Add Large Header Image With CSS And Links?

[stephenbrennan]

I'm actually building a landing page for a network of websites under my brand. Yesterday I had the inspiration to place a forum on the landing page, just to make it more interesting, but the site's main purpose is still to showcase links to the other websites.

I've never had a forum of any kind before. I know HTML, Javascript, and a little CSS, but nothing about SMF's inner workings. So far I've succeeded in changing themes and customizing categories, etc. The goal is to place a large collage of images at the head of the page, as hyperlinks.

Came across a mod called "Custom Blocks" this morning that may have done what I wanted, but it gave me a whole log of "failed test" warnings when I started installing it, so I aborted.

The other option I'm considering is to build the website as I typically would, and then embed SMF as an object farther down the page. It has the benefit of letting me use the web design knowledge I already have, and leaving SMF alone with minimal modifications, so I don't end up with some Frankenstein's monster website that bites me in the ass down the road. I'm reasonably sure it's doable.

So has anyone set their forum up the same way? Love to hear your thoughts.

[Sir Osis of Liver]

It's not difficult to do something like this.  Custom blocks mod will install without error in default Curve theme, may need some manual editing in custom theme, but should do what you want, or you can modify index.template.php manually.  Which theme are you using?

[stephenbrennan]

Yes, that's more or less what I'm looking for. I'm using the Moving Company theme. It's fairly trim, not too fancy. Maybe I'll give Custom Blocks another try.

[Sir Osis of Liver]

You'll have to do two manual edits in Moving Company index.template.php.  Click on the widget left side where error is displayed, it will show you the code.

[stephenbrennan]

Thanks. I tried getting Custom Blocks to work but it wasn't worth the headache. I went into index.template.php and found a place where I could insert an object tag, I think it was after line 168 inside the theme's "header" div tag.

I set up the object to import a simple external page I made, with the pictures, links, etc, and it looks like it's going to work nicely. Thanks again!