Changes to sidebar / sidebar options

Forsaken

Well-known member
There is probably a thread asking for part of this suggestion (the options portion), but the rest is relating to template changes.

I'm planning on making use of the sidebar on nearly every page of my site, and looking at it, there are more template edits than would be required if it was done a bit differently.

The first change would be adding settings for displaying the sidebar (either site-wide, or on page-by-page basis). Could also include an option for removing the visitor block (with page-by-page options).

The second would be adding a sidebar template, using conditionals to display the sidebar on the pages selected in the options.

The third change would be adding a sidebar_xxx (example: sidebar_forum_list) template for pages, so that changes to the sidebar can be done on a per page basis.

I'll probably look into making this an add-on, but I think it should be added to the core, if at all possible.
 
Upvote 17
Hi Forsaken. Have you got anywhere with making this an add-on? I'm going to have to do a similar thing myself! All I'd really like to do is make it a permanent fixture on all pages, the individual control can come in time.
 
Not understanding this thread whatsoever. Are you saying your planning on introducing an add-on that displays the sidebar on many pages (thread listings, postbit) with the options to disable a portion of the blocks and/or the whole sidebar? If I'm assuming correctly it's a duplicate request of what I'm suggesting with the sidebar toggle except yours as a few more bells and whistles to it. As for it being included into the core I made the suggestions I doubt this differs from from what I'm suggesting and although i 100% agree with your suggestion for consistency sake this should and will be 100% rejected.

If I've misunderstood then ignore everything I said it doesn't apply.
 
Not understanding this thread whatsoever. Are you saying your planning on introducing an add-on that displays the sidebar on many pages (thread listings, postbit) with the options to disable a portion of the blocks and/or the whole sidebar? If I'm assuming correctly it's a duplicate request of what I'm suggesting with the sidebar toggle except yours as a few more bells and whistles to it. As for it being included into the core I made the suggestions I doubt this differs from from what I'm suggesting and although i 100% agree with your suggestion for consistency sake this should and will be 100% rejected.

If I've misunderstood then ignore everything I said it doesn't apply.
The suggestion has no relation to collapsing the sidebar.
 
@Shelley, it seems like what you want is a way to toggle the sidebar on/off, for the sake of saving real estate or de-cluttering the page, but what Forsaken is asking for (and I could use too) is the ability to have the sidebar visible on all pages, with some rules around what elements are shown on each type of page.

@Brogan, understand this is a suggestion thread. I absolutely think this is something that should be included in a future release - some sort of side bar manager. Forsaken mentioned the fact they were considering writing an add-on, so I was enquiring if they'd got any further with this - maybe there is another thread somewhere showing how best to do it.
 
I would love to see this ability added into the core code as well, I have a few forums, and currently working on two more to test out Xenforo and see if I want to move my other forums over (and highly leaning towards yes at the moment :) great software). But, I use sidebars a lot, and having the ability to control what pages they show on as well as the modules included in them out of the box would be an excellent addition.
 
Totally agree with this suggestion. The possibility to customize the sidebar on a forum basis and to make visible the sidebar in all page on only few page on choice it's great. Now it's possible to hide the sidebar to guest? If not, i think can be good to add this option.
 
Brogan how about a merge?

I too am placing sidebars on most pages. So far I have them on
- sidebar_online_users
- category_view
- pagenode_container
– EWRcarta_Sidebar

Which is a pain when I want to change something on all of them.
On my static site pages outside the forums, I have a little php code snippet that calls a php page containing my sidebar.
Couldn't we do the same with css? Like a chunk that gets inserted with a call?

The main place so far I've found I don't want a sidebar is the Members pages (under the Members tab) which have useful things in a special sidebar for that area. But with a bit of design thinking it could be merged.
Also the Conversation pages I'm planning a custom block so that would need ...

Yes it definitely needs a system to assign blocks to different page sections, and order them vertically.
 
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