End-User Options - Navbar Forumjump- Adds a DHTML "Forum Jump" menu to your Navbar

Navbar Forumjump

This mod adds a popup menu to the navbar with quick links to all your forums.



If you like this, you can show your support by Rating it, Marking it as installed, Nominating for MOTM, and/or Donating to the author. Thanks, you rock.

Why would you want to install this?

1. Increases usability for your members.
2. Decreases server resources/usage.

How does this increase usability?

In forums I often find myself clicking on the "forum home" link to see the list of forums and then choose one to visit. With this mod, you simply click the "Forum Jump" menu, and down drops a dynamic menu with all your forums (represented in correct hierarchy of parents/children, and organized by category). The user can more easily visualize the structure of your forums, and can get to where they want to go quicker. And this is a lot prettier and better placed than the forum jump at the bottom of the pages.

How does this reduce server resources?

With this mod installed, the users will go directly to the next forum they want to visit without first going to the forum home. This saves the HTTP requests associated with a pageload, as well as the database queries required to generate the page.

All Features.

• Installation is a snap, just import the XML file
• The popup menu looks identical to the other built-in vB popup menus.
• Automatically generates the menu, if you add or remove forums, that's automatically reflected in the menu.
• The menu can optionally display a small icon that links to the last post next to the forum name.
• Respects forum permissions, hidden forums, etc. If the user is not permitted to view the forum, it won't show up, just like on the forum home page.
• No template edits needed.
• Admin control panel that explains everything, and offers many configuration options:
  • Enable / disable the mod
  • Show menu to everyone or only to logged-in members.
  • Optionally specify forums to exclude from the menu.
  • Choose to display the forumjump popup on the left or the right side of the navbar.
  • Choose to display the menu as one column, or separate each category (with its sub-forums) into its own column. You may also specify how many categories to display per column.
  • You define the characters to prepend to the forum titles to show the indented hierarchy of forums
  • Options to configure CSS styles and sizes for the menu. This allows you to shrink the menu if you have many forums by reducing the font size and the cell padding in the menu.
  • You may optionally style the currently selected forum differently than the rest (with CSS).
• The mod is fully phrased, including the ACP options and descriptions.

Changes it makes

Adds one plugin and a control panel options section (and its associated phrases). The menu is attached to the navbar using a template hook.

Installation

1. Download and uncompress the zip file.
2. Import the XML product file in the Admin Control panel.
3. Visit the Options page and see if you want to change any of the default settings. (If you're using less than vB 3.6.8 you'll need to visit the options and see how to manually insert the menu into your templates.)

Changelog/History

Version 1.0.8 Bug fix (Oct. 13, 2007)

Fixed bug when using the forumjump with vBa. (See post #145)

Version 1.0.7 Bug fixes and workarounds (Sept. 18, 2007)

Integrated fix for Smoothie's problems (Post #76 and on)
Fixed display bug from post #101
Workaround for logging out display problem (post #104)
Completely separated the auto-insert code from the manual template inserting.

Version 1.0.6 New Features (Sept. 17, 2007)

Workaround for menu display problem in Opera
New option to add a relative URL to prepend to links (helps when using vBa)
New option to not auto-display menu via template hooks. Provides better compatibility for vB < 3.6.8 and when not displaying menu in the navbar template.

Version 1.0.5 Internal Development - Not released

Version 1.0.4 New features (Sept. 12, 2007)

Added optional link (icon) to the latest post in each forum
Added admin options panel help system.
Added compatibility with vB 3.6.0 to 3.6.8

Version 1.0.3 New features (Sept. 11, 2007)

All error messages output as HTML comments (better end user experience)
You may now specify how many categories are displayed per column

Version 1.0.2 Bug fix (Sept. 10, 2007)

Fixed bug introduced in Version 1.0.1
Added more error checking
Added useful error messages for debugging.

Version 1.0.1 Bug Fixes and Enhancements (Sept. 10, 2007)

Fixed a bug when URLs have session IDs in them.
Added Option to disable the menu for non-logged-in visitors
Added Option to exclude forums

Version 1.0.0 Initial Release


Screenshots



Menu with the icon link to last post enabled.

