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

[purple99]

This is a great mod. Thank you. Clicked installed.

Originally Posted by d-wiz

Also is there an easy reference for content or am I supposed to run through this thread?

Just use a basic WYSIWYG html editor and paste the source code into the usc_block templates. You can make it as simple or as complex as you like and keep it so only you - admin - can see the result to start with, so you can experiment and make errors and no one's laughing at you! Then switch it on for members/guests/whoever to see when you're satisfied.

[d-wiz]

Originally Posted by purple99

This is a great mod. Thank you. Clicked installed.



Just use a basic WYSIWYG html editor and paste the source code into the usc_block templates. You can make it as simple or as complex as you like and keep it so only you - admin - can see the result to start with, so you can experiment and make errors and no one's laughing at you! Then switch it on for members/guests/whoever to see when you're satisfied.

Sounds good, just not sure what to put in them

[purple99]

Originally Posted by d-wiz

Sounds good, just not sure what to put in them

- Fave porn sites
- Link to article: 'How to make a bomb' by OB Laden.
- Link to article: 'Hacking the Pentagon'
- Link to Poll: 'Should George Bush be canonized?'
- Your boss's email address so he can be told each time you're rude about him


Easy!

[PoetJA-1975]

Certainly President Bush should win a global peace prize.... but canonization <_< tehehee

Anyway - I have an issue...

JAcquii.

[high]* PoetJA-1975 says Issue sorted - How interesting that I should edit the entirely wrong style ((GASP)) Anyway - Ultimate column shows just fine when I edited the ALL-NEW JPiC 2.0 style [/high]

[onestopadam]

OK this seems to break a couple of other javascript things for people on IE and Firefox - basically the Search dropdown and quicklinks drop down doesn't work and the whole sidebar doesn't display??? Any clues to fixing this one or anyone else had this problem? I've not edited anything I'm aware of that would cause this to happen.

[ssandgirls]

Im wondering if anyone knows how to get the little collaspe icon to sit ontop of the table... or better still in the table.... its way up above and Id like to have it resting ontop of the table.....

Also my forum loads much slower with this enabled, could I have done something wrong?

Should it effect load times?

heres a screen shot of my collapse icon, its way up to high.. how do I fix that?

Thankyou .....

[ChandlerDog]

Originally Posted by ChandlerDog

• Now I can't find usc_upgrade.php in AdminCP directory to delete it?

• And when your talking about import the xml as a product how is this done.. Styles & Templates>Download / Upload Styles>Import Style XML File ???

Now this is what has taken place, I went in and removed USC_22 out of my vBulletin file and down loaded it again, unzip folder, uploaded it into forums folder by drag and drop in SmartFTP!

Opened USC_22 folder in SmartFTP> upload> admincp>and then I see usc_upgrade.php wasn't there before? I delete it-"gone"!

Now I'm still having issues with the (import the xml as a product)? I have been trying the browse thing in Import Plugin Definitions but this doesn't seem to work and I've did the browse upload thing many time. would I handle this in SmartFTP by drag over and drop the file in forums? I also see it in my server cp file manager??
Like I said I never heard "import as a product"

What steps should I take to import this xml file ??
This has became more then just putting columns on the side of my forum I'm on a mission to learn how to make this happen.

[d-wiz]

Originally Posted by d-wiz

I got double columns on both sides?



Also is there an easy reference for content or am I supposed to run through this thread?

Thans in advance for any answers!

Still got double columns?

[lstintxs100]

chandlerdog,

When you installed the product does it show in the list of installed products?

After the product is installed, did you edit the usergroup permissions to enable the usergroups to see the columns?

[onestopadam]

Originally Posted by d-wiz

Still got double columns?

Switch off whichever one you dont want in the options.