| PNTheme and other mods
1.0 PNTheme 1.1 Functions 1.2. How to use 1.3 Tips on using PNTheme 1.4 New 1.5 Revisions 1.6 PNTheme Support 2.0 eXtreme Styles mod 3.0 Categories Hierarchy ## 1.0 PNTheme Note: This Part of the module is under going revision. Most of what is written below is still correct except that currently the mod automatically creates a style sheet and cellpics for each postnuke theme the first time it is loaded. The defaultcss.css file that use to dynamically create an inline style for the forum had to be removed in order to work with PostNuke .762 and Xanthia and been replaced by this process. This part of the module was back ported from 1.3dev version so it far from finished. Currently you will probably need to edit the style sheet created by it manually to correctly match your forum and adjust or change the cellpics as needed. In the future online editing/creating of style sheets and online preview and much more will be added and the color matching of the default created style sheets will be improved. The rest of the mod such as images, ranks and posticons work much the same they did in the past. Description: The purpose of PNTheme is to better integrate the styles of PNphpBB2 with Postnuke themes. It goes about doing this by adding two functions to the PNphpbb2 module. ### 1.1 Functions Color matching: This part takes the basic bgcolors of the Postnuke theme and uses them to generate the basic colors in the style sheet of the module. The color matching takes place in the defaultcss.php file. You can fine-tune the colors if needed in the configuration part of this file. Custom styles: This is an optional part of PNTheme that allows you to use a custom style with a Postnuke theme. It also allows you the use custom images and/or cellpics if desired. ### 1.2. How to use Custom styles: NOTE: Them styles along with the cellpics, images, ranks, and posticons for light and dark (Default is light_blue now) are no longer distributed with the module. stylesadmin.css is no longer used. A few custom styles are included in the module for PNTheme and more are available for download. The three included are paired with the corresponding cellpics except for styleadmin.css and are as follows: light.css - based on the subSilver theme also include will be the cellpics,custom images and posticons based on this same name. This is the same theme used with the postnuke ADS-Ultralight-Blue and PostnukeBlue themes at www.pnphpbb.com. dark.css - based on the fiblack theme. It also includes the cellpics,images and posticons based on this same name. This is the same theme as used at www.pnphpbb.com with the Postnuke themes Vcore and Bitrate. styleadmin.css - This is the custom style adapted to use the data from edit style in PNphpBB2 admin. Other than with the custom styles adapted for the module as examples(available as an optional download), these will require user setup. To better understand how to use this part of PNTheme I will explain how it works. In general all it does is check certain directories (see below) for predefined files or folders, if they are present then it uses them and if not it uses default settings. The directory setup used is as follows: PNTheme cellpics images styles ranks posticons **styles** In the styles folder you place the adapted phpbb2 style sheet and name it based on the Postnuke theme you want it to display with. For example say you adapted the subSilver.css for use with the PostnukeBlue theme, you would name the file PostnukeBlue.css and place it in the styles folder. **images** In the images folder, you add a new folder named after the Postnuke theme that you want the images to display with. Using the above example the folder would be named "PostnukeBlue". Into this folder you place the all the custom images except for the cellpics. If you want the style to use the default images then you just don't make this folder. **cellpics** In the cellpics folder you make a folder based on the Postnuke theme name as above. You place all the cellpics for the style in this folder. For most custom styles you will use cellpics. **ranks** In the ranks folder you make a folder based on the Postnuke theme name as above. You place all the rank images for the style in this folder. If you want the style to use the default rank images then you just don't make this folder. **posticons**In the posticons folder you make a folder based on the Postnuke theme name as above. You place all the posticons for the style in this folder. If you want the style to use the default posticons then you just don't make this folder. ### 1.3 Tips on using PNTheme Tips on adapting phpbb2 styles as custom styles for PNphpBB2 It's not hard to adapt a phpbb2 style for use as a custom style in PNphpBB2. You should select a style that designed for either the subSilver template or a similar template. Usually you can just use the CSS or style sheet for this style as the bases of the custom style. Unfortunately some styles are not as well designed and many of the changes will be in the theme_info.cfg file instead. I am sure other people will have different methods of doing this but I will detail the way I do it. ****Custom style sheet ***** (1) You will need to remove some style tags that conflict with Postnuke. Some of the things I remove are as follows: (a) /* General page style. The scroll bar colours only visible in IE5.5+ */ body { background-color: #E5E5E5; scrollbar-face-color: #DEE3E7; scrollbar-highlight-color: #FFFFFF; scrollbar-shadow-color: #DEE3E7; scrollbar-3dlight-color: #D1D7DC; scrollbar-arrow-color: #006699; scrollbar-track-color: #EFEFEF; scrollbar-darkshadow-color: #98AAB1; } (b) /* General font families for common tags */ font,th,td,p { font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif } a:link,a:active,a:visited { color : #006699; } a:hover { text-decoration: underline; color : #DD6900; } (c) /* Copyright and bottom info */ .copyright { font-size: 10px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #444444; letter-spacing: -1px;} a.copyright { color: #444444; text-decoration: none;} a.copyright:hover { color: #000000; text-decoration: underline;} Depending on the style, other tags may need to be removed or adjusted but these are the ones seen in most all phpbb2 style sheets. (2) You need to save the converted style sheet as a css file using the name of the Postnuke theme you wish it to be active with. For example if you wanted to use it with the PostnukeBlue theme you would name