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Templates should be equally inheritable as CSS files are. If I have ONE little change in ONE little template I have to duplicate all the other templates as well and I have to maintain all the possible changes afterwards in every template I want to change.

e.g. if I only want to change headerinclude, I have to create a whole new template set. I try to avoid that because I do not want to maintain the whole bunch of all the other templates that I want to stay the same.
so why not attach one template to many themes?
If I want e.g. headerinclude template to be different in every theme but the rest should stay the same, how does this suggestion help me?
Templates are no longer stored in the database, but are files. Therefore I think this could easily be done using some sort of code version control like git or svn. --> Not required as a feature.

Btw ... I do not get why this is much effort? The other templates are duplicated, yes, but the MyBB updater can update them, when changes are required and you only have to redo your changes to the one changed template on an upgrade of the template ... and you would have to do this either way ...
So you seriously think, every admin of a mybb board should know how to use code version control tools?
What is wrong with you guys? Why do you think that every admin is a tech freak? Most admins I know can hardly cope using the ACP fluently, they sure as hell cannot cope with a version control software. (No, not me, I could.) But they can struggle with changing html and sometimes they win. Why not build in a feature that makes it easier for everyone?

If you change a whole set of templates - and then you want to have one (or two?) template(s) that should be different in 4 themes then it is a mess to maintain. In old wbb (1.x as I recall...) all templates also were files. Every template that was not found in the theme-folder of the theme was taken from the default-folder. This was easy usage. I don't know why things have to be so complicated for the end user.
Yes I think everyone that runs a forum should have a basic technical understanding. Every admin deals with user data and runs a system that is available to a large amount of people - and some of them have an interest in damaging systems. So no, I do not expect, that everyone has a deep understanding of the underlying technologies, but a basic interest is absolutely necessary and using a VCS (not via commandline, but via GUI) is not that hard to learn ...

So ... all you guys are saying is - it's that much effort to ignore all templates, except for the changed one. But ignoring stuff I hardly care about (on every upgrade and that's a thing I should take my time for) is no problem for me. And even for the upgrade I can ignore the unchanged templates and only need to care about the changed one.

Sure having a system like in wbb 1 or like in wordpress with subfolders to overwrite theme files would be nice, but I currently do not see why it is worth the effort of implementing such a system.
Well, in every support forum we can see that reality teaches us otherwise. Most of the admins are proud of themselves if they manage to write HTML tables without breaking them.

No, I think, you do not understand the case I am trying to explain:
1) Change nearly EVERY template in the default folder. Let's say there are 100 templates.
2) Then you change one oder two of them in each theme. Let's say just one to make it more simple.
3) You have 4 themes.
4) A new upgrade comes. Let's say there are 50 changed templates you will have to adjust one by one so that you do not lose your changes.
5) In addition you want to change a default template once a week. (Perhaps because there is changable text statistic data in your footer and you do not know how to write a plugin for something like this....)

6a) Condition Now: => You adjust 50x4=200 templates because of the upgrade. Plus you change 4x1=4 templates once a week.

6b) Condition I want to achieve: => You adjust 50 templates because of the upgrade. Plus you change 1 template a week.

Again: point 5) does not affect me. I know how to write all the plugins I need. But I know numberless admins who do not. So they change texts weekly.
(2016-03-17, 09:53 AM)Amaryllion Wrote: [ -> ]Well, in every support forum we can see that reality teaches us otherwise. Most of the admins are proud of themselves if they manage to write HTML tables without breaking them.
Sure there are lots of really unexperienced people, but how long do those forums exist? Most of them not very long, so those are not the admins I really have in mind, that you need to convince of MyBB. And I would suggest 9 out of 10 forums that exist longer than 6 months have at least one admin that has a basic understanding of the underlying technologies.

