Forum Display Enhancements - Sorky - SubForum List Control

Purpose
This plugin allows extensive control of how SubForums are displayed.

• Use any mix of between 0 and 10 columns
• Different layouts can be used on specified forums
• Change formatting
• Display Thread/Post counts
• Limit the number of SubForums shown (Show More/Less)
• Collapse entire display
• Sort SubForum display order
• plus lots more!

Installation
Import XML file (as product): AdminCP > Plugin System > Manage Products > [Add/Import Product]

Options
To set the options go to: AdminCP > vBulletin Options > Sorky - SubForum List Control

Tips
To get it on the Forum Home page, set...

"vBulletin Options" > "Forum Listings Display Options" > "Depth of Forums - Forum Home" to "1"

For all other forums, set...

"vBulletin Options" > "Forum Listings Display Options" > "Depth of Forums - Forum Display" to "1"

You should also set...

"vBulletin Options" > "Forum Listings Display Options" > "Depth of Sub-Forums" to "1" Note: Setting it higher will also work!

Version Log
For previous versions see 3.8.x
v2.0.0 - 15th of January, 2010 = official release for 4.0.x (click here for more information)

Hall Of Fame For ALL Versions (Donations - Greatly Appreciated - Thank You)
Fungsten US$25
Budweiser US$20
CreditForum US$25
lazyseller US$30
Alisa Lindsay US$10
Alfa1 ?50

Acknowledgement
Thanks (and apologies) to Cybernetec for the ideas & inspiration to generate this Mod.

Keywords
SubForum, SubForums, Sub-Forum, Sub-Forums, Table, List, Grid, Child, Children, Parent

Settings, Demonstration Screenshots, Notes, etc
See post 1

If you like this Mod please click INSTALL.

[bigrover]

I was able to fix the collapsing forum issue by modifying the parse_templates plugin. I found the problem was related to missing </ol> tags in the html code delivered to the browser by comparing output using the baseline configuration where the collapse feature works, and with the Sub-Forum List Control enabled.

I tried to locate where these tags were supposed to be reinserted into the content per the embedded notes but I never determine where that should have been.

In the parse_templates plugin:

Replace:

PHP Code:

$vbulletin->templatecache[forumhome_forumbit_level1_nopost] = str_replace($Sorky01_SubforumOLBefore , '', $vbulletin->templatecache[forumhome_forumbit_level1_nopost]); 


With:

PHP Code:

    // hack to fix collapsing forums
    // $vbulletin->templatecache[forumhome_forumbit_level1_nopost] = str_replace($Sorky01_SubforumOLBefore , '', $vbulletin->templatecache[forumhome_forumbit_level1_nopost]);
    // end hack 


[bigrover]

I found another problem related to how the Sub-Forum List Control is handling the <ol> tag. When the parse_templates plugin replaces the data for categories it removes an <ol> tag that is defining the container that holds the displayed data, while leaving the closing </ol> tag. This causes the container to close early, leaving all remaining forums, and the footer outside of the bounding box. I can fix it by commenting out the removal of the <ol> tag as indicated below, but that causes problems with the table width resulting in the sub-forums getting bunched up to the left rather than properly spaced as intended by the mod. This is apparently caused by the class attribute in the <ol> tag. I modified the plugin to remove the class attribute and have satisfactory results.

In the parse_templates plugin:

Replace:

PHP Code:

$vbulletin->templatecache[forumhome_forumbit_level1_nopost] = str_replace($Sorky01_SubforumOLBefore , '', $vbulletin->templatecache[forumhome_forumbit_level1_nopost]); 


With:

PHP Code:

    // hack to correct forum home formatting
    $Sorky01_SubforumOLReplace = '<ol>' . "\r\n";
    $vbulletin->templatecache[forumhome_forumbit_level1_nopost] = str_replace($Sorky01_SubforumOLBefore , $Sorky01_SubforumOLReplace, $vbulletin->templatecache[forumhome_forumbit_level1_nopost]);
    // end hack 


[pedroenf]

Originally Posted by bigrover

I was able to fix the collapsing forum issue by modifying the parse_templates plugin. I found the problem was related to missing </ol> tags in the html code delivered to the browser by comparing output using the baseline configuration where the collapse feature works, and with the Sub-Forum List Control enabled.

I tried to locate where these tags were supposed to be reinserted into the content per the embedded notes but I never determine where that should have been.

In the parse_templates plugin:

Replace:

PHP Code:

$vbulletin->templatecache[forumhome_forumbit_level1_nopost] = str_replace($Sorky01_SubforumOLBefore , '', $vbulletin->templatecache[forumhome_forumbit_level1_nopost]); 


With:

PHP Code:

    // hack to fix collapsing forums
    // $vbulletin->templatecache[forumhome_forumbit_level1_nopost] = str_replace($Sorky01_SubforumOLBefore , '', $vbulletin->templatecache[forumhome_forumbit_level1_nopost]);
    // end hack 


Thanks for the bug correction. It DOES work. I've been trying to solve this issue for a very long time. Time to update the MOD now, where's the coder?

[chriske]

Originally Posted by pedroenf

Time to update the MOD now, where's the coder?

Please update this wonderful mod

[ChaFF]

I think this mod should be a default in vb board

[Alex@Mk3OC]

Has anyone had a problem with this mod messing the display of the forum index up in IE7?

I originally suspected vb to be at fault, but when I disable this mod it displays as it should in IE7?

[haidm]

how can I remove "sub-forum" text with this mod?

[ZacFields]

Okay maybe I am just stupid, but I seem to be the only one having this problem:

I have an NFL forum, and I have all the NFL Team sub-forums set up perfectly through this mod. But for some reason, I can figure out how to make my other forums their normal size (using the standard large "new post" icons and showing the last post, etc.

On my forums www.NationalFootballForum.com , I want the "Site News" and "General NFL Discussion" forums to go back to looking like they did before. Any ideas? I see it working on other peoples' forums but I can't figure it out on mine.


*Edit* Nevermind I figured this out. You've just got to set the forums an extra level down and change an option in your VB ACP

[Kyo-dono]

@pedroenf
You are my personal hero!

But is there not a typo?
you wrote:

$Sorky01_SubforumOLReplace = '<ol>' . "\r\n";

but must be:

$Sorky01_SubforumOLReplace = '</ol>' . "\r\n";

With this its working for me.
Thanks for help

[Sorky]

Sorry I've been away for such a long time... Different PC, new role, very little spare time and no copy of vBulletin to work with seriously impacts my ability to play with this ;-)

While the comments from "pedroenf" and "bigrover" will definitely help users with collapse issues, the real reason for the problem is (I expect) that my Mod is supposed to remove both the start and end outline, however I expect that in some users cases the applied class names "subforumlist commalist" may be different and the html produced does therefore not contain <ol class="subforumlist commalist">. This means that the start of the outline is not actually removed (as I intended) and hence the removal of the end of the outline causes issues.

Depending on feedback and time, I could (a) change that section of the code to be a little more reliable even with class changes or I could (b) make it possible to disable the outline change with an option or I could (c) just remove that section (lines 540 to 552). To do (a) I'll need to see a few sites that have my mod applied that I can look at to see the variations that I'd have to deal with. Note: I took the liberty of looking at pedroenf's site and saw <ol class="commalist">, so in that case, removing the "subforumlist " from line 542 of my Mod should also solve the problem, but in the way I intended, by removing the entire outline, both start and finish.