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

[mikelangelo2005]

Originally Posted by mikelangelo2005

I have a problem, I was worried and I did not read the tutorials, so

I had 1.0 and I rewrite from 1.0 to 2.0 next 2.1 and next 2.2.

Now I had a problem in Vboptions, in "Display Pages For Left Column" and Display Pages For right Column" say:

"It has happened an error while the archives of bitfields were processed, the following information was given back:" In my forum is in spanish :erm:

Check the picture, how can I to solve the problem??

Thanks.

I already solved the problem

greetings

[nanaimobar]

SOLVED! Twitter Updates working now. I guess it takes several hours for code to work. This post was like going to a mechanic; problem goes away while talking to mechanic.

USC displays the text "Twitter Updates" but doesn't display latest twitters. Code been running for several hours but remains blank despite updating twitter. Code in USC template

<tr>
<td class="alt3">
<div id="twitter_div">
<h2 class="sidebar-title">Twitter Updates</h2>
<ul id="twitter_update_list"></ul>
</div>
The twitter javascript code
</td></tr>

See it inaction (pardon the pun) at httpunzhu.com
Twitter code at left.

[mikelangelo2005]

Hello,
Now I have a new problem, I hope can help me.

I put two FLASH but the bar of the Title (anuncios) appeared underneath the FLASH (check pictures)

I tried putting in start HTML of flash <tr><td class="alt1"> and the end </td></tr> and the FLASH appeared towards the right, outside the measures of the Web.

I need to put the bar "anuncios" above. www.motofanaticos.com

these are the HTML of the FLASH in usc_block_11:

<object width="230" height="400">
<param name="movie" value="images/misc/usa_casco.swf">
<embed src="images/misc/usa_casco.swf" width="230" height="400">
</embed>
</object>

And usc_block_12:

<object width="230" height="300">
<param name="movie" value="images/misc/dia_nacional_del_motociclista.swf">
<embed src="images/misc/dia_nacional_del_motociclista.swf" width="230" height="300">
</embed>
</object>

thanks

[raznaran]

The zip file was made with an Apple and at least for some it is incompatible with the Vista unzip utility. Got around it by downloading pkunzip.

Good luck.

[raznaran]

Using Vista to unzip the file causes errors which are not readily apparent. Including leaving files out without telling you. So when you upload, you think you uploaded everything but you didn't Very annoying. It might help if someone would recompile using Windows.

[Brother Malachi]

How can I move the breadcrumb area into one of the columns? It would include the login/private_messages box as well as the current location.

When I move the code for the log-in/PM area it always shows the log-in form even if I'm logged in.

[Brother Malachi]

Originally Posted by Kerry-Anne

Standard forumhome variables are not global. They would need to be made into plugins in either the global_start or global_complete hook location to allow them to be used.

Things that do come up more than a couple of times are being considered for inclusion in future releases.

If people start making UCS addons then that would be really cool!

How?

[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.

[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!

[diviniti]

Am I the only one that cannot unzip this file?