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 Page Manager integration.

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.

Installation

  1. Copy the entire author_pane module directory into your normal directory for modules, usually sites/all/modules.
  2. Enable the Author Pane module in ?q=admin/build/modules.