Mod Name / Version: IIP SidebarPal 1.1

Description: This allows a user selected sidebar (left/right/off) of IIP pal boxes. It's fully configurable, you you can decide what boxes you want to display, and in what order they display.

Version 1.1 fixes the issue of "headers already sent" errors on some servers.

Working under: Instructions written for UBB.Threads 6.3, but probably could be interpreted to 6.2.

Any pre-requisites: IIP 5.3 or 5.3.1

Author(s): JustDave from chattersonline.com
for discussions and bugs go to www.ubbdev.com

Date: 4/15/03

Credits: JoshPet for putting the instructions together

Files Altered: admin/edittheme.php, admin/doedittheme.php, admin/editconfig.php, admin/doeditconfig.php, editdisplay.php, changedisplay.php, ubbt.inc.php, templates/editdisplay.tmpl

Database Altered: Yes, one field added to the w3t_Users table to store the user's sidebar preference.

New Files: sidebar_leftopen.tmpl, sidebar_leftclose.tmpl, sidebar_rightopen.tmpl, sidebar_rightclose.tmpl, sidebarpal.php

Notes: This is based on JustDave's sidebar mod. He had put together a sidebarpal.php script which we were using here, and had planned on including it in the next release in IIP. But he's been away for a while, and so many people keep asking for it, hopefully he won't mind that I put this together and released it.

[b]Updated - 4/18/03 - to fix things looking off center when you weren't using 100% table widths.

I downloaded this, but I'll have to work on adding it tomorrow. I'll let ya know how it works out!

I just installed it at www.measurection.com

Seems to be working fine... although I noticed that if you enable the current poll in the sidebar.... it doesn't work right. You can't vote.

So for now, don't use that option. If JustDave returns maybe he'll fix it. If not... maybe I'll fix it. But it's low on the list.

Thanks for posting

I noticed after installing it that once you enable it it stays on that side so if you select left it stays left even if you change it to right.

The spacing between the sidebar and forums is a bit tight. A work in progress I see

I should move left/right based on your user preferences.

Like it does here.

Will it not switch sides for you?

I'd check and make sure the new preference is getting stored in the database in changedisplay.php when you make the change. 1 for left, 2 for right, 0 off.

It won't move from the admin theme config.

Remember...as with all theme settings, theme settings only apply for unregistered users... and new users.

Existing users, like yourself, will need to change their preference in the display preferences of My Home.

Try changing it there... it should move for you.

Okay yes I remembered that after posting. Okay here is a summary of what I see

The sidebar works fine on the left except there is no break between the forums and sidebar.

The sidebar when switched to the right half the boxes come up SQL ERROR database only visable to administrator and half work when on forum list or postlist. Now it works fine in other site pages like extras and places like my home and who's online. The error only happens when on the forumlist or postlist

The spacing problem can be solved for the leftopentemplate by adding this just like the other right one has

<td width="10">
 
</td>

Did you add $dbh to the global call in the send_footer function? Without that it can't do queries in the right sidebar.

Are you doing it on a test site? If so, let me know where and I'll look.

I am pretty sure I added that on the line you said.

Just checked and this line

global $dbh, $config, $theme, $thispath, $VERSION, $ubbt_lang, $tempstyle, $timea,$querycount,$zlib,$fheader,$Board,$mysqltime,$debug,$debugprint;

is indeed there

That's odd. Try adding $user into it, like this:

global $dbh, $config, $user, $theme, $thispath, $VERSION, $ubbt_lang, $tempstyle, $timea,$querycount,$zlib,$fheader,$Board,$mysqltime,$debug,$debugprint;

You know... I'm at a bit of a loss. I think it's because it's coming after the photopost stuff.... which is monkeying it up somehow.

Let me ponder that a bit.

Actually the Photopost stuff is called in between and as part of the main index. The sidebar is not called till after the forum closes. It only happens on the main index I see what your getting at. Let me get a clean no Photopost index and test that.

Yep I tested it and yep I found a buggy. Adding Photopost to the main index messes with the sidebar. I removed Photopost and it works on the right. However Photopost is more important to me though. Just let me know what ideas' ya have so we can play and get this one stomped.

I myself am at a loss at my Photopost template would mess it up. Maybe the calls between two databases.

sidebarpal.php



This is the same code that UBB.threads formerly used to manually "register" global variables, that Rick went to great lengths to get rid of using get_input().

I think Dave had written it under 6.1

Havent' really looked at what variables were used etc.... I could go through and add the get_input functions instead.

[6.3b1]

Cosmetic problem: the sidebar and other forum stuff in the middle of the page appear to be aligned left, while the top menu and footer are center-aligned.

I notice that problem doesn't occur here. In fact, it looks like the stuff in the middle is in its own table cell.

Any ideas? Is it possible that other files need to be modified for this hack?

Well it doesn't happen here because we run 100%.

The easy answer.... in my instructions was that it run best in 100% width. Otherwise it looks off center.

This problem seemed to exist in JustDave's user selectable sidebar mod... which is what I merged the sidebar pal he was using here with. The advice was always to run 100%

When I first tried to track that down... I assumed we needed an "align" center" to the td tag... but that's not it.

I never could solve it before.

Edit:
I fixed it and will update the Zips momentarily.

Dave in sidebar_leftopen.tmpl and sidebar_rightopen.tmpl

Add:

align="center"

into the line where the table get's opened.

Looks like the table is 95% but off center.

I'll be updating the zips in just a minute.

Updated the Zip!
Thanks Dave.

Thanks, that fixed it.

Whew - that one was easy.
I got big shoes to fill trying to support JustDave's stuff.

Okay well something is going on weird. I uploaded the new templates and sidebarpal and it does space fine with a 95% width

I had to add in the left open like it has in the rightclose so there is a space inbetween the sidebar and forum.

However now this is totally weird. My Photopost categories on the photopost hack to display on main forum is gone. The featured photo's are there. I have no idea what is going on. Photopost categories are there in photopost. The only change made is with this new sidebarpal script and they did not come back with it set to blank in theme-inc.php

<td width="10">
</td>

Ack. I don't know how that could affect photopost. It's basically a template mod (to do the sidebar).

I don't have that installed on any of my testing sites, so I havne't really played with the photopost thing.

I know well it looks to be unrelated as I installed backup files and the Photo's appear but the cats do not.

