Forum Home Enhancements - [AJAX] Tab Menu For Forum Home

Okay so this is my first contribution to Vbulletin fans. I'm not a coder but I know a little bit about PHP and Javascripts.

After installing the Tabbed Forum Home by bobster65 here (well done, bobster65!) I decided to make a similar mode using Ajax because I want to reduce the initial load of the forum.

So basically this mod will apprear almost exactly the same as bobster65's mod but the way it works is totally different.

Since this is the beta version which I spent around 2 hours to code and test, please don't expect too much Because I don't know much about coding, I will not be able to make this mod become a product. Probably someone else better than me can do this.

Update:

25/06/08 - Version 1.3: Fix problem with category's description and category ID on tabs_forumbits template. Remember to update tabs_forumbits template and replace old tabs.php by new tabs.php.

09/06/2008 - Version 1.2: Fix problem with loading default tab initially when member access index.php. Now can load as many categories as you want. 01 new template is created. For whom is using older version, when upgrading to 1.2, please update all new template contents as below.

07/06/2008 - Version 1.1: I found problem with restricted forum so I updated the code to fix this problem. Please make sure you have latest version.

07/06/2008 - Version 1.0: I have revised the code on the tab menu to make it simple to config the tab. I added some codes to set the selected tab.

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LET'S START
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1/ Upload the tabs.js to folder clientscript (i.e: www.yourdomain.com/forum/clientscript/tabs.js)

2/ Upload the tabs.css and 2 gif images to folder clientscript/vbulletin_css/ (i.e: http://www.yourdomain.com/forum/clie...n_css/tabs.css)

3/ Upload tabs.php to your forum root (i.e: www.yourdomain.com/forum/tabs.php)

4/ Go to your Admin CP and create a new child style from your current style.

5/ On the new style your have just created, from the Template Options, choose "Add New Template" and name it tabs_forumhome.

Copy the below code and paste to the Template section and submit:

<table class="tborder" cellpadding="$stylevar[cellpadding]" cellspacing="$stylevar[cellspacing]" border="0" width="100%" align="center">
<thead>
	<tr align="center">
	  <td class="thead">&nbsp;</td>
	  <td class="thead" width="100%" align="$stylevar[left]">$vbphrase[forum]</td>
	  <td class="thead" width="175">$vbphrase[last_post]</td>
	  <td class="thead">$vbphrase[threads]</td>
	  <td class="thead">$vbphrase[posts]</td>
	  <if condition="$vboptions['showmoderatorcolumn']">
	  <td class="thead">$vbphrase[moderator]</td>
	  </if>
	</tr>
</thead>
$forumbits
<tbody>
	<tr>
		<td class="tfoot" align="center" colspan="<if condition="$vboptions['showmoderatorcolumn']">6<else />5</if>"><div class="smallfont"><strong>
			<a href="forumdisplay.php?$session[sessionurl]do=markread" rel="nofollow">$vbphrase[mark_forums_read]</a>
			<if condition="$vboptions['forumleaders']">&nbsp; &nbsp;
			<a href="showgroups.php$session[sessionurl_q]">$vbphrase[view_forum_leaders]</a></if>
		</strong></div></td>
	</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
$forumhome_markread_script

6/ Do step 5 again and name it tabs_forumbits copy and paste the following code into Template section:

<tbody>
	<tr>
		<td class="tcat" colspan="<if condition="$vboptions['showmoderatorcolumn']">6<else />5</if>"><a style="float:right" href="#top" onclick="return toggle_collapse('forumbit_$tabs[id]')"><img id="collapseimg_forumbit_$tabs[id]" src="images/buttons/collapse_tcat.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a><a href="forumdisplay.php?f=$tabs[id]">$tabs[title]</a></td><tr>
<td class="smallfont" colspan="<if condition="$vboptions['showmoderatorcolumn']">6<else />5</if>">$tabs[description]</td>
	</tr>
</tbody>

<tbody id="collapseobj_forumbit_$tabs[id]" style="">$tabs[forumbits]</tbody>

7/ Now you need to create a new template for login required forum. Do step 5 again and name it tabs_loginrequired and paste the below code into Template section:

<table class="tborder" cellpadding="$stylevar[cellpadding]" cellspacing="$stylevar[cellspacing]" border="0" width="70%" align="center">
<tr>
	<td class="tcat">$vbphrase[vbulletin_message]</td>
</tr>
<tr>
	<td class="panelsurround" align="center">
	<div class="panel">
		<div align="$stylevar[left]">

			<script type="text/javascript" src="clientscript/vbulletin_md5.js?v=$vboptions[simpleversion]"></script>
			<form action="login.php?do=login" method="post" onsubmit="md5hash(vb_login_password, vb_login_md5password, vb_login_md5password_utf, $show[nopasswordempty])">
			<input type="hidden" name="do" value="login" />
			<input type="hidden" name="url" value="$scriptpath" />
			<input type="hidden" name="vb_login_md5password" />
			<input type="hidden" name="vb_login_md5password_utf" />
			$postvars

			<input type="hidden" name="s" value="$session[sessionhash]" />
			<input type="hidden" name="securitytoken" value="$bbuserinfo[securitytoken]" />

			<blockquote>
$vbphrase[not_logged_no_permission]<br /> <br />
1. $vbphrase[not_logged_in_fill_in_form]<br />
2. $vbphrase[may_not_have_sufficient_privileges]<br />
3. $vbphrase[administrator_may_disabled_account]<br />
</blockquote>

