360 CHAPTER 12 STYLING PHPBB You now (Web server address)
360 CHAPTER 12 STYLING PHPBB You now likely have a subSilver board wrapped in your site s colors and layout. That s good progress, and you ve completed about half of the job. Now is a good time to visit your pages and make sure there are no major problems in terms of layout or other areas. I recommend using multiple browsers to do this, as some browsers will catch errors that others may ignore. If you find some problems with the layout, double-check that all the code you ve inserted is correct and works well with the existing pages. You may find that you have additional tweaking to do in your header and footer templates. Generally, it s always better to get these major layout errors out of the way sooner rather than later. After you ve verified that your layout and the existing phpBB pages are in harmony, it s time to take on the other half of the job: tweaking the tables, images, and other miscellaneous items scattered throughout to fit your web site s design and color scheme. Customizing Pages You should concentrate on modifying the pages that are the most frequently visited, and thus templated: index_body.tpl, viewforum_body.tpl, viewtopic_body.tpl, and posting_body.tpl. How you make those pages look can largely dictate how the rest of the forum looks. Those four templates are the ones I recommend that you spend the most time on initially. (If the error box is the first thing your users see rather than the Forum Index page, chances are you have bigger problems to resolve at the moment.) Try to stick to the subSilver coding where you can, but do feel free to edit the tables accordingly. When you find a style of tables that you like, you can then begin implementing that on other pages throughout the site. Changing Graphics After you have your code straightened out, you can change into graphic designer mode. You ll want to alter, in some way, the graphics listed earlier in Tables 12-3 and 12-4, to help your site s integration. If your site uses a dark-blue background in some of the tables and also the sub- Silver-colored graphics, you ll notice a serious clash. If you re integrating phpBB into your main web site, redoing the graphics is a must for the professional appearance you want. You can search some of the phpBB styles sites for graphics that match your new custom template, or you can modify the existing graphics. If you are feeling really ambitious, you can try your hand at creating your own graphics. This can be a fun and rewarding way to put your stamp on your forums. Plus, there s no feeling quite like when you can honestly say, Yes, I did all the graphics. Caution If you decide to edit some of the language-sensitive graphics (listed in Table 12-4), make sure you can provide translations for each of the language packs you have installed. Failing to do so will likely result in inconsistency and a language pack that s effectively broken. Plus, you run the risk of alienating visitors who use those language packs. When you change the graphics of your template, it is often easier to stick with the sub- Silver naming convention versus going with your own. This prevents you from having to do heavy editing on your template configuration file (the template.cfg file, where template corresponds to the name of the folder your template resides in) to reflect these changes.
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