OKay well still the right side pal bar does not work right with Photopost still/

Solved the Photopost thing.


Okay the sidebar worked except for the right before now I updated the sidebarpal and I get version mismatch. I am using 5.3.1. It is a version mismatch with 5.3 or 5.3.1 running.

I feel bad for having to ask, but what does this mean:

- Edit your Theme file. Fill in the sidebar type and sidebar width.
(Example: Sidebar Type: left Sidebar Width: 20%)

Edit what Theme file?

Admin -> Edit theme settings

Ahhhh..... I did it the hard way! lol (manually looked at code to add to the theme.inc.php file!

sigh*

Ate a big steak dinner at Mortons; must have slowed me down...

That's kind of a bogus error. The $VERSION variable was getting lost.

I discovered you needed to add $VERSION to the global call in the header or else you got it on the left.

I don't knwo why you'd get it on the right. $VERSION is used in the footer and already in the global call down there.

You can get around it by removing or commenting out this from the sidebarpal.php


if (!stristr($VERSION,"6.2") and !stristr($VERSION,"6.3")) {
$VersionNotice = "<br /><br /><strong><span class="standouttext">Version missmatch!</span> IIP $palVersion will not work with UBB.threads™ $VERSION.</strong>";
}


It's just the check that it's the right version of threads. But when threads upgrades, you'll most likely need to update the sidebarpal if you get errors.


once you take that out, it should get by it.

http://www.viperalley.com/ubbthreads.php

Got it up with all the extras - PhotoPost, ReviewPost, PhotoPost IIP, ReviewPost IIP.

Cool.

I can't wait to check out review post.

Ignore that. Corrupted theme.inc.php

Unfortunately, this hack also suffers from the "never updating IIPs" for those who have active boards. Everytime someone loads this page, it resets the date variable so that an IIP never times out as long as people are hitting the page within the interval.

To fix this, I added the code below (in bold) to the sidebarpal.php:

[] $dbh -> finish_sth($sth);
if ($RefCache && $user['U_Status'] = "Administrator") {
$LastCacheTime = 0;
}

if ( $date > ($LastCacheTime+600) ) $LastCacheTime = 0;

if (empty($forcepublic)) {
[/]

then a little lower:

[] }

if ( $LastCacheTime != 0 ) $date = $LastCacheTime;

$date_q = addslashes($date);[/]

Basically, I'm telling the IIPs to do a refresh ever 10 minutes. Putting LastCacheTime to 0 forces a refresh and I have all the defaults set to 15 minutes.

I know its a little kludgy, but otherwise the pages never update (unless nobody is on my site for 15 minutes!)

Cool, I reported this sidebar/photopost problem a few months back and never could figure it out... I shoulda called in the calvary back then

Maybe Michael is the best to answer this one. Josh I added the version call to the header in ubbt-inc The sidebar works on the left just like it did in the last version. Now with your latest version it is even worse on the right tables everywhere sql errors etc. Now I see Michael has it working on the right. Any Ideas Michael?

Just another little note also. I notice at 100% everything views fine. at 95% it is centered so you fixed that yet if you have extra content like photopost those tables are smaller than threads ones. This does validate so I looked through and just figured I need a drink. To better explain threads when set to 95% when the Photopost tables go to 90% This sidebar is killing me. I have rechecked hacking over a dozen times and this darn thing does not like my site or something.

Dumb luck, I suppose; I dont recall making any changes to get it to work (never didn't work for me). I did have to cleanup the code I posted above and take out a couple <br /> tags for spacing - and I noticed the instructions didnt always match the code I had (6.2.3), but I figured out what needed to be done.

Dumb luck?

Oh it works for me. It works fine on the left. It works fine on the right on every page but ONE. The main index which of course has Photopost. Now if I remove the ubbt_photopost.tmpl require from the ubbthreads.tmpl the sidebar comes up fine with no sql

Oh it works for me. It works fine on the left. It works fine on the right on every page but ONE. The main index which of course has Photopost. Now if I remove the ubbt_photopost.tmpl require from the ubbthreads.tmpl the sidebar comes up fine with no SQL errors on the main index. I did notice the code differences in the instructions but found where things needed to go. Interesting that this might be a MYSQL thing as maybe the mysql is not closing from Photopost who knows.

Omegatron... you might check if any of the variables in use by IIP Sidebarpal are also used by photopost. It might get monkeyed up if something you have is trying to use the same variable.

I see well Photopost program itself calls the Threads main.inc.php due to the heavy integration I have. I think I might just have to remove the code for users to change it from left to right until I can figure a workaround. But that is when you are running Photopost. So if I understand what your saying the problem has to located in reality to Michael's integration on the main forum. If I do remove that hack from the main forum we know the problem goes away. I do not understand why Michael's hack would interfere ,Since basically all that is happening is we are opening a MYSQL connection to the photopost database and pulling information. All tables are created within his hack. So it should not pull from the Photopost program itself where it might cause a problem because I make Photopost use Threads headers/footers and CSS. In that case I can understand the double global call issue.

Thanx for the tip.

I double checked that hack and there are NO GLOBAL CALLS.

Interesting.

it boggled my mind to no end too when I tried to combine them

which one was that one Allen.

the sidebar and photopost

or

photopost and threads.

Just an update to this hack.

Seems that it was not so much a global call issue as the inability to switch between MYSQL databases. I stating thinking why Michael did not have any problems and I did. From helping others I noticed that alot of people use ONE database when they have both Threads and Photopost. Well I always maintained separate databases. I decided to try different things so I put the Photopost tables into my Threads database. Well guess what that solved the issue. So it seems that one can only have one database as otherwise there is a problem switching back and forth between connections.

Except that I have two databases (well, three if you count the RP database which also is seperate).

Interesting then as combining the two databases solved my problems.

Maybe then it is a server related MYSQL issue.

Try this, in ubbt_photopost.tmpl change:

if (!$firstpass) {
if ($j != 0) { print "</table></tr></td></table><br />"; }

I think the problem is that the tables arent being closed out properly when you have more than one cat with no thumbs...?

well I solved it by moving them to all one database.

I think that the tables are fine as the hack itself validates with XHTML fine. If the tables were not closing correctly then the site would not validate. All my categories have thumbs also.

