MyBB Community Forums

Great stuff WildCard. Last 2 days I have been busy (haven't we all!) so today I was able to get some more performance testing done. I can see now that ASB is being cached and it really helps with static content. For example, I have a banner inside a sidebox and the sidebox with the banner loads up with the forum too (and instantly). On the other hand, the sideboxes with social icons have the actual sidebox loaded up instantly but the icons take time to load up.

If you actually measure it, Google+ and Facebook are one of the biggest insults when it comes to loading a forum page, taking well over a second to load up for the very simple icons. Unfortunately, it's kind of a "must have" when it comes to those 2 icons so I am seeking new ways to have them display faster.

I hope my words in this post and my other posts help convince others of what an excellent plugin this is. Plugins like ASB are the kind of plugins that really help elevate MyBB as a solid alternative to paid options (e.g. vBulletin).

(2013-12-24, 06:24 PM)Wildcard Wrote: [ -> ]

(2013-12-24, 04:24 PM)Ados Wrote: [ -> ]Thanks again for the reply.

You're welcome. It is only lately that I haven't been able to keep up with the thread. Hopefully now I can get back on top of things.

(2013-12-24, 04:24 PM)Ados Wrote: [ -> ]May I ask, can I use memcache to further cache the sideboxes or they are already doing fine? My forum is in a VPS. I am considering memcache because the sidebars I use (not sidebosex, just code embedded in the template) are having to reload every time a page is open. My only concern is that memcache caches everything which can affect my forum members and perhaps ASB too.

I am not too familiar with that so I couldn't say. I am caching everything that I can cache before hand though (in ACP side), so that when you create the side boxes, that info doesn't have to be loaded and parsed-- ASB already 'knows' which modules to load, which side boxes to place, where, which order, which templates are needed for all of those boxes and modules, etc.

That is all I can really cache because things like latest threads are constantly changing and must be rebuilt from scratch.

(2013-12-24, 04:59 PM)Trill Wrote: [ -> ]Nice plugin mate. It looks really good.

Thanks so much.

(2013-12-25, 05:07 PM)Ados Wrote: [ -> ]Plugins like ASB are the kind of plugins that really help elevate MyBB as a solid alternative to paid options (e.g. vBulletin).

Thanks a lot

Maybe this will make you like it even better

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ASB 2.0.1 GitHub Release Available Now

Changes:

• Added a setting to toggle the expanders on side boxes from ACP (as requested here by mybbuser123)
  
  
• Added a setting to toggle the user's ability to disable side box display individually in UCP (as requested here by Ados)
  
  
• Added the ability to control which forums and threads are use in the three modules that pull threads/posts to display (Latest Threads, Recent Posts and Random Quotes) so that inclusive forum/thread lists can be made as well as singling out forum(s)/thread(s) to exclude (as requested here by CRAIG@VM . . . well he didn't request all of it, but he got me started :p)
  
  
• Fixed a bug where a forum that allows HTML to be posted could possibly break down the table structure with HTML tags. Reported here, thanks a lot JimR.

I'll update the MyBB mods site in a few days, for now you can get the new version here: https://github.com/WildcardSearch/Advanc...master.zip

To Upgrade:

1. Deactivate in ACP
   
2. Copy the new files, overwriting the old
   
3. Activate in ACP
   
4. NOTE: To take advantage of the new features of the altered modules, you must first delete and remake those side boxes (Latest Threads, Recent Posts and Random Quotes)

This is awesome WildCard! Thanks so much for taking in our feedback and implementing it. I was meaning to post a lengthier reply but I will leave that for tomorrow as I'm in a bit of a rush

Thanks again!

EDIT: I will also be donating as a thank you in a couple of days and I encourage others who can, in these harsh economic times, to donate if possible. This is a phenomenal plugin and while donating is optional, it's a great way to thank a developer (in this case, WildCard)!

You're certainly welcome.

If you think about it, you guys give me a lot of good ideas so the plugin can be better for everyone. Win/win situation

EDIT: 1,000th post!

(2013-01-03, 04:53 PM)Wildcard Wrote: [ -> ]Thanks for your kind words.

Yes, I guess an images directory makes sense. Make an issue on GitHub and you can track when I've changed it

Hey, great plugin. But at the end of the sideboxes, my categories look like this:

[attachment=30782]

The categories, that dont have any sideboxes next to them, dont use the full width of the container :/
I'm using a long index page, so now there is a lot of unused space. Can I make it so, that the categories below the sideboxes (the red space and arrow I marked), are using the entire witdth of the container again?

Thanks a lot

The nature of the plugin is that is 'wraps' the content of the forum inside a table and assigns columns to the HTML-- so if there isn't enough content in the side boxes to match the amount of content in the 'middle column' then you will be looking at some wasted space.

There are probably some tricky things you can do with the script definitions to have only part of your forum's pages get wrapped, but it would be on a theme-by-theme basis.

(2014-01-04, 11:46 PM)Wildcard Wrote: [ -> ]The nature of the plugin is that is 'wraps' the content of the forum inside a table and assigns columns to the HTML-- so if there isn't enough content in the side boxes to match the amount of content in the 'middle column' then you will be looking at some wasted space.

There are probably some tricky things you can do with the script definitions to have only part of your forum's pages get wrapped, but it would be on a theme-by-theme basis.

Okay, I have to find more content for the sideboxes then. Is there some sort of tutorial, or a collection of common used custom sideboxes, that I can take a look at?

(2014-01-04, 11:53 PM)Gobee129 Wrote: [ -> ]Is there some sort of tutorial, or a collection of common used custom sideboxes, that I can take a look at?

No, not that I know of.

Admins tell me that they have made custom boxes for Facebook Like/Twitter Follow/etc. I see many people creating announcements in custom boxes and sometimes even a bank of links to custom pages or once I even saw an admin with a popup in a custom box.

Use your imagination and I am sure you will think of something. If you need help creating custom side boxes, you can always post your markup here and someone will try to help you.

my boxes don't appear on my forum, I am using the default temp for it as well I just don't get it, I updated the template via acp and it said everything went fine, I added some stuff gave it permission for anyone to see it and still nothing what could of I done wrong?

Edit I just deactivated it and then reactivated it and it worked

Glad you got it working