it PostnukeBlue.css. You upload this file to the styles folder. ****Cellpics**** In most cases you will use cellpics with custom styles. To do this you need to do the following: (1) Make a folder in the /cellpics folder using the name of the Postnuke theme you wish the cellpics to be associated with. Using the above example you would make a folder named "PostnukeBlue" (cellpics/PostnukeBlue/). You upload the cellpics associated with the custom style to this new folder. ****custom images**** You can associate custom icons or images with any Postnuke theme. All you do is create a folder in the /images folder using the name of the Postnuke theme. Using the above example, you would make a folder name "PostnukeBlue" (images/PostnukeBlue/). You upload all the custom images to this folder including the language ones (lang_english,ect). Often you will just want to use the default images and in this case, you just don't make this folder. After doing all this, you need to switch to the Postnuke theme that you set this custom style for and see how it looks. If the colors don't match what the style should look like then you will have to adjust the colors in the style.php page using either the data from theme_info.cfg or you can use colors from the color matching part of the theme mod. To get the colors from the color matching part of the mod, you can temporary rename the custom style, reload the page,and look at the inline style information in the source code of the page. If you want to make your own custom style (not convert one) then you make it much like you do for phpbb2 itself. You can check the resources there as a starting point. ### 1.4 New A few new features where added to the theme mod in PNphpBB2 1.2. These include the custom rank images and posticons(including custom posticons). Among the major things are: (1) Minimize/Maximize - This option was added. You can set a default in PNphpBB2 admin and can also have a buttom with the top mini icons that allows the user to switch between views. Minimize is the normal view within postnuke with right blocks. Maximize is a full page view without any postnuke blocks but still within the postnuke theme. (2)Out of Postnuke Option - Not sure what to call this option but what it does is to load the forum within postnuke but outside the postnuke theme. The forums themes will then work similar to how they work in a standalone forum. How this works is that it assumes that all adapted forum templates will include the headerBB2.php file and if it is not present then it will load the template as "out of postnuke". (3)Subforum/Subcategory - you can read more about this below. In short after you create forums or categories in admin, you can assign them as subforums or subcategories to another categories. ### 1.5 Revisions Added version 1.0a I know that some people like to use the edit in styles administration to adapt a style. So I added a style.php file that uses the information that you enter in styles administration. You will still have to do the cellpics as above. The file is in the PNTheme/styles/ folder and it is called styleadmin.php. You can rename it to associate it with a Postnuke theme. You could actually look at the source code of the page after adapting it using style edit and use the inline style information to make a custom style as described above. Its really better to use custom styles. Added version 1.1 This version includes better integration of the subSilver template into postnuke and adds the PNLite template. PNLite works much the same way as PNTheme except that it includes only the color matching and custom style part from PNTheme. Images and cellpics are not really used that much in this template. This version also includes some core changes that will allow new adapted templates to be added to PNphpBB2 more easily. version 1.2 A lot of the theme mod code that was in seperate files where moved to the headerBB2.php file. The conversion of a phpbb2 theme was made simplier. ### 1.6 PNTheme Support For support and to ask questions check at: http://www.pnphpbb.com/ or http://batpuppy.drpeay.com/ If you find any bugs or have any ideas for improvements please post at the above sites or email me. Thanks, Batpuppy ## 2.0 eXtreme Styles mod Created by Vjacheslav Trushkin for phpBB2.0.5 and adapted for use in PNphpBB2. Main features: Fast templates compilation and execution. Configurable fast cache system. Unlimited PHP in templates. Include tpl files inside templates. Use different tpl files with usual phpBB and this mod. Unlimited switches in one line in .tpl files. Auto-update for phpBB, styles, mods. Configuration information for this mod is included in the Admin docs. For more information on the mod itself see this site. ## 3.0 Categories Hierarchy This information is taken from the installation doc. How does it work ? You have a forum tree like this : Index - Cat 1 --- Forum 1.1 --- Forum 1.2 --- Sub-Cat 1.1 ----- Forum 1.1.1 ----- Forum 1.1.2 - Cat 2 --- Forum 2.1 --- Forum 2.2 Displaying the index (no category selected) : vBulletin view Index - Cat 1 --- Forum 1.1 --- Forum 1.2 --- Sub-Cat 1.1 ----- Forum 1.1.1 ----- Forum 1.1.2 - Cat 2 --- Forum 2.1 --- Forum 2.2 sub-forum view Index - Cat 1 --- Forum 1.1 --- Forum 1.2 --- Sub-Cat 1.1 - Cat 2 --- Forum 2.1 --- Forum 2.2 Choosing one categorie, ie Cat 1, you'll get on your index this : vBulletin view Index > Cat 1 - Cat 1 --- Forum 1.1 --- Forum 1.2 --- Sub-Cat 1.1 ----- Forum 1.1.1 ----- Forum 1.1.2 sub-forum view Index > Cat 1 - Cat 1 --- Forum 1.1 --- Forum 1.2 --- Sub-Cat 1.1 Or a sub-categorie (not limited in depth), ie Sub-Cat 1 : vBulletin view Index > Cat 1 > Sub-Cat 1.1 - Sub-Cat 1.1 --- Forum 1.1.1 --- Forum 1.1.2 sub-forum view Index > Cat 1 > Sub-Cat 1.1 - Sub-Cat 1.1 --- Forum 1.1.1 --- Forum 1.1.2 Then getting in a forum, ie Forum 1.1.2, you'll get this : Index > Cat 1 > Sub-Cat 1.1 > Forum 1.1.2 - post 1 - post 2 etc. Setting the board To choose the way you want to display your board : go to Admin Configuration Panel/General Admin/Configuration - set "Display sub-categories as forums" : sub-forum view : Yes vBulletin view : No ("flat" view) To attach a category to another category : - go to Admin Configuration Panel/Forum Admin/Management, - create it, - edit it, - on the edit category screen, choose the mother cat by setting "Attached to category" I know this is somewhat hard to follow, but subforums are really simple and probably the best way to understand them is to just use them.