I really think it is some weird mysql server setting that maybe it is not switching from one connection to the other. I think the connection to the Photopost database was not closing and the sidebar was trying to pull info from the Photopost database instead of Threads. Thus the SQL errors. There could be some setting with mysql that we have different that allows it to work on your server and not on mine.

That's a good theory.

You could try adding this to the top of the sidebar

mysql_select_db(threadsDBname);

to see if that makes it switch back.

Well I already went through the trouble of combining the databases. Easier to backup that way anyway but I will try that out on my test site and see what happens.

I noticed the problem on one of my sites where there were more than one category within PhotoPost - if all the cats are in one grouping, then it should be okay. I have to check my hack docs.

Yes I see what your getting at. That would be another problem though I thought you solved that one before.

I am going to give this a shot on my test site and do what recreate the problem and then do what Josh said. I really really think the problem is what I stated. Unlike alot of other servers that configure MYSQL for you when you create a database I have full control and need to apply permissions et all when I create a database which leads me to beleive there is something different in the two mysql setups that prevent the switching back and forth.

I have it installed on my site:

http://drumlines.org/threads/ubbthreads.php?Cat=

But I seem to have some kind of table problem or something when I chose to display the sidebar on the right. The sidebar repeats itself at the bottom at 100%

Login: test
Pass: threadsdev

Ooops, my bad.

My only guess would be that somehow you are including the right sidebar close template twice. It would almost have to be to make it appear twice.

By the way Josh this solved the problem I stated

mysql_select_db(threadsDBname);

So somehow it didn't switch back on it's own.

Well... maybe this will help someone else.
Thanks for trying it.

No problem. Told ya I would test it.

You might want to change that to

mysql_select_db(threadsDBname) or die('Failed to select database threadsDBname');

cool, glad you found the solution

Dave always the wizard.

Can anyone tell me how I can place new menu items ? For example I would also like "forum index" to be in the menu.

Thanks!

pasqualist,

If you edit sidebarpal.php you will see the list in their of what to include. Just mark off in order 1,2,3,4,5,etc what order you would like things included on the sidebar.

No that's not what I mean. In the sidebarpal I only selected "$sidebar_include['menu'] = "1";". In this menu I would also like other items like "forum index" or "links". I think I should do something in "menupal.php", but it seems very complicated in PHP

Okay your question was a little vague and was in the sidebarpal thread.

Okay in menupal.php open it and do the following.

Above:

echo "$tableEnd</td></tr>$tbclose<br />";


Add:

echo "$rowStart<a href="$phpurl/$FrontPage.php?Cat=">Main Index</a>$rowEnd";
echo "$rowStart<a href="$phpurl/linksphp/links.php?op=Links">Links</a>$rowEnd";


That will put the Main Index and Links if you have TLD installed by Fishtails. You should be able to get the jist of how to add something there now.

I agree my posting wasn't very clear My english isn't that good

Thank you very much for the explanation! Works just like I wished. Only....

On the portal screen the link to the Main Index points to "http://www.mydomain.com/.php?Cat=". In the sidebar it works good. (http://www.mydomain.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?Cat=)

Okay just change it to this then forgot this has to be Threads PHPURL

echo "$rowStart<a href="{$config['phpurl']}/ubbthreads.php?Cat">Main Index</a>$rowEnd";

Well, looks like I'll want to take a closer look. Today we hit > 110 users on my boards and it crawled:

Generated in 19.429 seconds in which 19.209 seconds were spent on a total of 47 queries. Zlib compression enabled.

This number does not include the 36 queries for the PhotoPost hack. So, 83 queries per page!

I turned off the SideBar and was left with:

31 queries for UBBThreads
16 queries for the SideBar
36 queries for PhotoPost

I turned off sidebars, but left the PhotoPost in place and my times were reduced:

Generated in 2.328 seconds in which 2.157 seconds were spent on a total of 31 queries. Zlib compression enabled.

(adding in the 36 for PP, that makes 67 queries) - but still in 2.1 seconds.

Clearly the SideBars are adding in some significant time for processing that adversely effects the board when I get alot of users online.

Seems to be the same ole problems with IIP and alot of users on board generating the IIP page as well.

With 73 members online each test run within seconds of each other:

With Sidebar
- Generated in 6.315 seconds in which 6.051 seconds were spent on a total of 47 queries. Zlib compression enabled.
- Generated in 13.029 seconds in which 12.807 seconds were spent on a total of 47 queries. Zlib compression enabled.
- Generated in 12.414 seconds in which 12.289 seconds were spent on a total of 47 queries. Zlib compression enabled.

Without SideBar
- Generated in 5.024 seconds in which 4.92 seconds were spent on a total of 31 queries. Zlib compression enabled.
- Generated in 1.576 seconds in which 1.451 seconds were spent on a total of 31 queries. Zlib compression enabled.
- Generated in 1.762 seconds in which 1.601 seconds were spent on a total of 31 queries. Zlib compression enabled.

I ran each test alternating - on/off/on/off/on/off (imagine those users were a little confused).

I have my code in place to only UPDATE every 10 minutes; but either that isnt working or the remaining queries are still gobbling up alot of processing power.

Seems my code isn't caching properly some of the pages.... The Ca_TimeStamp is incrementing continually.

Generated in 41.25 seconds in which 40.716 seconds were spent on a total of 47 queries. Zlib compression enabled.

Okay, the problem is that $date gets overwritten by a bunch of the pals. I had to rename $date in sidebarpal.php to $iipdate so that my changes would work.

Now my times have decreased significantly as the reload isnt being done on every page load. However, there is still a large load when IIP is being used (almost twice the page generation time).

With 44 online users....

Threads/SideBar/PhotoPost
Generated in 3.235 seconds in which 3.049 seconds were spent on a total of 40 queries. Zlib compression enabled.

Threads/PhotoPost
Generated in 1.626 seconds in which 1.477 seconds were spent on a total of 31 queries. Zlib compression enabled.

Run within seconds of each other - there is still a load that doubles the time to generate the page by the SideBar/IIP code.

I am running with a couple IIPs:

Short Stats
Status Login
Whos Online
Top Posters
Hot Topic
ShoutBox
New User

In running through the list turning one off at a time, I didnt not much of a time difference EXCEPT for New User.

