| Author |
 Topic  |
|
|
philwhite
Starting Member
Germany
47 Posts |
 Posted - 28 February 2005 : 11:58:42
|
I've just written a MOD for the site I'm working on which does the following:
1. Parses a defined CSS file and offers the colors and styles, etc. as alternatives to the forum defaults.
2. For each setting in the Font/Table Color Code Configuration administration form, offers a switch "Use Forum Default/Use CSS".
3. Allows you to select a background GIF for table cells.
4. Allows additional formatting for links (bold/italic)
The CSS is only parsed when the CSS admin page is run and the values then become resident in the forum database. If the main site CSS is changed, the admin page needs to be called again. If the new CSS contains all the same tags as the old CSS, the values are replaced automatically and can be submitted (not yet implemented). If any used tags are missing from the new CSS, you are warned (not yet implemented). It's a workaround to avoid rewriting the entire forum code to support CSS.
No database modifications are required (all stored in CONFIG_NEW). Code changes are only needed to Admin_home.asp (link to the management page) and two blocks of extensive additions to config.asp to interpret the information. Otherwise, absolutely no other code changes. Just a couple of pages to upload.
I put it on my development forum today and it works fine, but there's a couple of usability and error-trapping issues that I need to resolve.
You can see it in action at
www.wordwizard.com/newnav/
and select the "Clubhouse" menu.
I've set up a normal user for you guys (can't give you admin access, I'm afraid):
Name: Snitzuser
Password: Snitz
(Compare with the current un-modded forum using the same database at
www.wordwizard.com and choose "Clubhouse"). It's important that the two installations don't interfere with each other, even though they are using the same DB.
The forum data is live (although the development site is still under heavy redesign), so please don't test post except perhaps in the site comments section if you must. I can't give you admin permissions, but there's a screenshot of the administration interface at:
http://www.wordwizard.com/newnav/downloads/css_demo.jpg
I am a rank amateur programmer, and somebody could make a far better job of this than me. In particular, if the information were stored in a separate table instead of in CONFIG_NEW, and several records were stored based on different CSS sheets, it would be pretty simple to put some simple user-specific skins in place (not of great interest to our user base).
What I'm looking for is for someone to take this off my hands when I've resolved the couple of remaining problems, as I have no chance of supporting it. I can probably make the code available in a couple of weeks. Any takers? Or do you think that it's a waste of time?
BTW, don't try to contact me as site admin at Wordwizard. It's not my mail address.
I'm also beginning to wish I'd used Speedball in the first place... Can anyone tell me whether Speedball supports the PM, IPGate and TopicMaker mods? If so, I may yet switch and dump this project. |
Phil White |
Edited by - philwhite on 28 February 2005 12:42:32 |
|
|
serritzlev
Junior Member
Denmark
291 Posts |
|
|
philwhite
Starting Member
Germany
47 Posts |
Posted - 28 February 2005 : 13:54:35
|
| Yes and no. I've got a fair amount of mods in place and have done some odd bits of code tweaking over the past months. I thought it would be quicker to do a quickfix over the existing forum than to reconstruct all the mods on the basis of Speedball or Snitz CSS. For bandwidth reasons, though, I reckon that one of the two may be the better solution. |
Phil White |
 |
|
|
D3mon
Senior Member
United Kingdom
1685 Posts |
Posted - 28 February 2005 : 14:54:58
|
| I've seen the PM mod doing the rounds for Speedball, but I'm not sure about the others. Try contacting the original authors of those other mods to see if they've done a mod-mod. |
Snitz 'Speedball' : Site Integration Mod : Friendly Registration Mod
"In war, the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won" |
|
|
|
philwhite
Starting Member
Germany
47 Posts |
Posted - 28 February 2005 : 15:26:53
|
Thanks D3mon. Whole thing gives me the heebie jeebies though. When I put the forum up I had to do some very naughty things to the code to handle some 39000 imported legacy posts (hence Topic Maker) which weren't timestamped or linked properly and I don't rejoice in the idea of doing them all over again. TopicMaker shouldn't be a great problem, as it barely has any screen output, and as yet we haven't had cause to use IPGate except for testing and a couple of odd bits of monitoring (it also doesn't have too much screen output). Perhaps I should go that way.
Anyone out there who already has a Speedball-modded PM mod?
By the way, when do you reckon you may have Speedball III ready? Only asking... |
Phil White |
|
|
|
D3mon
Senior Member
United Kingdom
1685 Posts |
Posted - 28 February 2005 : 17:19:18
|
| It's a very slow process at the moment as I'm strapped for time. Check out the pre-beta I posted, to see how it's progressing so far. |
Snitz 'Speedball' : Site Integration Mod : Friendly Registration Mod
"In war, the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won" |
|
|
|
philwhite
Starting Member
Germany
47 Posts |
Posted - 28 February 2005 : 17:38:07
|
| Downloaded it a couple of hours ago. I'll have a gander when have time again at the weekend. I'll have a look at the PM code as well, but by all accounts it's pretty impenetrable in places. |
Phil White |
|
|
| |
Topic |
|
Topic Locked
