Avatar Banners

[Vapers United]

Hello, and thanks for the opportunity to request a Plugin!

I researched the plugins, looking for Avatar Banners, and the only one I found was Staff Banner v0.0.13. After reading through all of support.proboards.com/thread/477174/staff-banner-library-support, I've decided not to try it because too many people had trouble with it, it does not support multiple banners, and it hasn't been supported since October 2013, or talked about in the support thread by Creditly to answer new issues since June 3, 2014.

So I've decided to make a request for Avatar Banners. I'd like to have a Banner Plugin that will let me put a banner either Under or On a user's Avatar. There's a XenForo forum I'm in that has this. Here's what they look like...

I want this for certain members on Staff in various capacities, but also for my Barring/Banning system.

Members on Staff might be labeled Admin, Global Moderator, Moderator (all regular staff),  Mini Mod (a promoted but regular member), and regular members in Member Groups with some limited administration privileges to handle their own Boards as Advocate, Supplier, Member Supplier, Facebook Leader, Contest Organizer (some Contest Organizers are regular Admins), and maybe others to come --- including being able to have multiple banners, and different font colors for the various types (maybe with various background colors for contrast) for the varying types of Member Groups involved. However, colors and backgrounds are not really a major concern. But the ability to have multiple banners would really be appreciated!

Member's who will be temporarily Barred, or permanently Banned, will be placed into one of four Member Groups, so Exceptions can be used to limit access to certain areas via Boards, or totally Barred/Banned from all access to the forum. There will be 3 timeout periods for Barring access, each with a different time length, before a total Ban is implemented. So I'd like the Avatar Banners to be able to show something like Strike 1 - 1 Week Bar, Strike 2 - 2 Week Bar, Strike 3 - 1 Month Bar, and Banned.

Considering that most these will be regular members who have been placed into a Member Group, this may take some work. But when it comes to the Barring/Banning system, I want it to be perfectly clear to Everyone that I'm not fooling around. I am hopeful that this type of public notification via Avatar will be a major deterrent for members who may want to "misbehave", especially after seeing it in action.

Thanks in advance,

Craig

PS: My forum is vapersunited.freeforums.net/
.

[Vapers United]

Not that I'm being impatient, but this is just to make it known that I have now browsed through all of the plugins in the Plugins Library at least twice, reading all of the posts that seemed even remotely satisfactory, looking for something I might be able to use for now, and still I never saw anything that comes close enough.

So I would very much appreciate anyone’s willingness to either point me to something that would be close (and you know that it works well), or seeing the one above being worked until it comes to completion as a fully functional plugin.

If it matters, I am using IE11 on Windows 10.

Thanks!

[Kami]

This could easily be done with templates rather than plugins, with the caveat that users in multiple member groups would only be able to display one member group automatically, since only one member group can be displayed at a time -- you could however target specific users and add any additional banners manually, but that's a bit more complex.

The same could be done for warnings and banned accounts / groups.

If that is OK to you (it does involve substantially more messing with HTML than the plugin route), fee free to request it in the Template Request Board and I or another user can assist there.

If you'd prefer a plugin though, that's OK too!

[Vapers United]

Jul 25, 2017 6:51:36 GMT -8 Kami said:

This could easily be done with templates rather than plugins, with the caveat that users in multiple member groups would only be able to display one member group automatically, since only one member group can be displayed at a time -- you could however target specific users and add any additional banners manually, but that's a bit more complex.

The same could be done for warnings and banned accounts / groups.

If that is OK to you (it does involve substantially more messing with HTML than the plugin route), fee free to request it in the Template Request Board and I or another user can assist there.

If you'd prefer a plugin though, that's OK too!

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly, Kami!

I'm not a programmer or coder, though I do understand some of the basics of how things like HTML work and could make adjustments to the code with the proper instruction.  But that's why I was hoping for a plugin with a Settings Tab that would allow me to easily configure it differently for each member, as necessary. 

I forgot to say that I would not want the plugin to be accessible globally; that is, open to all members.  If members are to be allowed a modifiable Mini Profile at some point, then some of the ones already available may be suitable for that.  I'd want to be the one to configure any banners that I deem justifiable.  Since the Avatar Banners would be for Admins and Staff (and Barred/Banned members), I would want the Mini Profile to work with the configured Avatar Banners anywhere and everywhere that the Staff might make (or may have already made) a post. 

With that said for MY application, maybe a Selection Box for Everyone, Members and Staff, Staff, Custom (that also allows for Exceptions) would be a good idea for anyone else who might want to install the Plugin on their forum.

I didn't know about being able to use Templates, but I am totally unversed in that area. If I were to say, "OK, let's do it in templates please.", that would probably require a lot of assistance, so just know that going in. Whaddaya think?

[Kami]

Vapers United - I honestly cannot speak to how a plugin could be built in this regard, since I'm not particularly well versed in the javascript that would be required for it. Theoretically it is possible, by using javascript to set up a conditional based on the displayed group of each user. That is just a (slightly educated) guess, however, and I wouldn't be able to say if it would be successful as a plugin.

As far as templates go, well, unfortunately I can't guarantee that I'll be on-hand to assist. I can try, but the next two months are going to be incredibly busy for me work-wise and I wouldn't feel comfortable starting a project and leaving you hanging for that long.

That said, the modification you're requesting isn't really all that complicated, just tedious, so anyone with familiarity with the template system, like Tumbleweed for instance, would be able to assist more frequently than I, and I would be able to pop in from time to time (I just don't want to for-sure commit to something in case I can't follow through due to my work schedule).

