vBulletin LTS

Digital Point Thread Avatars
Mod Version: 1.0.4, by digitalpoint

Unfortunately, I don't have the time to maintain and support this add-on in two locations. The newest version (and support) can always be found here: https://marketplace.digitalpoint.com/thread-avatars.886/item

About
This changes thread icons to be the avatar of the thread starter. It applies to thread listings on forumdisplay, search results and subscribed threads in the UserCP.

Installation

• Upload the cssrollup_digitalpoint_threadavatars.xml file to includes/xml (this is really only needed if you store CSS as files in the file system)
• Install the product-dp_thread_avatars.xml product under AdminCP -> Plugins & Products -> Manage Products -> Add/Import Product

Notes

• Icons are cropped (but never stretched) to be square for display.
• Threads with no new posts have the avatar slightly greyed out.
• Locked threads will have a lock image overlayed.
• Soft-deleted threads will have a red X image overlayed.
• If the user posted in the thread, they will see a mini version of their avatar overlayed.
• If a thread is "hot", the shadow of the icon will change color.
• ZERO SQL queries are added.
• Overlay images are encoded as CSS data (no extra HTTP requests needed for images or the CSS files themselves).
• If your site uses pre-defined avatars, they are not scaled down for use as the icon since vBulletin does not store the dimensions (instead, the upper/left potion is cropped for the icon).

Settings

• You can disable the mini-avatars under AdminCP -> Settings -> Options -> Forum Display Options (forumdisplay) -> Highlight Threads in Which User Has Posted
• You can disable the hot thread highlight under AdminCP -> Settings -> Options -> Forum Display Options (forumdisplay) -> Hot Threads Enabled
• You can change the color of the hot thread shadow under AdminCP -> Styles & Templates -> Style Manager -> StyleVars -> dpta_shadow_hot_color
• You can change the size of the avatar under AdminCP -> Styles & Templates -> Style Manager -> StyleVars -> threadbit_iconsize (since they are square, it keys only on width)
• If your site uses pre-defined avatars, you should use the AdminCP -> Settings -> Options -> User Picture Options -> Site Uses Pre-Defined Avatars option

Screenshots


Advanced

• If you want to add your own mini-icon overlays, you can utilize the $template_hook['thread_avatars'] variable to do so.
• If you want to selectively disable thread avatars, you can set the $show['hide_thread_avatars'] to true. This would allow you to create a custom profile field for users and set the $show['hide_thread_avatars'] based on the user's setting. Alternately you could enable the addon for certain usergroups or just for specific styles.