vBulletin Mods

If this is happening then it most likely a vb4 problem not this mod issue, i guess; and as you said it is not happening with wide monitors.

thank you for sharing

hehee.. I'd hacked your mod so much it was creating some nice conflicts...

fix now :)

nice conflicts !! :)

Enjoy

I suppose it would be folly to ask if it could be enable on a per user basis. I ask because some of my members want it and others don't . And I'm tapdancing to please both. :rolleyes:

They can certainly hit the 'collapse' button. But the problem is the sidebar still loads, so on slower connections collapsing actually takes more time than not, so really it only helps to save screen space.

I'm beginning to wonder why anyone would actually 'need' it everywhere. There's nothing too particularly useful in it. Why do your users say they like it everywhere? Or are they really just saying they like it 'anywhere'?

What's really got me amazed is how many admins are removing the collapse button, actually forcing the sidebar on people.

The ones that want it everywhere are using it for the Today's Active Topics area, we used to have a mod on a different board that showed the last post excerpt, forum it was in, poster and clicking lead to the last page in thread. I haven't been able to figure how to mimic that with vbulletin

Isn't that what "What's New" and "New Posts" do? Besides, that wouldn't explain needing it everywhere.

No what's new doesn't show the first bit of the last post, it only shows the first bit of the first post and only on hover - no good for those on mobile devices,

I suggest to keep it as it is and users may collapse it anytime it wont show up for that specific user; loading it is another story. Pleasing everybody will not happen and you -as an admin- must have the last word. You could also control on which pages or on which forums it will be shown that may help you a bit.

happy admining:)

Can I hide the "collapse" arrow and have the sidebar always open? Unfortunately some users seem to overlook the arrow and once the sidebar is collapsed, it remains in this state forever. Even if a user logs out and in again. In this cases we get mails asking where the content vanished that was in the sidebar ...

Any other suggestion?
NOT remembering the open/close state across sessions would be helpful, always open on the start page would be helpful, deactivating the open/close function would be helpful, even if the arrow remains visible. Best for us would be to remove the arrow and let the sidebar permanently open.

find template: sidebarext_temp

remove this part:

Block Disabled:      (Update License Status)
Suspended or Unlicensed Members Cannot View Code.

I don't recommend this way.

Maybe in the next update we could add this feature although I don't recommend forcing sidebar open againest users well.

Regards,

Correct, this will disable it for all users.

I get the point of the developer but in this case the will of users and designers is definitely to see the sidebar always on all pages. Nobody in the forum actually wants or needs to close the sidebar. But users do it because they can do it, afterwards they forget the meaning of the arrow button and don't find the content they are looking for. They may interpret the button as some graphical ornament or whatever.

---

The suggestion made by chiptz does almost work but unfortunately has a side effect:
Removing the link of the open/close button in 'sidebarext_temp' does not remove it from the start page, where it remains operable. And if you close the sidebar on the start page, it isn't displayed on the subpages. There is just an empty space where the sidebar should be.

Is there something in the FORUMHOME template I could modify to force an open sidebar? Maybe I can set the variable $vboptions['sidebarposition'] permanently to 1 somehow, or is this a matter of the mod itself?

If I just manage to remove the arrow button, I may run into an unsolvable problem, because users whose sidebar is currently collapsed won't have the chance to get it open again. So one of the following methods would be best at the moment:

1) Keeping the sidebar always open, with or without the arrow button. Important is, that the sidebar stays open.

or

2) Forgetting the users sidebar status between sessions. If they really "lose" their sidebar, it should be here again after a new login.

Any hints?

My last option would be to replace the default 'ornamental' arrow button by a text button that tells the user what to do.

sounds right, make it larger too that button sucks