More Blocks

[Kirsty]

Your phpBB Version: 2.0.22
phpBB Type: phpBB / IMPortal
MODs: Yes
Your knowledge: Advanced Knowledge
Board URL: http://mummiesonline.net/index

PHP Version:
MySQL Version:


What was done before the problem appeared?
there isn't really a problem


What was done to try to solve the problem?
no problem to solve



De.scription and Message

Hi,

I recently installed IM portal and have had no issues at all with it. I would though like to make it better by adding a few things but am unsure of how to do so.
As my forum is very close to having advertisements on it, I would like to have 2/3 blocks on either side of the forum itself so that I may advertise other companies. But for the life of me I cannot figure out how to make the forum thinner in width, but not to the point that it's all screwed up, and I cannot figure out how to add blocks for the right hand side of the forum.
I have also been told from quite a few of my members that they have to scroll across to see the whole page, I would love to know how to fix this too.

If anyone can help me I would be truley thankful.

Thanks for reading.

Kirsty

[Helter]

to add blocks to the right side of the forum, go to acp/IMPortal/Portal configuration
choose "Enable system-wide portal footer" = "yes"
add a size to "Footer width" a good starting point is "150"
no go to acp/IMPortal/Blocks Management/ YOUR PORTAL PAGE and add blocks assigned to "Block Position" = "Footer"

[Kirsty]

Hi,

Thanks for that, but now you have to really scroll to the right to view the whole screen, is there anyway to fix this....

Thanks
Kirsty

[Helter]

you can try adding a "no thread stretch" mod from phpbbhacks.com

http://www.phpbbhacks.com/download/1838

it looks like your template is using a static width. can you post your overall_header.tpl?

edit

looks like your forum is set to 800px wide
in your overall header, find the first table. it probably starts like this

<table width="800"

change to

<table width="100%"

[Kirsty]

Hi,

Sorry hasn't worked. There must be an easier way around this...Is there a way I can shrink the width of the forum at all. This way the blocks would sit perfect against the forum.

Thanks

[Frost]

Hmm, the way your describing it seems like your screen resolution is about 400 x 400 <img>

What he meant was that after viewing your site we see that the forum (whole page) is aligned to the left side of the screen. The reason this is so, is because the template's max width has been set at 800px. For those of us that have a modern screen and a resolution of over 1000px in width, it looks funny.

From what you're saying you want the forums (the actual topics? (( the middle block?)) )
to be skinnier? I think you're thinking of it backwards...

Here is a screenshot to help us solve it...

[img=left:35hho5vz]http://www.black-fusion.com/media/screenshot.gif[/img]

Now you see that it's all the way to the left with a huge gap in the right side. By no means should anyone have to scroll to the right to see the whole site. Hence why I questioned the resolution of you and your members lol

Anyways, that is the only thing I can see wrong with your site

If this is not what you are talking about take a screenshot of what you see

[Kirsty]

Hi and thanks for your reply.

The reason why it's not all wonky anymore is because I removed the blocks from the side of the forum itself.
What I meant from making the forum skinnier is by when you see the index page, atm, the foum takes up the whole page. I would like it to leave at least a decent gap on either side so that I may comfortably place some advertising blocks.

I also have no idea why all of a sudden that the portal page is over to one side. I don't know how to fix that.

[Frost]

Well you just do as HelterSkelter said in the previous post...

to add blocks to the right side of the forum, go to acp/IMPortal/Portal configuration
choose "Enable system-wide portal footer" = "yes"
add a size to "Footer width" a good starting point is "150"
no go to acp/IMPortal/Blocks Management/ YOUR PORTAL PAGE and add blocks assigned to "Block Position" = "Footer"

How it works is...

First the left side is loaded, with the left blocks etc.. these blocks are set to a certain width or percentage of the page, then the "forums" are made to stretch the rest of the page to take up all the "extra" space.

So it breaks down like this

Left Blocks - 150px or appr. 15% of the page width

Middle Blocks(Forums) - 85% of the page width

This is based off of a 100% page width, so whatever the left blocks are set as, the forums will automatically stretch the rest of the page depending on user's resolution.

So if you add the right side blocks (enable forum wide blocks) it will add blocks once again but to the right side and give them a percentage of the width of the page. You could make them 150px as HelterSkelter suggested and it would make them the same width as the left side blocks and the forums in the middle would(should) automatically down-size to fit evenly between the two sides.

So now we would have...

Left Blocks 150px / 15%

Middle Blocks 70%

Right Blocks 150 / 15%

Now I'm guessing when you do this it doesn't work out like I've layed out here?

In order for it to work properly you would have to make the whole page load 100% instead of the fixed width of "800px". Because it's a fixed width it will not stretch to full width.

AND You will then add your system wide blocks.

I need to know some things to help you further...

Please post here your

a) Theme Name
b) Screen Resolution
c) overall_header.tpl file of the theme you're using

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Edit for HelterSkelter

I may have found a bug. After clicking reply and starting to type out my message I scrolled down to where it shows the other posts and pushed "quote" to add what you said and it resulted in the following..

to add blocks to the right side of the forum, go to acp/IMPortal/Portal configuration
choose &quot;Enable system-wide portal footer&quot; = &quot;yes&quot;
add a size to &quot;Footer width&quot; a good starting point is &quot;150&quot;
no go to acp/IMPortal/Blocks Management/ YOUR PORTAL PAGE and add blocks assigned to &quot;Block Position&quot; = &quot;Footer&quot;

I had to go back and manually add the quote to get rid of the additions it made.

[Kirsty]

Hi and thanks for replying and being so patient with me.

a) Theme Name Acid
b) Screen Resolution 1280 x 1024
c) overall_header.tpl file of the theme you're using

[Kirsty]

Hi,
I would like to ask one question. Is it possible to have blocks appear on the portal page but not on the index page? I have decided that I will just put some blocks on the portal page instead of anywhere else.

Thanks.
Kirsty

[Frost]

Well it looks like you've fixed the width and and have disabled the blocks for the index

Are your problems resolved?

[Kirsty]

No not really. I have decided that I might just leave the blocks on the left of the forum and scrap the ones on the right, this way it won't stuff up with everyones screens. What I was wondering though, was is there a way to add a block to the portal but have it not go to the index page. So if I put an add in the advertising left block on the portal, it then won't appear on the index advertising block....sorry If I am confusing you.....

[Frost]

No I understand what you're saying...

I think in order for the blocks not to also appear on the index you have to add them to the right side of the portal or the middle but I may be wrong, I really haven't messed with IM Portal as much as I do themes and graphics

Edit Kirsty can you please remove the overall_header.tpl section from your previous post? We don't need it anymore and I think it may be responsible for this horrible distortion of the page <img>

[Kirsty]

No Problems. <img>

The main reason I ask too is that I would love to have around 4/5 advertising blocks on the left side of the index page as the forums pretty long. But I do not want the portal page to be that long. It would be great if each block came with an option to have it either show on both index & portal or to have it just on one of them.

[Helter]

just disable portal wide footer blocks and they will not show up on the index. If you assign the right blocks as right blocks instead of footer blocks they will also not show on the index