Miscellaneous Hacks - Alternative Breadcrumbs for your vB4

STOP: Before we go any further, I want to make it clear that you need to have a basic understanding of what you're doing. You need to have a basic understanding of CSS in order to make this perfect. I have tried my best to have this use vBulletin's existing stylevars, but you will most likely need to fine-tune it's cosmetic qualities on your own.

Some people have been asking for better breadcrumbs. A few months ago, I published a barebone template on how to accomplish such a task. Despite my good efforts, some people needed additional help to get it working. To make matters easier, I took time out today to make the breadcrumbs work with a vBulletin 4 system. It includes basic Microdata.

As previously mentioned above, these will need some CSS work on a non-default style. When these were originally built, it was for my website, not for mass distribution. I have given my best efforts to port it to using vBulletin's stylevars, but it's very, very crude. I have taken some time to add comments to the CSS so you can easily change the values if they don't work right.

If you want to see a live demo, you may visit my site:

https://www.beercandle.com/forum.php

Please note my site is using the original revision. This here is the adapted.

Prerequisite to setting this up: This has only been tested on vBulletin 4.1.11; Create a copy of the Style you want to apply this to. Test it first. Make sure it looks good.

> Open Template Group `CSS Templates`
>> Open Template `additional.css`
### ADD ###

.bread_box {
	margin: 0;
	overflow: hidden;
	clear: both;
}
.breadcrumb {
	position: relative;
	font: 11px Arial,Calibri,Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;
	background: {vb:stylevar sidebar_background};
	border: {vb:stylevar sidebar_border}; /* this is the border color that's around the whole thing */
	-moz-border-radius:{vb:stylevar border_radius};
	-webkit-border-radius: {vb:stylevar border_radius};
	border-radius: {vb:stylevar border_radius};
	overflow: hidden;
}
.breadcrumb .crust {
	display: block;
	float: left;
	position: relative;
}
.breadcrumb .crust:first-child a.crumb {
	padding-left: 13px;
	-moz-border-radius-topleft:{vb:stylevar border_radius};
	-moz-border-radius-bottomleft:{vb:stylevar border_radius};
	-webkit-border-top-left-radius: {vb:stylevar border_radius};
	-webkit-border-bottom-left-radius: {vb:stylevar border_radius};
	border-top-left-radius: {vb:stylevar border_radius};
	border-bottom-left-radius: {vb:stylevar border_radius};
}
.breadcrumb .crust a.crumb, .breadcrumb .crust b.lastcrumb {
	text-decoration: none;
	background-color: {vb:stylevar sidebar_background.backgroundColor}; /* this is the background color of the CRUMBS, ie: the links */
	padding: 0 10px 0 23px;
	border-bottom: {vb:stylevar sidebar_border}; /* this is the same as the border value higher up, this only shows if the last crumb causes it to overflow */
	margin-bottom: -1px;
	outline: 0 none;
	-moz-outline-style: 0 none;
	display: block;
	line-height: 22px;
	_border-bottom: none;
	color:{vb:stylevar link_color}; /* this is the color of the links in the crumbs */
	text-decoration:{vb:stylevar link_textDecoration};
}
.breadcrumb .crust b.lastcrumb {
	background: transparent none;
	color: {vb:stylevar footer_time_color}; /* this is the color of the last crumb, ie: the final destination */
	font-weight: bold;
}
.breadcrumb .crust a.crumb, .breadcrumb .crust b.lastcrumb {
	line-height: 22px;
}
.breadcrumb .crust .arrow {
	border: 12px solid transparent;
	border-right: 1px none black;
	border-left: {vb:stylevar sidebar_border}; /* this is the _background_ color of the "arrow" */
	border-left-width: 12px !important;
	border-left-style: solid !important;
	display: block;
	position: absolute;
	right: -12px;
	top: -1px;
	z-index: 50;
	width: 0px;
	height: 0px;
}
.breadcrumb .crust .arrow span {
	border: 12px solid transparent;
	border-right: 1px none black;
	border-left-color: {vb:stylevar sidebar_background.backgroundColor}; /* this is the border color of the "arrow" */
	display: block;
	position: absolute;
	left: -13px;
	top: -12px;
	z-index: 51;
	white-space: nowrap;
	overflow: hidden;
	text-indent: 9999px;
	width: 0px;
	height: 0px;
}
.breadcrumb .refresh:hover { background-position: 0px -16px; }
.breadcrumb .crust:last-child a.crumb { font-weight: bold; }
.breadcrumb .crust:hover a.crumb { 
	background-color:{vb:stylevar blocksubhead_background.backgroundColor}; /* this is the background color of the crumb when it's hovered */
	color:{vb:stylevar linkhover_color}; /* likewise, this is the color of the crumb's link when hovered */
	text-decoration:{vb:stylevar linkhover_textDecoration}; 
}
.breadcrumb .crust:hover .arrow span { 
	border-left-color:{vb:stylevar blocksubhead_background.backgroundColor}; /* this is the color of the "arrow" when hovered. It should be identical to the `.breadcrumb .crust:hover a.crumb` background value */
}

