
<td valign="top">
<br>
<!-- USC header edit end -->

It works great looks great but when I click on new thread the column has a BIG gap on the right side between the column and forums. This is a left side column I am using. I have added that code to the bottom of the navbar..
Thanks for any help.

Please help with this. I need this fixed..

[gcxboxps]

For some reason this screws up my Arcade area on the forum here:

http://forums.hastyhost.com/arcade.php?

Is there a way I can disable it from showing on this page? Or is three something I can edit in the template to stop it from doing that?

Thanks

[gcxboxps]

Nevermind, found out it was another mod causing it

[PVTRoger]

I've made big progress and now I'm down to the little niggly things.

The attached image shows my current issue. The two columns are extended above the main forum. I'd like to have them all be even. Any ideas?

[tirol07]

danke...

[Cust0ms]

Installed it but I can not see columns... I checked columns as enabled. How to display it?

[peterska2]

Originally Posted by raznaran

Everything is finally working. Thanks for a great mod. All of these problems are because people think they are following the instructions but they are not.

I have a final question. I have my right column set up to be 160 pixels wide. Block 11 and 12 are fine but Block 13 keeps being about 1/4 inch wider. It seems to be due to the border. The border won't go away even if I use "0". In fact "1" doesn't make it any narrower, either. It screws up the symmetry.

Here is the code I am using for Block 13:

<tr>
<td>
<a href="http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/">
<img src="/images/noaabuoy.jpg" border="0" alt="NOAA Buoys" />
</a></td>
</tr>
</div>

The image is only 160 pixels wide. Using Height and Width doesn't help either.

Any ideas on what knocks it out of alignment? Here is a link if you want to see what I mean. It's the right column.

http://blackfinowners.com/forums/

Thanks.

Make your column wider or your image smaller. There is a 4px each side padding so your image doesn't fit and stretches the box.

Originally Posted by MrBo

I wonder if it is possible to include dynamic content. I created a Plugin using the code below:

PHP Code:

ob_start(); 
include('myfile.php'); 
$includedphp = ob_get_contents(); 
ob_end_clean(); 


Hook Location is global_start

However, if I add $includedphp to usc_block_11 for example, it doesn't show the contents of $includedphp.

I am aware that this is not an issue with this product. However, maybe someone is already loading dynamic content into a Column and can help out with this.

Great product!

Make sure it is in global_start hook location and keep changing the execution order until it works. I can't recall what it needs to be off the top of my head.

Originally Posted by Cust0ms

Installed it but I can not see columns... I checked columns as enabled. How to display it?

See big red text in first post on every page of this thread.

Originally Posted by dt-pain

Please help with this. I need this fixed..

make sure you have done the footer edit too if you are using manual edits