Arrange Sub-Forums in columns

Better alternatives to this hack:

3.6 plugin version by Cybernetec with more options:
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=122996

3.5 plugin version by Atakan KOC: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=118935

CSS/templates version by hpwilhelm:
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=91299

Ported from 3.0.x.

What it does
This hack arranges sub-forums on the forum home into 2 columns, makeing large lists of sub-forums more presentable. You can see the before/after in the screenshots attached

Note:
1. You need to enable sub-forum display on the forum home from your vB admin panel
2. This hack is for the forum home page, not forum display.

To enable sub-forums on the forum home page
1. Go to your forum Admin panel
2. Click vBulletin Options
3. Select "Forum Listings Display Options" from the drop down list
4. In "Depth of Sub-Forums" replace 0 with 1

Installation
To install, edit the file includes/functions_forumlist.php

1. Find (there are two slightly different lines, differing by a space, the one in question is around line 552)

PHP Code:

    if (!isset($vbulletin->iforumcache["$parentid"]))
    {
        return $output;
    } 


Place this code below it:

PHP Code:

 $output .= "<table width=\"100%\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" border=\"0\" align=\"center\" ><tr valign=\"top\"> ";
      $cols = 0; 


2. Find

PHP Code:

            if (!empty($output))
            {
                $subforum = $splitter["$canpost"] . $subforum;
            }
            if ($depth < $vbulletin->options['subforumdepth'])
            {
                $output .= construct_subforum_bit($forumid, $cancontainthreads, $subforum, $depthmark . '--', $depth + 1);
            }
        }
    }

    return $output;

} 


Replace with

PHP Code:

                        //sub-forum hack
            if ($depth < $vbulletin->options['subforumdepth'])
                        {
                                $cols++;
                                if ($cols==3)
                                        {
                                        $cols = 1;
                                        $output .=  "</tr><tr>";
                                        }

                        $output .= '<td width="50%">' . construct_subforum_bit($forumid, $cancontainthreads, $subforum, $depthmark . '--', $depth + 1) . "</td>";
                        }
        }
    }

        if ($cols ==1) $output.="<td>&nbsp;</td></tr></table>";
    else $output.="</tr></table>";

        return $output;

}
//end hack 


Template modification (optional)
As this hack will list the sub-forums in a table, the font used is not effected by the <div> tag for subforums, which will cause the default font to be used instead of smallfont.

To use smallfont for sub-forum names, edit the "forumhome_subforumbit_post"

Change (this is the whole template)

 <img class="inlineimg" src="$stylevar[imgdir_statusicon]/subforum_$forum[statusicon].gif" alt="" /> <a href="forumdisplay.php?$session[sessionurl]f=$forum[forumid]">$forum[title]</a>

To:

 <img class="inlineimg" src="$stylevar[imgdir_statusicon]/subforum_$forum[statusicon].gif" alt="" /> <a href="forumdisplay.php?$session[sessionurl]f=$forum[forumid]"><span class="smallfont">$forum[title]</span></a>

And for those who want to edit or remove the "Sub-forum" word, just remove (or edit, if you just want to change it) "<strong>$vbphrase[subforums]</strong>:" from the "forumhome_forumbit_level2_post" template.

handling of sub-forums.

[red_baron2000]

excellent mod sir

thank you .

[Loki12]

It seems includes/functions_forumlist.php has changed in Beta 4... could anyone please help update this useful modification?

[tamarian]

Originally Posted by Loki12

It seems includes/functions_forumlist.php has changed in Beta 4... could anyone please help update this useful modification?

The file itself has changed, but not the portions involved. Steps 1 and 2 will be the same.

[Loki12]

Originally Posted by tamarian

The file itself has changed, but not the portions involved. Steps 1 and 2 will be the same.

I can't find this in the new file:

if (!empty($output))
{
$subforum = $splitter["$canpost"] . $subforum;
}
if ($depth < $vbulletin->options['subforumdepth'])
{
$output .= construct_subforum_bit($forumid, $cancontainthreads, $subforum, $depthmark . '--', $depth + 1);
}
}
}

return $output;

}

[tamarian]

Originally Posted by Loki12

I can't find this in the new file:

Should be there around line 561

If you're using the editor's search function, try looking for the first line, some times the tabs and white space effect the results for mult-line search.

[Loki12]

Originally Posted by tamarian

Should be there around line 561

If you're using the editor's search function, try looking for the first line, some times the tabs and white space effect the results for mult-line search.

Thanks, you're right! I edited instead with Wordpad, which worked better.

[slank]

am gonna do this right now, had it for 3.0.7 and loved it, now will try it out on 3.5.4 cheers

[ConqSoft]

Very nice. This should definately be in vBulletin as default.

Thanks

[Boofo]

Please make a text file for this so others can download and have it in case of an upgrade or re-install.

And is there any way to set it to how many subforum columns you want? I tried this mod and it looked really bad as I had some long subforum names and it went to 3 columns that were not spaced apart evenly.

[ConqSoft]

To change the number of columns, you should be able to just change this line:

if ($cols==3)

Change it to 2 for 1 column. 3 for 1 columns. 4 for 3 columns. Etc.