Simple Machines Community Forum

Customizing SMF => Graphics and Templates => Topic started by: Senkusha on December 25, 2023, 08:54:43 AM

Title: SMF Templates
Post by: Senkusha on December 25, 2023, 08:54:43 AM
I know there's a spot for Themes, but I'm looking for Templates.  The difference, as I understand it, is Themes mostly change the colors and some User Interface, whereas Templates drastically can change the User Interface of SMF.  I'm looking for a way to list my sub boards along the side, but only for certain boards (I know that I can override the theme for a board in Manage Boards).  Has something like this been done before?
Title: Re: SMF Templates
Post by: Arantor on December 25, 2023, 09:27:57 AM
The templates are literally part of the theme, the theme is the templates plus the CSS. (Many themes will inherit the templates from the default theme because they don't want to lug around their own templates which won't play nicely with mods)

Depending on *exactly* what you want, there may not be a good way to do it cleanly because the templates are structured in a particular way, namely there is one template that's common to all pages that holds the header/footer and whatever's 'around' the main page content, and then the page content itself is its own template, and one slots inside the other.

And, of course, the templates are common to all boards; it's possible to have a 'if board is this, do that' but it gets messy quickly.

What I'd suggest doing is using one of the portal mods and adding an HTML block to the left side, and making the list manually there. This would at least prove the concept, and get some response to whether it's useful before hacking up the templates to do things conditionally to pretty it up (because blocks can be set in most(all?) of the portals on a per area basis, and you don't have to use a portal mod for the front page)
Title: Re: SMF Templates
Post by: Kindred on December 25, 2023, 12:53:45 PM
What arantor said...
Theme is the term for the package,  whether it is just css changes or a complete template rewrite.

BTW, test2.turtleshellprod.com
That is 99% css changes and only one touched template with teeny changes.
Title: Re: SMF Templates
Post by: Antechinus on December 25, 2023, 04:51:46 PM
Quote from: Senkusha on December 25, 2023, 08:54:43 AMI'm looking for a way to list my sub boards along the side, but only for certain boards (I know that I can override the theme for a board in Manage Boards).  Has something like this been done before?
Depending on exactly what you mean by "list my sub boards along the side" it may be possible with only CSS changes.
Title: Re: SMF Templates
Post by: Senkusha on December 25, 2023, 06:49:05 PM
For now, I just moved all these boards into separate categories so that they can be collapsed.
Title: Re: SMF Templates
Post by: Kindred on December 25, 2023, 07:41:39 PM
The would literally be the purpose of categories.....