Forum Display Enhancements - vB Sponsors - Add a sponsors location to your site

What does this do?
This allows you to add sponsors to your site.

How does this install?
1) Install this product via Admincp => Plugins & Products => Manage Products
2) Edit your Admincp options via Admincp => vBulletin Options => vBulletin Options => vB Sponsors Settings
3) Add one or more wherever they will work.
$vbsponsors_marquee - Box with scrolling marquee (vertical - up)
$vbsponsors_marqueeh - Box with scrolling marquee (horizontal - left)
$vbsponsors_onecolumn - One column sponsor box (uses first 20)
$vbsponsors_twocolumn - Two column sponsor box (uses two columns; Column 1 uses 1-10, Column 2 uses 11-20)
$vbsponsors_threecolumn - Three column sponsor box (uses three columns; Column 1 uses 1-7, Column 2 uses 8-14, Column 3 uses 15-21)
$vbsponsors_fourcolumn - Four column sponsor box (uses four columns; Column 1 uses 1-5, Column 2 uses 6-10, Column 3 uses 11-15, etc.)
$vbsponsors_fivecolumn - Five column sponsor box (uses five columns; Column 1 uses 1-4, Column 2 uses 5-8, etc.)
$vbsponsors_sixcolumn - Six column sponsor box (uses six columns; Column 1 uses 1-3, Column 2 uses 4-6, etc.)

Currently I have it set up (in the screen shot) in the FORUMHOME template right above the <!-- what's going on box --> comment.

How does this work?
Edit your:
Sponsorbox Title
Usergroups
Column widths (for left, center, and right columns)
- 1 column uses the center column size
- 2 column uses the left and right column sizes
- 3 column uses all three column sizes
- 4 column uses 4 even column sizes (to set)
- 5 column uses 5 even column sizes (to set)
- Marquee uses 1 column size.
Height and width of image to be resized (you can use any image but it will be resized to the dimension you specify here - width must be smaller than column width).
Sponsor Title, Image, and Link
- Title is the title or caption of the image
- Image is the your image you want displayed (full http:// URL works best)
- Link is where you want the clicked image to go to

You can have up to 21 Titles, Images, and Links. See screenshot for more detail. If anyone would like to provide a demo, please PM me and I will add it here.

It has been pointed out to me that you may be able to use this in more than one location:
e.g. $vbsponsors_threecolumn in your FORUMHOME template, and $vbsponsors_onecolumn
in your sidebar/column if you use columns. I've not tested this but have had someone test this with success.

Release Notes:
Gold: No changes

RC1: Added 3 more column choices and a new horizontal marquee choice. Removed a couple options that didn't work.

Beta 4: Fixed 3 bugs.

Beta 3: Fixed 4 phrases that may have caused some confusion.
- Added a scrolling marquee (up) for scrolling and size purposes.

Beta 2: Fixed ability to enable/disable modification.
- Added function to give each column's images their own sizes (width and height) specific for that column.
- Added second admincp page to separate long list of options from long list of Titles, Images, and Links.

Beta 1: Initial Release

Ideas for future releases:
[s]One column marquee[/s] - Added in Beta 3

Pre-RC notes:

As this is Beta, I will support this but I am not responsible for issues outside of my control. If you would like to contribute to this and offer suggestions, please PM me and I will do my best to add/take in all suggestions for this modification as this can/does have potential. Aside from the bugs marked in the notes below, this beta is fully-functional.

I've classified this as Beta for these reasons:
1) I have more features planned for this
2) 2 features are present that may be developed further or may be removed as they currently do not serve a purpose.
[s]Enable vB Sponsors - does not currently work.[/s] - Fixed
Unphrased item with three options - very well might remove this - serves no purpose.
3) 2 features are present that are somewhat potentially useless and are considered as "extras" that I am unsure their outcome.

One final note. If you don't like this, don't use it - if you do, great!

[davidw]

Your last explanation's last sentence was most helpful - I used that as the basis for my inquiry. Although the modification can appear to be somewhat easy, if you take a look at the XML and you can see how it can become confusing.

I hope the last addition (marquee) will be beneficial to some as I've seen on many sites where they've added it to a template and had to hand edit it every time.

[Lone Gunman]

how exactly does the marquee work btw? do the banner images scroll up?

[Lone Gunman]

forgot url for sponsor 15

[davidw]

Yes, currently it is set to scroll up. I'll look at the URL for 15.

[Lone Gunman]

the phrase for the url on 3 (description before the blank in cp) is missing too

[davidw]

Fixed those two bugs and one other. Updated.

[The3rdNipple]

Would you happen to know how to not make it push the sections out of place?

[davidw]

Reducing the width on the column (and keeping the image sizes slightly smaller than the column width). Do you have an example of where this is happening?

[Lone Gunman]

thanks again!

[davidw]

If no more issues, I may release the Gold version this weekend.