Miscellaneous Hacks - Ultimate Side Columns 2.2

Ultimate Side Columns
By Kerry-Anne www.peterska2.co.uk

Welcome to Ultimate Side Columns 2.2 !

USC 2.2 has now been released!!!!

Introduction

Following the success of the left and right side column modifications, and building on their weaknesses, the Ultimate Side Columns system was born.

Ultimate Side Columns (USC) is your one stop shop for all your side columns needs. It is an easy to configure, all in one solution.

USC 2.0 was born through the evolution and bug fixing of USC 1.0 for vBulletin 3.6 and is for vBulletin 3.7.0 RC1 and later only. It is not supported with earlier versions and may not work with them.

Features

USC 2.0 is fully customizable, can use conditions and variables (not available in USC 1.0), has greater flexibility in where it can be omitted from (after requests received), and contains new functionality of both independently collapsible columns and user defined custom links to be displayed on a per user basis in the column location of the administrators choosing.

A maximum of 20 blocks spread over the two columns are available at this time. However, if more are required then an expansion pack will be provided. The blocks can be reordered and moved between the templates with ease through simple template edits.

USC 2.2 Change Log:
Fixed bug with profile.php?do=editattachments
Added All Pages options

USC 2.1 Change Log:
Fixed blank page caused by missing template in the XML
Added compatibility with 3.7.0 Stable/Gold
Manual Template Edit instructions added to package
Enhanced the display page choices to allow exact selection of the pages where USC is to be displayed
Added usergroup permissions in addition to the global options for viewing the left column, viewing the right column, and using the custom contents block.

USC 2.1 has additional files. You need to upload the files first BEFORE importing the product

Upgrading from USC 2.0
Upload the contents of the upload folder, except the admincp directory, then import the XML.

Go to vBOptions > USC Options and set the display pages using the new options
Go to Usergroups > Usergroup Manager and set the permissions for each usergroup as desired. By default no permissions are given to any usergroups.

Upgrading from USC 1.0

USC 2.0 has been rewritten from the ground up and therefore all the blocks have been moved from the settings into the templates. Therefore, a unique upgrade script has been provided which must be run before importing the new product. Importing the new product first will result in the loss of your existing USC contents.

The upgrade script is located in the admincp directory after uploading the USC files and is ran by pointing your browser to admincp/usc_upgrade.php

Full upgrade instructions are included in the upgrade readme file in the zip.

Installation Instructions

Download the zip, unzip it and upload the contents of the upload folder to your forum directory. Import the product, all done.

Full instructions are included in the install readme in the zip.

Support

This modification has limited support only and is therefore flagged as unsupported. Support will be given when possible although it is always preferable when users of USC support each other. This was very successful with USC 1.0 and therefore is continued with USC 2.0

If you have any other combinations of pages that you would like to see available for the column options, please post them in the support thread ensuring that you add the title "USC Page Combination Request" to your post, or use this as the first line of your post ensuring that it is in bold text. This is very specific as due to the limited nature of support and time, the support thread will only be quickly skimmed through and therefore requests may be missed if it is not clear what they are.


The screenshots attached to this post and the next one show a range of pages with a range of column combinations. They are not labeled but they are pretty self explanatory.

Enjoy USC 2.0.

Kerry-Anne


PLEASE NOTE: This modification is unsupported. You may not receive a reply right after posting. Please try and help each other out.



Problems with your side columns not showing?
For your side columns to show, you need to update your usergroup permissions from the usergroup manager for each usergroup

Problems with errors in your vBOptions?
Point your browser to admincp/index.php?do=buildbitfields then try again

[RrCoX22]

does this mod only allow 10 blocks on each side of the forum?

[RrCoX22]

does anyone know if your allow to rotate the blocks like a rotating banner but just the blocks within the column

[xtremesystems]

I have installed USC 2.2 and it shows up as an installed product, just as indicated by lstintxs100's screen shots on this page: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...dmincp&page=24

Now my problem is, I don't see where I go to configure the blocks. I understand I need to find blocks 1-10 for the left side and 11-20 for the right side, but I don't see the option of editing this anywhere.