By turning off New User, my times dropped .6 seconds to a full 2 seconds over the averages with New User included.

Dont mind me - just talking through this as I go. But the "problem child" appears to be New User.

that's a lot... If we can't find a way to improve on it some more, we'll definitely need to put a warning in the initial post. It's doubling the time on ~30% more queries, even with your fixes.

Is this for the initial forum summary page? Or for the postlist pages too?

Well, for my setup I only put the sidebars on ubbthreads - I reversed the logic so as to only include it on pages I want it on. So my $iip_call is only set to 1 in ubbthreads to include it there. With sidebars, I turned off the Summary page and have everyone load ubbthreads.php.

All my other pages are nice and snappy; just the index page was giving me problems. With 110+ users online, I'm sure I lost alot when they didnt have their page load for 30+ seconds!

I think its safe to say on any page sidebar is loaded this will be an issue.

Hmmm.... we only get 28 queries on the main index here, and we're running full new post tracking.

I'm wondering if tehre's something with your IIP caching. I run it on measurection and have the photopost sidebar, plus a bunch of other things that use queries and the main index... and in the evenings, when there's usually about 50-70 people online, it seems to zip right along. I'm no longer running the shoutbox. But that was just because I wanted to use the space for some ads.

Possibly it's a bug in his cache, tho maybe the changes he made to the $date can be added to the base code so it's even snappier?

How many forums do you have? I have 18 in 5 sections. I get 40 queries just for the page (Threads only).

Well, here's what I do (explained somewhere else).

I set all my cache timeouts to 20 minutes. Then in sidebar.php I manually check for 10 minutes to have passed. If it has, then it sets $LastCacheTime to 0 (which forces a rebuild of the cache). At the end of the script (before the UPDATE), if the LastCacheTime is NOT 0 - then I set the Ca_TimeStamp to LastCacheTime. These few lines have the effect of forcing Ca_TimeStamp to only update when the 10 minute timeout has been passed. As, for the PALS, they wont update unless the 10 minute timeout was tripped (by being set to 0) or if the 20 minutes has passed.

36 forums when I'm logged in and part of the "group" that sees everything.

I run the who's online on every page, which I know wastes some queries. I run my banner ad mod at the top and bottom, which blows queries. The birthday mod adds several queries as well.
I'm not caching any of it, so my profile etc... updates with every page load. And I'm running the photopost pal box with a random photo in the sidebar.

Generated in 3.868 seconds in which 3.488 seconds were spent on a total of 85 queries. Zlib compression enabled.

A postlist page is much better:
Generated in 1.151 seconds in which 0.818 seconds were spent on a total of 28 queries. Zlib compression enabled.

Although it's a little light right now. Only 42 people online. I've had as many as 100.


Here at thradsdev, we've got 24 forums on the main index:
Generated in 0.168 seconds in which 0.11 seconds were spent on a total of 26 queries. Zlib compression enabled.

Well, it became pretty obvious when I opened newuserpal.php - there is no caching for New Users! This box gets done every call; thats whats causing the longer lags....

Ah.... I'm not using that pal.

I forgot to mention, I have about 40,000 users which probably slows this query down:

SELECT U_Username,U_Registered,U_Picture,U_PicWidth,U_PicHeight,U_Number
FROM {$config['tbprefix']}Users
WHERE U_Approved = 'yes'
ORDER BY U_Number DESC LIMIT 0,1

Oy... yeah, that would defaintely slow it down.

Is this different from the IIP version (that shows up on index pages)?

No... I think it's all the same stuff.

Its the same, just uses the sidebarpal.php to make them show up in a sidebar.

My w3t_Users table needed optomizing as well. But I think I'll leave the new user off anyways.

hmmm.. this would explain IIP's speed drain on bigger sites then... possible to get it written to cache?

Well, IIP by itself has a problem with its cache - unless nobody hits on the page for the period of timeout, the cache never updates (this is because the Ca_TimeStamp is updated on each page load with the current time). If your timeout are 15 minutes - then as long as nobody goes to the page for 15 minutes, it will refresh.

The page load which reloads the cache can be pretty cumbersome; but some of the PALs appear to not cache information (like the New User PAL).

With my setup that one query was taking a long time - maybe optomization would help a little - and resulted in 30+ second load times with more than 100 users on the site.

My "workaround" for the cache seems to work okay for me - might have to increase the times from 10 to 20 minutes to help a little. Otherwise, on busy sites, you have to set your cache to 0 (which forces a new load everytime) to get updated material.

Keep in mind that sidebars also duplicate some of the calls made in ubbthreads.php - such as "newest user" and "who's online". By having the sidebar on your main index page, you are basically doing each of these queries twice - so I commented out the queries from the ubbthreads.php and then took out the Extra Information lines.

Probably the proper thing to do is check to see if a user has the sidebars turned off; but thats something for another day.

Another thing I noticed about SideBar - it reinits the Globals (already done in ubbthreads.php) and also reautheticates the user - would it be better to make the query directly to avoid the overhead of doing an authentication?

(I noticed that first visit I get a cookie error - on the session cookie - because SideBars cannot create cookies at that time.)

The globals issue was mentioned above in this post.

Would removing that section of code fix the problem? It sounds extraneous anyway, eh?

[]Warning: Cannot add header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/sites/viperalley/web/templates/default/ubbt_header.tmpl:17) in /home/sites/viperalley/web/ubbt.inc.php on line 1871[/]

Anyone else getting this message using the SideBars? Happens like on the first visit, but goes away when I hit refresh.

Yes i have this same

I think its because we are calling authenticate a second time; I've been trying to do just a query; but havent been able to get it to work yet.

Hmmmm....

Haven't seen that.

In theory though we might not need to call authenticate again. The user should already be authenticated if the bar is on the right.

I need to play with adding a call that if the bar is configured on the right, then it skips the authenticate call.

Thanks, this seems to work properly for both the IIP (index.php) and the IIP sidebar (pals/sidebarpal.php).

For the benefit of others reading this:

The only restriction is that the forced update interval (600 seconds, in extremebikini's post) should not exceed the cache update interval for any individual pal. Otherwise, that pal would update on each page refresh that occurred between its cache update interval and the forced update interval.

Trying to install this on 6.2.3... Ran into a problem with the instructions for editdisplay.php.

