Show Thread Enhancements - ThreadNav: scrolling New Posts navigation bar for Showthread

ThreadNav(2.1) puts almost all the information in New Posts or Today's Posts in a compact scrolling navigation bar in the thread display page (showthread). The location in showthread depends on the user's thread viewing settings. Buttons on either end scroll the list of new posts right or left and additional information is available in a drop down box when you hover over the lower portion of the post cell. The list automatically refreshes using AJAX once a minute (default).

In Version 2.1 you can now place ThreadNav in any vBulletin page. A simple setting will put it in Forum Home (index) and it can be added to other pages with a simple template edit (See instuctions in ThreadNav settings in your AdminCP for edits).

Updated Version 2.1
I've updated this recently to make it fully compatible with updates to Thread & Forum Ignore System, if it is installed. I also got rid of the text jiggle in some browsers when you hover over a cell to display the drop box.

Features:

General:

• Searches for New Posts or Today's Posts
• List scrolls right or left with buttons at ends
• Automatically refreshes once a minute (default setting)
• Cell width adjusts automatically to fit available space
• Hovering over lower portion of partially exposed cell
  snaps the cell into full view
• Automatically integrates with Thread & Forum Ignore System
  if installed

In the cell for each thread:

• Go to first unread post button (New Posts only)
• Thread link goes to either first or last post depending
  on user settings for viewing threads
• Name of last poster
• Last post button

In the drop down box:

• Date/time
• Forum
• Thread starter
• Peplies
• Views
• Links for previewing first and last posts

User settings:

• Turn ThreadNav off
• Get New Posts
• Get Today's Posts

Admin Control Panel:

• On/off
• Other pages to show ThreadNav
• Set refresh interval
• Maximum minutes ThreadNav will continue refreshing
• Allow or disallow guests to see ThreadNav
• Maximum number of posts to show
• Minimum width of each post cell.
• Excluded forums

Upgrading to version 2.0

• Upload the new product xml file in Plugins & Products and overwrite the old file.
• Be sure to revert all threadnav templates, including threadnav.css.
• Some pages will require simple template edits. See the ThreadNav setting sin the Admin CP for more information.

Bugs Fixed:

• Now compatible with vBSEO
• All text in phrases
• More tips on styling in threadnav.css
• Resolved major incompatibilities with some styles
• Miscellaneous aesthetic changes
• Resolved misalignment of borders of cell and drop box in some styles
• Improved closing of drop boxes when you mouse out
• Fixed more incompatibility issues with some some styles
• Fixed incompatibility issue with IE (GRRRRRRRRRR....)
• Overhauled system for opening and closing drop boxes

Style is based on borders, font-color and background-colors of postbits. For styles with darker colors a note at the top of threadnav.css gives helpful styling tips. If you need to add space above or below ThreadNav see top of threadnav.css. Don't use line breaks.

Installation is simple: upload the XML file to Products and you're ready to go -- no external files or edits.

Version 2.0 was developed in vB4.2.2 but should work in any vB4 version.

[Erica1977]

Originally Posted by Erica1977

ok just changed it with this code btech red.

Did UO Purple and UO Blue as well.

[nerbert]

I've watched that page load several times and can see no general method of catching it at just the right stage with any general purpose code. There's just too many things going on with all those modifications.

But ....

Here's a little work-around just for your site. Find

		listWidth=fetch_object('right').offsetLeft-19-17+1;

near the bottom of threadnav and just below it add this line

                if(',50,29,31,41,'.match(/{vb:raw style.styleid}/))listWidth-=34;

It anticipates the problem styles will shrink 34 pixels horizontally and subtracts that much from the calculated width of the space available.

[Erica1977]

Originally Posted by nerbert

I've watched that page load several times and can see no general method of catching it at just the right stage with any general purpose code. There's just too many things going on with all those modifications.

But ....

Here's a little work-around just for your site. Find

		listWidth=fetch_object('right').offsetLeft-19-17+1;

near the bottom of threadnav and just below it add this line

                if(',50,29,31,41,'.match(/{vb:raw style.styleid}/))listWidth-=34;

It anticipates the problem styles will shrink 34 pixels horizontally and subtracts that much from the calculated width of the space available.

which style all?

[nerbert]

Duh! I didn't need to figure out that fancy conditional, each style has its own template (It's been a long day)

Just put in

                listWidth-=34;

in the templates for btech red and all the styles below it in the list.

[Erica1977]

Originally Posted by nerbert

Duh! I didn't need to figure out that fancy conditional, each style has its own template (It's been a long day)

Just put in

                listWidth-=34;

in the templates for btech red and all the styles below it in the list.

ok where do i add this line under what.

[nerbert]

Same place as I stated earlier.

[socialteenz]

Installed & nominated

*****

[nerbert]

Originally Posted by socialteenz

Installed & nominated

*****

Thanks!

Do check back, I'm working on an upgraded version that will work with more styles. The present version will work with most styles but I'm trying to get it more general.

[nerbert]

Erica1977, I think the problem here is your min-width setting. When btech page loads it resizes twice, first for the scrollbar and then again when all the forum content is finished. As far as I know the body min-width + all the padding, borders, outline and margins must add to less than 1024 regardless of how wide the user has the page. You have it set at 980px which is much too wide. I think you could set that as low as 650px. Go to StyleVars > Common > doc-minWidth and try something much smaller, then check if the page has to resize. This should speed page loading and make it a lot cleaner.

The next thing to do is eliminate the resizing for the scrollbar. Practically every vBulletin page is too tall to display on the screen so they all need scrollbars. But as it is now the page loads starting at the top, and when it gets to the bottom of the window it has to stop, put in a scrollbar, resize eveything and proceed to finish the page. It ought to have a scrollbar from the get-go. If you want to fix this for SHOWTHREAD only go to the SHOWTHREAD template and find the body tag and add style="overflow-y:scroll;" inside the tag. But a simpler way to do it for all pages is go to vbulletin.css and in the .body properties add the line overflow-y:scroll;. There is only one page I know of that doesn't need a scrollbar and that's the vBulletin Message page, but who's going to notice an inactive scrollbar there anyway?

Once this project is done I'm doing this for all my styles.

Now to get rid of the attempts to fix ThreadNav: If changing min-width eliminates the resizing of the page you can get rid of the line I suggested earlier. And if you add the scroll property to vbulletin.css, then in threadnav, go to the line

listWidth=fetch_object('right').offsetLeft-19-17+1;

and edit out "-17" (And you thought I was just too lazy to do my arithmetic!)

[FReeSTER]

For some reason any of the updates seen to work at my board. I dont see the navbox