Theme CSS Testing

[bigcaat]

Hi.

I changed to SMF several years ago because it was easy to find a theme and change the CSS to modify colors and such.

I have recently closed one SMF forum, which is now in maintenance mode, and I've transferred those posts to my new forum, which is live. I have kept the old one open and in maintenance mode to simply have a forum to play around with themes. Does anyone else do this, or does anyone have better suggestions?

I just had the old - theme testing - forum updated, because it had been hacked and it is a concern to me with all of the members and such. Is it better to get rid of all forums except for my live one and just let people deal with theme changes when I'm fussing with them? Or would it be better to close my old forum and open up a new "clean" database with a forum to test with, or is it just okay to do what I'm doing as long as I keep the forum updated?

Thanks for any input you might have.

Best,
Caat

[mashby]

That's certainly a valid/solid approach to working on themes. Personally, I just install the theme on my live site (disable it using a mod) and play with it from there and then re-enable it. But your approach is likely the better and safer option. You can get the look/feel all sorted without real content/members and without affecting your live site. I wouldn't worry so much about a clean database as that is just the meat (database) that you spread out on the bones (theme). And yes, if it isn't updated to the latest version, you could be prone to issues as you seemingly have experienced. Good and bad with both approaches.

[bigcaat]

Thanks Mashby.

I appreciate the feedback.

Caat

[Antechinus]

I do the majority of my testing on a local host. Very quick and easy, compared to online testing. You can always mirror your live site to local too if you want to, although a full mirror isn't really required just for testing.

[bigcaat]

I do the majority of my testing on a local host. Very quick and easy, compared to online testing. You can always mirror your live site to local too if you want to, although a full mirror isn't really required just for testing.

Oh! I tried to do that before and didn't know how to make it work. That would definitely be my preference.  Are there online instructions somewhere on how I would set that up?

Thanks!
Caat

[Antechinus]

Try this one: http://vertrigo.sourceforge.net/?lang=eng

I found that was easy to set up and use, back when I was a beginner. It's still my favourite.

[mashby]

That does sound like a great option! Sweet. Nice forum too.

[bigcaat]

Try this one: http://vertrigo.sourceforge.net/?lang=eng
I found that was easy to set up and use, back when I was a beginner. It's still my favourite.

I showed this to my husband and he said it's only for Windows. We're on Mac. Does anyone have a suggestion on how to set up localhost forum testing on the Mac side?

Thanks,
Caat

[Illori]

http://www.mamp.info/en/index.html might help you, i have not tested it though.