Forum How to add blocks to Sidebar in forum and changing background colours in calander et.
 

Hi,

I have finally started work on porting my vb3.8.5 forum over to vb4.0.4PL1 as I was waiting for things to settle down a bit and it wasn't at a stage that I felt comfortable with trying to use on my live site.

I have pretty much worked out a few things, but there are some things that I can't figure out. One is how to add other specific blocks to the Side Bar on the right of the forum other than the ones that are listed, which are actually quite minimal. I am specifically looking at how to add a User Information block which will also allow members to login through there as having the login right up the top on the right for a few of my members is not as noticeable for them. I run a photography website and a lot of the members aren't that young as well, so trying to make things a bit easier for them. Currently no my 3.8.5 version there is a Sidebar add-on that has this built into it with the product. Works great but doesn't look like the person that wrote the plugin is going to do something similar for vB4. It is from a person I believe in Vietnam. It also has forum stats as part of the Sidebar.

I have been able to get my ads in the side similar to what I currently have, I have also got recent forum threads displaying as well. But it would be good to be able to know how to add other blocks other than the ones that are stock standard. Are there going to be other blocks added in the future to make it easier for clients to activate them, especially for those of us that aren't coders and php knowledgeable as well.

The other thing I have been trying to figure out is how to change the background in the Calendar area as well. Currently it is darkish grey as I am creating a theme look that I want to use for my site as the overall look is greyish specifically for viewing photos online, it is easier and less distracting for critiquing or when judges are judging competitions. The greys won't be the same but similar across the site.

The Stylevars PDF file is great but I wish that it was done from a top down point of view than chopping and changing around the page as it currently does. I also don't think that all the Stylevars are covered in it either.

Thanks in advance for any assistance with these questions.