forcing template sets
 

visit my site: http://www.macsubculture.com/

notice the right column with calendar and shoutbox. now click my forum link and you will see my style selector pull down menu thing. select my shadowbane style. notice how the html for the calendar and shoutbox are different with that style? now click the portal link. see how the calendar and shoutbox don't match the OS X look of the portal? i have my portal set to keep the OS X look no matter what style the user has selected on the forums. but the templates for the calendar and shoutbox don't match.

can i put anything in my scripts to make the calendar and shoutbox use my OS X template set on the portal page?

In shoutbox.php force the template set to be OS X as well, and do the same with the calendar (I dunno where its file is).

but i want the shoutbox and calendar to use the user's style on the forum pages. forcing the style in the file would also force it on the forum pages (which i don't want).

perhaps i could duplicate and rename both files, include the new files in the portal script, and force the style stuff in the new files?

Use a flag variable. Like, if $inporta is 1, default to certain template sets. Otherwise, don't.
So before you include stuff FROM your portal main page, set $inportal to 1.
But use it like $_POST['inportal'] so people won't be able to set it thru the URL.

that makes sense. thx firefly.