MyBB Community Forums

Hello everyone,

I've searched this site and Google as well as I know how, but I've yet to come across any results in detail, so I figured I'd ask.

Has anyone attempted to code a myBB template without using tables, just XHTML and CSS?

I'm interested in trying that as a project, but it'd be helpful if anyone had done something similar already. I can do it by trial and error of course, but having a road map does help to cut some time off that.

I found the myBB Wiki, which was helpful, but it seemed incomplete in some ways - unless I'm missing something (equally possible), I didn't really see a list of required files, and the list of variables to call didn't seem very complete either. But I admit that could just be my oversight - or I could be missing the obvious and those things aren't necessary (or can be pulled from the default skin).

Any insight, resources, or pointing out obvious things I missed would be appreciated

I figured I might as well update. I still haven't found anyone attempting this, so I decided to tackle the project myself.

It's shaping up to be a somewhat big task, with all the template files to account for, but I'm working from a few large HTML files that I'll break down into the smaller template files as needed. Not a hard process, but definitely time-consuming.

Assuming I actually finish this, I'll very likely release the basic code for public use (if anyone's interested in a table-free theme, that is).

Cheers!

Very interesting I considered doing this at one time, but I am not advanced enough to do this. The problem with this type of theme however, is the compatibility with plugins. Plugins that require theme edits and replacements could mess up the entire page.

This is something we will be doing for 2. Until then, you'll have to figure it out. It will require quite a lot of work, as more than 60% of the templates are Table-based.

Ha, so I'm discovering! You developers sure did make these templates flexible

The coding isn't that hard in itself - it's just time-consuming to convert the tables to XTHML equivalents.

Though as I'm going through this, I almost have to ask if it's worth it. Granted I am not an expert on XHTML/CSS coding by any stretch, and I'm probably going about this backwards anyway, but the approach I'm taking is trying to mimic the default theme first, then go from there.

It's easy enough to make the HTML resemble the table structure, but the thing is, it ends up being just about as much code as a table. I'm exaggerating a bit, but it is still a bit of a heavier design than I'd thought it'd be. I suppose from the standpoint of semantic markup and a design perspective, it's still the "better" approach.

I am concerned now about the potential for mucking around with plugins, too. That's something I didn't consider. I assume that's something that will be handled for v.2?

What I may do after getting this first stage out of the way is go back and try to create something that departs somewhat from the familiar table-ish layouts that are common in forums. That might be a niche market, depending on the site, but it could be nifty to have around.

Thanks for the information, too.

Nice Idea and good luck making it tableless, MattP220

be sure to tell us what hell looks like once you're out of there