This does not exist:

Well it's a mod written for 6.3 so install it under 6.2 at your own risk. It'll work in 6.2, but the instructions are for 6.3. I just didn't want to retro-write the instructions.

You can try inserting the code from that part of the instructions below the little section that begins:

// Find out if they already have a display preference

I think that'll work.

Cool. Thanks Josh!.

Just FYI, that worked great.

Also there is no w3t_Users.U_Banned in 6.2.3, so I just left that out of the SELECT statement in ubbt.inc.php.

Glad it worked for you. Right.. U_Banned is new in 6.3. Thanks for the tip.

It is? Great, I needed that for a small change I wanted to make. Maybe I should try to get 6.3 installed, but since I haven't installed 6.2.x yet it might take a while. =]

Got it up and running, curious, I can't see it when not logged in. Did I do something wrong? I like how this site allows for log in via the sidebar but ON my site it doesn't show up.

Sugguestions?

The setting in the theme file should apply to users who aren't logged in.

I made the changes to the files and get the following:

../threads/index.php:
Parse error: parse error, unexpected ';', expecting T_OLD_FUNCTION or T_FUNCTION or T_VAR or '}' in /home/domain/public_html/threads/ubbt.inc.php on line 1967

../threads/ubbthreads.php:
Fatal error: Call to undefined function: getmicrotime() in /home/domain/public_html/threads/main.inc.php on line 16
Parse error: parse error, unexpected T_STRING in /home/domain/public_html/threads/ubbt.inc.php on line 1760

Fatal error: Call to undefined function: getmicrotime() in /home/domain/public_html/threads/main.inc.php on line 16

Not sure if I missed a step?

Thanks

I'd double check the steps again - that usually means you're either short a } or { or have an extra one somewhere in ubbt.inc.php file.

Might want to check the copy / paste steps in ubbt.inc.php.

Found the problem in the ubbt.inc.php file.

Have a question about the instructions for changing the editdisplay.php file. The actual select statement in the original file has the following statement with the U_Username, U-Bio at the beginning:

SELECT U_Username,U_Bio,U_Sort,U_Display,U_View,U_PostsPer,U_TextCols,U_TextRows,U_StyleSheet,U_Preview,U_PictureView,U_PicturePosts,U_Language,U_FlatPosts,U_TimeOffset,U_FrontPage,U_ActiveThread,U_StartPage,U_ShowSigs

The the change to be made listed in the instructions does not have those 2 variables:

### Change this:
SELECT U_Sort,U_Display,U_View,U_PostsPer,U_TextCols,U_TextRows,U_StyleSheet,U_Preview,U_PictureView,U_PicturePosts,U_Language,U_FlatPosts,U_TimeOffset,U_FrontPage,U_ActiveThread,U_StartPage,U_ShowSigs

### to this:

SELECT U_Sort,U_Display,U_View,U_PostsPer,U_TextCols,U_TextRows,U_StyleSheet,U_Preview,U_PictureView,U_PicturePosts,U_Language,U_FlatPosts,U_TimeOffset,U_FrontPage,U_ActiveThread,U_StartPage,U_ShowSigs,U_SideBar


Also the list statment does not have the $CheckUser and $Bio variables:

### Change this:

list($Sort,$Display,$View,$PostsPer,$TextCols,$TextRows,$StyleSheet,$Preview,$PictureView,$PicturePost,$chosenlanguage,$FlatPosts,$TimeOffset,$FrontPage,$activethreads,$startpage,$sigview) = $dbh -> fetch_array($sth);

### to this:

list($Sort,$Display,$View,$PostsPer,$TextCols,$TextRows,$StyleSheet,$Preview,$PictureView,$PicturePost,$chosenlanguage,$FlatPosts,$TimeOffset,$FrontPage,$activethreads,$startpage,$sigview,$showsidebar) = $dbh -> fetch_array($sth);

Should the first 2 variables be used after the change?

The objective is to add U_SideBar to the SELECT, and $showsidebar to the list(). The actual position doesn't matter, as long as it's the same corresponding position in the two places.

Yeah - 6.2 had the "U_Bio" field at the front - which wasn't being used.
The instructions here are for 6.3. But Dave's got thr right idea. Add the sidebar stuff to the end.

Even pasting the current code shouldn't break it - as U_Bio isn't used in editdisplay. It was removed to "clean up" stuff in 6.3.

Just installed this on our test site - and all looks great except in 'my home' the 'post remnders', 'favourite threads', and 'main configuration' boxes are being displayed beneath the sidebar, when it is set to the left.

If the sidebar is set to the right, the page displays fine.

I can't find any errors. I am running 6.3b4, using the stock IP supplied themes.

Strange the featured member pal, does not display either - shows up fine in the index page, but not on the side - it is also selected as item 3 in the config. Strange.

Okay in sidebar_leftopen.tmpl - it causes ubbthreads.php to be centred from top to bottom in Opera. Displays fine in IE.

Changing <td align="center" valign="top"> to <td valign="top"> eliminates this problem.

Still trying to track down the other issues, which is affecting 6.3b4

Beginning to wonder if it is my header/footer causing the problems....

..... goes off to investigate them

.... comes running back

Wasn't my header or footer

Excuse me whilst I talk to myself here

Hmmmm, I'm using the sidebar with 6.3b4, and I don't have that centering problem. But I've only checked it in IE and Mozilla.

Featured (spotlight?) member pal: Is that the same problem mentioned in a couple of other threads, where that box sometimes doesn't display because of a bug in that pal?

Ian are you using a percentage table width in your theme file - or a fixed width. There was a bug in My home using the table wrappers and a fixed table width. The side bar accentuates that issue.

100% table width - and 20% for the sidebar. It was all apeearing fine, until I tried to change the stylesheet, and then it threw it out. Strangely enough I spotted the proflepal appearing, then I went to 'my home', and it suddenly vanished

[]Okay in sidebar_leftopen.tmpl - it causes ubbthreads.php to be centred from top to bottom in Opera. Displays fine in IE.

Changing <td align="center" valign="top"> to <td valign="top"> eliminates this problem.
[/]

This problem is also here on Threadsdev - all pages are centred in the main box under opera 7.11, with the sidebarpal set to the left.

Thanks for finding that. I knew Opera didn't display the same as IE and Mozilla.