Quote:No, I think, you do not understand the case I am trying to explain:
1) Change nearly EVERY template in the default folder. Let's say there are 100 templates.
2) Then you change one oder two of them in each theme. Let's say just one to make it more simple.
3) You have 4 themes.
4) A new upgrade comes. Let's say there are 50 changed templates you will have to adjust one by one so that you do not lose your changes.
5) In addition you want to change a default template once a week. (Perhaps because there is changable text statistic data in your footer and you do not know how to write a plugin for something like this....)

6a) Condition Now: => You adjust 50x4=200 templates because of the upgrade. Plus you change 4x1=4 templates once a week.

6b) Condition I want to achieve: => You adjust 50 templates because of the upgrade. Plus you change 1 template a week.

Again: point 5) does not affect me. I know how to write all the plugins I need. But I know numberless admins who do not. So they change texts weekly.
5) Shows that we really need a good widget system in 2.0 and that time should be spent on this issue, but time is limited ^^

To shorten your process - change the 50 templates on theme 1 to not loose you're changes. Export the theme, import it 3 times and copy + paste the one changed template each...

Makes 50 (unavoidable) + 3 (avoidable) changes = 53 ... Spend the time on a widget system --> You do not have to write a plugin and everyone can use this feature without template edits.

Btw ... the 50 unavoidable changes lead to 3 support threads --> the unexperienced admin is frustrated and gives up, because his forum has barely visitors and he is not willing to spend the time to fix the templates. He just wanted to be cool and have his own forum. And the technically experienced admin can learn how to use a version control system within two upgrades and one support thread each ^^

I'm not saying this feature would not be nice to have, but I just see other things as more important ^^
(2016-03-17, 09:21 AM)Nik101010 Wrote: [ -> ]Yes I think everyone that runs a forum should have a basic technical understanding. Every admin deals with user data and runs a system that is available to a large amount of people - and some of them have an interest in damaging systems. So no, I do not expect, that everyone has a deep understanding of the underlying technologies, but a basic interest is absolutely necessary and using a VCS (not via commandline, but via GUI) is not that hard to learn ...

So ... all you guys are saying is - it's that much effort to ignore all templates, except for the changed one. But ignoring stuff I hardly care about (on every upgrade and that's a thing I should take my time for) is no problem for me. And even for the upgrade I can ignore the unchanged templates and only need to care about the changed one.

Sure having a system like in wbb 1 or like in wordpress with subfolders to overwrite theme files would be nice, but I currently do not see why it is worth the effort of implementing such a system.

people like mybb because it's fairly easy to use. mybb 2.0 should continue this trend. the easier a product is to use, the more broad use it'll have....it's about as simple as that.

pushing away people who might not be all that technical is a TERRIBLE idea. hopefully the mybb dev team DOES NOT do this.
(2016-03-17, 08:47 PM)Nik101010 Wrote: [ -> ]Sure there are lots of really unexperienced people, but how long do those forums exist? Most of them not very long, so those are not the admins I really have in mind, that you need to convince of MyBB. And I would suggest 9 out of 10 forums that exist longer than 6 months have at least one admin that has a basic understanding of the underlying technologies.

This is very hypethetical and I would not dare to tell every admin to piss off and use other systems because he is no IT specialist. If you only want nerds to run a forum with MyBB then few people will use the software. Welcome to linux with command line.
There are thousands of boards that look bungled. But people are happy with it and they talk about non-IT subjects like pets and cars and motorbikes and games and stuff. Longer than 6 months.


(2016-03-17, 08:47 PM)Nik101010 Wrote: [ -> ]5) Shows that we really need a good widget system in 2.0 and that time should be spent on this issue, but time is limited ^^

I'm not saying this feature would not be nice to have, but I just see other things as more important ^^

Yes. More important. Like getting facebook-likes. And avatars beside the forum titles. And two email adresses. And edit image sizes with a forums software. And implementing a communication center besides all the forums and posts. And restyling the member list.

More than half of these you could manage with plugins or simple template changes. I would think core features are features that cannot be managed with plugins.
And it would simply be a "fall back template system" that simply grabs default templates if it does not find a theme template. Similar how CSS is treated in MyBB.
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