Mods for this forum

Steve · 02-14-2007, 03:56 AM

We're closing in on completion here - I should have mentioned that I do also have the vBSEO plugin installed already.

For now, though, I'm installing the thread title coloring plugin.
It was a simple xml file upload. All done.

Steve · 02-14-2007, 04:09 AM

And for the last Product modification, I'm throwing in Welcome Headers

Start Time 3:06
End Time 3:14

This one may take a bit of configuration beyond this, though - as well as the sidebar in the forum home which just has some sample code.

Steve · 02-14-2007, 04:13 AM

The template modifications won't be so easy. I'm not entirely sure of all the template-only mods that I have in place, but the first one that popped in my mind was to add the following code to the top of the headinclude template:

Code:

<META http-equiv="Page-Exit" content="blendTrans(Duration=0.00001)">
<META http-equiv=Page-Enter content=blendTrans(Duration=0.00001); />

This was actually inspired by a mod I read about at vBulletin.org, but I did a little bit of research and testing on my own and determined that the above code was better than what appeared at vbulletin.org. Rather than post a competing Mod, I just went with my own - knowing that the mod wouldn't be received well.

This mod increases the perceived performance of the forum significantly.

Steve · 02-14-2007, 02:54 PM

Moving onto the Main CSS stylings...

I updated the font settings for body to: font-family: verdana, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;, and changed the default hover link color to #0080FF

Under Category Strips, I updated the hover link color to a blue, and removed the gradient image. I also updated the font to Trebuchet MS

For Table headers, I reversed the background and font colors, and updated the link colors appropriately. Table footers also updated in a similar fashion, with very slightly different font coloring.

There are a few other edits I'd like to make with the css - like migrating fixed font size to em based, but the nested object nature of these templates makes for difficult em-ing, as em values are relatively proportional to parent elements.

I'm going to need to take a look at the default image set as well, considering the minor coloring changes have pushed forth some blending issues.

Steve · 02-14-2007, 03:20 PM

I created a plugin for the sidebar, a Movable Type Template, and edited the sidebar template as follows:

plugin:

Code:

$sk_recently = file_get_contents('filesystempath/to/recently.tmpl');

forumhome_sidecolumn_right template

Code:

<tr>
<td class="thead">
Recently
</td>
</tr>
$sk_recently

Movable Type Index Template (outputting to filesystempath/to/recently.tmpl)

Code:

<MTSKSwitcher set="alt1 alt2"> 
<MTEntries lastn="19">
<tr><td class="<MTSKSwitcher>"><a href="<$MTEntryPermalink$>" title="<$MTEntryTitle$>"><$MTEntryTitle$></a></td></tr>
</MTEntries>

Steve · 02-14-2007, 03:24 PM

I do want to get rid of the welcome block thing, place the menu directly underneath the header image, put the breadcrumbs at the top of the page, move the welcome message to the forum home page sidebar, and implement a login form within the menu. I'm considering utilizing the ProjectSeven menu, but that's just another bunch of javascript code and I'm not prepared to do that all over the place.

Steve · 02-18-2007, 05:31 AM

Tonight I made a few more modifications -

I made a template mod to the postbit template so that anonymous users do not have "Posts: N/A" in their postbit, and I also changed it so that Anonymous Guests all share a common avatar.

These were pretty simple template changes:
Remove Post Count:
find

Code:

<div>
                    $vbphrase[posts]: $post[posts]
                </div>

replace with

Code:

                <if condition="$post[userid]">
                <div>
                    $vbphrase[posts]: $post[posts]
                </div>
                </if>

Anonymous Avatar:
find:

Code:

            <if condition="$show['avatar']">
                <div class="smallfont">
                    &nbsp;<br /><a href="member.php?$session[sessionurl]u=$post[userid]"><img src="$post[avatarurl]" $post[avwidth] $post[avheight] alt="<phrase 1="$post[username]">$vbphrase[xs_avatar]</phrase>" border="0" /></a>
                </div>
            </if>

and add after:

Code:

            <if condition="$post[userid] == ''">
                <div class="smallfont">
                    &nbsp;<br /><img src="http://www.stevekallestad.com/discuss/images/avatars/anon.gif" width="100" height="100" alt="" border="0" />
                </div>
            </if>

Steve · 02-18-2007, 05:48 AM

vbMT Integration - Highlighting Postbits

In order to highlight comments for repetition within an MT Page, I altered the posts table:

Code:

ALTER TABLE `post` ADD `highlight` TINYINT NULL ;
ALTER TABLE `post` ADD INDEX ( `highlight` ) ;

I also modified inlinemod.php
find

Code:

    case 'deleteposts':
    case 'undeleteposts':
    case 'approveposts':
    case 'unapproveposts':
    case 'mergeposts':
    case 'moveposts':
    case 'copyposts':
    case 'approveattachments':
    case 'unapproveattachments':
    case 'viewpost':

