Adds on Portal

How would I go about adding my auction adds to my vBadvanced CMPS v3.0 RC1 Portal? So its a cloum on one side of the portal with adds?:)

I believe that you add a module in the acp and enter the code into it, but not sure.
I am pretty sure tho that the vbacmps download comes with instructions on creating new modules for the portal page.

Go to vbacmps menu

add module

click template

give it a name, active "yes", give it a template name, pick a style to add it to (you can add the others later is you have more then 1 style), put this in the box with edits

<tr>
<td class="thead" align="left"><span class="smallfont">Your site name here</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="alt1">
<center>

YOUR AD SCRIPT HERE

</center>
</td>
</tr>
</if>

hit save, then continue.

pick left,right center. and order number. save!!!

see attached to see what code adds to what names and stuff

Thank You Caddy, works perfect.

Kewl.

We have a GARS guru (Chris) and a vbacmps guru (Chase).

Life is good! :D

Go to vbacmps menu

add module

click template

give it a name, active "yes", give it a template name, pick a style to add it to (you can add the others later is you have more then 1 style), put this in the box with edits

<tr>
<td class="thead" align="left"><span class="smallfont">Your site name here</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="alt1">
<center>

YOUR AD SCRIPT HERE

</center>
</td>
</tr>
</if>

hit save, then continue.

pick left,right center. and order number. save!!!

see attached to see what code adds to what names and stuff

Where can i found the VB ACMPS

Where can i found the VB ACMPS
At vBadvanced (http://www.vbadvanced.com/).

The code that Caddyman posted causes 15 errors. No, he didn't make 15 mistakes, but it is an excellent example of what one small mistake in coding can do. His code included the closing tag of a conditional, </if>. But without the conditional itself, that tag throws up 15 errors.

His code also uses depreciated centering. It doesn't cause any errors now, but as XHTML and coding standards evolve, it will in time. Using CSS in-line styles is a good way to prevent that.

There's another part of the code that, while it creates no coding errors, aesthetically it seems unappealing to me. That's the addition of the "Your site name here" section. If you agree that it's superfluous, you can eliminate that code (the whole first table row from <tr> to </tr>) entirely, which will have the added benefit of cutting your Code:content ratio, which is good for SEO. If you decide you still want that little header, well, at least get rid of the <span> tags and put the font styling in the <td> instead - you can combine 2 or more classes in the same element. Since the "thead" class has font styling attached to it already, you need to put the "smallfont" class after it so that the font will indeed be smaller. Also, the align="left" is unnecessary because the text already defaults to the left. So, you can pare that whole title section down quite a bit, if you feel you need it at all (e.g. <td class="thead smallfont">).

Here's what the modules look like with and without the little site name title area:

http://www.enterprisejm.com/images/support/auctionad-module-with-thead.gif http://www.enterprisejm.com/images/support/auctionad-module-without-thead.gif

This is the code I used in my own module:

<tr>
<td class="alt2" style="text-align:center;margin:0 auto;">
<!-- auctionad code -->
code here
<!-- /auctionad code -->
</td>
</tr>

It's 100% valid code, which is what vBulletin starts out as. No sense in breaking it when it's so easy to do it right. The page I used for my example is here: http://www.thefloorpro.com/about.php

Best R'gards,

Jim

Did we really need the rant? I'll tell ya it's over my head, I don't code anything, i find cut and paste. That code was from vba forum. i accidentally included the <if>, my bad......

a simple "that <if> shouldn't be there and if you dont want the title use this code" would have been suffice i think.

and i guess everyone else holds back from saying it to be PC, but if you read thru your last 10 posts or so, you sound like a pretentious, snide, prick

I try to share my knowledge. I don't know it all, but what I do know, I try to give away. Because so many people think errors are a given, I prefer to show they aren't. Proper coding is not that difficult. We start with valid code. All we have to do is keep it that way by checking all along the way.

Options are important too. I gave credit for a small mistake to you. I didn't insult you or call you names. I then described other options and why I chose them. My feeling is that, since so many people here and elsewhere, make like errored code is acceptable and even expected, it might be time to show that it's not or shouldn't be. Explain the advantages of good coding habits.