I just downloaded Opera yesterday to try this out. One more browser to add to my collection when checking design issues for different browsers. I usually just check IE,Netscape and Mozilla.

The one thing I notice about the Opera browser is that it renders images slower than IE at all the others. For me thats a downside to using that browser. Has alot of nice toys(tools) to play with though.

[]Just installed this on our test site - and all looks great except in 'my home' the 'post remnders', 'favourite threads', and 'main configuration' boxes are being displayed beneath the sidebar, when it is set to the left.

If the sidebar is set to the right, the page displays fine.

I can't find any errors. I am running 6.3b4, using the stock IP supplied themes.

[/]

Okay - this was caused by an error in myhome.tmpl.

Changed this

<!-- END ONLINE LOOP -->
</table>
</td>
</tr>
$tbclose


to this


<!-- END ONLINE LOOP -->
$tbclose
</td>
</tr>
</table>

and the page now displays fine

My only issue now is the profile spotlight vanishing

Profile spotlight? You know Ian I had noticed that as well yesterday but had not said anything yet on that. I have had this installed for a while but just never noticed it and then when you say something I figured I would speak up as it seems to be more than just random chance as this is not related to only one site.

I can't see this mentioned in this thread, but the template files have a line missing


<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="{$config['phpurl']}/pals/java/javapal.php"></script>

If this is missing then a runtime error will occur, when hovering over status icons to alter the settings.

more fun:

when sidebar is on the right, the </body></html> tags are missing

Allen my site validates with the sidebar on the right or left

ugh, then it's something 'special' we have here

Here we have the "work in progress" that JustDave did - which is where I swiped it from.

There's small handfull of buglets and issues here, but I've been holding off doing any major construction knowing that 6.3 will be stable soon enough and It'll be time to swing the wrecking ball around in here a bit again.

Ain't nothing easy, Don't ya just love those sneaky tough little buggers.

I have a problem with the sidebar actually appearing. The ubbthreads.php will shift either left or right depending on the sidebar setting. Any ideas on where to look to check the code?

Not sure I follow? Do you have a link?

Here is the link:

http://www.siforums.com/threads/ubbthreads.php?Cat=

It appears just like the page is formatted for the sidebar except that it is blank where the sidebar should be. I was thinking about doing a fresh install of 6.3 and adding the sidebar mod again.

Probably best. The sidebar mod is written for 6.3.

Josh, I think I'll do a fresh install of 6.3 and do the sidebar later - thanks

Okay, I just about have this dialed in on 6.2.3 It displays the side bar just fine, the only problem is when I let it automatically refresh i.e. Who's Online page I get this error (I will try to post it so it doesn't make a huge line Josh )

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/vhfansco/public_html/boards/templates/default/ubbt_header.tmpl:17) in /home/vhfansco/public_html/boards/ubbt.inc.php on line 1757

Ah - sorry I missed this.

I actually had this happen to me on one server I installed this on - not sure why. Some servers don't like using the authenticate step more than once.

When I get a moment I'll look back and see if I can find how I fixed it. LOL I did find a way around this.

Stay tuned.

Cool, thanks Josh.

Updated the mod to version 1.1 fixing the issue.

https://www.ubbdev.com/forum/showflat.php?Number=75896

Works like a champ Josh, thanks for taking the time to help me out with this. I have no idea why my server has an issue with that but your fix took care of it

he he

You got lucky. I was installing this for a client last night and had the same problem - so I was forced to re-figure it out sooner than later.

I think we broke the Hot Topic pal at 95 and it's been getting posts like mad today too, now it suddenly went back to "No posts have caught fire as of yet"

Hi...

i've a problem... i add die IIP 5.3.1 und then the IIP SidebarPal 1.1 die IIP 5.3.1.. still works... but the SidebarPal 1.1 dont works or it is better to say its not shown... when i set it to left or right in the user-settings it will not comes... i look for mistakes in the Files 3 times but all is right...

Greetings Baby D

I would double check your hacking and also remember the sidebar must be set to on in the theme config and it must be set on in the user's profile.

Note that for a hot topic to qualify as a hot topic..... it has to be started within 24 hours. So if an existing active thread continues to get lots of replies.... it won't be a hot topic if it's more than 24 hours old.

[]JoshPet said:
Note that for a hot topic to qualify as a hot topic..... it has to be started within 24 hours. So if an existing active thread continues to get lots of replies.... it won't be a hot topic if it's more than 24 hours old. [/]

Ahh, that would explain it. Thanks Josh.

Curious. I installed it but when I go to the display preference in My Home I get the following SQL error:


SQL ERROR: Unable to do_query: SELECT U_Sort,U_Display,U_View,U_PostsPer,U_TextCols,U_TextRows,U_StyleSheet,U_Preview,U_PictureView,U_PicturePosts,U_Language,U_FlatPosts,U_TimeOffset,U_FrontPage,U_ActiveThread,U_StartPage,U_ShowSigsSELECT U_Sort,U_Display,U_View,U_PostsPer,U_TextCols,U_TextRows,U_StyleSheet,U_Preview,U_PictureView,U_PicturePosts,U_Language,U_FlatPosts,U_TimeOffset,U_FrontPage,U_ActiveThread,U_StartPage,U_ShowSigs,U_SideBar FROM w3t_Users WHERE U_Username = 'bergmanb'
Unknown column 'U_ShowSigsSELECT' in 'field list'
Warning: mysql_fetch_array(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /home/tampains/public_html/ubbthreads/mysql.inc.php on line 131

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/tampains/public_html/ubbthreads/mysql.inc.php:217) in /home/tampains/public_html/ubbthreads/ubbt.inc.php on line 245



In the middle of the page I also get that "We cannot proceed" "We could not find your profile 'bergmanb' "

When I click on any other edit link in My Home I don't get any errors. I only get errors for the Display Preference edit link.

Anyone have a clue?

-Buddy

Looks like you pasted something twice. SELECT should be the begining of the query... U_ShowSigs was the end of the old query. You are supposed to simply add U_SideBar to the end.. but you've pasted the whole thing so the query starts over.

Start fresh and go through your steps near that query.

Hey that did it. Looks like I had that SELECT line in there twice, one right after the other on the same line. I dont know how that happened.

Thanks Josh. (now what about the subforum hack?)

