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

[Hornstar]

It is fantastic to see this one updated to 3.7 Thanks lots.

[Alp Ozdemir]

how can I remove USC column from some custom page? for example, I want to remove USC column from my vbtube custom video pages or vbgallery pges

[maidos]

is there a way ti have columes on forum main page and have it on center of the forum page?

[ePrOmD]

installed! tks for the update! good work!

[PoetJA-1975]

Wow! Very nice work KERRY-ANNE - I do wonder though if someone can verify whether or not this works on the vB 3.6.x series.

Thanx for sharing!

Jacquii.

[peterska2]

Originally Posted by Alp Ozdemir

how can I remove USC column from some custom page? for example, I want to remove USC column from my vbtube custom video pages or vbgallery pges

Requests were made for some information about vBGallery and no-one responded. As such it cannot be omitted from there unless you are willing and able to provide information about the script.

Omitting other custom pages is not possible unless you know your way around the code and are confident in doing this yourself.

Originally Posted by maidos

is there a way ti have columes on forum main page and have it on center of the forum page?

No. It is a side columns script not a middle of the site script.

Originally Posted by PoetJA-1975

Wow! Very nice work KERRY-ANNE - I do wonder though if someone can verify whether or not this works on the vB 3.6.x series.

Thanx for sharing!

Jacquii.

Thanks Jacquii

As per the first post, this does not work on 3.6 and requires a minimum version of vBulletin 3.7.0 RC1. Work on the 3.6 version (USC 1.0) is discontinued and this will not be backported to work with earlier versions. Originally it was not going to be released until 3.7.0 Gold is released, but then I felt nice so I released it now instead of sitting on it for a while.

[tryance]

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...

i just noticed that it doesn't run on 3.6.8 versions...that stinks.

[peterska2]

Please don't cross post. I have no idea what version you are running or what you have done. You need to reply to the thread for the version that you are running and provide as much detail as possible along with a URL to your site then this can be looked at.

[Subah]

Excellent! but , is it work on 3.6 or not ?
i can not understand in first post you say it is work for both 3.6 and 3.7 and now it is not ??

[Jezlad]

Any way to add this so that it doesn't place next to the Navbar?

I want it but I don't want it to crush the navbar up, I have too many links within that area.