Arrange Sub-Forums in columns

There's also a vB 3.5 version here: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...threadid=82845

What it does
This hack arranges sub-forums on the forum home into 2 (or more) columns, makeing large lists of sub-forums more presentable. You can see it in action on my forums here:

Demo
http://forum.lowcarber.org

Note:
1. You need to enable sub-forum display on the forum home from your vB admin panel
2. This hack is for the forum home page, not forum display.

To enable sub-forums on the forum home page
1. Go to your forum Admin panel
2. Click vBulletin Options
3. Select "Forum Listings Display Options" from the drop down list
4. In "Depth of Sub-Forums" replace 0 with 1

Installation
To install, edit the file functions_forumlist.php (in the includes directory)

1. Find

PHP Code:

      foreach($vbulletin->iforumcache["$parentid"] AS $forumid) 


Place this code above it:

PHP Code:

$output .= "<table width=\"100%\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" border=\"0\" align=\"center\" ><tr valign=\"top\"> ";
      $cols = 0; 


2. Find

PHP Code:

            eval('$subforum = "' . fetch_template("forumhome_subforumbit_$canpost") . '";');
            if (!empty($output))
            {
                $subforum = $splitter["$canpost"] . $subforum;
            }
            if ($depth < $vbulletin->options['subforumdepth'])
            {
                $output .= construct_subforum_bit($forumid, $cancontainthreads, $subforum, $depthmark . '--', $depth + 1);
            }
        }
    }

    return $output;

} 


Replace with

PHP Code:

            eval('$subforum = "' . fetch_template("forumhome_subforumbit_$canpost") . '";');
                    if ($depth < $vbulletin->options['subforumdepth'])
                        {
                                $cols++;
                                if ($cols==3)
                                        {
                                        $cols = 1;
                                        $output .=  "</tr><tr>";
                                        }

                        $output .= '<td width="50%">' . construct_subforum_bit($forumid, $cancontainthreads, $subforum, $depthmark . '--', $depth + 1) . "</td>";
                        }
        }
    }

        if ($cols ==1) $output.="<td>&nbsp;</td></tr></table>";
    else $output.="</tr></table>";

        return $output;

} 


To put them in 3 columns, instead of t2, just edit this line "if ($cols==3)" to "if ($cols==4)" and change this line:

PHP Code:

                  $output .= "<td width=\"50%\">" . construct_subforum_bit($forumid, $cancontainthreads, $subforum, $depthmark . '--', $depth + 1) . ""; 


To this:

PHP Code:

                  $output .= "<td width=\"33%\">" . construct_subforum_bit($forumid, $cancontainthreads, $subforum, $depthmark . '--', $depth + 1) . ""; 


Template modification (optional)
As this hack will list the sub-forums in a table, the font used is not effected by the <div> tag for subforums, which will cause the default font to be used instead of smallfont.

To use smallfont for sub-forum names, edit the "forumhome_subforumbit_post"

Change (this is the whole template)

<img class="inlineimg" src="$stylevar[imgdir_statusicon]/subforum_$forum[statusicon].gif" alt="" /> <a href="forumdisplay.php?$session[sessionurl]f=$forum[forumid]">$forum[title]</a>

To:

<img class="inlineimg" src="$stylevar[imgdir_statusicon]/subforum_$forum[statusicon].gif" alt="" /> <a href="forumdisplay.php?$session[sessionurl]f=$forum[forumid]"><span class="smallfont">$forum[title]</span></a>

And for those who want to edit or remove the "Sub-forum" word, just remove (or edit, if you just want to change it) "<strong>$vbphrase[subforums]</strong>:" from the "forumhome_forumbit_level2_post" template

Screen shots, before/after

[Michael2]

Originally Posted by tamarian

That should be easy, and you don't even need this hack to do it Just use <br \> as a seperator instead of a comma.

That would be in the "forumhome_subforumseparator_" templates.

Duh! *lol* I guess that was too obvious! Thanks!

[Shoebuddy]

Great Hack :banana:
How can I change the icon infront of the subforum list and make the subforum list bold?

[Aurous]

Thanks, exactly what I was looking for!

Installed

[tamarian]

Originally Posted by Shoebuddy

Great Hack :banana:
How can I change the icon infront of the subforum list and make the subforum list bold?

To change the icons, just upload the images you want as subforum_old.gif and subforum_new.gif replacing what's there.

For bold or any other HTML you can do something like what Erwin suggested here:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....2&postcount=43

Or through templates and/or CSS

[alfaowner]

Superb hack, worked first time, its transformed my web site, I so appreciate these easy and very efective additions. Thank you coder!

AO

[Lee Wilde]

Hi, I don't have need for this hack at present, however I just wanted to say what an attractive site you have. Colours/layout...all very nice. Well done.

[EvilCrow]

OMG.... I love this... Thanks I've been looking for this for ages!!!!
Not only clicks install, also kiss's the person that did it... (No I'm not gay, just happy)

[dpkm]

There is a slight rendering issue with Mozilla. Some of the subforums displayed in columns will occasionally lose underlining. I suspect this can be resolved rather easily with CSS. I see it both on the forums I run and on the hack author's forums using Moz 1.5.

This isn't a problem in IE 6.

Very nice hack, btw.

[tamarian]

Originally Posted by dpkm

There is a slight rendering issue with Mozilla. Some of the subforums displayed in columns will occasionally lose underlining. I suspect this can be resolved rather easily with CSS. I see it both on the forums I run and on the hack author's forums using Moz 1.5.

This isn't a problem in IE 6.

Very nice hack, btw.

Could you post a screenshot for this?

I don't doubt that this might be the case, but hopefully the screenshot will help some of the HTML guru here recognize the problem and post a solution for it. In which case, I'll gladly update the instructions acordingly

[dpkm]

Here's the screenshot. I've thought about it a bit, and I think it doesn't have anything to do with the hack, but either rendering in Mozilla (because I can scroll up and down and the problem can disappear or reappear in different places) or the css.