The Arcive of Official vBulletin Modifications Site.

About Developer · **Released**: 09-02-2006

What this plugin/modification does:
In the default vBulletin implementation, the colors alternate from left to right - from table cell to table cell. This plugin/modification changes it so that each row changes colors instead.

For a visual, we're talking about changing this:
---------------------------
| red | blue | red | blue |
---------------------------
| red | blue | red | blue |
---------------------------
| red | blue | red | blue |
---------------------------
To this:
-----------------------------
| red | red | red | red |
-----------------------------
| blue | blue | blue | blue |
-----------------------------
| red | red | red | red |
-----------------------------

Currently, this plugin enables changing row colors in

Forum Listing in the Forum Home page (screenie attached)
Sub Forum Listing (screenie attached)
Thread Listing (screenie attached)
Search Results Page (screenie attached)
PM Listing
Member Listings

How it works:
The way the colors are currently assigned is via CSS classes. The template changes remove the class definitions from the table cells, and add class definitions to the displayed rows. The CSS Classes used are the "Alt1" and "Alt2" classes - defined in the Admin Control Panel under Style Manager, (style), Main CSS, "First Alternating Color" and "Second Alternating Color".

The Product is named "Alternating Row Color for ForumBits".
Attached to the product are Four plugins:
Alternating Row Color for ForumBits Function - this defines a brief function enabled at the "global_start" hook location.

Code:

function forumRowClass($myrownum){
 return $result = ($myrownum %2 == 0)? ('alt1') : ('alt2');
}

This function is called from other plugins to define whether or not they should be presented with the "alt1" CSS Class, or the "alt2" CSS Class.
The other three plugins -Alternating Threadbit background, Alternating Row Color for ForumBits, Alternating Row Color Search Threadbit - are copy/paste functionality enabled in three separate locations:

Code:

$myrownum++;
$rowClass = forumRowClass($myrownum);

Basically, as vbulletin iterates through creating the rows to display, it calls the function to find out which CSS class to use.
Making minor changes:
If you would rather the colors be switched, simply swap 'alt1' and 'alt2' in the "Alternating Row Color for ForumBits Function" plugin.

What's Involved?
1 Product Installation
4 Plugins (installed all at once, via the product)
47 Changes to 5 Templates

Credit To
VBSeo.com for giving me the idea.

Updates
9/6/2006
got rid of funky quotes in updated_memberlist_reslutsbit.tmpl.php

9/5/2006
Version .3
Updated Mod Description, Install Instructions, downloadable files
Added functionality for Memberlist Alternating Colors
Added functionality for PM Listing Alternating Row Colors
Added new templates - pm_messagelistbit and memberlist_resultsbit

9/3/2006
Updated Mod Description
Installation Instructions
Added additional Screenshots
Uploaded pre-modified out-of-the-box templates
Re-uploaded zip file with appropriate paths
Mod Title Update

9/2/2006
Version .2 - Added plugin to alternate row colors in search results, which also implies the ability to alternate row colors in thread listings.

Installation:
Downloads are on the right. The zip file contains the xml plugin file as well as pre-modified template updates. Only use the premodified templates if the following statements are all true:
1) You are running vBulletin 3.6.0
2) You have not modified the templates to be updated.

There are now 5 templates I have identified that need updating. These templates are:

threadbit
forumhome_forumbit_level1_post
forumhome_forumbit_level2_post
memberlist_resultsbit
pm_messagelistbit

Step 1) Go into your AdminCP, Click Add/Import Product, Upload the product-alternating-forum-rows.xml file.

For the remaining steps, I'm going to go through three iterations of instructions: "The Really Easy Way", "The Easy Way", and "The Hard Way"
Just Pick ONE set of instructions to follow!
Instructions for "The Really Easy Way":

If you didn't follow the instructions above, upload the product-alternating-forum-rows.xml file into your Product Manager
Replace your unmodified threadbit template with updated_threadbit.tmpl.php
Replace your unmodified 3.6.0 forumhome_forumbit_level1_post template with updated_forumhome_forumbit_level1_post.tmpl.php
Replace your unmodified 3.6.0 forumhome_forumbit_level2_post template with updated_forumhome_forumbit_level2_post.tmpl.php
Replace your unmodified 3.6.0 memberlist_resultsbit template with updated_ memberlist_resultsbit.tmpl.php
Replace your unmodified 3.6.0 pm_messagelistbit template with updated_ pm_messagelistbit.tmpl.php

At this point, you are done. No need to read further or execute anymore steps. Take a look at your forum, if it doesn't look right come back and ask for help.