> Open Template Group `Navigation / Breadcrumb Templates`
>> Open Template `navbar`
### FIND ###

<div id="breadcrumb" class="breadcrumb">
	<ul class="floatcontainer">
		<li class="navbithome"><a href="index.php{vb:raw session.sessionurl_q}" accesskey="1"><img src="{vb:stylevar imgdir_misc}/navbit-home.png" alt="{vb:rawphrase home}" /></a></li>
		{vb:raw navbits.breadcrumb}
		{vb:raw navbits.lastelement}
	</ul>
	<hr />
</div>

### REPLACE WITH ###

<div class="bread_box">
	<nav>
		<fieldset class="breadcrumb">
			<span class="crumbs">
				<vb:if condition="$vboptions['hometitle']">
					<span class="crust" itemscope="itemscope" itemtype="http://data-vocabulary.org/Breadcrumb">
						<a href="{vb:raw vboptions.homeurl}" class="crumb" rel="up" itemprop="url" alt="{vb:rawphrase home}">
							<span itemprop="title">{vb:raw vboptions.hometitle}</span>
						</a>
						<span class="arrow">
							<span>&gt;</span>
						</span>
					</span>
				</vb:if>
				{vb:raw navbits.breadcrumb}
				{vb:raw navbits.lastelement}
			</span>
		</fieldset>
	</nav>
</div>

>> Open template `navbar_link`
### REPLACE _EVERYTHING_ WITH ###

<vb:if condition="$show['breadcrumb']">
	<span class="crust" itemscope="itemscope" itemtype="http://data-vocabulary.org/Breadcrumb">
		<a href="{vb:raw nav_url}" class="crumb" rel="up" itemprop="url">
			<span itemprop="title">{vb:raw nav_title}</span>
		</a>
		<span class="arrow">
			<span>&gt;</span>
		</span>
	</span>
<vb:else />
	<span class="crust" itemscope="itemscope" itemtype="http://data-vocabulary.org/Breadcrumb">
		<b class="lastcrumb">
			<span itemprop="title">{vb:raw nav_title}</span>
		</b>
	</span>
</vb:if>

[Disco_Dave]

Anyone know how to make this line a background: url

PHP Code:

.breadcrumb .crust:hover .arrow span { 
    border-left-color:#e9e9e9; /* this is the color of the "arrow" when hovered. It should be identical to the `.breadcrumb .crust:hover a.crumb` background value */
} 


Thanks
Dave

Great hack!

[TeamSempoi]

working good on (vBulletin 4.2.2)

[john7911]

Thank you, I'll try it l8tr

[K4GAP]

On one of your screen shots (see below) your addition and the regular breadcrumb are all within very close proximity to each other.

I would think it would be better to replace the default with yours? Otherwise it's repetitive.

[BirdOPrey5]

I don't see the regular breadcrumb in that picture?

This is the default breadcrumb-

[K4GAP]

The text below the bread crumb. My bad.
This text:
Beercandle Forums
Welcome to the Beercandle Forums.

There's no need for it.

[Manuel94]

Hi, do you know how can I do to enlarge this breadcrumb? I tried to maximize it with line-height but arrows remain small. Thank you.

[charlesr]

For anyone that is still using this, these are the new replacements that fix the (vbulletin) data-vocabulary.schema deprecation from google's search console.

(just added "vbulletin" above in case anyone is searching google!)

navbar:

<div class="bread_box">
	<nav>
		<fieldset class="breadcrumb">
			<span class="crumbs">
				<vb:if condition="$vboptions['hometitle']">
					<ol class="crust" itemscope="itemscope" itemtype="http://schema.org/BreadcrumbList">
						<li itemprop="itemListElement" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/ListItem">
							<a itemprop="item" href="{vb:raw vboptions.homeurl}" class="crumb" rel="up" itemprop="url" alt="{vb:rawphrase home}">
								<span itemprop="title">{vb:raw vboptions.hometitle}</span>
							</a>
						</li>
						<span class="arrow">
							<span>&gt;</span>
						</span>
					</ol>
				</vb:if>
				{vb:raw navbits.breadcrumb}
				{vb:raw navbits.lastelement}
			</span>
		</fieldset>
	</nav>
</div>

navbar_link:

<vb:if condition="$show['breadcrumb']">
	<ol class="crust" itemscope="itemscope" itemtype="http://schema.org/BreadcrumbList">
		<li itemprop="itemListElement" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/ListItem">
			<a itemprop="item" href="{vb:raw nav_url}" class="crumb" rel="up" itemprop="url">
				<span itemprop="title">{vb:raw nav_title}</span>
			</a>
		</li>
			<span class="arrow">
				<span>&gt;</span>
			</span>
	</ol>
<vb:else />
	<ol class="crust" itemscope="itemscope" itemtype="http://schema.org/BreadcrumbList">
		<li itemprop="itemListElement" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/ListItem">
			<b class="lastcrumb">
				<span itemprop="title">{vb:raw nav_title}</span>
			</b>
		</li>
	</ol>
</vb:if>