Forum Home Enhancements - UKBL ~ Quality Drop Down Menu System

UKBL ~ Quality Drop Down Menu System

You wanted Drop down Menu's that were easy to install and edit, Well now you've got it

Live Demo

http://www.aboxcafe.com/index.php

http://www.wheelsbd.com/

Compatible with almost ALL Browsers.

Hi Guys, i've had so many messages about My "Easy Menu Tabs" and when was i going to do Dropdown Tabs, Well i've listened and now i can happily add UKBL ~ Quality Drop Down menu's to our list of modifications.

This is just so easy to edit and install, as long as you feel confident with a few simple edits and uploading a graphics file to your images directory or even your photobucket account, if you don't want to mess about uploading to your server.

UKBL ~ Quality Drop Downs sit quite happily on top of your forums accessable from all pages of the forum



They look like any bog standard Menu Nav bar but when you hover the mouse over it you'll see the dropdowns, I've uploaded a test version to my forum, Take a look for yourselves http://www.ukbusinesslive.co.uk/forum

I've left the Top White Easy Men Bar in place also so you can compare both of them.

When you go over the menu bar the dropdowns should appear like in the picture below



See how the chosen links are highlighted

So now we come to the installation stage.

Download the dropdown.zip file below and open the VBOrg_Menu.txt file in notepad or any other text editor, as we need to edit a few files.

The first one we need to edit is the url of our Graphic File, So to cut a long story short we'll upload our graphic file to our Photobucket account, or any other account or image directory on your server, So firstly find

	/*"""""""" (MAIN) Container Edit Picture URL Here :-) """"""""*/	
	#qm0	
	{	
		padding:5px;
		background-image:url(http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr114/ukbusinesslive/center_tile_blue.gif);
		border-width:1px;
		border-style:solid;
		border-color:#eeeeee;
	}

and this is the line we need to edit, so that it gives us a nice gradiant blue acdcross the menu bar

background-image:url(http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr114/ukbusinesslive/center_tile_blue.gif);

Just replace the url within the brackets ( ) and thats it

Then we go and do the menu edits, You don't want your members click on your forum menu and ending up on my site :erm: So what we need to do now is change the menu links for yours, It take about 15 min's but its not hard to do, so lets do it.....

First find where our menu starts, This will be right at the bottom of the code, The HTML part of this and the first bit we need to change starts from here...

 <li><a class="qmparent" href="javascript:void(0)">MY CONTROL PANEL</a>

		<ul>
		<li><a href="http://www.ukbusinesslive.co.uk/forum/profile.php?do=editavatar" title="Edit Avatar">Edit Avatar</a></li>
		<li><a href="http://www.ukbusinesslive.co.uk/forum/profile.php?do=editsignature" title="Edit Signature">Edit Signature</a></li>
		<li><a href="http://www.ukbusinesslive.co.uk/forum/profile.php?do=editoptions" title="Edit Options">Edit Options</a></li>
		<li><span class="qmdivider qmdividerx" ></span></li>
		<li><a href="http://www.ukbusinesslive.co.uk/forum/subscription.php?do=viewsubscription" title="List Subscriptions">List Subscriptions</a></li>
		</ul></li>

Basically each tab is made up of a block like what you see above, You have the Main Tab Description which looks like this

<li><a class="qmparent" href="javascript:void(0)">MY CONTROL PANEL</a>

and you have all the sub links underneath and they look like this...

<li><a href="http://www.ukbusinesslive.co.uk/forum/profile.php?do=editavatar" title="Edit Avatar">Edit Avatar</a></li>

and its this one which we need to edit, basically if you want to keep the same link, all you need to do is to chasnge my url http://www.ukbusinesslive.co.uk/forum to your forums URL, and thats it, your link should work for your site.

If you want to change the link altogether and put your own, then replace the full URL with one that you want and don't forget to edit the end part "Edit Avatar" as that is the title thats shown on the dropdown.

When you've finished all your editing, we need to upload this whole code to your Header Template of the Style that your Currantly using on your forum, So once you've saved your edited code, Just copy and paste directly to your Header, Go right to the end and click paste, save the template and thats it, The Graphic File which you need to upload to your server or image host is also in the zip file.

So easy and a great improvement to any VBulletin Forum

This is a Freebie for all you members on VB.org with my compliments

If anyone wants any custom menus made, Just PM me I'll help where i can, Just bear in mind a menu like this takes a good couple of hours or so, so a donation is more than welcomed

Oh almost Forgot guys,

If you like it, Please Click on Installed, as this really does motivate me to improving these hacks

UPDATE 09.02.09

Uploaded a New Zip File, Black Menu.Zip This is the same as this original except that its black for darker Websites and Forums, Instructions are the same as above, and comes complete with customised Graphics which will need to be uploaded to your /images/ directory.



UPDATE 23.02.09

For some of you Admins who prefer menu Buttons as opposed to a menu bar, i've made some buttons based on the above menu formate, You can install it by following the same instructions as the main install, Just upload the graphics and edit your menu links and thats it.

Experiment with the css to change colors width of boxes etc, Add more or as little as you want, the important thing is to have fun learning.



UPDATE: 26th April 2009

Centering the Menu so that it appears central

There has been much debate about trying to centralise the menu tabs, I didn't want to edit the code too much as this would make a mess of it in different browsers, However i've found that there is a way

The easiest way to center menu content is to place it inside of a center aligned table, as shown below:

<table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 align="center"><tr><td>

----[ your menu structure]----

</td></tr></table>

This way the menu tabs will appear central in all browsers.