============================

Installation Instructions for "The Easy Way"
If you didn't follow the instructions above, upload the product-alternating-forum-rows.xml file into your Product Manager

threadbit template updates
1) On the very first line, change

Code:

<tr>

to

Code:

<tr class="$rowClass">

2) search and remove:
2) Find all ' class="alt1"' and remove
3) Find all ' class="alt2"' and remove

forumhome_forumbit_level1_post updates
1) On the second line, change

Code:

<tr align="center">

to

Code:

<tr class="$rowClass" align="center">

2) search and remove:
2) Find all ' class="alt1"' and remove
3) Find all ' class="alt2"' and remove
4) Find all ' class="alt1Active"' and remove

forumhome_forumbit_level2_post
1) On the very first line, change

Code:

<tr>

to

Code:

<tr class="$rowClass">

2) search and remove:
2) Find all ' class="alt1"' and remove
3) Find all ' class="alt2"' and remove
4) Find all ' class="alt1Active"' and remove

pm_messagelistbit
1) On the very first line, change

Code:

<tr>

to

Code:

<tr class="$rowClass">

2) search and remove:
2) Find all ' class="alt1"' and remove
3) Find all ' class="alt2"' and remove
4) Find all ' class="alt1Active"' and remove

memberlist_resultsbit
1) change

Code:

<tr align="center">

to

Code:

<tr class="$rowClass" align="center">

2) search and remove:
2) Find all ' AND exec_switch_bg()"' and remove
3) Find all ' class="$bgclass"' and remove
4) Find all ' class="alt1Active"' and remove
5) Find all ' class="alt2"' and remove

At this point, you are done. No need to read further or execute anymore steps. Take a look at your forum, if it doesn't look right come back and ask for help.

============================

Installation Instructions for "The Hard Way"
(see the attached zip file. It was making this thread too difficult to read)

Smoothie · #22 09-04-2006, 07:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nevetS

LOL... You had me very concerned there. I was just thinking... What could I possibly have forgotten to upload?!? I'm glad someone is making use of my work.

Thanks for the update, the great instructions and all the confusion. This mod should be by default in vB, but thats another topic, another day.

Smoothie · #23 09-04-2006, 07:43 AM

Have a request. Maybe when you have time you can adjust the code so that Private Messages in Folder: Inbox and Private Messages in Folder: Sent Items reflects the same alternating row colors.

nevetS · #24 09-04-2006, 07:53 AM

Will Do. I just thought about the Memberlist as well that needs alternating row colors. If I don't get too bogged down, I should post another update tomorrow. Anybody else that is implementing this, or thinking of implementing this, please let me know where else you need alternating row colors.

Also, if you want options, let me know what you want to option-ize. I'm thinking that the class names used should be configurable. Because template changes are involved, you can't turn it on and off via an option - unless there is a way that I don't know of to programatically update templates - now that would be cool!

Ascor · #25 09-04-2006, 11:47 AM

Thank you very mutch to take the time for look at my problem nevetS,
i just drop your file from zip an all is workin fine now

i suggest: the same think for forumdisplay and showthread view, to have the most 3 views harmonised

Smoothie · #26 09-04-2006, 03:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nevetS

Will Do. I just thought about the Memberlist as well that needs alternating row colors. If I don't get too bogged down, I should post another update tomorrow. Anybody else that is implementing this, or thinking of implementing this, please let me know where else you need alternating row colors.

Also, if you want options, let me know what you want to option-ize. I'm thinking that the class names used should be configurable. Because template changes are involved, you can't turn it on and off via an option - unless there is a way that I don't know of to programatically update templates - now that would be cool!

Member list is definitely a needed.

nevetS · #27 09-05-2006, 06:31 AM

Check back for the updates tomorrow. I have traffic court in the morning, so I've been spending the last few hours prepping my defense.... wish me luck!

Cheertobi · #28 09-05-2006, 02:12 PM

Hi nevetS,

thanks for the update

Tobi

Andreas · #29 09-05-2006, 02:21 PM

Why not just use exec_switch_bg() and get rid of the global_start Plugin?

nevetS · #30 09-05-2006, 07:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andreas

Why not just use exec_switch_bg() and get rid of the global_start Plugin?

This is the original solution that I implemented, however, exec_switch_bg() does not seem to work in the forum_bit templates. Add to that that the exec_switch_bg call in the threadbit template did not work when displaying search results. Not to say that it wouldn't work at all, but when I tried implementing it, it didn't.

Additionally, I'm going to implement some options in an update to select the classes so that the colors don't necessarily need to map directly to the alt1 and alt2 classes.

Smoothie · #31 09-06-2006, 04:12 AM

Yay! Update to member list coming along too?

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Page Generation 0.05336 seconds Memory Usage 2,328KB Queries Executed 26 (?)
More Information
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