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Full Version: Community template critique [MyBB 1.6]
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As many know, MyBB 1.6 has 594 templates. Because there are so many it is hard to have a really good picture of all of them or even find out which ones of them are worth preserving, which ones are questionable and which should be removed, and what to do to those templates.

The idea here would be to generate a list of opinions by those who do customize templates for each individual template. I'm documenting my own findings (and opinions) into a spreadsheet which I've shared here. Maybe we can make it a Google document or something if there is enough interest to get these properly documented.

I know 1.8 will already have some differences, but since it isn't out yet it is better to focus to the latest stable that we do have available. Also there ought to be a lot of experience and memories by theme authors by now so I hope you can share these into something that could help MyBB team to develop the template system of 2.0 in such a way that it avoids pitfalls of the current system, and maybe even get even more or better changes to the upcoming 1.8! (A man can wish, right?)


The initial attachment here contains a table with five columns:
  • Template name
  • Full page (is the page a full <html>...</html> structure page?)
  • Empty (my own use: do I use this template in the responsive theme?)
  • Notes (comments/opinions/suggestions)
  • Preserve? (yes/maybe/no: should the template be removed by changes in another template and by making the template engine better?)

The few notes are what I could recall from the top of my head, I didn't want to go through everything at once especially as I haven't worked with all the templates yet. That ought to be a good way for everyone: point out templates you've struggled with or find troublesome to work with or if they have a confusing name, but don't try to go through all at once.

I don't know how much real demand there is for this or if this is a good idea at all, but I'll try to keep up with this whatever comes this way.
I agree, MyBB does have a lot of templates, although I don't really mind to be honest. I enjoy having nearly all of the HTML code to my forum at my fingertips from the ACP. Toungue

If I could improve anything about the templates currently, I would improve the header_welcomeblock templates. Right now, many themes use the welcome block for some kind of toolbar the top of the page. If someone wants to add a welcome banner for guests only, they have to use template conditionals in the header template if the theme is significantly overhauled from the original MyBB theme.

I'd also like to see avatars loading by default on some pages. The FLP avatar plugin already does a good job of that currently, but many themes look much better with the avatars, and and as a beginning theme designer, I feel that having to design themes assuming that users won't have any plugins seems a little limiting.

I also found the forumbit templates a little confusing. Maybe it was just me, but the names for those templates didn't really make sense, and for subforums, you actually have to edit a template on the forum display templates as well. It's not difficult once you've actually located the templates, but at first glance, it was very confusing for me.

Other than that, I really like the template system. It is yet another great aspect of MyBB that separates it from every other free forum software I've seen so far.
Personally I hate template files. I had to deal with them on phpBB back in the day, and it was always a nightmare. I much prefer MyBB's built in template editing system.
That is a preference, and I admit I do like files more as I am a power user and quite used to templates as files; however we shouldn't be talking about template files vs. build-in editor here and we're not trying to force into doing some specific change. I'd rather see experiences and opinions on what is wrong with the current system so that this information could eventually lead into removing annoyances and in general making the system better in many ways and thus more powerful, flexible and user friendly.

Darth's post for example contains some valuable information and on those I also agree on avatars being nice to have. I haven't installed FLP avatar plugin but I guess it has to work with tables and that it requires quite big changes which easily break any customized theme that doesn't follow the original HTML syntax exactly as it is.

Ideal would be that plugins add HTML and can do that without worrying of breaking a customized theme, and theme authors would only need to change CSS. Forum owners should be able to change the order of HTML if they need to without the fear of breaking things. This isn't possible with 1.6 nor with 1.8. I think I can partially solve these issues with the responsive template I'm working on, but that of course won't be compatible with anything that exists right now. And it is out of scope on this thread anyway.