New Posting Features - New Thread Button Anywhere

Overview:

With mobile devices becoming more and more prevalent, the average IQ of people finding your site is declining...at a shocking pace. There was a time, not too long ago, before the pestilence of mobile devices and social media, that internet users were tech savvy people using desktop computers and forming complete sentences. Those were good times.

Increasingly, this new generation of internet users lacks the brain power to successfully navigate vBulletin's insuperable labyrinth consisting of "choose forum -> click forum -> click post new thread." To be honest, I don't particularly value such users or want them polluting the site with their pinhead musings, but hey, we've got to remain competitive and this requires dumbing things down a bit for the facebook junkies and iPhone users.

This product allows you do display a large, nearly impossible to miss button, directly below the breadcrumbs (on selected pages) that will make it easier for your users to post new threads. The added element consists of three parts: a message to the user welcoming them and instructing them on how to use the element to start a new thread, a dropdown menu from which they can choose a forum in which they have permission to post new threads (with forum categories in bold red and non-selectable), and a large button they can click once they have selected a forum which loads the newthread form to post a new thread in the forum they selected. You have 8 pre-defined linear gradient schemes (cross-browser compatible) from which to choose for the background color of the button, or you can use your own, with a choice to define separate schemes for each style using your StyleVars.



If a user has not selected a forum, then the tooltip for the button tells them they must choose a forum first. If they click the button anyway, then a popup alert repeats the fact that a forum must be chosen first. Once they select a forum, the tooltip for the button changes to tell them they may click the button to post a new thread in the selected form, and the name and description of the forum they selected is shown to help make certain they have made the correct choice.

They are essentially doing the same thing as if they had gone to a forum and clicked "+ Post New Thread," but now the button isn't carefully hidden behind the curtain of the link to the forum they want.

Everything is fully phrased and stylevars are used wherever applicable.

Updates:

Version 1.01:

• Added custom hook location to "navbar" template in case ads are turned off (previously used a global ad location as a template hook).

Version 1.1:

• Added support for Restrict Posting By Forum
• Added setting to allow for excluding forums from drop-down menu.
• Added setting to allow for left/right orientation of product element.

Version 1.1.5:

• Improved method for adding hook to "navbar" template to be more general.

Version 1.2:

• Forum exclusion now includes child forums.

Version 1.2.1:

• Added support for smaller screens.

Version 1.3:

• Added settings to allow for custom linear gradient on button.

Version 1.4:

• Changed custom color selection to HTML color pickers.
• Added "StyleVars" option to button color to allow for customization per style.

Version 1.5:

• Added support for when DBTech has replaced your "navbar" template.
• Combine plugins for adding custom hook and rending output.

Version 1.6:

• Added 5 more default button color gradients from which to choose.
• Removed need for explicit CSS for default button colors, greatly reducing the size of the template.

Version 1.7:

• Added support for manually placing the new thread button element within your "navbar" template using "{vb:raw markfl_newthreadbutton}".

Version 1.8:

• Fixed bug where forums with no parent and posting allowed were treated as categories.

Version 1.9:

• Adding setting to exclude usergroups from button access.
• Phrased "None Selected" drop-down menu selection.

Version 1.9.1:

• Phrased word "Category" in drop-down menu.

Compatibility:

Tested and working on VB 4.2.x and may work on all 4.x versions of vBulletin.

Backup/Warning:

This product does not alter your database, however it is always good practice to make regular backups and you should make a backup before installing ANY new mod.

As always, products are USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. I will provide support and do my best to help but no absolute guarantee is offered.

To Install:

1. Download and extract the attached .zip file.
2. Follow AdminCP -> Plugins & Products -> Manage Products -> Add/Import Product.
3. Click on "Choose File" and browse to the product .xml file that was packaged in the .zip file.
4. Click "Import."
5. You MUST enable the product in the settings before it will function.
6. Configure the remaining settings to your liking. Each setting has a detailed explanation of its use.

Support for this product can be found here:

• MHB - New Thread Button Anywhere
• TAZ - New Thread Button Anywhere

[vze2yqtm]

It still isn't showing

[Stratis]

Originally Posted by vze2yqtm

It still isn't showing

Some times we forget,
If you put in "Maximum Posts" field less than you have (posts), you will not see it.
To try put "0" and than put depending

And if not...
In the "Active Scripts" option take off the "index" leave it blank, to see if it shows it to other places than forum index.

[Morrus]

Originally Posted by MarkFL

Okay, those aren't the issue, because I have it running without any issues on sites with vB/PHP versions both earlier and later than what you state.

First, try updating to version 1.1.5 of this product and see if the issue was with the custom template hook. If not, we'll go from there.

We appear to have lift-off! All working so far, as best I can tell!

[Morrus]

Ah, the forum exclusion feature isn't working.

(Hard to test because not takes me about 20 minutes each time to individually click all but a half dozen forums to exclude out of a few hundred - any chance of the reverse method, and just selecting which forums to include?)

[Edit - on further study, I seem to have got it to remember them; there may be some conditions in which it forgets the selected excluded forums, but I'm not 100% sure. I'll keep an eye on it and let you know if it happens again!)

[MarkFL]

Originally Posted by vze2yqtm

It still isn't showing

At this point, all I can figure is that another mod must be interfering (given that your settings aren't configured in such a way as to prevent you from seeing it).

If you want, set up a temporary admin account for me, and PM the login credentials to me, and I can come to your site to troubleshoot.

[MarkFL]

Update - Version 1.2:

• Forum exclusion now includes child forums.

[Morrus]

Not a major issue, but the layout messes up a little on smaller screens (such as a tablet). Screenshot attached. I'm not overly worried, but thought you might find the info helpful.

[MarkFL]

Originally Posted by Morrus

Not a major issue, but the layout messes up a little on smaller screens (such as a tablet). Screenshot attached. I'm not overly worried, but thought you might find the info helpful.

Thanks for the heads up! :up:

Update - Version 1.2.1:

• Added support for smaller screens.

[Morrus]

I've identified the forum exclusion forgetting: it happens every time the product is updated.

[Morrus]

Actually, I'm not sure what's going on. In the attached screenshots you can see that I have a whole load of forums excluded, but some left included. But on the other screenshot, no forums are appearing in the dropdown menu - just "None Selected".