is there a limit to how many custom sprites i can make ..as i get 1 working ok then make another and its not spriting the image...thanks

@tmiland
have you made the template changes?

@doctorsexy
No limit, can you show me the exact code you are using for the custom icon right now + the names of two icons you want to add?
(i think the code changed in 0.8.0 that's why i'm asking, so i can't compare it to our version)

I installed the template mod. system, so yes? :)

@ Moof
the code is this


<span class="sprite_custom_siteicons_logo" title=""></span>

works ok
and this..
<span class="sprite_custom_siteicons_whobar" title=""></span>
dosnt work ..but dose when i disable the first one
All the files are in the same folder ...siteicons....

its more than likely my interpretation of your code.. sorry but we all have to learn..
thanks for your help..:D

@tmiland
Can you try to reinstall the addon and check for error messages during the installation? And can you check if the sprite changes are in your templates? (check the template code, look for css classed named sprite_ )

@doctorsexy
The last item in an php array is not supposed to have a comma, change your code to:
And it should work. =)

@ Moof

Tried it but didn't work... when i look where the sprite is supposed to be in the sprite file its not there..is there a size limit on how may sprites it can put in the file...thanks

I get a this error message: "vB4 Default Style
Error occurred: Your sprite folder uses an URL. Sprites cannot be saved via URLs. Please use an local filepath on your system for the stylevar imgdir_sprite."

I am serving all my images from images.mydomain.net, obviously that is not working :P

has to be from a local filepath, NOT a URL. As it states... images.mydomain.net should be pointing to a filepath on your system done via DNS. find the actual filepath to your images and put that (linux would be something like /var/www/html/mysite/images or windows c:\xampp\docs\html\mysite\images)

Where do i change that? :-)

~Tommy

I lost all my images????

http://forums.acsyndicate.net/forum.php

Database error in vBulletin 4.1.7:

Invalid SQL:
SELECT styleid FROM `style` WHERE styleid > LIMIT 1;

MySQL Error : You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 'LIMIT 1' at line 1
Error Number : 1064
Request Date : Monday, November 14th 2011 @ 03:16:21 AM
Error Date : Monday, November 14th 2011 @ 03:16:21 AM
Script : http://forums.acsyndicate.net/adminc...resh&startat=0
Referrer : http://forums.acsyndicate.net/adminc...php?do=refresh
IP Address : 98.229.57.189
Username : rjmjr69
Classname : vB_Database
MySQL Version : 5.1.56

First let me thank you for the awesome mod! Great work so far, I'm almost back at pre-vB4 performance. I'm looking forward to the showthread update.

I'm trying to add custom images to the sprite sheet and I'm not able to add more than 1 for some reason. I used the instructions and created 2 plugins for 2 icons. When running Refresh (should be named "Regenerate" or "Rebuild") it does show Custom icons: 2, but it only adds one to the sheet and throws a path error for the second. For some reason it adds the local server path "twice" to the second icon. I'm using the full and same url in both cases, just the image file names are different. Any ideas?

Also let me know how I can make a donation (edit: duh..., must have logged out or something and missed the option.)


On a similar note, and I'm sure there are plenty of other good ones, I'm using http://www.websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/ to analyze the results online.

I have the same problem...

Shared misery then :)

However, I read your post and you seem to get an error message complaining about an URL, while mine just claims the image is not at the path it constructed, for example, the path for the second custom icon as it appears in the error when running Refresh is:

/var/www/virtualhosts/example.com/httpdocs/var/www/virtualhosts/example.com/httpdocs/images/customicon1.png

Notice how it repeats a portion of the server path.

work whit vb 4.0.4?

It will only make one custom sprite image in the folder..the second one it says its there when its not....funny:)

I must be getting blind... didn't notice you already posted your plugin code per Moof's request.

Right, that's exactly the same behavior I get. Hopefully it will be resolved in a future beta. This is probably said about tons of mods, but I really think this shouldn't be a mod but a feature of vB itself.

Also after the 4.1.8 update it dosent sprite the sub forums speech bubble image either

Thanks for the info, not going to Refresh it on 4.1.8 unless Mooff posts an update. I decided to extend the sprite sheet manually by using the blank space on the sheet for now.

Is this thing stable or not?

I wanted to add this to my 4.0.7 forum, but it has since become in 'beta stage' which is a bit disappointing.

If I install this mod on my forum will it work or not?

Also, if I do install this mod as instructed, and it breaks my forum, can I just uninstall it and delete the files and all will be back to normal?

I just don't want to put my forum at risk by using an add-on that's not working properly, but would love to use it if someone can assure me it's going to work and what to do if it doesn't work properly.

It's working fine for me, I can't confirm 4.0.7 specifically but the beta seems to refer more to it being unfinished rather than unstable.

I suggest creating a child style of your own and make the template modifications there (if you're going to make those manually), but if if you revert those you can easily change back. It's more a cosmetic thing.