Hope this helps :up:



Enjoy

[TheLastSuperman]

Originally Posted by Halfhidden

Hi, I've been using this mod for quite some time now. In fact I don't use the navbar or postbits any longer as this is truly awesome... so thanks for the mod and spending time on it for us all
However, I would like to ask one question if I may.
In postbits there was a rather nice welcome block and I would like to integrate this with your menu system. Can this be done and if so how please.
Thanks

Can you post a sample of the code or a screenshot?

[Halfhidden]

Thanks for the reply.
Heres the code I've been working on to add the welcome block to the drop down menu

<if condition="$show['member']">
	<td class="alt2" nowrap="nowrap">
	<div class="smallfont">
		<strong><phrase 1="$bbuserinfo[username]" 2="member.php?$session[sessionurl]u=$bbuserinfo[userid]">$vbphrase[welcome_x_link_y]</phrase></strong><br />
		<phrase 1="$pmbox[lastvisitdate]" 2="$pmbox[lastvisittime]">$vbphrase[last_visited_x_at_y]</phrase>

		<if condition="$show['notifications']">
			<div><span id="notifications"><a href="usercp.php$session[sessionurl_q]">$vbphrase[your_notifications]:</a> <strong>$notifications_total</strong></span></div>
			<if condition="$show['popups']">
				<script type="text/javascript"> vBmenu.register("notifications"); </script>
			<else />
				<script type="text/javascript" src="clientscript/vbulletin_notifications_nopopups.js?v=$vboptions[simpleversion]"></script>
				<script type="text/javascript"> vBulletin.register_control("vB_Notifications_NoPopups", "notifications");  </script>
			</if>
		<else /><if condition="$show['pmstats']">
			<div><phrase 1="$vbphrase[unread_x_nav_compiled]" 2="$vbphrase[total_x_nav_compiled]" 3="$session[sessionurl_q]">$vbphrase[private_messages_nav]</phrase></div>
		</if></if>

		<if condition="$show['pmwarning']"><div><strong><phrase 1="$vbphrase[pmpercent_nav_compiled]">$vbphrase[your_pm_box_is_x_full]</phrase></strong></div></if>
	</div>
	</td>
<else />
	<td class="alt2" nowrap="nowrap" style="padding:0px">
		<!-- login form -->
		<form action="login.php?do=login" method="post" onsubmit="md5hash(vb_login_password, vb_login_md5password, vb_login_md5password_utf, $show[nopasswordempty])">
		<script type="text/javascript" src="clientscript/vbulletin_md5.js?v=$vboptions[simpleversion]"></script>
		<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="$stylevar[formspacer]" border="0">
		<tr>
			<td class="smallfont" style="white-space: nowrap;"><label for="navbar_username">$vbphrase[username]</label></td>
			<td><input type="text" class="bginput" style="font-size: 11px" name="vb_login_username" id="navbar_username" size="10" accesskey="u" tabindex="101" value="$vbphrase[username]" onfocus="if (this.value == '$vbphrase[username]') this.value = '';" /></td>
			<td class="smallfont" nowrap="nowrap"><label for="cb_cookieuser_navbar"><input type="checkbox" name="cookieuser" value="1" tabindex="103" id="cb_cookieuser_navbar" accesskey="c" />$vbphrase[remember_me]</label></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td class="smallfont"><label for="navbar_password">$vbphrase[password]</label></td>
			<td><input type="password" class="bginput" style="font-size: 11px" name="vb_login_password" id="navbar_password" size="10" tabindex="102" /></td>
			<td><input type="submit" class="button" value="$vbphrase[log_in]" tabindex="104" title="$vbphrase[enter_username_to_login_or_register]" accesskey="s" /></td>
		</tr>
		</table>
		<input type="hidden" name="s" value="$session[sessionhash]" />
		<input type="hidden" name="securitytoken" value="$bbuserinfo[securitytoken]" />
		<input type="hidden" name="do" value="login" />
		<input type="hidden" name="vb_login_md5password" />
		<input type="hidden" name="vb_login_md5password_utf" />
		</form>
		<!-- / login form -->
</if>

Here's a screen shot of what my drop down looks like now and another showing the welcome block added but in the wrong place. I'm trying to add the welcome block to the end of the menu and have the welcome block within the menu as if it was part of the table or div.
Hope that's clear?
And thanks for your help so far.

[Halfhidden]

Hi Last Superman. Don't worry about trying to alter the Drop down menu.
I understand that this is off topic anyway and I wouldn't want to use up your free time trying to do this when you are bound to have better things to do.
It's a great drop down menu and I'm keen to keep it rather than use the nave bar.
I'll look into way of getting the drop down menu in to nav bar rather than in the header.
Thanks anyway and keep up the good work.

[Slayerz]

Anyway you could make a white one, like your black one?

[Halfhidden]

OK, not to worry. I've discovered how to put the drop down menu inside the navbar.
It was important to me because I had used up quite a bit of space with the header, navbar, drop down menu and Google ads before you even get to the forum.
I've pasted a screen shot for anyone interested in placing their drop down menu inside the navbar.
And here how to do it... really simple!
Edit navbar in your template and do a search for

PHP Code:

<td class="alt1" width="100%"> 


Directly beneath that line paste your drop down menu.

[RobbieZ]

Hey Last Superman,

Was there ever a solution for the vbulletin navbar to open drop down links upon hover and not click?

It would make the drop down mod better and this would solve the centralizing too.

[Silmarillion]

I get an error using IE8:

No Definition for "qmad"! Line 69, Code 0

How to fix that?

[jdrakopo]

This looks great !
Any chance we can get this for VB4 ??

[killa seven]

Thank You!

[MagicThemeParks]

Does anyone have step-by-step instructions on how to clean things up by having the javascript and CSS in separate files rather than all within the code in the template?