-Buddy

I have not done a subforum hack.... and have no plans to (unless someone hires me to develop one).
I think JustDave has done some research in this area before and probably has the leg up on making this one happen.

Josh, is there a way that I can set the sidebar to be defaulted off? But, the user can turn it on in their profile?

The way it's working for me now is if I leave it blank in the theme config, it can't even be turned on in the profile.....

How difficult would it be to change this? Thanks for any insight!

You have to choose either left/right in the profile... because off won't work. This will be the default for new users from that point on.

But you can do an SQL Query to turn off existing users:

UPDATE w3t_Users
SET U_SideBar = 0


That should do it.

I guess what I was saying was that I didn't want ANY user, specifically new users, to have the sidebar, unless they choose it from the profile? Guess that's not possible?

Nope

TRAGIC! Thanks though!

The whole thing would need to be reworked..... because it uses 0 for the sidebar being off - but if it's 0 (or non existant in the theme file) it takes the option away.

I think there's a solution

In the theme file - you type left or right... or leave blank for off.

Instead - type "none" there. (anything but left or right) then the field isn't empty.

I think that'll produce it off for anonymous users and new users.... but people can override it in their profile.

Josh, seriously, you're my friggin hero. Excellent. Thank you muchly.

So is there an update for this in the works for IIP 5.4?

This one works for the most part but I get some header errors half the time like so:

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/tampains/public_html/ubbthreads/templates/default/ubbt_header.tmpl:3) in /home/tampains/public_html/ubbthreads/ubbt.inc.php on line 611


and I can't display the Photopost Pal box in IIP with the current version at all.

So anyone?

Thanks.

I have it working with my IIP 5.4 on a 6.4 board. http://www.drumlines.org/betathreads

Oh, the headers error....I think I had that too. Look for some whitespace at the end of one of those files. I think that's how I fixed it...

That might have been it...its a random error. I took that blank line out of my ubbt_footer.tmpl which is what was giving the error. So far no problems.

Also, I have a random photopost photo using a custom Pal box but it gives me the following error ONLY when I goto the Photopost Gallery. Any other part of the site the custom Pal box works fine in the Side Bar.

Here is the error:

Fatal error: Cannot redeclare get_ext() (previously declared in /home/tampains/public_html/ppp/pp-inc.php:410) in /home/tampains/public_html/ubbthreads/pals/custombox6pal.php on line 70


Any ideas?

What Photopost pal box version are you using

I have never seen this one and have many custom photopost/review mods with threads? There is a new version posted Photopal 1.3 you should use

Well, seems that is working ok now. I forget now what got it working. Here is my bigger error:

I get this error every almost all the time, but not every time.

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/tampains/public_html/ubbthreads/templates/default/ubbt_header.tmpl:3) in /home/tampains/public_html/ubbthreads/ubbt.inc.php on line 611


On line 611 in ubbt.inc.php is this:

setcookie("$name","$value",$time,$cookiepath);


I have looked for those "extra lines" after the ?> but there are none. Also since it seems to be only on the pages that the SideBarPal is on I am thinking it's some error with that and UBBT 6.4b1. I am running SideBarPal 1.1. Or could it be something with the ubbt_header.tmpl? There are no blank lines in there either.

Has anyone else run into this or know how to fix it? Is there a newer SideBarPal mod in the works?

Thanks.

I haven't posted my 6.4 version yet.... but have been working on it.

That's what the "reauth" config variable should fix. As sometiems it doesn't like doing the authenticate function twice.

Make sure that you put:

$config['reauth'] = '';


in the config file

Then that line in ubbt.inc php - try chaning this:

setcookie("$name","$value",$time,$cookiepath);


To this:



See if that fixes it.

Well, seems that has done the trick. Thanks for your help Josh.

If it happens again i'll post it here.

Josh has posted the sidebarpal 2.0 for 6.4 here

1) I got it working on my board, but when i log out, you cant see the side bar on the left of the forum.

I can see it perfectly when logged in, but not when logged out. (Guest)

2) Also one more thing... When new users sign up to the forum the U-Sidebar setting in thier table is inserted as a 0... where do i make the edit to default to 1???

Deejay

Ok, I hacked this in myself!! Look at me go! haha

The way this hack originally worked, is that when new user signs up, the side bar wont show for them. It simply doesnt put the value 1 or 2 into the database in the U,Sidebar area...

Sooooooo, if you do this below, it will add the new user into either the left or right, depending on how you want to set it.

Below, when a new user signs up, default them to view the sidebar on the LEFT side... In adduser.php find this:


// ----------------------------------
// Insert this user into the database
$query = "
INSERT INTO {$config['tbprefix']}Users (U_LoginName,U_Username,U_Password,U_Email,U_Totalposts,U_Laston,U_Status,U_Sort,U_D
isplay,U_View,U_PostsPer,U_EReplies,U_Registered,U_RegEmail,U_RegIP,U_Groups,U_Title,U_Color,U_Privates,U_Approved,U_PicturePosts,U_
CoppaUser,U_AdminEmails)
VALUES ('$Login_q','$Displayn_q','$crypt','$Email_q','0','$date','$Status_q','{$theme['sort']}','$Display_q','$View_q','{$t
heme['postsperpage']}','$EReplies_q','$date','$Email_q','$ip_q','$Groups_q','$Title_q','$Color_q','1','$approved','$PicturePosts','$
coppauser','')
";

And replace it with this:

// ----------------------------------
// Insert this user into the database
$query = "
INSERT INTO {$config['tbprefix']}Users (U_LoginName,U_Username,U_Password,U_Email,U_Totalposts,U_Laston,U_Status,U_Sort,U_D
isplay,U_View,U_PostsPer,U_EReplies,U_Registered,U_RegEmail,U_RegIP,U_Groups,U_Title,U_Color,U_Privates,U_Approved,U_PicturePosts,U_
CoppaUser,U_AdminEmails,U_SideBar)
VALUES ('$Login_q','$Displayn_q','$crypt','$Email_q','0','$date','$Status_q','{$theme['sort']}','$Display_q','$View_q','{$t
heme['postsperpage']}','$EReplies_q','$date','$Email_q','$ip_q','$Groups_q','$Title_q','$Color_q','1','$approved','$PicturePosts','$
coppauser','','1')
";

The very last "1" you see there '','1') If you change it to a 2 it will show it on the new users right side of the screen.

