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

[speedway]

Originally Posted by 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?

Don't exactly have step by step but I have successfully separated the CSS and js scripts out of the menu into files.

What resulted in my implementation was 2 css files and 5 .js files, each containing a section of the surrounding code. I had to load the external .js files in the same order as they were in the menu block given to us originally. I then called them in the headinclude template in the order I needed them:

<!-- Navbar Repplacement Files -->
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="assets/css/cqm-menu.css" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="assets/css/cqm-menuitems.css" />
<!-- Small section initialising the qmad object -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="assets/js/cqm-qmad.js"</script>
<!--  Menu 0 Add-On Settings -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="assets/js/cqm-aosetting.js"</script>
<!-- UKBL ~ Core Quality Menu Code -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="assets/js/cqm-menucode.js"</script>
<!-- Add-On Code: Rounded Sub Corners -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="assets/js/cqm-aorsubcnr.js"</script>
<!-- Add-On Code: Rounded Items -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="assets/js/cqm-aoritem.js"</script>

The names are of course my own naming convention to give me an idea of what is in each one.

I left the very last piece of .js code in the header template, haven't got as far as to try that in an external just yet.

I tested this with 3 browsers - Firefox 3.6.3, Safari 4.5 and Opera 10.10 on OSX Snow Leopard 10.6.3 and all browsers loaded fine and displayed the menu as "normal".

I would attach the files here if the author is OK with that otherwise just sort of follow what I did and you should be good to go.....


I did all this to see if I can replace the navbar sub-menu items in VB4 with this code so I can mimic my VB3 style in VB4

Cheers
Bruce

[MagicThemeParks]

The author has not been online much lately, but I'm sure he wouldn't mind

Can you please attach the files :up:

[speedway]

I may do soon... as soon as I work out an issue. It seems I touted Opera too soon.....

In Opera 10.x (OSX and Vista so far) the entire site header, including the navbar replacement menu, disappears. Zip, nada, nothing. Still trying to figure that one out. If I do, I will post what I can here for others,.....

[Gamelobby]

Originally Posted by Bigj85

Thanks for the centering tip
I now have it centered and used an extra <td> on each side to fill out the leftover space.
Looks even better now, here's a pic
MY MENU

Thanks UKB, great menu

Where do i put these <td>.. on each side of what.?

[SBlueman]

What do I need to remove from the code to get rid of the arrows?

[Halfhidden]

Nice mod

[theparentpack]

http://www.gimp.org it is a free program. Just download. Then open program. Once program is open click File. In the drop down menu click Open. Find image you want to change. Open it. Now click on Color tab/link. Click on Colorize in drop down menu. Adjust the three settings until you get the color you want. Save, and upload.

If you are trying to match a color on your site it might help to have a screenshot opened as a layer to compare your color change to. Just go to the page with the color you want to copy and click the Prt Scr button. Then go back to GIMP and click Edit, Paste As, New Layer. Now you have a side by side comparison for color matching.

Originally Posted by linuxututs

I love this Hack / Mod as well !

But I'm worthless at graphics myself, and cannot seem to edit the images to get them to match my board.

Can anyone recommend a program to do this with for me ?

Thank You,

[Morrus]

Just a note - this isn't working in IE8 or earlier.

[bada_bing]

Can someone help me with that code I need to replace from my navbar template to remove the vb default menu so that I can use this one instead?

[bada_bing]

Originally Posted by 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.

Love your idea and tried your code and injected my menu code but when I do that the menu and login shows up correct but my forum area disappears? What am I removing thats causing this