Since I discovered the Internet in 1992, I have enjoyed helping people on one kind of message board or another. I have spent a great deal of that time helping consumers and DIYers with their floorcovering projects. My fellow professionals and I have shared our tips, secrets and methods with each other and encouraged each other to excel in our careers because the better we do our jobs, the more satisfaction others will have through our work.

When I got into modifying computers (like some guys customize cars), I was able, even as a n00b modder, to share my experience with using power and hand tools, the importance of safety measures and even many of the similar skills I developed as an award winning model car builder in the mid-sixties. My efforts were rewarded by having my first mod appear in a major computer publication.

It was about that time that I became interested in developing a forum to go along with my fledgling website, GrumpsPlace.com. That site was out of a box and I decided to learn to do it better. Every site I have built since then has been a learning experience and I have enjoyed sharing what I learn, just as I have enjoyed sharing other things I've learned.

Everywhere I go, no matter what it is, there are people who try hard to convince others that mistakes and niggling little problems are perfectly okay. The excuse is usually that the floor will wear out long before the problem rears its ugly head (how many of you live in rentals with crappy looking floors - wrinkles, holes, strange discoloration, etc.), the computer technology will become obsolete before the paint begins to peel or the fan mount starts to rattle (I don't know about you, but I'll keep changing parts in a computer until they stop making parts that will work) and that websites will...

Well, I don't know what they're saying about why it's okay to serve up bad code in websites because there is a list of excuses as long as your arm. I want my websites to be around longer than me. I want my heirs and customers to find updates and modifications to be very easy because there weren't any hidden problems. People shouldn't have to wade through someone else's bad work to fix a problem with something unrelated - maybe the problem they are having (maybe an issue with a conditional, for example) is directly related to something completely different that had a small problem that grew into something bigger.

You can cut & paste if you want. If there is something I think I can help with and can also give the person options and add in the whys, then I will. I always have. Look past my last 10 posts here or anywhere else and you'll see that a great deal of my work online for the last 15 years is to help people work through mistakes and why not to make their own. If this week I happen to be concentrating on the poor coding habits that seem to be dished out with alarming regularity, tough shit. If telling people they don't have to accept the status quo is being a prick, fine, I'll be the prick.

You kept calling it my code, its not MY code, i got it elsewhere. It is very cool of you to help people, i do the same, maybe not as long as you have but still, same idea. At 58 I'm sure you've been round a while and are knowledgeable and that is great, no disrespect intended either, i like older people more then my piers anyway. It's just when you are trying to help others you come off a tad smug and thats not really necessary is it?

So yeah, im young, not a coder, but im learning, and im learning the values of good coding as well. as you just pointed out, that IS a good lesson. I am battling with trying to right the code in my sites i have butchered and even looked for paid help but no-one wants the job.

I'm not easily taken back, embarrassed, or discouraged & I love learning. So Jim, seriously, preach on, just try to be a bit less abrasive man.

-Chase

As you mentioned, I am 58. I have had this personality for all them years. Don't know if I mentioned it before, but my nick-name is Grump (hence, GrumpsPlace.com) and it was given to me many years before the Internet. Please don't expect change anytime soon.

I called it "your code" because you posted it. You didn't mention in your post that you copied any of it from someone else. If you had, I would have placed the blame squarely where it belonged. You should know by now that I don't shy away from holding people responsible.

I only looked at TalkDelaware.com, but it may be that the people you asked were intimidated by what they saw - 291 errors just on the home page. Your style designer didn't do you any favors - it's pretty (I even bought one of his styles), but it's a coding disaster. I think you have one or more hacks/modifications that were coded poorly too.

Have you ever thought to start a topic just to weed through some of the issues you have? It could serve to help so many others (even coders/skin designers, God forbid) to learn how to fix some of their own problems. I'm not talking about help via Copy&Paste because that really doesn't help people learn (and sometimes it just compounds errors from one site to another).

You could whittle them errors down considerable by taking just a handful at a time, or a specific section at a time. You could get rid of one error very easily by using the Variable Replacement tool to clear up the missing xmlns attribute for element html that is vBulletin's only code error. I gave instructions on that in one of these topics here I think.

