UBB.Developers Forums UBB.classic V6.4 - 6.7 Modifications V6 Mod Ideas I need a way to make specific categories "invisible"...

Is it possible, is there any way, and can it be done..?

What I desperately need, is a way to select which forum categories that I want to be shown on the summary page...

I have 2 or 3 sections that would be best served as sub-sets, but I can't forsake the remaining categories by only showing the categories, and not the summaries.

I have not played with "Infinite Subcategories", but from what I have read, it looks as if all that can be shown on the primary page, is category listings, and I do not want that, except on a couple of sections.

Have I thoroughly confused everyone yet..?

Does anyone know if this is possible..?

Obviously, I know that if I turn off the forum, that it is accessible via a link, but it also won't show up when I select to view the category. I need to turn off the category, but keep the various forums turned on, so when you select CATEGORY, the forums will all be shown in the listing, that has been linked to via an icon elsewhere on the forums.

The purpose behind this, is to reduce overall board clutter, while giving my advertisers (firearms manufacturers) their own forums. This is very important in our industry!

FWIW: I tried to no avail, to rename the category, to "NO CATEGORY", and link from there, but I couldn't get it to happen...

In a really crude way of doing things, I figured it out a viable method to do this...

I now have at least 1 category, that does not show up on the forum summary screen, but is fully accessible via a direct link icon. The only thing that I have lost, is the banner that states what the category is, but since it is already in it's own page, I could care less whether it's visible or not.

If anyone else is interested, here's how I did it:

1) Open "categories.file" in the root of your UBB directory, and simply remove the entire line that shows the category that you wish to become invisible. Upload file to same location.

2) Go to your CP, and clear cache.

3) Make a link to the location of the now "missing" category page. In my case, I linked to it through an icon in the header, that says {ADVERTISERS}. -- Eventually, I will be handling the 4-sale section of my board in the same manner.

* Do not turn off, change, or delete any of the settings in either the Forums or Categories area within the CP, as this will cause your forums to show up in mysterious places in your forum summary page!

While I haven't done it yet, I will be changing these invisible forums to a slightly different template, to clearly reflect the section of the board a member is visiting...

My board is running 6.3.1.2 with a number of hacks, and a few mods (such as this) that I have come up with on my own.

Go to www.gun-talk.com to see this in action!

Lack of a particular category in the file may well cause problems in the future...

Where do you wish the category to disappear from? Just the front page? Or the hop-tos as well?

Just from the front page!

Ideally, a category could be turned on/off in the CP, like the forums already can be, but for the life of me, I couldn't find any other way to do it. I'm not a Perl programmer though, so I had to resort to "ghetto technology"...

This is untested code that I've just written on the fly... %)

Open ubb_forum_summary.cgi
Scroll to line ~70, which reads:

@CATEGORIES = &GetCategoriesFile;

Add the following code below it:[code][/code]This should work, in theory. Place the numbers of each category you wish removed in the @kills line. Be sure to place one space between each.

Just a notice, you can just use my Extended Category Settings mod in the 6.3 forum

Thanks for the attemp Charles, but it didn't work for me...

I have again used my "ghetto technology" and isolated another category, and it still seems to work great the way I have it, but I obviously don't get the {HOP TO} feature... not a biggie though, since I do have the icons staring at me on every page!

I thought the extended categories only allowed the use of the category listings on the main page... I need to view the forums in each category.

If I'm mistaken, please let me know, and I'll add your hack immediately!

Extended Category Settings modification allows you to hide categories, and change their style template/HTML template (in the category page).

Thanks LK, I'm going to try installing it right now...

I checked it out LK, but I'm using 6.3.1.2, and am not smart enough to convert your 6.3.0 hack to work on my board...

You wouldn't by chance have either a more recent hack, or the willingness and desire to convert it for me would you..?

Have I mentioned that you guys are Gods..?

There's not too much of a difference between 6.3.0 and 6.3.1... where are you encountering problems?

With the code!

The "cp_forums_cats.pl" file structure is very different. The files in 6.3.1.2 obviously use the wordlets structure, and the hack is not setup for it... I stopped when I saw that, as I simply can't write in PERL.

I'll look at the rest of the files, just in case I can finesse my way through them, but I kinda doubt it.

I'm thinking it's time to unplug my computer and take up heavy drinking and other more easily managable vices, because these damn computers will be the death of me yet!

Okay... all of the othe files were fine, but the "cp_forums_cats.pl" has me stumped...

Guys..?

I just need one of you God like beings to convert the cp_forums_cats.pl for me, so I cane get this hack into place.

I discovered this morning, that my "ghetto technology" is a pain in the arse. When I needed to add a forum to one of my invisible categories, I had to do a bunch of editing to make visible, modify category, add forums, make invisible, and remove files again...

Charles was correct, in that I would eventually run into problems!

Anyone..?

I'm feeling like I'm in exile -- out here all alone -- during a Siberian winter

???

{serious echo mode}
Hellooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Oooooooooout Thereeeeeeeeeee!
{/serious echo mode}