SMFacebook - A Facebook Theme for SMF [Preview]

[bloc]

Yes, I know. i did a similar theme concept once, that used some of FB' styles. It was fun, but I discovered not many people actually used it lol.

http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=382363.msg2634939#msg2634939

[PS4DEV]

Bloc, I took a look at your theme.
First of great theme (:

It was fun, but I discovered not many people actually used it lol.

Well i think, by modding and revamping existing functions or software, you have to find a way to make it 1. user-friendly(way of styling things and doing actions) and 2. the new stuff should making sence and not waste space.
It the 2 things go well, your theme should be loved by the users. Maybe One of this points didn´t go well on your theme..

But your Theme gave me a new idea, i like that stuff with the buddies, maybe i can reuse this functionality and do something cool with it,
thank you (:

[bloc]

I am glad for that Ideas are good lol.

Yeah, it might be I didn't hit it exactly..but I've done a few themes over the years, and most times the ones that look most like default theme - only with other graphics and colors - are the ones that people download. I suspect its the need to make mods fit with it, sadly, that decided if it was used or not.

But for me the satisfaction of creating something unique is greater than if "everyone" likes it or not, so its not that big deal really. And in that light your theme concept is just right.  

[lifeguard81]

Yes, I know. i did a similar theme concept once, that used some of FB' styles. It was fun, but I discovered not many people actually used it lol.

http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=382363.msg2634939#msg2634939

God damn, this looks realy smooth. I love this clean style.
Same like topicstarter, that is lso a realy nice clean theme.

[Deaks]

I am liking this theme alot, I also look forward to having a look at the backend code specially near the end of the creating.

[hhy89]

Looks really good, i like it.
Congrats

[bloc]

Yes, I know. i did a similar theme concept once, that used some of FB' styles. It was fun, but I discovered not many people actually used it lol.

http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=382363.msg2634939#msg2634939

God damn, this looks realy smooth. I love this clean style.
Same like topicstarter, that is lso a realy nice clean theme.

I have started looking at working further on it actually. I don't know where it will end up, but we'll see.


As for the SMFacebook theme, also looking forward to seeing it in action.

[PS4DEV]

Thank you for your replies guys,
I´m working on it
I try to setup a demo for you soon !

@Bloc : nice that you are working again on your facebook like theme. It will be great ! And besides i´m really sure that our themes will be different in any way

For now I have a few interresting updates for you , nothing big but still great

Changelog:

Way of Loading Pictures:
I realized that I had to do something with big Pictures, because if you have a big News-Stream there are alot of   Pictures. That Picture Loading makes a Site extremely slow. Thats why Pictures are now lazy-loaded ! That means that only the Pictures that you can see in your Browser Screen are displayed, by scrolling down the Site , all other images will be loaded and ready for you to show

Way of Loading Youtube Videos:
Same here, many videos cause a big time to load a site, so now every youtube video will be converted in a cover picture, which is one of the right youtube video. So if you click on it the video loads and you can view it

That´s actually the same technik facebook uses.

News-Stream Update:
I also updated the News-Stream, before there was only a information on the Top:  "Darxploit" started a new Topic in...
That was boring ! Now you have something like: You started a new Topic in... || You replied to a Topic in... or Darxploit replied in his/her own Topic in... for example. Not so boring anymore, isn´t it.

Fullscreen Mode for Pictures in the News-Stream:
Now every Picture that is displayed in the News-Stream can be displayed in Fullscreen Mode by clicking on it.
That way we have now a Picture-Stream as well because you can browse throug all Pictures.

Ups I forgot, did you recognize Facebooks Timeline Feature ?
That´s what i also began to code for every profile. The Timeline will show all post that a user made in cool and nice way.

I also made a bit progress at the chat function !
Rest are just Design Updates , to make clean and professional.

[Neekiinh0]

oh my god ! congratulations !

[PS4DEV]

oh my god ! congratulations !

thank you ! (:

[Deaks]

looking forward to seeing the demo

[PS4DEV]

Hey i just updated some pictures
And again it woth to have a look at them.

