Forum Widgets

Jul

2008

Forum Widgets

Forum Widgets are custom blocks that can be added to the left and / or right side of your forum. Those blocks can contain text, images or even HTML codes. Forum widgets can be found in your admin panel in "Modules / Portal & Widgets / Forum widgets management".

1) Organizing your Widgets

Right at the top of this page, you will find the general widget options. Here you can activate the widgets and define the width of the left and right widget columns. The minimum width is 180 pixels, 0 hides a column.

NOTE: If you are using custom CSS, it can be possible that the width of the widget-columns cannot be changed through the admin panel. If that is the case, try the following (phpBB version 2) :

-> Go to your admin panel
-> Click on the Display tab
-> Click on Colors
-> at the top right of the colors box, click on CSS Stylesheet

Somewhere in the textbox you should find this part below - just change the value of the line "width" and hit submit to confirm the changes.

Code:: #content-container #left { width: 180px; margin-right: 9px; } #content-container #right { width: 180px; margin-left: 9px; }

Placing the widgets is pretty easy, similar to the portal system. Simply Drag and Drop them where you want to place them. Alternatively, you can scroll down and add preset or custom widgets through the dropdown menu. Added modules can be removed by clicking the red cross or by dragging them into the basket. This does not delete the widget itself. To delete a widget entirely, scroll down to "Addition/deletion of personal widgets" and select the widget you want to delete in the dropdown list. Click the delete link. This is irreversible.

If you click on

of a widget, you can edit some widget-specific options. Custom blocks and some default ones will have the option to change it's html content here.

By clicking on

, you can define who is allowed to view that widget, you can choose from "Guest", "Member", "Moderator" and "Admin".

2) Create a custom block

In the "Structure" page (Modules >> Forum Widget Management), you will find a link "create a custom block" right to the left hand side of the basket-icon. Click and fill out the fields on the next page. "Use as table type" gives the widget a slightly different look - with a header that shows the widget title. Setting this option to NO, creates the widget without any borders or titles. The content goes into "widget source" field - HTML code can be used as well. Once you have saved, you can return to the widgets management - you should find your newly created widget in the "Personal Widgets" tab.

Exclamation

Note: This widgets are used by the portal as well, that means, if you create a custom widget within the forum widget management, you'll also be able to use this on your portal. You don't have to create it there again. The same applies vice versa, of course.

3) Widgets only on the index (phpBB version 3 only!)

1.) Go to "Display / Colors / CSS Stylesheet" and enter the code below into the textbox and hit 'submit'. This first step will hide the widgets entirely. Step 2 will make it visible again on the index.

Code:: #content-container div#left, #content-container div#right{display:none;} #content-container div#content{margin-right:0px;}

2.) Go to the homepage message (Display / Homepage / Configuration) and paste the code below into the homepage message box:

Code:: <style type="text/css"></style>

Written by Sunny_D and Kilsek