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

[Darkenil]

somebody help me please? the colums dont display on the forum

[bjkinzluvr]

The file seems to be corrupted. Could you please update the download? It saves as an unknown file type. Well, I mean it says it is a zip file and I can run Extract All on it, but then I get an unknown file type. The one file that gets extracted doesn't seem to be anyting Windows recognizes. Thanks.

[heXagon]

Hello,

sidebar not showing in profile.php, though "All pages" are activated.

Any fix?

[JenniferK]

I am having several issues and hope someone can help.

First I have this set for a left column to appear below notices and forum description. The column shows up OK when the block templates are empty (see attachment 1), but when I put something in them, the column appears above the forums rather than next to them (attachment 2)

Second, The main forum listing (the other pages are OK), the forum listing gets pushed to the right (attachment 3)

Third, any page that uses Logician's Webtemplates (I know someone else had a problem, though it was different), the page is blank white with the word navbar at the top, or else has a db error "You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 'navbar' at line 1" (see attachment 4)

Last, if I add a <br> inside the block templates, instead of creating a break within the block, it is putting a break between the blocks themselves.

Any help anyone can give would be greatly appreciated!

[hitmann]

It doesn't seem to be working on all pages.
For example, if you go to profile.php?do=editoptions it doesn't display. That's one of the several pages where it doesn't work, including custom templates.

[popular]

anyone know the code for latest threads? thanks

[JenniferK]

Originally Posted by JenniferK

I am having several issues and hope someone can help.

First I have this set for a left column to appear below notices and forum description. The column shows up OK when the block templates are empty (see attachment 1), but when I put something in them, the column appears above the forums rather than next to them (attachment 2)

Second, The main forum listing (the other pages are OK), the forum listing gets pushed to the right (attachment 3)

Third, any page that uses Logician's Webtemplates (I know someone else had a problem, though it was different), the page is blank white with the word navbar at the top, or else has a db error "You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 'navbar' at line 1" (see attachment 4)

Last, if I add a <br> inside the block templates, instead of creating a break within the block, it is putting a break between the blocks themselves.

Any help anyone can give would be greatly appreciated!

Anyone?!? I really need to get this working - my advertisers are waiting! Thnaks in advance

[GlowHost.com]

Greetings. Does anyone else have the problem where the user login (you must login) page shows the right column in the footer of the page?

For example:
http://www.googlephonenerd.com/private.php

Vs

http://www.googlephonenerd.com/

[Trixi.com]

Originally Posted by Al Gregory

For some reason I cant unzip the files without an error

It is an older posting, but anyway...I had the same problem with XP and vista and the latest Winzip 12....check IZarc - and alternative Unzipper...

[Trixi.com]

Originally Posted by russbo

Kerry-Anne, excellent hack. It works great. But I have one simple question, my apologies if I'm showing my ignorance.

I'm trying to get my Photopost feature to work vertically in one of your templates. The way you usually do this, is to put this, $photopostfeature, in the FORUMHOME template. It then pulls a few thumbnails from the Photopost Pro installation. It works fine on my site, (www.russbo.org/vb/index.php), but I can't get it to work in one of the UCS1 boxes.

Here's the Photopost link: http://www.photopost.com/forum/showthread.php?t=110527

I've been using this integration for years. It would be great to be able to get these thumbnails in one of your side columns.

Thanks!

Any suggestions?

Russbo:

Did you figured out how to integrate Photopost in the sidebars? I have Photopost 6.2, VB 3.7.4 and I am also interested in the integreting a photo thumbnail preview in the sidebar.

Would be nice if you could help.

Saludos