Deejay Strikes Again!

What would it take to use this in other areas of my site. I know that I could use the generic threads page, but I don't want the Threads navigation bar to display in other areas of the site. Is there another way to do this.

I actually want this to display when the are browsing the project management area of my site. The project management software is Dotproject.
It is php based and located on the same server as my threads install so it seems doable. I'm just not sure what IIP needs to display properly.

Well IIP uses the send_headet function of Threads which calls the header and menu templates.

However the sidebar should be fine using it on pages that do not have the threads header. You still need to require main.inc.php but just do not use the send_header function. That is how it operates anyway. It does not use a send_header function. IIP uses the send_header function on your entrance page.

Do you follow me?

require ("/path/to/main.inc.php");

make sure the html is correct and use an include to do the sidebar after your extra pages header.

I think as long as you are including main you should be fine.

One thing -

In the sidebar.php script there's this:

$config['reauth'] = '1';


This skips the step of setting the cookies needed during the authenticate function, as if you try to reset cookies on a page that's already been set, you can get the "headers already sent" error.

So on your non headers pages - there will be no authenticate function previously on the page.

You can either include the authenticate function in your regular pages. Or duplicate the sidebarpal.php to something like sidebarpal.php - change the above variable to 0 and use that copy on your pages where you're not authenticating or sending the headers.

I get errors from my sidebar when somebody adds a greamlin. Ideas how to fix this? I have tried shutting off the shoutbox ubbcode and html for the forum but it still lets them add the images. Something not quite right on my end.

Waht kind of errors? I was just there adding smileys and didn't see any.

I see you tested it.. it might be the moving ones. I can't narrow it down yet, but it occurs on a mouseover when there is a greamlin. I delete the greamlins and it dissapears. But I see you could still post them when it is shut off in forums...

Thanks for looking.. I will try to get more information if I can.

Okay, this is the code that I used in an index.php file to try to get started.

I have attached the image of the results. I can tell this is close, but I can't figure out what I need to put in to get the table to form. I keep getting errors with everything that I try.

If that is your index file no wonder it doesnt work.

Usually there is a sendheader call a user authentication which calls their stylesheet and a threads call to $html= newhtml blah blah

If you want this to be apart from threads at the very least you need to specify a stylesheet link and to get the html to be correct you need to open and close everything correctly.

Something like this

<?

echo <<<PRINT
<html>
<title>
Test Sidebar
</title>
<head>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="http://www.yoursite.com/forum/stylesheets/default.css" type="text/css" />
</head>
<body>
PRINT;

require ("/home/wwwtsbiu/public_html/test/devboard/main.inc.php");

require ("/home/wwwtsbiu/public_html/test/devboard/pals/sidebarpal.php");

echo <<<PRINT
</body>
</html>
PRINT;

?>

Also as Josh stated the reauthenication is inside the sidebar script so you might want make a second copy called sidebarpal1.php or something like that and set the reauthentication inside their to 0.

Thanks for that code Chuck. I tried your code out(putting in the appropriate URL) and it looks pretty much the same. The wierd thing is that when I view the source it shows the td open and closes but it isn't drawing any tables.

My test index page is located at http://www.theiconsortium.com/test/ and my developement board is located at http://www.theiconsortium.com/test/devboard/.

Any ideas why it is still showing up that way?

Hrm... if you're not sending the header, now that I think about it, you won't have the stylesheet set and may not be able to use the $tbopen/$tbclose setup. You might be able to manually set a stylesheet in your header then try using the function that grabs the tablewrappers and see if that works.

You also might need to manually define the $tbopen and $tbclose variables.

Download the page I created for you and edit as you need to with paths and your own header.

Okay, when I use that code I get the following error:
[qoute]

Warning: Unexpected character in input: '\' (ASCII=92) state=1 in /home/wwwtsbiu/public_html/test/index.php on line 7

Parse error: parse error in /home/wwwtsbiu/public_html/test/index.php on line 7
[/qoute]
I've tried removing the first \ on line 7 and that gives me the following error:
[qoute]
Parse error: parse error in /home/wwwtsbiu/public_html/test/index.php on line 7
[/qoute]

ETA: That was with the old code, I'm trying the attachment now.

Download the script I created and posted above it works perfectly

It WORKED!!

Thanks Chuck. You're a figgen hero. (In stereo for your listening pleasure)

You totally saved me from having to do this

You the man.

Tracked down the errors to the status box on the sidebar. I thought it was the greamlins but if the site refreshes on its own it will occasionally generate errors when a mouseover on the status shortcut icons.

Anybody seen this one?

I see it happen on this site too when I let the sidebar sit then mouse over the images in the status box

What browser are you using?

I checked that with Mozilla and IE and I get no error's?

6.0.028 explorer

Interesting

same and no errors in that and Mozilla which I use mostly.

This is the line that causes problems.. when I use the debug script. Only happens when I mouse over.

<tr><td align="left" class="tdheader"><span id="statusbox">Status</span></td></tr><tr><td align="left" valign="top" class="lighttable"><table width="100%"><tr><td align="center">Site users see you as Marty (Marty), Lucky, with 9570 posts.</td></tr><tr><td align="center"><a href="http://www.steelheader.net/ubbthreads/viewmessages.php?Cat=&box=received">You have 244 (0 new) private messages.</td></tr><tr><td align="center"><a href="http://www.steelheader.net/ubbthreads/editbasic.php?Cat=" onmouseover="movein('Edit Profile')" onmouseout="moveout()"><img src="/ubbthreads/images/member.gif" alt="Edit Profile" border="0" /></a> <strong>·</strong> <a href="http://www.steelheader.net/ubbthreads/editdisplay.php?Cat=" onmouseover="movein('Edit Display')" onmouseout="moveout()"><img src="/ubbthreads/images/display.gif" alt="Edit Display" border="0" /></a> <strong>·</strong> <a href="http://www.steelheader.net/ubbthreads/editemail.php?Cat=" onmouseover="movein('Edit Subscriptions')" onmouseout="moveout()"><img src="/ubbthreads/images/email.gif" alt="Edit Subscriptions" border="0" /></a></td></tr></table></td></tr>

it works great on the index page but on the postlist page is where the errors begin.