From there, you could move down the list and address each area separately. If you're feeling as ornery as I do sometimes, you might bring the topic up in the designers own forum, but he won't like that, I'm pretty sure. No designer wants to have their work under the microscope. Unfortunately, they don't seem to understand that those designers that welcome criticism and discussion about their mistakes, and take the steps to learn how to correct them, actually end up selling more product and gaining more credibility. This is coming from a guy who has made some very big career mistakes, taking care of them (I live in a small town - you don't do anything everyone doesn't know about) and it resulted in the longest lasting flooring business in the county's history.

Okay, I'll shut up. Let me close by fixing just a couple of your TalkDelaware.com errors (besides the missing xmlns attribute for element html). You're going to want to edit the template your top navigation is in.

This should reduce your errors to 285 (284 if you take care of that variable). It will also add more SEO value to your navigation - search engines read ever'thing. All the images for your navigation buttons do not use self-closing code. Using <img src="address"></img> is wrong. Using <img src="address" /> is right. Your hyperlinks and images also don't take advantage of title and alt attributes. Even if a particular browser doesn't read it, spiders do. Use keywords wherever you can get them.

You have a couple of stray <td></td> tags. You could get by just cleaning those up, but as long as you're in the template, fix the self-closing images and add some SEO. The below code will not look the same in a template because of all the conditionals and phrases vB uses, but you should be able to figure it out (if not, just post the code to that template in a new topic and we'll go through it). But this is the source code that should be generated when you fix the problems and customize it just a little:


<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<tr>
<td style="background-image:url(http://www.talkdelaware.com/talkstuffbg/misc/links_bg.gif);"><table width="80" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<td>

<a title="Talk Delaware Home Page" href="http://www.talkdelaware.com/"><img src="http://www.talkdelaware.com/talkstuffbg/misc/links_home.gif" alt="Talk Delaware Home" width="75" height="39" border="0" /></a>

</td>


<td><a title="Register at TalkDelaware.com - it's FREE" href="register.php?"><img src="http://www.talkdelaware.com/talkstuffbg/misc/links_register.gif" alt="Free Talk Delaware Registration" width="95" height="39" border="0" /></a></td>



<td><a title="Visit more top Delaware websites" href="http://delawareontheweb.com/"><img src="http://www.talkdelaware.com/talkstuffbg/misc/links_links.gif" alt="Popular Delaware Links" width="80" height="39" border="0" /></a></td>
<td><a title="Visit TalkDelaware.com Blogs" href="http://www.talkdelaware.com/blogs/"><img src="http://www.talkdelaware.com/talkstuffbg/misc/links_blogs.gif" alt="Blogging in Delaware" width="80" height="39" border="0" /></a></td>



<td><a title="Enjoy our Talk Delaware Arcade" href="arcade.php?"><img src="http://www.talkdelaware.com/talkstuffbg/misc/links_arcade.gif" alt="Online Delaware Games" width="98" height="39" border="0" /></a></td>
<td id="navbar_search"><a title="Search all of TalkDelaware.com" href="search.php?"><img src="http://www.talkdelaware.com/talkstuffbg/misc/links_search.gif" alt="Website Search" width="83" height="39" border="0" /></a><script type="text/javascript"> vbmenu_register("navbar_search", 1); </script></td>
<td id="usercptools"><a title="Register to use QuickLinks" href="#usercptools"><img src="http://www.talkdelaware.com/talkstuffbg/misc/links_quicklinks.gif" alt="Quick Links for Members" width="105" height="39" border="0" /></a><script type="text/javascript"> vbmenu_register("usercptools", 1); </script></td>

</tr>
</table>

</td>
</tr>
</table>

If it were mine, I would prob'ly use DIVs insteada table structure and use a list structure for the navigation. It's less code. Speaking of which, you should consider moving your CSS to the file system - a separate CSS file. You have about 360 lines of CSS code spiders have to go through before they get to any content at all. It will also help your pages load faster.

Once you finish those edits, see what happens when your mouse passes over the buttons. When people see some movement - a change in color, a tooltip box or something - they get curious. They spend more time on your site and they will be encouraged to take some action, like registering for free, wanting to take advantage of a "members only" feature, etc. Not only will you tantalize the search spiders, you will spur some interest in your visitors.

Jim
PS: I left the structure just as I found it. It's sloppy. It's a lot easier to find problems if you use hierarchal structure like:

<table>
<tr>
<td>data</td>
</tr>
</table>