Can someone please help me locate where I should go to edit these options? Thanks!

[stephlb]

Originally Posted by xtremesystems

I have installed USC 2.2 and it shows up as an installed product, just as indicated by lstintxs100's screen shots on this page: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...dmincp&page=24

Now my problem is, I don't see where I go to configure the blocks. I understand I need to find blocks 1-10 for the left side and 11-20 for the right side, but I don't see the option of editing this anywhere.

Can someone please help me locate where I should go to edit these options? Thanks!

In the Admin CP Styles & Templates -> style manager -> edit templates -> ultimate side columns templates

Or search for templates, put in usc, and that should bring them up.

[xtremesystems]

Thank you, I found it and added table into #11, expecting to see a right column. It still isn't showing up, but I have to check my permissions. I have admin rights on this forum, but a few things are restricted by the main admin. I'm hoping that is the problem, but if anyone has any ideas on how to see this change take effect, I'd love to hear from you. This is pretty much a regular board, with vbAdvanced installed.

[RrCoX22]

does anyone know how to increase the number of blocks and have them rotate?

[stephlb]

Originally Posted by xtremesystems

Thank you, I found it and added table into #11, expecting to see a right column. It still isn't showing up, but I have to check my permissions. I have admin rights on this forum, but a few things are restricted by the main admin. I'm hoping that is the problem, but if anyone has any ideas on how to see this change take effect, I'd love to hear from you. This is pretty much a regular board, with vbAdvanced installed.

Did you set usergroup permissions? For the usergroups you want to see the side columns, you need to turn on the right column for each of those groups, such as Admininstrator, Registered, etc.

[bessler73]

Installed this some time ago and didn't think there was a problem till I checked the server error logs. Was getting a Fatal error: Cannot use assign-op operators with overloaded objects nor string offsets. Turns out this plugin also doesn't like the misc.php the error was steming from misc.php?do=bbcode. I went and found where you put in the fix for profile.php and added !='misc' for that one as well. Most likely a temp fix and look forward to a new update on this plugin.

[popular]

how do i get ride of the white spacing in the blocks? i want to match it up with the same blue colour but can't seem to find a way.

[d-wiz]

Originally Posted by d-wiz

I'm having a few problems with the content in my blocks:

Block 12: It only show new threads and not new posts, here is the code I used:

<if condition="$vbulletin->options['externaljs']">
<!-- show latest active threads -->
<table class="tborder" cellpadding="$stylevar[cellpadding]" cellspacing="$stylevar[cellspacing]" border="0" width="100%" 
align="center">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="tcat">
<a style="float:$stylevar[right]" href="#top" onclick="return toggle_collapse('forumhome_external')"><img 
id="collapseimg_forumhome_external" 
src="$stylevar[imgdir_button]/collapse_thead$vbcollapse[collapseimg_forumhome_external].gif" alt="" border="0" /></a>
<a href="search.php?$session[sessionurl]do=getnew">Seneste aktive tr?de</a>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<tbody id="collapseobj_forumhome_external" style="$vbcollapse[collapseobj_forumhome_external]">
<tr>
 
<td class="alt1" width="100%">
 
<div class="smallfont">
<script type="text/javascript" src="external.php?type=js"></script> 
<script language="" type="text/javascript">
<!--
for (x = 0; x < 20; x++)
{
document.writeln("<img class=\"inlineimg\" src=\"$stylevar[imgdir_button]/lastpost.gif\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" /> <a href=\"showthread.php?t="+threads[x].threadid+"\">"+threads[x].title+"</a> <span class=\"time\">($vbphrase[posted_by]: "+threads[x].poster+")</span><br />");
}
//-->
</script></div>
 
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<!-- show latest active threads -->
</table>
<br />
</if>

<table width="100%" class="tborder" border="0" cellspacing="$stylevar[cellspacing]" cellpadding="$stylevar[cellpadding]">

Does anyone have the code for both new threads and posts, then I can try if that is it?