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

[jbldesign]

Anybody have a fully list of global variables that can be used in the sidebar?

I have a little problem figuring out, what can be used in this wonderful sidebar - recent posts - latest polls - if conditions dosnt seem to work - can anybody explain a little about using it :-)

[Jase2]

Hi Kerry,

Can this be used for pulling poll information from a certain forum, similar to this website: http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/

[egyptsons]

very Cool I love it

[akame]

Guys, I feel really stupid, but I cannot get this zip to open without saying that there are already files with that name. What am I doing wrong?

[Anne Lise]

The custom page is blank.

[LagGuy]

Installed, thanks for nice hack.

[Anne Lise]

But what do I do with the blank page?

[eXoOutsider]

Awesome job, but I have a few questions. I am trying to get this so that I can have multiple tables under each other, but for some reason I can not get the second table to stay, it goes to right of it. Is there any template modifications I could do to solve this?

Here's an example, how you have two columns on the right side like that.


https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/attachmen...8&d=1207355646

[peterska2]

Originally Posted by Anne Lise

The custom page is blank.

Have you imported the xml? If you have, please reimport it ensuring that you have it set to allow overwrite.

Originally Posted by akame

Guys, I feel really stupid, but I cannot get this zip to open without saying that there are already files with that name. What am I doing wrong?

Create a new folder on your computer then extract the zip in that folder.

Originally Posted by Jase2

Hi Kerry,

Can this be used for pulling poll information from a certain forum, similar to this website: http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/

It can, but you will need custom plugins to do that which can then be integrated via the variables produced by them.

Originally Posted by jbldesign

Anybody have a fully list of global variables that can be used in the sidebar?

I have a little problem figuring out, what can be used in this wonderful sidebar - recent posts - latest polls - if conditions dosnt seem to work - can anybody explain a little about using it :-)

Anything that is fully global with an execution order of 5 or less can be used in the side columns. There is no list of available variables that I know of, but there is no reason why you can't use if conditions.

Originally Posted by demo22

Can you share on how you have the custom contents page to show pleases...

Put $custom_block in the left or right template in the place that you want it to show.

[peterska2]

Originally Posted by eXoOutsider

Awesome job, but I have a few questions. I am trying to get this so that I can have multiple tables under each other, but for some reason I can not get the second table to stay, it goes to right of it. Is there any template modifications I could do to solve this?

Here's an example, how you have two columns on the right side like that.


https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/attachmen...8&d=1207355646

That is the default layout of the profile page which has it's own column. The USC column is the one at the far right.

In terms of using multiple tables, make sure that your tables are started and ended correctly in the block templates. Put a <br /> at the end of the table if you want a gap between them.