Forums arranged in columns on forumhome

As requested several times, this hack allows you to arrange forums on forumhome in xx columns instead of just one per row as it is in standart vb3.

Look at the screenshot to know what i mean

The design is changeable in the templates of course

I've tested it, and it should work, but as i don't use it myself, i cannot do a longtime test, so if you find any bugs, report them

You can apply the changes to forumdisplay as well if wanted

[ixian]

Originally Posted by Buddha

correct me if i'm wrong (not much of a php coder)... i pieced together some code from posts here, and was hoping it would workin forumdisplay, but it doesn't... any thoughts?


basically, if more than one column, don't display the table row with the descriptions. any help would be appreciated. this is for subforums on forumdisplay.

thanks.

I banged my head on this for a little while myself, so I'm gonna help you out here buddy. This does exactly what you want, as you can see from my site.

At the bottom of forumhome_forumbit_level1_nopost

PHP Code:

<if condition="$childforumbits">
<tbody id="collapseobj_forumbit_$forumid" style="{$collapseobj_forumid}">
<if condition="$forum['subforumcolumns'] > 1">
    <tr align="center">
      <td colspan="2" class="thead" width="43%" align="$stylevar[left]">$vbphrase[forum]</td>
          <td class="thead">$vbphrase[posts]</td>
          <td class="thead" width="43%" align="$stylevar[left]">$vbphrase[forum]</td>
      <td class="thead">$vbphrase[posts]</td>
      </tr>
    <tr>
        <td class="alt1" colspan="5">
<table style="border: none; width: 100%;">
            $childforumbits
</table>
        </td>
    </tr>
<else />
<tr align="center">
      <td class="thead">&nbsp;</td>
      <td class="thead" width="100%" align="$stylevar[left]">$vbphrase[forum]</td>
          <td class="thead" width="200">$vbphrase[last_post]</td>
          <td class="thead">$vbphrase[threads]</td>
      <td class="thead">$vbphrase[posts]</td>
      
    </tr>


    $childforumbits
</if>
</if>
</tbody> 


And your forumhome_forumbit_columncell should look like this:

PHP Code:

<td colspan="1">
<img src="$stylevar[imgdir_statusicon]/forums/forum_$forum[forumid].gif" alt="forum_$forum[statusicon].gif" title="">
</td>
<td colspan="40">
        <a href="forumdisplay.php?$session[sessionurl]f=$forum[forumid]"><strong>$forum[title]</strong></a>

<div class="smallfont">$forum[description]</div>


<if condition="$show['lastpostinfo']">
<div class="smallfont" align="$stylevar[left]">
    <div class="smallfont">
        <a href="showthread.php?$session[sessionurl]goto=newpost&amp;t=$lastpostinfo[lastthreadid]" title="<phrase 1="$lastpostinfo[lastthread]">$vbphrase[go_first_unread_in_thread_x]</phrase>"><strong>$lastpostuser[trimthread]</strong></a>

        <phrase 1="member.php?$session[sessionurl]find=lastposter&amp;f=$lastpostinfo[forumid]" 2="$lastpostinfo[lastposter]">last post <strong>$vbphrase[by_x]</strong></phrase>
    </div>
    
<div align="$stylevar[right]">
        $lastpostinfo[lastpostdate] <if condition="!$show['detailedtime']"><span class="time">$lastpostinfo[lastposttime]</span></if>

        <a href="showthread.php?$session[sessionurl]goto=lastpost&amp;t=$lastpostinfo[lastthreadid]"><img class="inlineimg" src="$stylevar[imgdir_button]/lastpost.gif" alt="$vbphrase[go_to_last_post]" border="0"></a>
    </div>
</div>

<else />

    $lastpostinfo[lastpostdate] <if condition="!$show['detailedtime']"><span class="time">$lastpostuser[lastpostuser]</span></if>
</if>
<td class="alt2" colspan="15" border="0"><center>$forum[replycount]</center></td> 


Note this is for a liquid style, which you appear to be using. If you want to use it with fixed width, replace the percentages with your fixed px values (315 is a good start for the "forum" cell). Play around with it.

You may also want to play around with the "width" percentages a little to tweak it to your specific style. I did mine 1% at a time until it was juuuuust right.

Enjoy.

[Buddha]

thanks ixian... but i notice you have columns set up on your forumhome... this is for forumdisplay (subforums). will this work in my case?
thanks.

[Buddha]

tried and as i thought, it doesn't work for the subforums on forumdisplay.

<if condition="$forum['subforumcolumns'] > 1">

this is the problem line... i just don't know what it should be to reflect subforums displayed on forumdisplay (not forumhome).

[deaconxgp]

okay i installed it and it's cool...but on the subforums that are arranged in columns..how do you get it to show how many posts have been made and who made the last post? it doesn't show any of that info on the subforums arranged in columns.

[deaconxgp]

one more thing...for the status icon on/off images...how would you identify how the code knows which forums to use which status icon?

[Buddha]

deaconxgp, this

<img src="$stylevar[imgdir_statusicon]/forum_$forum[forumid]_$forum[statusicon].jpg" alt="" border="0" />

will allow you to have different images for each forum in these columns (name images forum_xx_old.jpg and forum_xx_new.jpg ... you can easily change .jpg to .gif or .png. this was posted in this thread by xenon.

as for the last post info, look at the top of this page... ixian posted instructions on doing that.

[deaconxgp]

^nevermind that one...

I got the images to work but the forum titles are aligned to the bottom left of the image..how would i align the status icons to the the top left of the images...valign="top" but i'm not sure what template to adjust to get the forums aligned properly with the images.

[deaconxgp]

thanks Buddha lol...posted at the same time dude.

[deaconxgp]

and i tried the code at the top of the page and it didnt' work right...it listed last post information on top of the actual subforums...

[deaconxgp]

for some reason the code doesn't recognize $stylevar[top]

i wonder why.