[Pandemix]

Upgraded from 1.0.7 to 1.0.8. Thanks for the mod.

[Analogpoint]

Originally Posted by ncangler

Installed and it is working great. Beautiful coding work. Thanks for making this so simple! Let us know where to send a donation.

I believe you can click the "Support Developer" link near the top right of this page to donate via Paypal. Thanks

Originally Posted by nader

Fatal error: Maximum execution time of 30 seconds exceeded in C:\AppServ\www\upload\admincp\plugin.php on line 512

Can you send me any more information? I don't even know if this is related to this mod or not.

Originally Posted by punk23

Hi there, excellent add on.

Is there any way to speed up the menu as it displays...mine seems a bit slow?

The menu is displayed at the same speed as the standard vB popup menus. I don't think there's a setting to modify that.

Originally Posted by Pandemix

Upgraded from 1.0.7 to 1.0.8. Thanks for the mod.

You're welcome.

[yoyoyoyo]

the update did not fix the vbadvanced issue for me

[Analogpoint]

Originally Posted by yoyoyoyo

the update did not fix the vbadvanced issue for me

What exactly is the issue you're having? Also, did you fill out the "Link prefix" setting in the options?

[ncangler]

Donation sent! Thanks. BTW I'm trying to figure out how to rename Forum Jump or move it to a drop-down link to conserve navbar space. I'll look thru the thread to see if anyone else has brought this up before. If not and you have some suggestions I'd appreciate it.

[ncangler]

Well I turned off the automatic display in vBulletin Options > Navbar Forumjump Options. Then I edited my navbar template and added <td class="vbmenu_control">$forumjumpmenu</td> where I wanted the link to show up in the navbar and $forumjumphidden at the very end of the navbar template. It worked pefectly except it did not show up in vBadvanced CMPS pages. So I went to vBa CMPS > Default settings > Main Options and added forumjumpmenu to the Portal Output Global Variables list. It now shows up on every page but the link is not working.

One more question too...if I want to change the display name of the link from "Forum Jump" to just "Jump" how would I do that? I tried to add the code as the first link in the drop down "Quick Links" menu and it showed up but did not work. Trying to conserve navbar real estate.

[Analogpoint]

Originally Posted by ncangler

Donation sent! Thanks. BTW I'm trying to figure out how to rename Forum Jump or move it to a drop-down link to conserve navbar space. I'll look thru the thread to see if anyone else has brought this up before. If not and you have some suggestions I'd appreciate it.

Thanks for the donation To rename the 'forum jump' text, just search for the forum_jump phrase in the phrase manager and edit it.

Originally Posted by ncangler

Well I turned off the automatic display in vBulletin Options > Navbar Forumjump Options. Then I edited my navbar template and added <td class="vbmenu_control">$forumjumpmenu</td> where I wanted the link to show up in the navbar and $forumjumphidden at the very end of the navbar template. It worked pefectly except it did not show up in vBadvanced CMPS pages. So I went to vBa CMPS > Default settings > Main Options and added forumjumpmenu to the Portal Output Global Variables list. It now shows up on every page but the link is not working.

None of the links in the menu (to the different forums) are working? Did you enter a base url to your forums in the 'Link prefix' setting?

[ncangler]

The Forum Jump link shows up in the navbar but it doesn't open up to show the forums or links. You can see it here: http://www.ncangler.com
This is only happening in CMPS pages like the home page, About Us, etc.

[Analogpoint]

Originally Posted by ncangler

The Forum Jump link shows up in the navbar but it doesn't open up to show the forums or links. You can see it here: http://www.ncangler.com
This is only happening in CMPS pages like the home page, About Us, etc.

Make sure you've added both the variables ($forumjumpmenu and $forumjumphidden) to the vBa Portal Output Global Variables list.

[yoyoyoyo]

Originally Posted by Analogpoint

What exactly is the issue you're having? Also, did you fill out the "Link prefix" setting in the options?

oops - overlooked that option - thanks much - working just fine now.