Forum Home Enhancements - UKBL ~ Quality Drop Down Menu System

UKBL ~ Quality Drop Down Menu System

You wanted Drop down Menu's that were easy to install and edit, Well now you've got it

Live Demo

http://www.aboxcafe.com/index.php

http://www.wheelsbd.com/

Compatible with almost ALL Browsers.

Hi Guys, i've had so many messages about My "Easy Menu Tabs" and when was i going to do Dropdown Tabs, Well i've listened and now i can happily add UKBL ~ Quality Drop Down menu's to our list of modifications.

This is just so easy to edit and install, as long as you feel confident with a few simple edits and uploading a graphics file to your images directory or even your photobucket account, if you don't want to mess about uploading to your server.

UKBL ~ Quality Drop Downs sit quite happily on top of your forums accessable from all pages of the forum



They look like any bog standard Menu Nav bar but when you hover the mouse over it you'll see the dropdowns, I've uploaded a test version to my forum, Take a look for yourselves http://www.ukbusinesslive.co.uk/forum

I've left the Top White Easy Men Bar in place also so you can compare both of them.

When you go over the menu bar the dropdowns should appear like in the picture below



See how the chosen links are highlighted

So now we come to the installation stage.

Download the dropdown.zip file below and open the VBOrg_Menu.txt file in notepad or any other text editor, as we need to edit a few files.

The first one we need to edit is the url of our Graphic File, So to cut a long story short we'll upload our graphic file to our Photobucket account, or any other account or image directory on your server, So firstly find

	/*"""""""" (MAIN) Container Edit Picture URL Here :-) """"""""*/	
	#qm0	
	{	
		padding:5px;
		background-image:url(http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr114/ukbusinesslive/center_tile_blue.gif);
		border-width:1px;
		border-style:solid;
		border-color:#eeeeee;
	}

and this is the line we need to edit, so that it gives us a nice gradiant blue acdcross the menu bar

background-image:url(http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr114/ukbusinesslive/center_tile_blue.gif);

Just replace the url within the brackets ( ) and thats it

Then we go and do the menu edits, You don't want your members click on your forum menu and ending up on my site :erm: So what we need to do now is change the menu links for yours, It take about 15 min's but its not hard to do, so lets do it.....

First find where our menu starts, This will be right at the bottom of the code, The HTML part of this and the first bit we need to change starts from here...

 <li><a class="qmparent" href="javascript:void(0)">MY CONTROL PANEL</a>

		<ul>
		<li><a href="http://www.ukbusinesslive.co.uk/forum/profile.php?do=editavatar" title="Edit Avatar">Edit Avatar</a></li>
		<li><a href="http://www.ukbusinesslive.co.uk/forum/profile.php?do=editsignature" title="Edit Signature">Edit Signature</a></li>
		<li><a href="http://www.ukbusinesslive.co.uk/forum/profile.php?do=editoptions" title="Edit Options">Edit Options</a></li>
		<li><span class="qmdivider qmdividerx" ></span></li>
		<li><a href="http://www.ukbusinesslive.co.uk/forum/subscription.php?do=viewsubscription" title="List Subscriptions">List Subscriptions</a></li>
		</ul></li>

Basically each tab is made up of a block like what you see above, You have the Main Tab Description which looks like this

<li><a class="qmparent" href="javascript:void(0)">MY CONTROL PANEL</a>

and you have all the sub links underneath and they look like this...

<li><a href="http://www.ukbusinesslive.co.uk/forum/profile.php?do=editavatar" title="Edit Avatar">Edit Avatar</a></li>

and its this one which we need to edit, basically if you want to keep the same link, all you need to do is to chasnge my url http://www.ukbusinesslive.co.uk/forum to your forums URL, and thats it, your link should work for your site.

If you want to change the link altogether and put your own, then replace the full URL with one that you want and don't forget to edit the end part "Edit Avatar" as that is the title thats shown on the dropdown.

When you've finished all your editing, we need to upload this whole code to your Header Template of the Style that your Currantly using on your forum, So once you've saved your edited code, Just copy and paste directly to your Header, Go right to the end and click paste, save the template and thats it, The Graphic File which you need to upload to your server or image host is also in the zip file.

So easy and a great improvement to any VBulletin Forum

This is a Freebie for all you members on VB.org with my compliments

If anyone wants any custom menus made, Just PM me I'll help where i can, Just bear in mind a menu like this takes a good couple of hours or so, so a donation is more than welcomed

Oh almost Forgot guys,

If you like it, Please Click on Installed, as this really does motivate me to improving these hacks

UPDATE 09.02.09

Uploaded a New Zip File, Black Menu.Zip This is the same as this original except that its black for darker Websites and Forums, Instructions are the same as above, and comes complete with customised Graphics which will need to be uploaded to your /images/ directory.



UPDATE 23.02.09

For some of you Admins who prefer menu Buttons as opposed to a menu bar, i've made some buttons based on the above menu formate, You can install it by following the same instructions as the main install, Just upload the graphics and edit your menu links and thats it.

Experiment with the css to change colors width of boxes etc, Add more or as little as you want, the important thing is to have fun learning.