Add After

Code:

    case 'highlightposts':
    case 'unhighlightposts':

Find

Code:

// ############################### start do move posts ###############################

Insert Before:

Code:

// ############################### SK MTVB Integration - highlight posts ###############################
if ($_POST['do'] == 'highlightposts')
{
        if (!can_moderate($post['forumid'], 'canmanagethreads'))
        {
            eval(standard_error(fetch_error('you_do_not_have_permission_to_manage_threads_and_posts', $post['title'], $post['thread_title'], $vbulletin->forumcache["$post[forumid]"]['title'])));
        }
        $db->query_write("UPDATE ".TABLE_PREFIX."post SET highlight = 1 where postid in (".$postids.")");
        eval(print_standard_redirect('Posts '.$postids.' Highlighted', false, $forceredirect));    
} 
if ($_POST['do'] == 'unhighlightposts')
{
        if (!can_moderate($post['forumid'], 'canmanagethreads'))
        {
            eval(standard_error(fetch_error('you_do_not_have_permission_to_manage_threads_and_posts', $post['title'], $post['thread_title'], $vbulletin->forumcache["$post[forumid]"]['title'])));
        }
        $db->query_write("UPDATE ".TABLE_PREFIX."post SET highlight = 0 where postid in (".$postids.")");
        eval(print_standard_redirect('Posts '.$postids.' Unhighlighted', false, $forceredirect));    
} 
// ############################### END SK MTVB Integration - highlight posts ###############################

Additionally, I copied showpost.php to a new file, and made the following edits:
Find:

Code:

$globaltemplates = array(
    'im_aim',
    'im_icq',
    'im_msn',
    'im_yahoo',
    'im_skype',
    'postbit',
    'postbit_wrapper',
    'postbit_attachment',
    'postbit_attachmentimage',
    'postbit_attachmentthumbnail',
    'postbit_attachmentmoderated',
    'postbit_editedby',
    'postbit_ip',
    'postbit_onlinestatus',
    'postbit_reputation',
    'bbcode_code',
    'bbcode_html',
    'bbcode_php',
    'bbcode_quote',
    'SHOWTHREAD_SHOWPOST'
);

Replace with:

Code:

$globaltemplates = array(
    'im_aim',
    'im_icq',
    'im_msn',
    'im_yahoo',
    'im_skype',
    'postbit',
    'postbit_wrapper',
    'postbit_attachment',
    'postbit_attachmentimage',
    'postbit_attachmentthumbnail',
    'postbit_attachmentmoderated',
    'postbit_editedby',
    'postbit_ip',
    'postbit_onlinestatus',
    'postbit_reputation',
    'bbcode_code',
    'bbcode_html',
    'bbcode_php',
    'bbcode_quote',
    'SHOWTHREAD_SHOWPOST',
    'MT_SHOWTHREAD_SHOWPOST'
);

At the end of the file:
find:

Code:

    eval('print_output("' . fetch_template('SHOWTHREAD_SHOWPOST') . '");');

Replace with:

Code:

//    eval('print_output("' . fetch_template('SHOWTHREAD_SHOWPOST') . '");');
    eval('print_output("' . fetch_template('MT_SHOWTHREAD_SHOWPOST') . '");');

Created a new template: MT_SHOWTHREAD_SHOWPOST
The template is simple:

Code:

$postbits

From here, there is the matter of including some basic style definitions within the external (MT) CSS:

Code:

.alt1{
    background-color:#FFFADF;
}
.alt2{
    background-color:#ADBEE7;
}
.thead{
    background-color: #FFF;
}

Obviously, the color definitions will change on a board by board basis. The MT Script side of things actually removes the postbit menu item and a few other things from the postbit template for simplicity. The goal really is to be able to highlight posts.

There were also some mods to the inline mod templates:
in moderation_posts find:

Code:

            <strong>$vbphrase[moderation]</strong><br />
                <select name="do">
                    <optgroup label="$vbphrase[option]">

Add after:

Code:

                        <option value="highlightposts">Highlight Posts</option>
                        <option value="unhighlightposts">Un-Highlight Posts</option>

Steve · 02-18-2007, 03:27 PM

I ran the forum home page through an HyperText Meta Language validator and made changes accordingly. My META tags needed updating (lower case meta and close tags), and I apparently had a not very useful div tag that was left open, along with a typo align statement.

Steve · 02-18-2007, 03:42 PM

I've identified more than 90 templates that include some sort of script tag. I would really like to ensure that everything has unobtrusive javascript in place. It helps for page relevance and with content-to-code ratios as well. I don't know if it's even possible to do so at the moment, but this is a point of disgruntlement for me.

Ideally, what I would like to do is to combine and compress the vb Javascript so that I can include prototype and some other prototype functionality as well while actually decreasing the load of these pages.

EDIT:
Now that I have prototype installed as a base, getting rid of the other tag soup should be relatively easy but time consuming.

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