Christian Bullock

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

Index & Profile Links in New Window

Christian — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 21:14:13 +0000

One of the features I love in phpBB3 is the ability to add a link to to the index page, appearing as though it’s actually a forum. And to add to that, you can add a description, track the number of times its been clicked and even choose which members / groups can see it. Unfortunately though, the link opens in the same window, meaning when a member or guest follows the link they’re taken away from your forum – hardly the result you were looking for, right?

By applying this small tweak, users who click the link will see it open in a new tab, or in a new window if their browser doesn’t support tabs.

Prosilver Using Subsilver2?

Open: /styles/prosilver/template/forumlist_body.html

Find:

{forumrow.FORUM_NAME}

Replace with:

target="_blank">

The same problem also occurs whilst viewing a topic. A user who has entered a link into the “Website:” field of the User Control Panel will have a small globe icon displayed next to each of their posts. As you may have guessed, this also opens in the current window. To fix this:

Open: /styles/prosilver/template/viewtopic_body.html

Find:

{L_WEBSITE}

Replace with:

{L_WEBSITE}

The problem still persists in two other locations. Firstly whilst viewing a user’s profile and secondly whilst viewing the member list.

Open: /styles/prosilver/template/memberlist_view.html

Find:

{L_WEBSITE}:
 {U_WWW}

Replace with:

{L_WEBSITE}:
 {U_WWW}

and finally Open: /styles/prosilver/template/memberlist_body.html

Find:

{memberrow.U_SHORT_WWW}
{memberrow.LOCATION}

Replace with:

{memberrow.U_SHORT_WWW}
{memberrow.LOCATION}

Clear your template & browser cache.

Subsilver2
Open: /styles/subsilver2/template/forumlist_body.html

Find:

{forumrow.FORUM_NAME}

Replace with:

{forumrow.FORUM_NAME}

The problem also occurs If a user has entered a link into the “Website:” field of the User Control Panel. Although it won’t show a link next to their posts, it still appears when viewing their profile or the memberlist.

Open: /styles/subsilver2/template/memberlist_view.html

Find:

{U_WWW}

Replace with:

{U_WWW}

Open: /styles/subsilver2/template/memberlist_body.html

Find:

 {WWW_IMG}

Replace with:

 {WWW_IMG}

Refresh your template & browser cache.

Fixed width Subsilver2

Christian — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 20:28:10 +0000

Fixed-width boards are becoming increasingly popular, and there’s nothing to suggest that will change. Users who are familiar with the phpBB Community will know just how many times people have asked the question “How to I center-align my board?”. In December 2007 a former Styles Team member (thatbitextra) posted an Article giving the code to make prosilver fixed width. Although to this day, there hasn’t really been a clear guide explaining how to accomplish the same effect with Subsilver2. Well, look no further.

Open: /styles/subsilver2/theme/stylesheet.css

Find:

.username-coloured {
	font-weight: bold;
}

Below, Add:

#wrap {
	width: 900px; /* Choose width here. */
	margin: 0 auto;
}

Open: /styles/subsilver2/template/overall_header.html

Find:

Below, Add:

Open: /styles/subsilver2/template/overall_footer.html

Find:

Before, Add:

Refresh Subsilver2’s template cache and your browser cache to see the changes.

Subsilver2 Profiles on Right

Christian — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 16:18:54 +0000

One of the biggest shocks when phpBB 3.0x was released was that poster’s avatars were displayed on the right hand side whilst the actual message was displayed on the left. At first this didn’t really go down well, although as time passed it caught on and thousands of boards still adopt the unique layout.

Several Forum Owners have been in touch to ask how they can switch avatars to the right on Subsilver2 (as they are on the left by default). The following steps will explain how to do just that.

Note: If you want to skip straight past the manual edits, the modified viewtopic_body.html file can be downloaded at the end of this post.

Open: /styles/subsilver2/template/viewtopic_body.html

Find:

	
		
			{L_AUTHOR}
			{L_MESSAGE}

Replace with:

	
		
			{L_MESSAGE}
			{L_AUTHOR}

Find:


				
				 style="color: {postrow.POST_AUTHOR_COLOUR}">{postrow.POST_AUTHOR}
			
			
				
				
				
					
				
					 {L_POST_SUBJECT}: {postrow.POST_SUBJECT}
{postrow.MINI_POST_IMG}{postrow.MINI_POST_IMG}{L_POSTED}: {postrow.POST_DATE}

Replace with:


				
				
				
					
				
					 {L_POST_SUBJECT}: {postrow.POST_SUBJECT}
{postrow.MINI_POST_IMG}{postrow.MINI_POST_IMG}{L_POSTED}: {postrow.POST_DATE} 
				
				
			
            
				
				 style="color: {postrow.POST_AUTHOR_COLOUR}">{postrow.POST_AUTHOR}

Find:


				
			
				
					{postrow.ONLINE_IMG}
				
			
			
				
					{postrow.RANK_TITLE}
				
			
			
				
					{postrow.RANK_IMG}
				
			
			
				
					{postrow.POSTER_AVATAR}
				
			
			
				
					
				
			
				

				
					
{L_JOINED}: {postrow.POSTER_JOINED}
					
{L_POSTS}: {postrow.POSTER_POSTS}
					
{L_LOCATION}: {postrow.POSTER_FROM}

					
						
						
{postrow.PROFILE_FIELD1_NAME}: {postrow.PROFILE_FIELD1_VALUE}
					

					
						
{postrow.custom_fields.PROFILE_FIELD_NAME}: {postrow.custom_fields.PROFILE_FIELD_VALUE}
					
				

			
			
				
				
					
					
						
						
							{UNAPPROVED_IMG} {L_POST_UNAPPROVED}
  {REPORTED_IMG} {L_POST_REPORTED}
						
						

						

					

						{postrow.MESSAGE}

					
						



						
						
							{L_ATTACHMENTS}: 
						
						
							
								 {postrow.attachment.DISPLAY_ATTACHMENT}
							
						
						
					

					
						

{L_DOWNLOAD_NOTICE}
					
					
						
_________________
{postrow.SIGNATURE}
					

					
						
							


							
							
								{postrow.EDITED_MESSAGE}
							
							
								{postrow.EDIT_REASON}
							
							
						
							


							{postrow.EDITED_MESSAGE}
						
					

					
						

{postrow.BUMPED_MESSAGE}
					

					



						
						
							
							
								{REPORT_IMG} 
								{INFO_IMG} 
								{WARN_IMG} 
								{DELETE_IMG}

Replace with:


				
				
					
					
						
						
							{UNAPPROVED_IMG} {L_POST_UNAPPROVED}
  {REPORTED_IMG} {L_POST_REPORTED}
						
						

						

					

						{postrow.MESSAGE}

					
						



						
						
							{L_ATTACHMENTS}: 
						
						
							
								 {postrow.attachment.DISPLAY_ATTACHMENT}
							
						
						
					

					
						

{L_DOWNLOAD_NOTICE}
					
					
						
_________________
{postrow.SIGNATURE}
					

					
						
							


							
							
								{postrow.EDITED_MESSAGE}
							
							
								{postrow.EDIT_REASON}
							
							
						
							


							{postrow.EDITED_MESSAGE}
						
					

					
						

{postrow.BUMPED_MESSAGE}
					

					



						
						
							
							
								{REPORT_IMG} 
								{INFO_IMG} 
								{WARN_IMG} 
								{DELETE_IMG} 
							
							
						
						
					
				
				
			
            
				
			
				
					{postrow.ONLINE_IMG}
				
			
			
				
					{postrow.RANK_TITLE}
				
			
			
				
					{postrow.RANK_IMG}
				
			
			
				
					{postrow.POSTER_AVATAR}
				
			
			
				
					
				
			
				

				
					
{L_JOINED}: {postrow.POSTER_JOINED}
					
{L_POSTS}: {postrow.POSTER_POSTS}
					
{L_LOCATION}: {postrow.POSTER_FROM}

					
						
						
{postrow.PROFILE_FIELD1_NAME}: {postrow.PROFILE_FIELD1_VALUE}
					

					
						
{postrow.custom_fields.PROFILE_FIELD_NAME}: {postrow.custom_fields.PROFILE_FIELD_VALUE}

Find:

{L_BACK_TO_TOP}
			 {PROFILE_IMG}  {PM_IMG}  {EMAIL_IMG}  
 {EDIT_IMG}  {QUOTE_IMG}

Replace with:

 {PROFILE_IMG}  {PM_IMG}  {EMAIL_IMG}  
 {EDIT_IMG}  {QUOTE_IMG}   
            {L_BACK_TO_TOP}

Save/Upload Modified File and refresh template cache:
Admin Panel => Styles Tab => Style Components => Templates => Subsilver2 => Refresh

Download: viewtopic_body.html

Simple phpBB3 Remote Login

Christian — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 15:13:28 +0000

If your Forum is accompanied by a Website, you’ll probably know it can be a challenge to guide your guests towards the board. Over the past few years I’ve seen countless members ask how their users can log in to the forums from the Website. As far as tutorials go there aren’t a great deal of them around, and the ones that are around usually go one step too far and use complicated PHP scripts to integrate the session etc.

However, it’s possible to use a simple HTML code to log the members in and redirect them to your board:


	
             Username:  

             Password:

Just copy & paste it straight into your HTML Website. Simple as that. Ensure the path to ucp.php is correct and away you go. Your users will be automatically directed to your board’s index page.

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.