Miscellaneous Hacks - Ultimate Side Columns

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

Welcome to Ultimate Side Columns!

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.


Features

USC uses a standard vBulletin Options Interface with minimal template editing involved, to display content in columns on your site.

USC controls both the left and right columns on your site, both of which work independently of each other, and can be displayed on a range of pages through some very simple options.

The only editing required for a standard installation is the header and footer template. For advanced users, the templates for the two columns can also be edited if required. Most users of this system will not need to do this.


Installation

Import the product-ka_ultimate_sidecolumns.xml file as a product through your product manager.

Open your header template and at the very end add

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

Open your footer template and above

$spacer_close

add

<!-- USC footer edit start -->
</td>
$usc_right
</tr>
</table>
<!-- USC footer edit end -->

That is all your template editing done.

Now, go to vBulletin Options > Ultimate Side Columns Options

Here you can set which column you wish to use, and where you want it to appear. Content is also controlled through the options on this page. HTML is allowed in all content boxes.


Configuration

As there are a number of options available, this section explains them all.

First, you have the settings for enabling and disabling the two columns. As these work independently of each other, you can have the left column turned on, the right column turned on, or both turned on. If you need to turn them off for any reason, you can also turn them off here. Also, if you need to disable plugins for any reason, the code is completely disabled meaning that no unsightly white gaps are left on your pages.

Next, we have the width settings for the two columns. If you find that your columns are too wide, or too narrow, then they can be adjusted independently here.

The display pages settings allow you to control where your columns are displayed. These are pretty straightforward, with the exception of the setting adsense appropriate. This option stops the column from being displayed on the following pages in line with the adsense TOS:
- search
- search results
- registration
- contact us
- usercp
This is correct as of todays date. Any changes in the TOS for adsense will only be reflected in any updates as appropriate.

Next are the settings for the content of the left column, followed by the content of the right column. Both sections are prefixed by a blank setting. This is by design and there is not a bug with the code or anything missing.


Adding More Blocks

By design there are five (5) blocks per column. Some people may require more than this. To allow for this, comments have been added to both the usc_sidecolumn_left and usc_sidecolumn_right templates. The comments include a commented out section of code to use as a template for additional blocks. There are also some warning comments present in both templates. Take heed of these as editing other than the places indicated will result in the templates being malformed and the USC system not working correctly.


Support

Support for this modification is extremely limited. However, as everything apart from the two small template edits is controlled directly through the vBulletin options and not through template editing, issues should be minimal.

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 the USC system.

Kerry-Anne




PLEASE NOTE: This modification is unsupported. You may not receive a reply right after posting. Please try and help each other out. I do not support custom styles. If this does not work in your style, and you can confirm that it does not work in the default style (with a link and screenshot) then you will need to resolve the problem yourself. I also do not support any versions earlier than 3.6.5 in any way, shape or form. If you are using it on a version prior to 3.6.5 then no support at all will be provided.



Version 2.0 information


Version 2.0 has been released and can be found here:
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=175181

[dsmoke]

anyone have an idea of whats wrong, see my previous post

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=398

thanks

[zerokarma]

Update on my attempted implementation

After playing with this plugin for a long time I ultimately gave up on it. Not being able to pass php code or variables in it really wrecked things for me and made it useless. I was able to get code to work in it by adding the code directly to the XML file however doing so sort of defeats the purpose.... also as mentioned by others once you install this product it will look fine on the forumhome but it throws of the table formatting for the threads when being displayed. It was at this point I gave up and uninstalled it. (it wasn't until later I saw the fix for the table alignment issue)

Ultimately I just hard coded a sidebar into the Forumhome template, I would have perfered to use this product but it simply wasn't working that great, it needs a lot of improvement still.

The programmer of this plugin seems to have abandoned it.

[ShadowOne]

Originally Posted by 509pro

Just want to bump this to see if anyone can help me with the issue ?

Cheers,

Looks to me that you put the coding in the wrong spot on the footer AND maybe even the header....check where you put it in at.... mine works great!

[perfphysio]

Originally Posted by spufus

Hello,

I have installed this mod & it's layout is fine until we get to the actual post.

I see from your setup it works fine. Could I ask what changes you made to make it happen?

Thanks

Thanks for this information. I had to place it on my forumhome template so that it would appear underneath my welcome header template. I have managed to get it all working there.

Can you suggest where I need to place it to get it happening with the link to the admin on the other pages as this will currently only work on the homepage.

[kronnos]

Hi, I tried to use an if statement to be able to change the adcode in certain blocks but cant do it. What I would want to do is for exp: block 3 to display one ad only on forum how and maybe some other page and if its not forum home then display another adcode. How do i do that?

I tried the following code but did not even work...

<if condition="THIS_SCRIPT = 'forumdisplay' and THIS_SCRIPT = 'showthread'">
adcode1
<else />
adcode2
</if>

Please, any suggestions?

[kronnos]

Has anybody been able to figure out how to use code is side column blocks?

[molieman]

Does anybody have a way to start the side colums below the navbar. So that the header and navbar are full width. I appreciate the help

[tiekie]

hi

I dont know what i did but for some reason when i activate this feature it pushes the main forum to the bottom of the side colums

Does anyone know why?

[shovelwagon]

I've been trying to figure out how to call up modules from vbadvanced CMPS. I was wondering if anyone knew how to do it.

[kronnos]

You would probably need to be able to use php in the side columns but I cant figure out how to.