			<fieldset class="fieldset">
				<legend>$vbphrase[log_in]</legend>
				<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="$stylevar[formspacer]" border="0" align="center">
				<tr>
					<td>$vbphrase[username]:<br /><input type="text" class="bginput" name="vb_login_username" size="50" accesskey="u" tabindex="1" /></td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td>$vbphrase[password]:<br /><input type="password" class="bginput" name="vb_login_password" size="50" tabindex="1" /></td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td>
						<span style="float:$stylevar[right]"><a href="login.php?$session[sessionurl]do=lostpw">$vbphrase[forgotten_your_password]</a></span>
						<label for="cb_cookieuser"><input type="checkbox" name="cookieuser" value="1" id="cb_cookieuser" tabindex="1" />$vbphrase[remember_me]</label>
					</td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td align="$stylevar[right]">
						<input type="submit" class="button" value="$vbphrase[log_in]" accesskey="s" tabindex="1" />
						<input type="reset" class="button" value="$vbphrase[reset_fields]" accesskey="r" tabindex="1" />
					</td>
				</tr>
				</table>
			</fieldset>

			<if condition="$show['register_message']">
				<div class="smallfont"><phrase 1="register.php?$session[sessionurl]do=signup">$vbphrase[admin_required_register]</phrase></div>
			</if>
			</form>

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

8/ Ok, now you need to modify the FORUMHOME template as following:

Add this code between <head> and </head>

<script type="text/javascript" src="clientscript/tabs.js"></script>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="clientscript/vbulletin_css/tabs.css" />

Now replace all codes between <!-- main --> and <!-- /main --> by this code:

New code update 07/06/2008

<!-- Tab menu by NsT @ RCHobby365 -->
<!-- Default tab ID to load initially -->
<input type="hidden" value="1" id="defaulttab">
<table border="0" width="100%" align="center">
<tr><td>
<div id="tabsF">
<ul>
<li><a href="#1" id="a1"><span id="s1">Category 1</span></a></li>
<li><a href="#2" id="a2"><span id="s2">Category 2</span></a></li>
<li><a href="#3|4" id="a3|4"><span id="s3|4">Category 4</span></a></li>
</ul> 
</div>
</td></tr>
<tr><td id="forumbits">
	
</td></tr></table>
<!-- End tab menu -->

On the <body> tag, add this code:

onLoad="startLoad();"

So the body tag should be like this:

<body onLoad="startLoad();">

Now the mod is almost done. It's time for you to config the tabs. The update on 07/06/2008 basically remove the onClick event to make the tab simpler.

Note: You MUST define a specific tab you want to load initially (this will load a specific tab when user access default url such as: forum/index.php). To do this, you need to enter the value (ID) of the hidden input:

<input type="hidden" value="1" id="defaulttab">

Now the value="1" so it will load category ID=1 if member go to your index.php page. If you want to load several categories, you need to add the category ID into a string seperate by |.

For example: value="1|3" and this will load category 1 and 3. You MUST also have a tab that loads category 1 and 3 or the mod wont work and you will receive an Javascript error.

Exampe: <li><a href="#1|3" id="a1|3"><span id="s1|3">Category 1</span></a></li>

<li><a href="#1" id="a1"><span id="s1">Category 1</span></a></li>

If you want a tab to list a single category with its sub-forums, on the href you just need to enter the category ID after the #:

For example: href="#1" will list Category ID=1 and its sub-forums.

If you want a tab to list multiple category with their sub-forums, you need to enter a string of categories ID.

For example: href="#3|4" will list Category ID=3 and ID=4 with their sub-forums.

You can list as many categories as you want, just add their ID into the string, seperate by "|" and this string must be after the #.

The ID of <a> and <span> tag is used to define the selected tab. The ID is given by the ID of a single category or multiple category with "|". ID of <a> tag starts with "a" and ID of <span> tag starts with "s".

To load all category like normal, you can use this tab:

<li><a href="#all" id="aall"><span id="sall">View All</span> </a></li>

And that's it

Hope you will like it and work together to make it better.

Credits:
- Vbulletin functions
- bobster65 for his idea about the tabbed forum.
- Css tab menu by www.exploding-boy.com/images/cssmenus/menus.html

[NsT]

I think the problem might be the template, since the error is about eval() function which is used to fetch templates.

Can you setup other tabs to see if they work? It seems to work fine with the error. If the error is not affecting, we can put an "@" in front of eval() and it'll hide the error.

Since I and my friends don't have this problem (tested on 3.7.0, 3.7.1) so I'm not sure how to fix this.

[Magnumutz]

Where do i put the "@" in front of?

[NsT]

Uhm let's try this: Open tabs.php,

You will see function eval(), since we don't know which function causes the error so just put @ in front of all eval().

For example: @eval('bla bla bla');

Let's see how it works

[Magnumutz]

Yup, it's hidden now... but there's a space between the tabs and the forums shown
Could that go away and the tabs "buttons" made bigger?

[NsT]

Cool! But I didn't see the space between the tabs and the forums


You can edit the CSS, edit li properties, set a line-height:18px (or higher).

You also need to modify the template tabs_forumhome because your forum is using not standard template, it uses splited category template.

[Magnumutz]

Okay, thanks a lot for the nice support NsT... your gonna do good here on vB.org

Later Edit: I set the li to 30px and it's perfect
Thanks again... now i gotta find what's causing the gap

[NsT]

You're welcome Magnumutz I'll try to help out as much as I can

[maidos]

the instructions is just too much. cant you provide product instead, I wont install until theres such feature

[NsT]

I don't think the instruction is too much because you just need to create 3 new templates win a few minutes, and then upload some files and setup your tabs. Probably it will take you abou 5 minutes to do this mod.

But anyway, this script is not for one who wants plug & play

[YuOr]

i hope i don't get banned for this question
but can i pay a little bit to someone to install it to my forum? pm me
thanks