What I was thinking was something as simple as setting up a conditional, like so:

{if $[user.group_name] == "admin"}
<div class="mp-group-banner admin">
$[user.group]
</div>
{elseif $[user.group_name] == "gmod"}
<div class="mp-group-banner gmod">
#[user.group]
</div>
{/if}

(then repeat the 'elseif' portion for any additional groups, making sure to change the group name / class as you go along)

As you can see the actual HTML itself isn't complex, but as you have a lot of groups you want to accommodate for it'll be long. Plus, you'd also have to add in CSS in your stylesheet to make sure they're styled the way you want.

[Vapers United]

Jul 25, 2017 8:12:45 GMT -8 Kami said:

Vapers United -
What I was thinking was something as simple as setting up a conditional, like so:

{if $[user.group_name] == "admin"}
<div class="mp-group-banner admin">
$[user.group]
</div>
{elseif $[user.group_name] == "gmod"}
<div class="mp-group-banner gmod">
#[user.group]
</div>
{/if}

(then repeat the 'elseif' portion for any additional groups, making sure to change the group name / class as you go along)

As you can see the actual HTML itself isn't complex, but as you have a lot of groups you want to accommodate for it'll be long. Plus, you'd also have to add in CSS in your stylesheet to make sure they're styled the way you want.

That sounds far enough out of my realm that I would definitely need help. You show thing like...

admin = Admin

gmod = Global Moderator (I assume), or maybe Group Mod.

but the abbreviated group names for the others would be far beyond me.

I appreciate that your free time will be minimized soon, but that you are still willing to help me, and also that you invited Tumbleweed to assist.  I'm willing to give it a try to see how it would look, but don't even know how/where to find the code section/s you mentioned.

So I'll say that it's up to you and Tumbleweed, if you are both willing to proceed.  I'll come back with a Screen Shot of all the current Member Groups, to give a better idea of what the project would be covering.

[Kami]

admin / gmod was just an example -- you would replace them with the specific names you have designated for each group; so, if you have a group called "Jabberwocky", then that is what you would put instead (case sensitive).

[Vapers United]

A green check mark means that the group will be includeded for a banner...

[Vapers United]

I assume that if I want the label/name on the banner for say Supplier to read Forum Supplier, then the group should be renamed. Right? Or would the banner's "Displayed Name" be customizable?

Thinking about it, since some of the Contest Organizers are Admins, the Name on the banner would need to be customizable.

[Kami]

You can do either / or, since you're already going to specify content for each group's banner. So instead of placing the group name variable you can change it to something else.

Example, if the group is called ADMINISTRATOR but I want it to say ADMIN, instead of using $[user.group.name] to display the name I would simply write ADMIN in its spot.

That said: if a user is in multiple groups then this will only work for the group they currently have displayed in their profile. You can add a secondary, tertiary, etc banner on a per-user basis in the templates as well, but it would be a more tedious depending on the # of people you'd have to do this for.

(note that the code I posted prior as an example is not the exact code, I was going off the top of my head and may have gotten some variables wrong -- it's possible still just don't copy paste it or anything)

[Vapers United]

Something like this? . . .

{if $[user.group_name] == "admin"}
<div class="mp-group-banner Administrator"> ......<-----
$[user.group]
</div>
{elseif $[user.group_name] == "supplier"} ............<-----
<div class="mp-group-banner Forum Supplier"> ... <-----
#[user.group]
</div>
{/if}

May I use capitol letters?

[Kami]

Not quite: the class name is not what displays, that's for your CSS so that it can be stylised to your specifications.

Are you unfamiliar with CSS as well? (No judgement, just need to know)

What you'd be replacing is the $[user.group.name] variable, which I mistakenly wrote as $[user.group] (this is why I mentioned that the code I provided was not accurate).

[Vapers United]

Jul 25, 2017 9:45:29 GMT -8 Kami said:

You can do either / or, since you're already going to specify content for each group's banner. So instead of placing the group name variable you can change it to something else.

Example, if the group is called ADMINISTRATOR but I want it to say ADMIN, instead of using $[user.group.name] to display the name I would simply write ADMIN in its spot.

That said: if a user is in multiple groups then this will only work for the group they currently have displayed in their profile. You can add a secondary, tertiary, etc banner on a per-user basis in the templates as well, but it would be a more tedious depending on the # of people you'd have to do this for.

(note that the code I posted prior as an example is not the exact code, I was going off the top of my head and may have gotten some variables wrong -- it's possible still just don't copy paste it or anything)

Each member is only in one group.

Since only 2 Admin (there are 3 of us) will have a Contest Organizer banner, would that mean that the two ladies would need to have something like an Admin2 Group created for them, giving them all the privileges they have now? Doing so would allow me to have something like Owner on mine.

[Vapers United]

Jul 25, 2017 9:58:11 GMT -8 Kami said:

Not quite: the class name is not what displays, that's for your CSS so that it can be stylised to your specifications.

Are you unfamiliar with CSS as well?

Yes, I am unfamiliar.  The only HTML I've ever messed with was well over 15 years ago.

[Vapers United]

Then like this?

{if $[user.group_name] == "Administrator"}
<div class="mp-group-banner admin">
$[user.group]
</div>
{elseif $[user.group_name] == "Forum Supplier"}
<div class="mp-group-banner Supplier">
#[user.group]
</div>
{/if}

Please see next post.