Christian Bullock » News

Supernova phpBB3 Style

Christian — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 23:32:52 +0000

After (what seemed to me like forever) I’ve finally completed Supernova, my second public phpBB3 Style.

Supernova originally started as an “experiment” to see how jQuery could enhance a phpBB3 Style. Following “behind closed doors” feedback I’ve decided to develop it into a full style and release it. It is a clean and simplistic style, with some unique features such as an AJAX colour switcher and Drag & Drop categories (both supported by cookies). It also comes with a configuration file which the Administrator can use to quickly: Enable / Disable an “Author” column in viewforum, or quickly choose whether the avatars in viewtopic should be on the left or right. The config file also contains several options related to the colour switcher and draggable categories feature.

Demo, Download and Support: Click here

MOD Installation now available

Christian — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 22:20:45 +0000

Following some strategic thinking, I’ve decided to add phpBB3 MOD Installation as an official service. phpBB3 MOD’s are essentially “Add-Ons” for your forum developed by members of the phpBB community. Unlike Wordpress or vBulletin, phpBB doesn’t offer a “one click” install system, instead installing a MOD requires manual edits to the core files of the software. Whether you’re reluctant to dive into the depths of your code, or simply don’t have the time – I will now install your MOD for a minimal fee of $10 per hour.

For more information, check out the phpBB3 MOD Installation page.

Absolution updated to 3.0.7

Christian — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 18:30:59 +0000

Just days after the development team released 3.0.7, I’m pleased to announce that Absolution has been updated to 3.0.7 – and has some cool new features. Here’s what’s happened since 3.0.6:

Bug Fixes

Fixed the “No CSS” problem that some users experienced whilst logging in / logging out of the forum. This was caused by a connection to jQuery that didn’t actually need to be there.
The “Mark All / Unmark All” links on the PM inbox page are now visible. Some users had correctly noticed that the links had been coloured White on a white background, rendering them unreadable.
The “PM Icon:” and “Subject:” labels are now also visible. These had also accidentally been coloured white on a white background.

Changes

Collapsible Categories have been removed for this release. A new piece of code in forumlist_body.html caused the collapse category code to break. I plan to code in a new and improved collapse category feature in future releases (Ideally 3.0.8 or 3.1).
Improved the appearance of Polls within topics.
Re-coloured “En” buttons (New Topic, Post Reply etc…) to blue as opposed to Red. The forum / topic icons are remaining untouched for the time being.
Improved the appearance of the rules box – it’s now far more noticeable.
Bullet Points inside unordered lists now have a custom list style image (blue arrow).
Code boxes have had a minor lick of paint. They’re now light blue.

New Features

Users of Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera will now notice a new Quote Box inspired by the ones used in vBulletin 4 (speech bubble complete with rounded corners). Internet explorer users will continue to see the classic quote box.
There’s now an option to show a jQuery tooltip when you hover over a forum name in viewforum_body.html. The tooltip simply contains the corresponding forum’s description. Instructions to enable this feature can be found commented on line 4 of viewforum_body.html.
Absolution now supports fluid width!. Since the day of its release fluid width has been one of the most requested features. Administrators can now choose a width for their forum by editing
```
/styles/absolution/theme/forum-width.css
```
. Clearer instructions are found commented within that file.
Finally – Absolution has a custom view topic page inspired greatly by IPB3. Since day #1 I wanted Absolution to be simple, clean and easy to navigate. In my opinion phpBB’s default view topic page wasn’t quite clear enough, so I’ve gone the extra mile and completely re-coded it to look clean and fresh. Features of the new page include: Red/Green user icons next to the username to indicate a user’s online status, clear post control buttons (Quote, Edit, Information, Warn, Report) and JavaScript flyout menu containing links to the poster’s profile, Private Message User, Email User and the User’s Website. The social network icons such as WLM, AIM, YIM, ICQ and Jabber retain their place below the poster’s information (Post Count, Join Date, Location).

This is a pretty big release all things considered, and the style hasn’t been QA’d. So there may or may not be some bugs I’m unaware of (although I’m 99% sure I’ve cleared them all up). The style has been tested in FireFox 3.6, Safari 4, Opera 10.50, Internet Explorer 8 and Google Chrome. I will not be supporting browsers below those, so if your users encounter any problems with the style caused by an older browser – you will have to ask them to update.

Download and Demo links can be found in the original Absolution release topic: Download Absolution.
Support will only be given in the phpBB.com Release topic: [Release] Absolution.

Please feel free to leave comments or ask questions. Enjoy the style

phpBB 3.0.7 Released

Christian — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 15:04:20 +0000

phpBB 3.0.7 has been released. This time they’ve named it the “Run bugs, run! Bertie is coming!” edition, which suggests this release is all about bug fixes. What does this mean to you? Firstly, you should all update immediately. Secondly, those of you using my Absolution Style will be interested in the following information.

Seeing as phpBB 3.0.7 was only released yesterday, and I have only just purchased a new computer today, there is no way I can update the style any time “soon” (as in, today or tomorrow). There was a record amount of people who wanted absolution to support fluid width, this has been taken into account and when the style is released for phpBB 3.0.7 it will support fluid width. However, converting any fixed-width style to fluid width is no simple task, and requires the main structure to be re-coded some of the images re-made. Finally, there are two or three bug fixes I need to make. With all that in mind, I anticipate it will be at least a week before a 3.0.7 version of the style is released, if not longer than that. I would ask that you respect the fact that I’m only human, and whilst I strive to satisfy my very loyal fan-base, I must also take some time to do my own things. So, if it does take a little bit of time to update the style, please forgive me.

In the meantime, the 3.0.6 version of absolution will work fine on phpBB 3.0.7. If you’re really picky and just can’t wait, you can update the style yourself using the instructions found the code changes package.

Have a good week folks, and I hope to be posting an update soon!

Oh, and don’t forget to wish me a happy birthday :p

Absolution phpBB3 Style

Christian — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 13:20:50 +0000

It gives me great pleasure to announce my first phpBB3 Style in quite some time.

Absolution is a fixed width, glossy style with a unique forumlist layout. Absolution was designed to be very generic, so it can be used on all kinds of boards ranging from Business forums to Gaming Communities. It also inclues some key features such as Collapsible Categories, Simple font-size changer and accessible navigation. On top of that I have also included some small unique touches such as icons next to the Index page statistics and Custom profile field icons.