Style development information

[Squid]

I just spent an hour or so cleaning up some stuff in the styles, so I think I'm going to layout some rules for how styles should be worked on.

1. Do not change any templates
2. The folder structure for styles is that all styles will have a sub directory within the images folder (the way we did it under vb3 is not maintainable)
3. Do not host any images for the styles either as an attachment or offsite (i.e. imageshak, etc)
4. Pursuant to the above if you need to upload images let tech know so we can, with GED/my approval, grant access to the web interface that will allow you to upload files to the images directory
5. Do not change any templates

If I think of any more things I want followed as rules I'll post them here.

[GrnEyedDvl]

I set y2days root folder to www/forums so he can grab stuff out of the old skin folders, and pointed him to this post so he knows how you want new images set up.

[y2day]

Ya sorry Squid before I had access I was hosting images in my profile to test out the new skin. I will make sure I move them and keep everything in my folder under images. I set mine up originally as it was in VB3, Sorry about that.

[Squid]

No worries. For the web interface I changed your root folder to forums/images, and since I moved your skin folder to within the images (i.e. images/y2skin) you'll be able to grab whatever you need from the default images.

As for the rules, both Sim and I grumbled over the number of customized templates we had in the old structure, most of which weren't necessary if the styles had been made using vb3 stylevar's instead of altering templates. This way there are rules laid out that can be referred to.

The one template you can change is the additional.css template since it does not require merging with upgrades to vbulletin, but only use it if you need to add a new css rule. The template additional.css is always the last css template loaded so if you add a rule for an already created class it will override any previous set css styling that you specifiy.

@GED, I'd moved this root to the image directory after I'd moved the directory for his skin into it. From forums/images he has access to all style images including his own.

[GrnEyedDvl]

I am fine with how you have it setup and since you are the one that fixes this stuff when there is a problem then you can make any rules you want. Anything that makes it easier to upgrade or maintain is fine by me.

Which is why I am now going to point you to the ads instead of hacking up the global file myself.

I noticed in the admincp that neither you nor I had permissions for some of the new stuff, that has been changed though only for the two of us. I also need to stick our userid's in the protected list, I will get that done in a minute.

The Ad Manager for vBulletin 4 is actually fairly decent compared to the way we used to do it. We currently have CPM at the top, AdSense the next one down, and then GAO and CPM again at the bottom using the default Global template. MCC is getting better CPC on AdSense so I threw that tag in the mix and kept our cap at 4 ads.

However as you can see the top one is aligned left, this is because there area actually 2 slots on the top banner and I can either choose left or right. There is no option to center it and I didnt want to mess with that template until I mentioned it to you. It also seems to have moved the Account information links like My Account and My Profile, they are floating now.

The AdSense ad would normally be aligned left as well, I just threw in a div and centered it.

The bottom ad slot actually has two ad codes in it, which works, but there needs to be a space between them. I will throw in a paragraph tag and see if that looks better.

And last but not least, in the Advertising section is a new Skimlinks section. Is that the one you used to setup Skimlinks or did you port the old plugin?

[y2day]

Thanks Squid but I also need access to the old Skins. Can you copy them to the images directory? I hope to create new skins out of them once I have the new default TWC skin done.

Thanks

[y2day]

Squid or GED - I need access to the Forum directory or the old skin folders moved/copied to the images directory. I hope to get at least another skin going this weekend and will need access to the old skin's files.

Also can someone look into this? The image "contentbox.png" found in images/misc was not a default image. I created it and uploaded it to the default misc folder after looking at a forum page source in firefox and seeing it look to that directory for the contentbox image. I copied the misc folder to my folder "y2skin" and changed the imgdir_misc to images/y2skin/misc and then moved the contentbox.png file to my directory. Changing the imgdir_misc to my folder didn't make the directory change when looking at the page source in firefox and the image of the contentbox didn't show. I moved it back to the default image/misc folder and it shows up. I guess this is because of a hack? or template change? I know when we create new skins we will want different content box images, so this will have to be addressed unless we have to create one default image for all skins. Either way let me know.

thanks
y

[Squid]

Squid or GED - I need access to the Forum directory or the old skin folders moved/copied to the images directory. I hope to get at least another skin going this weekend and will need access to the old skin's files.

Also can someone look into this? The image "contentbox.png" found in images/misc was not a default image. I created it and uploaded it to the default misc folder after looking at a forum page source in firefox and seeing it look to that directory for the contentbox image. I copied the misc folder to my folder "y2skin" and changed the imgdir_misc to images/y2skin/misc and then moved the contentbox.png file to my directory. Changing the imgdir_misc to my folder didn't make the directory change when looking at the page source in firefox and the image of the contentbox didn't show. I moved it back to the default image/misc folder and it shows up. I guess this is because of a hack? or template change? I know when we create new skins we will want different content box images, so this will have to be addressed unless we have to create one default image for all skins. Either way let me know.

thanks
y

I'll get to this on Monday.

[y2day]

No hurry Squid. With the site being so slow right now I don't have the patience to work on skins. You could also zip the folders for the old skins up and let me download them if you wanted. That way you wouldn't have to worry about me having access to anything else. Either way is fine with me. It will just be easier than trying to recreate the work in the future.

[y2day]

I still don't have access to the old files, and is someone going to address the REP system? I could give the rep system a go if I had the permissions to do so.

I haven't done much with the Rome II skin because of RL and the site issues. After I finish the Rome II skin I will want to have the access to the old files.