Besides , as you can see there is a new color sheme and i don´t know if it´s beautiful or not.
So now here´s your chance ! Please tell me if this color is good or not , if you have a cool color please write here in this Topic and
tell me your favorite color ! (Would be good if you provide it as a hex value for example: white = #FFFFFF or black = #000000)

Maybe I´m doing a poll later on this..

[Hj Ahmad Rasyid Hj Ismail]

At first, I don't really think this can be done just via a theme. A lot of modifications need to be done which involves other than just the template and the css files. I am still puzzled anyway on how all of these can be implemented if one doesn't want to change the source code or fork SMF. But then, after revisiting Argentum, I think this may be possible but will need to incorporate the modification codes (a lot?) in the theme files itself without changing the source code.

It is easy to design the same look in the OP but I am not sure whether it will work. I rather look at this as another SMF Fork rather than a new theme.

[PS4DEV]

At first, I don't really think this can be done just via a theme. A lot of modifications need to be done which involves other than just the template and the css files. I am still puzzled anyway on how all of these can be implemented if one doesn't want to change the source code or fork SMF. But then, after revisiting Argentum, I think this may be possible but will need to incorporate the modification codes (a lot?) in the theme files itself without changing the source code.

It is easy to design the same look in the OP but I am not sure whether it will work. I rather look at this as another SMF Fork rather than a new theme.

Principally you are right, at this point we wouldn´t talk about a theme anymore.
But i just wanna call it "theme" because it is ALL handled by the themes template, in which files i wrote new functions , like the sidebar for example.
That means you only have to install the theme to use the functions.
In this way there´s also no modification installed on this theme !
I hope that answered your request.

[bloc]

Indeed, thats exactly how I added features that were not part of themes really, to for example "Argentum Enhanced"(which I took away again later on). Whether thats a "clean" theme is up for debate, I like to call it a "theme framework", rather than a "theme" only.

A fork is quite another thing, you set out to change the whole codebase and Sources are primary the first thing you change then. I did a fork attempt, but incidentally ended up changing more of the theme system than Sources..so I could just as well put it into a "theme framework" or "supertheme", if you like. Which I am doing atm. I doubt it will ever be approved for the themesite here - but that is another cup of tea.

[PS4DEV]

hello guys !
I recently made a demo site availiable for you to check out the theme progress !
Well there´s still a lot to do and i have not that much time to develop , so you probably have to deal with some errors or bugs.

DEMO
To make use of the Features you will have to login. Todo that use an Test Acoount:

Testaccounts:
User: Test       PW: Test
User: Test2     PW: Test2
User: Test 3    PW: Test3

If you need an extra Acoount , send me a message.

[Hj Ahmad Rasyid Hj Ismail]

This is really great. This is what I called a social forum. The look can be changed later so it won't be like a full clone of FB. BUT overall that is very nice.

By the way, is this just a theme, or you have modified a lot of its source code too? I need to understand this "theme framework" thing more...

[PS4DEV]

This is really great. This is what I called a social forum. The look can be changed later so it won't be like a full clone of FB. BUT overall that is very nice.

By the way, is this just a theme, or you have modified a lot of its source code too? I need to understand this "theme framework" thing more...

Thank you very much.
No there´s nothing modified in the source code, it´s all done only via the theme. That means, all of the new functions are located in the template files.
And you are right a normal theme is actually only some design stuff. So that would go to the category theme framework, or whatever you will call it.

[Hj Ahmad Rasyid Hj Ismail]

Aah... That's impressive. Everything in a theme. Will you release these any time soon in SMF or elsewhere?

[Arantor]

I can guarantee you right now that this can't be approved on the main SMF theme site - there is simply no way to pull the content you're pulling in the theme without violating the theme guidelines. (No DB queries in templates.)

I'm also concerned about the potential for screwing up SEO as well.

Other than that, well done for copying Facebook's UI.