Author Pane is a block of information about a given user, like those typically found on a forum post, but can be used in other places as well. From core, it collects the user picture, name, join date, online status, contact link, and profile information. In addition, any module or theme can feed it more information via the preprocess system. All of this information is then gathered and displayed using a template file.

Advanced Forum and Advanced Profile Kit will use Author Pane automatically. It can also be used independently of those modules by making use of the provided block, the theme function, or the panels integration. See the documentation for more details.

Module integrations:

The following modules will automatically add information to Author Pane when enabled. Some of these integrations are included in the Author Pane project while others are included in the individual projects. More integrations can be added as explained here.

• Contact
• Facebook-style Statuses (Integration code in Facebook-style Statuses module)
• Fast Toggle
• Flag friend (No longer supported. There is broken integration code in Flag Friend itself that could use a volunteer to fix.)
• Location (Contributed by user and not tested, used, or supported by me)
• Organic Groups
• Privatemsg 1.x (Integration code in Privatemsg module. Untested against 2.x so YMMV.)
• Profile
• Troll (Contributed by user and not tested, used, or supported by me)
• User Badges
• User Relationships No longer supported. See #819764: Pull Author Pane integration into User Relationships
• User Stats (Integration code in User Stats module)
• User Titles (text version by default; image version must be added to template)
• Userpoints

Versions

5.x: is no longer supported or maintained.

6.x - 1.x: is currently still needed if you are on Advanced Forum 1.x. Everyone else should be using 2.x and it will be the recommended version soon.

6.x - 2.x: is nearly ready for release. At that point, 2.x will be the recommended branch. If you are using Advanced Forum 2.x, you need this version. Unless you are using Advanced Forum 1.1 or earlier, I suggest using this version. AF 1.2 and above will support AP 2.x. All documentation in the handbook is for 2.x.

Donations

If this module has helped you and you'd like to donate, I have a Chipin to feed my photography habit. It's not development related but would give me a nice treat for all the time I spend working on these modules for free. :)