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

[Bobbrown]

Installed and seems to be working fine (only just learning to edit the templates but restricted to Admin only , so far.) on vBulletin 3.7.2

Thanks.
Clicked Install.

[pauldack]

Originally Posted by PoetJA-1975

Same here. Using 3.7.1 PL 1 though

Jacquii.

Have you set the UserGroup permissions? (off by defualt)

[ProAzn]

Call me dumb but where to we go to set up blocks? Is there a short guide to do this? No read me file either or "how to" instructions.

[DjEddie]

There is a read me text doc and it explains all in there

in your style templates... look for Ultimate Side Columns, and add ur text to the different templates .. blocks 1 - 10 are for the left side and 11-20 are for the right side.

[PoetJA-1975]

Originally Posted by pauldack

Have you set the UserGroup permissions? (off by defualt)

Oh GOSH! I feel like such an idiot. I've been putting in 10 hours a day on the new design for the past few days - so I was a little groggy and missed the Usergroup Permissions. I did look actually - but missed anyway LOL - I did find and the modification works just fine - I don't think it'll be anygood with my new design though unfortunately - The columns stretch out the table and looks kinda weird.

Thanx so much for the share anyway though KERRY-ANNE and thanx PAULDACK for suggesting the permissions

Jacquii.

[okhissabigfish]

Can someone jump start a couple of side column addtions? I'm confused as to what I'm checking in the Admin. For instance, it says calendar. I check marked it. I thought the calendar would then show on the side column. But...

Do we have to write the code and content for the columns info?

Anyone?

So far...nothing is showing?

[PoetJA-1975]

You have to add the html code in the block templates as mentioned in the included directions files. The selections you see in the AdminCP is for which PAGES you actually want the side column to show up on - there's one for the right side and one for the left side as well. The code you will use to fill the blocks' content is gonna be html code - The templates are Ultimate Side Columns Templates --> usc_block_1 through usc_block_20

Hope this helps.

ALSO - regarding my last post - I think I may be able to use the side columns on some pages - just not on others. So thanx again for the wonderful addition KERRY-ANNE

Jacquii.

[ChandlerDog]

Originally Posted by pauldack

Have you set the UserGroup permissions? (off by defualt)

I've down loaded and nothing is showing up and I can't find UserGroup permissions, all i see is usergroup forum permission? how do I make it off by defualt?

Also in edit templates I see nothing usc_block ?

[okhissabigfish]

Would someone post a couple of examples of info in the blocks. I understand that it's simple HTML code. I personally can get that...but, a few samples of data like: Latest thread, User with Highest Post Count, Hottest Thread, etc.

I'm a newbee and ... to be perfectly honest here, the instructions that inform you that experience is required to make this mod work is completely left out of the instructions before the download. After the download...and well into the read me...the instructions state that we are to create this on our own. I'm not complaining, but...it would have been appropriate to have a NewBee Warning!... Coding Required!

[carwash]

Is there any way to get this to display in conjunction with the ipProArcade? It worked with VBArcade, but not with this new one.