[SchmitzIT] Links

[SchmitzIT]

[SchmitzIT] Links hopes to provide you with an easy way to incorporate an area with links into your site.

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Featuring a AdminCP option panel to switch the add-on on and off, and configure where the links will show, as well as an easy-to-use interface to add or remove additional links, things could not be made more easy.

Install:

• Upload the contents of the upload folder into your forum root.
• Import addon-SchmitzIT_Links.xml file in your admincp under Home -> Install Add-on.

Configuration:

• Go to Home -> Options -> Options -> [SchmitzIT] Links, turn on the add-on, select where you want it placed, and optionally specify a title. For header and footer settings, the title will not matter, but it will be picked up as the title name for the Sidebar module.
• Under Home -> Options -> [SchmitzIT] Links, you can add or remove addtional links. Please note enabling the add-on is done in Options, whereas adding links is available directly from the initial AdminCP Home menu (in the left-sidebar).

Administrative access will need to be given if you want other users to be able to add or remove links. This is done under Users -> Administrators. If you logged in as the super administrator, this is not neccessary (I think, since I installed on my live server, and did not have to set any permissions).

There currently are four positions defined:

• Header - This is NOT in the actual header, but uses the hook 'page_container_notices', which means it will show between the header and the top-breadcrumb (see example above).

• Footer - This is NOT in the actual footer, but below the bottom breadcrumb. "Footer" is the default. Why? Because I think footers deserve a little love, too.

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• Sidebar - Well, this actually *is* in the sidebar. The links will show up at the very bottom.

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You will notice that a link to SchmitzIT will be added by the default installation. If you appreciate the add-on, feel free to leave it in place as a thank-you note. Alternatively, if you would prefer not to have the link and still show some support, a Paypal donation of 5 USD (or more, of course. I'd never advise you not to rewrite your will and leave everything of value that you own to me) would be most welcome at peter at schmitzit dot com. I did not add code to protect the link in any way, nor will the mod stop working, or cousin Vinny be sent to your place to see if he can convince you to see our side of the story if you remove it.

Credits:

I would like to thank Dismounted, whose XenMoods add-on allowed me to figure where to put what and how, to make this add-on work, Laphroaig for making great whisky, Runrig and the Foo Fighters for their music which was playing while working, and Kier, Mike and Ashley for providing us with XenForo. Oh, and add my wife in there somewhere, too. Not sure what she did, but I bet I'll be in for it if I do not add her to the list.

Planned future features:

• Link categories/labels.
• Nesting of links.
• Ordering placement of links.
• Find a way to ensure multiple links will neatly span across multiple rows.
• Figure out how to expose $links globally, so the two templates could be used anywhere with a template edit.
• Images support.

 

[SchmitzIT]

Reserved...

 

[crazyprogrammer]

nice work ill be adidng to my site now

 

[SchmitzIT]

nice work ill be adidng to my site now

Cool. Let me know how it works out? During a test upgrade we caught a minor bug. It should be a smooth ride, but I learnt nothing is ever sure in development. Ask IB. Oh oops. That was a low blow.

 

[Peggy]

Very nice add-on.

 

[Allan]

Very nice add-on.

Yep, confirmed !

 

[DroidHost]

it is really healpful addon
I have a good idea insted of header .. but you can put both ...
I mean include this hook[position]
navigation_visitor_tab_links [1-2]
as it will be fast access links

 

[SchmitzIT]

it is really healpful addon
I have a good idea insted of header .. but you can put both ...
I mean include this hook[position]
navigation_visitor_tab_links [1-2]
as it will be fast access links

Thanks. I'm always open for suggestions. I'll check out your suggestion for the next version, and see what I can do. I have a few other ideas that might make the mod get better in time

Thanks again

 

[kkm323]

Realy liked the idea I would definitively give it a try tonight
THANX BRO

is it possible to create images instead of text or both option

 

[Peggy]

Realy liked the idea I would definitively give it a try tonight
THANX BRO

is it possible to create images instead of text or both option

GOOD idea.

 

[SchmitzIT]

is it possible to create images instead of text or both option

Like. I'll see what I can pull off

 

[SchmitzIT]

I added support for images and ordering of links. I'm not done with version 1.1 yet, but figured I'd give everyone a quick update.

 

[Digital Doctor]

I added support for images and ordering of links. I'm not done with version 1.1 yet, but figured I'd give everyone a quick update.

*embed* (not gallery) a screenshot of the image link in the first post ... that will help visually explain this Addon.

 

[dtmcl]

Does this randomize the links?

 

[kkm323]

I added support for images and ordering of links. I'm not done with version 1.1 yet, but figured I'd give everyone a quick update.

This is great, thanks a lot for your fast response
I think you should have two rows one for the links and one for the images
One of my favorrite mods in xf

 

[SchmitzIT]

Does this randomize the links?

Randomize as in pulling n random links from the database? That is actually a nice idea. I had been wondering how to deal with a situation where someone ends up adding lots of links, but ensuring there's a certain configurable maximum per row and randomizing the links retrieved from the db would work.

I think you should have two rows one for the links and one for the images.

I can easily add an option for that in the options. The only issue I would see is if one does not have an equal amount of images and text links.

Which does bring me to another question. When I started with this, I figured a simply row of links would be good. Then, I figured I could maybe also have it do something like a link menu, similar to what vBAdvanced offered. One could nest links in there. Basically links, built up like a node-tree kind of way. I.e.

XenForo
- Xenforo.com
- XenForo Manual
- XenForo Community
-- XenForo Official Forums

We used this to create a list of interesting links for our members. This would work in a sidebar, but not in a header or footer.

Another idea I had was something like building one of those footers that you see everywhere nowadays, containing lots of internal and external links and what not. (See washingtonpost.com, or wordpress.com for example). Would this be something others would actually use, or is it not worth the effort of coding that?

I'm thinking I can add support for both by adding yet more options to pick from under the locations (i.e. Under sidebar, a checkbox could be added to indicate whether you want the hierarchical setup or the plain one, and similar for the footer. I think I will leave the header as it is, though, as cluttering that up will end up messing up the user experience).

Feel free to add other thoughts that I might not have considered but that you could see working.

 

[kkm323]

I really like the idea for the footer option +1

 

[SchmitzIT]

Got the issue with $links in other templates sorted out, so I will add a 4th option to the locations called "other", allowing you to manually include the template where you want.

I hope to have a newer version done some time soon-ish.

 

[Peggy]

Yep me too. I like the footer idea as well.

 

[kkm323]

Any update so far