Miscellaneous Hacks - Sidebar Anywhere (Formerly Sidebar for Activity Stream) by BOP5

Brought to you by BirdOPrey5
www.Qapla.com

Version 2.2.0

The new Activity Stream for VB 4.2.0 is very nice but it feels like it is missing something- and what it is missing is a sidebar. Ideally at some point VB will release a custom sidebar built just for the Activity Stream but until then this quick mod will let you use the built in forum sidebar on the Activity Stream.

As of version 2.0 besides just working on the Activity Stream the mod can now add a sidebar to ANY vBulletin page including forums, threads, groups, albums, who's online, forum leaders, and more. In fact you can easily add the sidebar even to custom pages from custom mods.

New Features

• Now works on ANY vBulletin Page (except blogs which have their own sidebar)
• Option to align sidebar with page content or top of page
• Option to Disable Sidebar Collapse Option (By Usergroup in 2.1.0)
• Collapsed sidebar state now "remembered" on different pages
• Option to enable Sidebar by Usergroup
• Option to disable Sidebar by Forum (if enabled for forums/threads)
• Option to disable Sidebar in specific styles
• Options to disable sidebars if mobile devices detected*

NOTE: To enable mobile device detection options you must install the Mobile Browser Detector mod.

Live Demo: Qapla.com Activity Stream

You can enable or disable the Sidebar Anywhere independently of the forum sidebar but they will both display the same content (blocks.)

NEW - If you need to have different blocks on different pages check out this add-on.

You must have at least 1 block setup and active for the sidebar to show.

Unlike most of my other mods this mod is enabled by default upon installation. Be default it is setup to show only on the Activity Stream and register.php pages.

I am aware there is already a mod out there "Everywhere Sidebar" by another coder. This is completely different code and I made this because my "Staff Online Sideblock" mod did not work on Sidebar Everywhere but it does work on this mod.

This mod requires at least VB 4.2.0 to work on the Activity Stream but should work on older VB 4.x.x versions on other pages.

Full view of admin cp options: http://www.qapla.com/mods/ss/sidebar...tings_full.jpg.

The old version Zip file Sidebar for Activity Stream by BOP5 v11.zip works only on the Activity Stream.

PLEASE READ THE INSTRUCTIONS INCLUDED WITH THIS MOD- THEY ANSWER MOST OF THE QUESTIONS ABOUT HOW TO USE IT.

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Please "Mark as Installed" if you use this.
Donations always appreciated. :up:
Nominate MOTM if you LOVE it!

[djbaxter]

Originally Posted by Hippy

@ BirdOPrey5
cosmetically the sidebar is a tad high compared to the forum home
works perfect tho..
thanks

Originally Posted by BirdOPrey5

Looks like it is a little off (6 pixels) due to your custom style.

Go to plugin manager and edit the AS Sidebar Edits plugin.

Find the instance of:

42px

ans chabe it to

36px

This looks fine on a new custom style forum EXCEPT on forum home where it's too low. How can I move it up as in the second attached image?

[PattiOz]

Originally Posted by BirdOPrey5

1) That is by design- why add code to do something vbulletin already does itself?

2) Never heard of vertical collapse. The option to disable the one collapse I know of (best described as Horizontal) is in the mod settings: Show Collapse Button -> No.

1) point taken

2) The vertical collapse is attached. It is probably a global setting somewhere - it is the same collapse button as the forums. I just need to find out where it is and turn it off.

[BirdOPrey5]

Ahhh... those are collapses for each individual forum block. In my tests it is remembering individual collapsed blocks between pages which is good.

But I've never seen an option to disable them- do you have them disabled on the Forum Index sidebar somehow?

Looking at the various block_* templates...

This one for example:

<li>
	<div class="block smaller">
		<div class="blocksubhead">
			<a class="collapse" id="collapse_block_html_{vb:raw blockinfo.blockid}" href="{vb:raw relpath}#top"><img alt="" src="{vb:stylevar imgdir_button}/collapse_40b.png" id="collapseimg_html_{vb:raw blockinfo.blockid}"/></a>
			<span class="blocktitle">{vb:raw blockinfo.title}</span>
		</div>
		<div class="widget_content blockbody floatcontainer">
		<div id="block_html_{vb:raw blockinfo.blockid}" class="blockrow">
			{vb:raw content}
		</div>
		</div>
	</div>
	<div class="underblock"></div>
</li>

The relevant code is in red. There is no conditional around it so I'm pretty sure no option exists to disable them.

[s]You would need to edit each block_ template and remove the code in red.[/s]

EDIT- Better solution in post #85

[BirdOPrey5]

Originally Posted by djbaxter

This looks fine on a new custom style forum EXCEPT on forum home where it's too low. How can I move it up as in the second attached image?

My mod doesn't affect forum home (AKA forum index) at all.

Did it change after you installed this mod?

[Igel1]

You would need to edit each block_ template and remove the code in red.

or write the following in the additional.css

#sidebar_container a.collapse {
display: none;
}

[djbaxter]

Originally Posted by BirdOPrey5

My mod doesn't affect forum home (AKA forum index) at all.

Did it change after you installed this mod?

No. I was previously using Everywhere Sidebar which had the option of changing the positioning but that wasn't perfect on all pages. What I'm looking for is a way to change the forum home page sidebar and use your add-on for the other pages where it's perfect.

[BirdOPrey5]

Originally Posted by djbaxter

No. I was previously using Everywhere Sidebar which had the option of changing the positioning but that wasn't perfect on all pages. What I'm looking for is a way to change the forum home page sidebar and use your add-on for the other pages where it's perfect.

Understood.

Edit your FORUHOME template.

Find the line:

<div id="content_container" class="{vb:raw $sidebar_class} <vb:if condition="$show['sidebarposition'] == 'left'">contentright</vb:if>">

change it to

<div id="content_container" class="{vb:raw $sidebar_class} <vb:if condition="$show['sidebarposition'] == 'left'">contentright</vb:if>" style="margin-top: -40px;">

Added code in red. Change -40 to a value that looks good for you.

[djbaxter]

^^^ Thank you.

[djbaxter]

Originally Posted by Igel1

or write the following in the additional.css

#sidebar_container a.collapse {
display: none;
}

This does not seem to disable the vertical collapse in either the default style or in my custom style. The "-" button is still visible and clickable and the entire sidebar collapses.



Correction: It DOES work but only if you add this to the TOP of additionalcss.css

What I added was this:

#sidebar_button_link {
display:none;
} 

#sidebar_container a.collapse {
display: none;
}

[BirdOPrey5]

weird. You can use !important to force it to work anywhere-

display: none !important;