UPDATE: 26th April 2009

Centering the Menu so that it appears central

There has been much debate about trying to centralise the menu tabs, I didn't want to edit the code too much as this would make a mess of it in different browsers, However i've found that there is a way

The easiest way to center menu content is to place it inside of a center aligned table, as shown below:

<table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 align="center"><tr><td>

----[ your menu structure]----

</td></tr></table>

This way the menu tabs will appear central in all browsers.

Hope this helps :up:



Enjoy

[shinng]

FINAL UPDATE: so it looks like i fixed whatever the hell i did. i literally took out about 10 white spaces and saved. next thing i know it's working. i think i got lucky, but if you can verify why that is the case, that would be great as i am still learning all this coding stuff.

now all i have to do is customize the drop down menu, but as of right now, i am loving the way it looks and works.
thanks.

installed.

[UKBusinessLive]

Originally Posted by shinng

FINAL UPDATE: so it looks like i fixed whatever the hell i did. i literally took out about 10 white spaces and saved. next thing i know it's working. i think i got lucky, but if you can verify why that is the case, that would be great as i am still learning all this coding stuff.

now all i have to do is customize the drop down menu, but as of right now, i am loving the way it looks and works.
thanks.

installed.

Glad you managed to get it working

For any code to work be it HTML or Javascript it always pays to Keep the code clean and tidy, Having masses of white space and large gaps in any code won't do it justice. In fact i think if you look back in all the replies here someone else had the same problem ages ago.

I knew we'd get there in the end

[Infopro]

Shouldn't http://www.opencube.com/ at least get a mention here? Using the online demo you can really see the tweaks available for use. Thanks UKBL for the menu idea, it's great. OpenCube does deserve some credit for this I think. That software is not free.

[TheLastSuperman]

Originally Posted by Infopro

Shouldn't http://www.opencube.com/ at least get a mention here? Using the online demo you can really see the tweaks available for use. Thanks UKBL for the menu idea, it's great. OpenCube does deserve some credit for this I think. That software is not free.

I'm sure if so it's just a slight oversight on UKBL's behalf unless after purchase you are allowed to use personally & commercially and then it would be allowed for him to do this as it is a single menu (or in this case several styles) but not the ACTUAL software that generates the codes. Use is determined by the softwares Terms of Service or Use and I bet UKBL is following those, I have known him since he started on here and he did not get as far as he has now by being mischevious .

S-MAN

[UKBusinessLive]

Originally Posted by Infopro

Shouldn't http://www.opencube.com/ at least get a mention here? Using the online demo you can really see the tweaks available for use. Thanks UKBL for the menu idea, it's great. OpenCube does deserve some credit for this I think. That software is not free.

This question has already been answered here https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....4&postcount=35

whilst opencube are great at what they do, I Pay for a licence which allows me to create and distribute Royalty and Copyright free menus that i have created, Thus the copyrigh remains with me as the author.

Today i wrote a letter to the Bank Manager using MS Office, But i'm not going to Praise Microsoft just because i used their software to type a letter.

Unlimited Sites - A single user may create unlimited menus for an unlimited number of websites, without restriction. A single unlock code activates the software for any web site!

Nothing Hidden, Safe Commercial Licensing, QuickMenu does not use any behind the scenes hidden links or attempt to contact other servers to validate the purchased license. Copyright notices and text descriptions about OpenCube are not saved to your pages when publishing menus

Open cube is a proffessional application, just like photoshop is to web designers and graphic artists. I just wish you could purchase it outright as opposed to having a subscription

Hope this covers everything

[UKBusinessLive]

Originally Posted by TheLastSuperman

I'm sure if so it's just a slight oversight on UKBL's behalf unless after purchase you are allowed to use personally & commercially and then it would be allowed for him to do this as it is a single menu (or in this case several styles) but not the ACTUAL software that generates the codes. Use is determined by the softwares Terms of Service or Use and I bet UKBL is following those, I have known him since he started on here and he did not get as far as he has now by being mischevious .

S-MAN

he he Superman

Thanks buddy, but its all there at the start of the thread, I can see why people would worry, its a great piece of kit for designing menu's

Oh well thats the way the cookie crumbles

[duspot]

Hi,
I just installed drop down menu tabs.. But i am unable to place my header above the tabs.. Could you please help me out.....

Thank Q

[UKBusinessLive]

Originally Posted by duspot

Hi,
I just installed drop down menu tabs.. But i am unable to place my header above the tabs.. Could you please help me out.....

Thank Q

Thats beause you had added the code at the top of the header template, It sould be at the very bottom, the last thing in your header template

[Xencored]

Hey i come back and see the centering mod is up woop
thats what we was trying to do last time if you remmber ^^

Anyway mate i added the code and it give me this looky

Attachment 99921

Its chopped the sides off
Any ideas matey

Cheers :up:

[UKBusinessLive]

Originally Posted by animemike

Hey i come back and see the centering mod is up woop
thats what we was trying to do last time if you remmber ^^

Anyway mate i added the code and it give me this looky

Attachment 99921

Its chopped the sides off
Any ideas matey

Cheers :up:

Hey Buddy

Glad you liked the centre tip, Not sure what to say about why the bar hasn't extended

You could try and make the bottons a bit wider to compensate??