The main thing it does is give you an additional option in the admin panel, which you can use to generate the sprite image.

There seems to be a problem with adding more than one custom icon but with just the standard icons it includes by default it's still a very useful mod.

That said, you should always create a backup before making changes like this.

Thanks Johan.

I'm not sure I understand the custom icon feature...

I don't really want this mod to 'change' any of my existing icons, do I have to do that with this?

I was under the impression that I install this thing, and it will take care of the rest, and my site will load faster... Is that correct or is there more to this than I realize?

It won't change anything you will tell it to change. The custom icon feature is optional, you can ignore it.

That's correct. Just follow the installation instructions above. If you don't use the Template Modification System (TMS) you need to make quite a few template modifications manually.

Your site will load faster, and it can reduce server loads noticeably. The actually difference depends on how much visitors your site receives however. In particular the forum home and forum display pages will load faster and that's important for search engine rankings as well. Since vBulletin is pretty slow by default this is one of several things you can do to speed up the forums and I'll take anything that makes it a more smooth experience for my visitors.

I absolutely agree on the load times.

You mentioned it depends on how many visitors I get, I'm getting around 1500 visitors a day.

Yeah, but I only meant that in regards to reducing server loads. Whether you have 1500 per day like you, or 15,000 per day like me, as I mentioned earlier in this thread, I truly believe sprites should be used by default in vBulletin. It's one of the great things about the new CKeditor, which also uses a spritesheet for it's buttons/controls.

What's the 'do not upload' folder for??

There's a template_changes.diff file in there, am i not supposed to do anything with it?

Why is it even in there in the first place if I'm not supposed to upload it??

That's file contains the template changes you need to make manually IF you do NOT use TMS.

As mentioned in the installation instructions above:

Will this still work if I install the template modification system addon, then install this one, then uninstall the template modification system addon when it's done?

The TMS addon puts a sitewide branding link back to their site in the footer of the forum, which is quite disappointing, and I want to avoid this but there's ALOT of template changes and I don't want to mess anything up.

So can i do that? Install TMS just to make this add-on install easier then uninstall TMS?

i don't think this helped me.. i got a 59 for my site.. i must've installed something wrong.

Pls make an update for vbb 4.1.8

Combining images into sprites is good for only a small portion of your total page speed score. With a 59 you should be looking at many other improvements. I added Xcache and mod_deflate (instead of vB gzip option) and I do have a score of 96 now.

Yes pls do. :up:

I didn't run the Refresh option after upgrading to 4.1.8 and it still works fine. Just make sure the upgrade doesn't wipe your template modifications if you made them manually.

Sounds like a bad idea. I'm not really familiar with TMS but I think if you remove TMS you remove the template modifications as well. It's not as hard as it seems to make those modifications manually, plus you can test them out every time you changed a template before moving on to the next.

I would love a vb3 version.

Ok first of all thanks for this great mode and i hope it will be finished.
Second this is mi first refresh so i hope it is ok
And in the end one question:
The refresh is done automatic or i have to do it manual.If its only manual chan we create a schedule with vb task?

EDIT: it removed all my custom forum icons :(
How can i make it to make sprites from the forum icons?
When i enable the sprites plugins it deactivates the forum advaced icons.

I have tested this out on a small forum of mine (vb4.1.8 + TMS), and the forum icons are gone too. How can I fix this?

The TMS footer is an issue, as it has an adverse effect on SEO.

Please offer this to vBS for inclusion in the stock vbulletin release.

uninstalled until incompatibiliti with custom forum icons is fixed

Are the icons in the sprite? Meaning, manually open the png and check whether they are there.
If they are it is possible that in vb4.1.8 the forumbit templates changed in a way that the automatic templatemodifications programmed for the TMS do not work anymore. Then you would have to manually correct those templates.

We are currently in the process of updating our forums (not the addon!) and will do modifications there if necessary, but probably won't have time to program new TMS rules anytime soon cause we anticipate the new command and conquer beeing announced on december 10th. Since we are a c&c board this will then be our primary focus and is going to eat up all our time. ;)

Meaning once the templates are fixed i can post how they have to look in the default style so you can do the changes manually.

Yes, the sprites images are there, but the images of sprites01-left.png do not show. The images in sprites02-left.png do show up.

I'm not sure about the nameing conventions anymore in 0.7.2, but sprite01 should be a different style than sprite02. Can you check if the templates are modified accordingly in style id 1?

Thats probably the issue.

This looks like a lot of extra work?Cant this plugin be made to work without the TMS plugin since the TMS plugin its not even supported anymore?

Osbes came up with a great idea to automatize the template changes, but we need a php-hook for it. He just started a jira-report on it. Please vote for that hook, so we can improve the addon:
http://tracker.vbulletin.com/browse/VBIV-13825

Cheers