Add-On Releases - Custom Tag Cloud in vbAdvanced, Forum Home & Related Pages

Download the latest version that supports social groups clouds here: 2.5 Version (VB 3.8 required)

Forum VBA Custom Tag Cloud
This mod adds 6 features to VB?s tag cloud:

1. It allows you to display the tag cloud in forum related pages in any location you want. You can display tag clouds in forumhome, forumdisplay, and showthread, and hook it to any $template_hook or HTML comment. Instead of installing 3 different mods to accomplish this, you can install this mod to do all 3. Plus you can specify if you want to not display the tag cloud in certain pages.

2. It allows you to show the tag cloud in your site?s home page in any location you want if you have vbAdvanced installed (optional).

3. When viewing forumdisplay or showthread (pages listing threads or posts), you can specify custom styles for tags that belong to the active forum or thread being viewed so that users will know which tags are relevant to that forum or thread.

4. It allows you to specify preferred tags that you want to have custom styles so that they will be noticed more. For example, if your site just started a forum about cars with tags like ?Lexus? ?Infinity?, you can specify those tags as preferred to draw attention to the new forum.

5. The tag cloud resides in a collapsible box and has a legend for the custom styles.

6. When viewing a thread (in showthread), this mod will move the thread?s tag box below the tag cloud. The tag box and tag cloud are different: the tag box shows tags specific to its thread, whereas the tag cloud shows tags from all threads. Currently, the tag box is shown at the very bottom of the thread, which can be easily ignored by readers. Moving it next to the tag cloud will make the tag box more visible.

Installation
1. Download the product xml file. Go to Manage Products > Add/Import Product, upload that xml file, set ?allow overwrite? to yes, and click Import.

2. Go to VB Options > Forum VBA Tag Clouds to set the locations of the tag cloud (default is below the navbar) and custom tag styles.

3. Optional: to display the tag cloud in vbAdvanced, go to VBA CMPS > Default Settings > Main Options > add to ?Portal Output Global Variables?:

tag_cloud

.
Update:
Reimport the new product xml file and allow overwrite.
See the 2nd post for a screenshot and template hook selection tips.

Versions:

  1.0.0/ 1.0.1 Initial Release.
  2.0.0 New Features:
  Auto templating ? allows setting the location of the tag cloud anywhere on the page.
  Tag cloud resides in a collapsible box and has a legend for the custom styles.
  Tags that belong to the active forum or thread being viewed can have custom styles.
  Added option to set preferred tags that will have custom styles to get them noticed more.
  2.0.2 Optimized memory usage.
  2.0.5 Optimized code to create tag links. Created preselected hooks for forumhome.
  2.1.0 Fixed a potential conflict with other mods.

Notes:
1. I read all posts for this mod so feel free to post any comments or suggestions.
2. You will be notified by e-mail for future updates if you click ?Marked as Installed.? If you find this mod useful, remember to click ?Nominate for MOTM.?

MAKE SURE TO CLICK INSTALL

[vbboarder]

Originally Posted by redlabour

Works perfect!

Glad the update works fine

Originally Posted by ujai

Hi,

How can I edit the tag to be place at other place besides the top?

Thanks in advance

Originally Posted by sinucello

Hi,

thanks for this mod, I like the flexibility of it. Maybe you could add an option that allows to place a custom marker in one or all of the templates e. g. ###tagcloud###. This would be even more flexible.

all the best,
Sacha

Actually, there's already lots of markers (aka template hooks) in VB templates that can be used to implement customized tag cloud placement.

Ujai, before I tell you how, let me wait and see how many people want the tag cloud in a different place besides below the navbar. If there's a significant # of people wanting that feature, then I'll update this mod for auto-customization so you won't have to do custom coding yourself.
Too bad I can't add a poll to this thread - just post a reply if you want this mod to have an auto-customization placement feature. I take it that so far I have 2 votes for this - Ujai & sinucello.

[ujai]

Thank you, if not many people wants it and you decide not to make it auto customize, can you please let me know how to change it?

[Alien]

How many queries does this add?

[vbboarder]

Originally Posted by ujai

Thank you, if not many people wants it and you decide not to make it auto customize, can you please let me know how to change it?

Actually, I'll probably implement the auto-customization regardless. However, it could be anytime from 2 weeks to 2 months for me to implement it, depending on my priorities. Right now, it's low priority since only 2 users have requested it. I don't want to start posting customization instructions 'cause this can lead to support overload for me considering the # of possible places to hook the tag clouds to.
Just for my info, why don't you want the tag cloud near the navbar?

[vbboarder]

Originally Posted by Alien

How many queries does this add?

This mod used VB's tag cloud function for fetching & building the tag cloud. Reviewing the code shows 1 db query and not even that if you have caching enabled (ie: APC or memcache) as recommended by VB.

[Mondi]

vbboarder - have vbadvanced cmps, links, dynamics and - soon - vbclassifieds running.

Will this mod fetch tags from all afore mentioned? This would be OUTSTANDING...

Btw: As for location , I too could do with a few pointers.

If you could get back to me on my question, cheers.

[vbboarder]

Wow, you got everything! That's cool, but I don't have vba dynamics, vba links, or vb classifieds myself so I can't test it for you.

Anyways, this mod will fetch all tags from VB forums and place them in a cloud box under the navbar (see pics). If the navbar is showing on all those $$$ mods of yours, then it should also show the tag cloud - you just need to output the global variable, tag_cloud, as the instructions say. That's another advantage of having the tag cloud near the navbar.... it can be easily included in other external mods and custom web pages (like those made with the WebTemplates mod with the header/ navbar included).

Btw: As for location , I too could do with a few pointers.

Sorry, your vote doesn't count since you haven't marked installed. For further support, you need to mark install.

[Mondi]

Hehehe......

Got me there - unintentional though!

INSTALLED!!!!

[One Extra Vote....]

Thanks mate!

[realmr]

Is it possible to display the "forum specific tags" rather than the entire forum tags in forum specific pages ?

[vbboarder]

Originally Posted by realmr

Is it possible to display the "forum specific tags" rather than the entire forum tags in forum specific pages ?

No, not currently possible with this mod. I decided against this feature because VB caches the tag cloud so there is no DB queries if you have caching enabled. I'll see if there's a way to filter forum specific tags with just 1 query while being able to use VB built-in tag cloud function and caching.