skin selector dropdown on main forum page

ok for those of you who want(ed) a skin selector on the main page of their forum, this is my little release of code.. i'm sure this could probably be done better somehow, but this 'hack' alone took me a good 45 minutes just to figure out.. this is what i call a skin selector, but technically it just changes the styleid of the skin the user selects into the active styleid all in a dropdown.. the same type of dropdown exists on the User CP - Edit Options screen under Style Set as well.

basically the purpose of this code is to provide a much-needed shortcut on the forum's main page if your forum has multiple templatesets (aka 'skins').. so in other words your users don't have to go to User CP - Edit Profile - Style Set - (choose from dropdown) - Submit Modifications, etc..

<form>
<select name="newstyleset" onChange="location.href=('index.php?styleid='+this.options[form.newstyleset.selectedIndex].value)">
<option selected>[skin selector]</option><option value="1">default</option>
<option value="2">custom skin #2</option>
<option value="3">custom skin #3</option>
</select>
</form>

note: each "option value" number is the style id for each template set, so change it according to the numbers and names of your style sets.

i'd recommend you put this code on your forumhome template for each template set (aka skin) you have, preferrably at the top, so users can change skins on a dime.. you can see this little doozy in action @ www.somethingleet.com/index.php near the top right side.

bugs: none except for 1 i know of, basically this dropdown adds some unneeded line feeds.. i'm still trying to find an onchange dropdown list that doesnt add line feeds because of the </form> tag. you can change it to a normal dropdown with a go button instead if you want though.

also if you know of any better way(s) of doing this little hack, please lemme know by all means.

[Shadowwalker]

I notice that I had to edit the the style it would start in. I think it should be redone in php so it would be automatic.

[jam583]

Anyone made it automatic yet and would be so kind to post the code?

[Juanito]

This is perfect! Simple but really efficient for one special board with loads of flash and small typos. I've made alternative displays and it's so cool they can chage it this way, Flash, non flash, larger types etc... Thanks!

[Sc0rpion]

Ditto Juanito's post,
works a treat for me, thankyou

[Jawelin]

O-T: is it possible to create different skins - basically different color and button sets - (selectable by this combo box) WITHOUT creating new templatesets ?
I fear to have to modify branches of templates when I'll add more hacks in a multi-style environment.

Asked a lot (vb.com & vb.org) for help, but...
Thanks