2015-10-08, 10:19 AM
May I suggest for the new MyBB to be able to work with flat files and bypass cache and database for *both* stylesheets and templates.
I am new to MyBB. With 1.8.6 I couldn't find a way to efficiently work on a custom theme. I asked in the theme development forum for a solution and the only thing that was suggested is a modification, which also works only for Sublime Text editor. So I ended up hacking css.php to bypass the cache if I have a flat file present in a theme/ folder. .. and that takes care only of the stylesheets.
Backups
So I am still left with templates in the database. So everytime I do backups of my Git repo.. all the work I put in the large selection of templates... is potentially lost if I make a mistake and replace my local database (which is a likely event, since it is just a test database for trying out plugins and the like). Thus I have to make sure to remember to export the templates table. Export via admin is not an option, because that's slow and manual. So I have to add mysqldump to my backup script to make sure I don't lose my templates work if I don't pay attention.
Inefficient
There really ought to be a better way for experienced developers and designers to work with flat files for both stylesheets and templates. There are so many templates and I am new to MyBB therefore to learn my way around I have to search a lot. Since I don't have access to flat files, I have to use mysql queries in order to find out if a string exists in this or that template. I can't use my usual search tools (Terminal+grep, or your typical "search in folder" GUI of your text editor of choice).
Collaboration
Say I want to put the custom theme for my forum on github, and allow users to make tweaks here and there. How do I do that? I don't want to give them direct access to the admin or live template. But I'd like to let them suggest changes, or create a variant of the theme (eg. a dark theme, if I only made a light one), that I can import later after I reviewed it.
Now one issue I can see is that there are so many templates. But honestly I'd still rather work with a folder with hundreds of template files, then nothing at all (since they are named rather consistently, that helps a lot navigate them).
I'd suggest a method similar to the modding of games such as Skyrim : have a setting in admin that enable the use of flat files; If file is present in theme folder, use it and ignore the cache (something like this with a mod_rewrite rule). And add a button to "import" the flat files into the database. Once you go in production you 1) import the flat files 2) disable the "use of flat files" and that's it.
I am new to MyBB. With 1.8.6 I couldn't find a way to efficiently work on a custom theme. I asked in the theme development forum for a solution and the only thing that was suggested is a modification, which also works only for Sublime Text editor. So I ended up hacking css.php to bypass the cache if I have a flat file present in a theme/ folder. .. and that takes care only of the stylesheets.
Backups
So I am still left with templates in the database. So everytime I do backups of my Git repo.. all the work I put in the large selection of templates... is potentially lost if I make a mistake and replace my local database (which is a likely event, since it is just a test database for trying out plugins and the like). Thus I have to make sure to remember to export the templates table. Export via admin is not an option, because that's slow and manual. So I have to add mysqldump to my backup script to make sure I don't lose my templates work if I don't pay attention.
Inefficient
There really ought to be a better way for experienced developers and designers to work with flat files for both stylesheets and templates. There are so many templates and I am new to MyBB therefore to learn my way around I have to search a lot. Since I don't have access to flat files, I have to use mysql queries in order to find out if a string exists in this or that template. I can't use my usual search tools (Terminal+grep, or your typical "search in folder" GUI of your text editor of choice).
Collaboration
Say I want to put the custom theme for my forum on github, and allow users to make tweaks here and there. How do I do that? I don't want to give them direct access to the admin or live template. But I'd like to let them suggest changes, or create a variant of the theme (eg. a dark theme, if I only made a light one), that I can import later after I reviewed it.
Now one issue I can see is that there are so many templates. But honestly I'd still rather work with a folder with hundreds of template files, then nothing at all (since they are named rather consistently, that helps a lot navigate them).
I'd suggest a method similar to the modding of games such as Skyrim : have a setting in admin that enable the use of flat files; If file is present in theme folder, use it and ignore the cache (something like this with a mod_rewrite rule). And add a button to "import" the flat files into the database. Once you go in production you 1) import the flat files 2) disable the "use of flat files" and that's it.