Miscellaneous Hacks - Additional navbar with dropdowns

After upgrading and supporting my 3.0.0 and 3.5.3 version of this hack, I have decided it was time to step into the plugin world to make this easier for people to use.

Despite what category this is in it works with vBulletin 3.0 up to the most recent version of 3.8.

What this does is create another navbar with drop down menus by typing $navbar2 in any of your templates. It is just like the navbar that comes with VB.

I put a lot of description tags in the navbar2 template that gets installed to help explain what everything does. Once you understand what is going on here you can removed these. With very little modifications you can add to, remove or move items around in this additional navbar.

Upgrade
To upgrade you will want to reimport this XML file and edit your options accordingly.



1.02

• Tweak it a bit to get the border on the top of the navbar. There was not boarder on the top of the navbar in the previous version. It was not really noticeable unless you have the navbar directly below the header area.

1.01

• removed the plugin with the Hook "parse_templates" because it was not need.
• Added plugin with the Hook ?global_start?, this will work with, PhotoPlog, vBAdvanced, Arcade. This will alleviate having to manually add code in the php files as was required in the past.

1.00

• Initial release.

To install the this
1. Download the zipped file.

2. Unzip the file.

3. Import the product-navbar2.xml into your Plugins & Products? Manage Plugins.

4. Next you will have to decide where you want the navbar2 to be displayed. I have included a few options below.

5A. Under current (original) Navigation bar:
Find:

<!-- / breadcrumb, login, pm info -->

Below that place:

$navbar2

5B. On top of forums tables:
Find:

<!-- / PAGENAV POPUP -->
</if>

Below that place:

$navbar2

5C. Top of current navbar:
Find:

<br />
<!-- breadcrumb, login, pm info -->

Above that add:

$navbar2

5D. Under your header:
Find:

<br />
<!-- breadcrumb, login, pm info -->

Below that add:

$navbar2

5E. Under VB navbar:
Find:

<!-- / nav buttons bar -->

Below that add:

$navbar2

Note:
This should now work with vBAdvance CMPS, Arcade, PhotoPlog with no other modifications. Many thanks to Mike-D for his help with this.

[dmknights]

Will this work on 3.8?

[attroll]

Originally Posted by dmknights

Will this work on 3.8?

Did you read the post prior to the post you made?

[Battle_Ring]

how do i make a dropdown?

[TC Topps]

Attroll:

First I tried inserting $navbar2 into a couple locations within navbar template. It worked in that the additional navbar appeared on the page shown. (*Important in that I am not qualified to judge any other programming issues.)

But I did find that the drop down arrows replicated themselve on what ever navbar was first on the page. So if I but navbar2 in 2 other locations then 3 drop down arrows would appear on the one navbar. So I edited out the additional $navbar2 statements from the vbulletin navbar template.

So then I made a renamed a copy of the product-navbar2.xml file and then edited thru out file to remove navbar2 with a simple replacement of navbar4.

This did not solve the problem. Same thing! I am sure that I am not making a complete difference in the files. Are they sharing the same table or what? I tried tinkering with date created but that was all. Is there another spot that this $navbar4 could go and not conflict with $navbar2?

I of course uploaded it thru product manager as it shows up as a product named Navbar4.

What do I need to do to make this new file a new product? (navbar4) Or is it just the placement of it?

My custom skins do not show the original navbar info on them as does Default skin. So this is a simple approach for me to solve some of this problem. What I would really like to do is put an original navbar from Default on same pages as NavBar2 in the custom skins.

Thanks for your help. Its been fun.

TC Topps

[attroll]

Wow, sorry but that confused me. Let me get this right.

What you are saying is that when you install the navbar2 as a plugin you get multiple drop down arrows on the original navbar?

Are you trying to install more then one instance of navbar2?

[TC Topps]

Attroll;

If I only edit one time in navbar template for one insidence of navbar2, then of course there are no problems.

I am exploring other options as I would want another navbar because my custom skins do not have the same navbar as Vbulletin Default skin.

So I tried adding $navbar2 to a couple locations in navbar template. The additional navbars appear as $navbar2, but the first one has all of the additional drop downs arrows.
(Not a problem of your hack!)

I only have one installation of the product-navbar2.xml running. So I am wondering how could I have

1) Another navbar like yours (such as a Navbar4)

or

2) How might I make a replication of the first Default vBulletin Navbar?

Is this to much of a task for a simple edit of an exsisting file such as product_navbar2.xml; or is it a much larger project than making an edit to create a separate navbar such as navbar4?

Hope that helps. I really like the neat clean way that Navbar2 installs.

Thanks again for for your reply,

TC Topps

[attroll]

You should be able to create multiple drop down navbars. I have done it. The only problem you will run into is the same variables being used in each navbar start screwing up the other navbars just like what you are seeing.

You could do this two different ways. You could edit the navbar2 template differently for each style but going into each styles template "navbar2".

Or

If you going to have a navbar2, navbar3, navbar4 ect..
Then you going to have to change the variable for each one. The one that comes to mind is the one in each template of "navbar2, navbar3, navbar4" that you create.

If you look in the navbar2 template, for every dropdown instance you will see two mentions of the variables "#dropdown1" and "#dropdown2", ect.

For each additional navbar template you create you will have to change these variables to something else. For example in a navbar3 template will have to change every instance of "#dropdown1" to maybe "#dropdown10" and #dropdown2" to maybe "#dropdown20", ect.

I hope this made some sense to you.

[TC Topps]

Thanks to Attroll;

I'll get back. I think that makes sense.

Yes, Yes, this works great for replicating a Navbar 2. Remember I edited an original unloaded product-navbar2.xml by simply replacing the word navbar2 with navbar4. Saved file as product-navbar4.xml and then reloaded product and it appears as a Navbar4 template.

Then I edited the original vB Navbar with the $navbar4 statement for the prefered placement on the page. It does the trick. Also we did the changing of the original variables in the new template Navbar4 from dropdown1, dropdown2 and dropdown3 to dropdown41, ..42, and ..43. Bingo! search for dropdown. You will find them.

Since I named my new template Navbar4 when I edited the old dropdown variables, I added 4 to each new dropdown variable to keep it straight. I may go back and do the same for Navbar2, but not neccessary.

Great I did something! Ha! Ha!

TC Topps

[TC Topps]

Attroll;

Thanks for the lead on the variable dropdowns inside an edited navbar2 file. That helped alot. Wow!

How about the replication of the original vb Default Navbar!

Or is this much more difficult?

Thanks,

TC Topps

[attroll]

What do you mean by replication. Do you want another separate navbar identical to the vb Default Navbar?