Miscellaneous Hacks - Sidebar Anywhere (Formerly Sidebar for Activity Stream) by BOP5

Brought to you by BirdOPrey5
www.Qapla.com

Version 2.2.0

The new Activity Stream for VB 4.2.0 is very nice but it feels like it is missing something- and what it is missing is a sidebar. Ideally at some point VB will release a custom sidebar built just for the Activity Stream but until then this quick mod will let you use the built in forum sidebar on the Activity Stream.

As of version 2.0 besides just working on the Activity Stream the mod can now add a sidebar to ANY vBulletin page including forums, threads, groups, albums, who's online, forum leaders, and more. In fact you can easily add the sidebar even to custom pages from custom mods.

New Features

• Now works on ANY vBulletin Page (except blogs which have their own sidebar)
• Option to align sidebar with page content or top of page
• Option to Disable Sidebar Collapse Option (By Usergroup in 2.1.0)
• Collapsed sidebar state now "remembered" on different pages
• Option to enable Sidebar by Usergroup
• Option to disable Sidebar by Forum (if enabled for forums/threads)
• Option to disable Sidebar in specific styles
• Options to disable sidebars if mobile devices detected*

NOTE: To enable mobile device detection options you must install the Mobile Browser Detector mod.

Live Demo: Qapla.com Activity Stream

You can enable or disable the Sidebar Anywhere independently of the forum sidebar but they will both display the same content (blocks.)

NEW - If you need to have different blocks on different pages check out this add-on.

You must have at least 1 block setup and active for the sidebar to show.

Unlike most of my other mods this mod is enabled by default upon installation. Be default it is setup to show only on the Activity Stream and register.php pages.

I am aware there is already a mod out there "Everywhere Sidebar" by another coder. This is completely different code and I made this because my "Staff Online Sideblock" mod did not work on Sidebar Everywhere but it does work on this mod.

This mod requires at least VB 4.2.0 to work on the Activity Stream but should work on older VB 4.x.x versions on other pages.

Full view of admin cp options: http://www.qapla.com/mods/ss/sidebar...tings_full.jpg.

The old version Zip file Sidebar for Activity Stream by BOP5 v11.zip works only on the Activity Stream.

PLEASE READ THE INSTRUCTIONS INCLUDED WITH THIS MOD- THEY ANSWER MOST OF THE QUESTIONS ABOUT HOW TO USE IT.

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Please "Mark as Installed" if you use this.
Donations always appreciated. :up:
Nominate MOTM if you LOVE it!

[AusPhotography]

Installed v2 on our vB4.2.0 site all goodness.
We've added the SB to a custom page - excellent hack!

[Hippy]

your efforts and work BirdOPrey5 is much appreciated ..
I have not tested the new release yet but I am sure it will come in handy

[BirdOPrey5]

Originally Posted by Hippy

your efforts and work BirdOPrey5 is much appreciated ..
I have not tested the new release yet but I am sure it will come in handy

Thank you Hippy. It is appreciated.

[imported_polygrinder]

I have an "Articles" page which is content.php. The sidebar does not show up on that page. Otherwise the Sidebar Anywhere works as expected. Also, I noticed the page has it's own settings for the sidebar width which is locked in the grid manager to a max of 300 pix. My Sidebar is 400 pix in the Forum Sidebar Width. Any ideas how to get the sidebar to show up on this page?

[BirdOPrey5]

I didn't include CMS pages in this because CMS pages are made to use widgets.

The sidebar width is using the forum_sidebar_width stylevar which should work on all pages the sidebar shows on. What page has its own setting?

[karlm]

Excellent. I've been looking for something to this effect for a while. The similar hack didn't do it for me, I can't recall why but it was problematic. This does the job nicely!

Thanks.

[karlm]

One minor issue. When using a unique skin, it appears to not grab all images.

However, once you click the non-showing image to collapse the side-bar, it then shows up. Clicking again to show the side-bar allows the image to show this time around.

Bizarre.

[BirdOPrey5]

Hmmm... I will need to look into that- it's looking for the image in a hard coded location, I guess it needs to be a stylevar.

I'll add it to the next update- thanks for the feedback.

Temp fix is to right click on the broken image, get the URL, and copy the image to that location for now.

[karlm]

Originally Posted by BirdOPrey5

Temp fix is to right click on the broken image, get the URL, and copy the image to that location for now.

That doesn't appear to be the resolve...

I copied the location and pasted it directly to the address bar so I could physically see where it was looking and noted it has doubled the format extension.

.../images/styles/Modern/misc/tab-collapsed.png.png

For some reason, png comes up twice. I don't know if I'm the only one encountering this, so it may be an issue my side.

Also, if I collapse the side bar - the screen expands correctly.. I move onto my next thread/different subforum/etc. and instead of the side bar is a blank column where the side-bar would be if it were visible... so my viewers aren't gaining anything if they collapse the bar as the space remains (as white space) on a page change.

[tommyxv]

Is this mod XHTML valid? Also, is there a setting to always show the sidebar. I don't want anyone to be able to collapse it. There is a css trick to remove the collapse button if not.

Thanks.