Install New Forum Themes

[dave_erald]

Edit by Hooman: Topic split from Can't Upload Avatar


Shit, does this mean we could upload new skins for the forum per person? This would be nice.

[Hooman]

I don't know too much about the skins. I believe they are installed by an admin, and then users can select the skin they see from a list of installed skins.

I know there are some antiquated skins that probably won't work quite right with the current version of the forum software.

[leeor_net]

What are we waiting for? Let's get that shit rolling!

[Hooman]

I remember there being a nice skin on the old forum. It would be good to get that back.

A few questions though:
How are skins installed?
How do they work?
What security implications do they have?
How are they affected by upgrades?
What level of site customization is required?
Who will do any needed customization work?

I figure having some idea of the above, with appropriate links, will help get the ball rolling.

[dave_erald]

This is the community available themes link on the SMForums site

SMForums Themes

And this is the Online Manual for SMForums

SMForums Online Manual

I guess it would just be a matter of picking someone responsible for loading and removing themes, and someone to make a new one. I haven't looked thru a lot of the Forum Online Manual but I'm sure most of the answers should be there for update and future uses.

[Hooman]

Thank you for the initial links.

There are many hundreds of themes listed on there. Perhaps someone can go choose a few they think might be worth installing or using as a base for customization.

Installing a new theme looks straightforward enough. I'd still like to understand a little more about how they work and what security implications they may have. There are probably some upgrade implications too, but I have a feeling that isn't too bad.

If a theme is customized, the work should probably be done in a version control system. The initial checkin, if based on something downloaded, should exactly match the download package. That would make customizations stand out easily by doing a diff with the initial checkin. That could be important for forum upgrades. It'd also be nice from a security audit standpoint.

I can load the themes once they are chosen.

[dave_erald]

Creating a new theme or modifying an existing one looks like you need an administrator account I think.

Right?

[Hooman]

To install it on these boards yes. If you're testing or developing one, you'd probably create a local install of SMF.

[dave_erald]

Alright, one day this week maybe I'll look into that.


EDIT : NOPE, just watched a quick tutorial on creating a theme. I don't have the time for that. I'll maybe point to one I like.

[leeor_net]

Was going to say... Themes for smf aren't a trivial thing to make.

[Hooman]

There's been some talk of changing the forum software, so probably best not to spend a bunch of time on this idea right now.

[leeor_net]

Fair point.

And again? Any thoughts on what to use? I've always liked SMF but the administrative backend is pretty bad. At least it was on my LairWorks setup so we switched to Vanilla Forums (prolly not good for this application though)

[Hooman]

I'm having trouble remembering the name, but I'm thinking "bbcode". Corrections anyone?

One feature I heard of was continuous scrolling, rather than breaking long threads into pages. That does make it a little easier to read over the parts that would span a page.

I also heard the other software was more mobile friendly. That could be important these days.

[Arklon]

It was NodeBB. https://community.nodebb.org/
We'd want to modify the theme to be a bit more in-line with the "classic" forum layout and make a bit better use of screen real estate, but overall it seems pretty slick.

[leeor_net]

Would LOVE to see that set up. Looks VERY slick!

[dave_erald]

What about something like MyBB?
Free and open source.
   
     Isn't nodeBB pay as you go?

[Arklon]

NodeBB is free, they just offer a pay-as-you-go hosting service. We also looked at MyBB too and it seems okay, but it's pretty standard fare for forum software and we'd like to get away from PHP-based software.

[dave_erald]

Alright than. Go Node.
If the forum software gets changed is their a game plan for the OPU website? I was arguing with Lev (I think, now that I think about it I can't remember who I was arguing with) on the merits of keeping the website, but whatever whatever.

Cool. New forum and new themes. Lets go.