Suite Style - Iconic

What is it?
Iconic is a style that had two goals in mind:

1. Reduce overall HTTP request overheads from loading tons of images
2. Make the icons way more tolerant to style color changes.

I achieved both by using a package called Font Awesome by Dave Gandy (http://fontawesome.io/)


Big deal, what does that even matter?
I?ll take a moment to tell you, assuming you?ve done everything else possible to optimize the software, reducing HTTP requests is the next best thing you can do.

The forum home
The default forumhome page, on a default installation, has about 29 HTTP requests. The broad majority of these requests are going to be for your images on your site/domain. Browsers are limited by the number of request that a single domain is allowed to download at the same time. It?s a big reason why using a CDN for your js and images is such a huge improvement.
The Iconic forumhome has 15 requests, on a default installation. The only _tiny_ downside is that we added 50~kb of css/font, as a ONE TIME cache. We?ve replaced the majority of the /images/ folder with a single call, on an external CDN.



Future versions

• Finish the threadbit template, there is a lot of work to be done here
• Clean & Organize the CSS
• Polish remaining templates
  • Member Info
  • UserCP
  • Calendar
  • Advanced Search
  • Blogs
  • CMS
• Release brand free version
• More attachment type support, if requested

Known Issues

• The fonts look a bit pixelated in chrome and IE8 in some places.
  • For Chrome please let me know where these are occurring that bother you and I?ll work on sorting it out on an icon by icon basis in the style.
• Multi-quote isn?t supported right now.
• Double Click to Mark Read (on forumhome) isn?t working. Requires an image to be clicked on.
• Double Click to Lock topics likely won?t work, due to loss of image

Change log

Beta 0.5.1

• Fixed a threadbit issue, where the background was still popping up and the icon wouldn't show right.
• Fixed search_threadbit template for above issue
• fixed iconic.css for above issue

Beta 0.5.0

• FontAwesome update to 4.1.0, means new icons
• Threadbit is updated now, please report any issues with it
• search_threadbit has some of the above threadbit changes, but not all.
• postbit reported icon is now the bomb icon, instead of the triangle.
• postbit new post icon is now different.
• Added icons to showthread template menus
• Fixed issues with the forumhome_levelX_* templates
• bbcode_quote template has some updates, still WIP
• fixed issue with sticky threads
• Fixed forumhome birthday icon
• Fixed forumhome calendar icon
• updated forumdisplay to reflect the new threadbit updates
• Updated the attachment icon's a bit thanks to the new font awesome update

Beta 0.4.0

• Fixed Quick Edit, postbit_legacy template updated
• Moved CSS out of additional.css to iconic.css
• Updated headinclude_bottom to reflect this change
• forumdisplay template got some minor tweaks

Alpha 0.3.2

• Fixed an issue where short announcements the bullhorn overflowed.

Alpha 0.3.1

• Fixed an issue with the threadbits showing the wrong post icon, TL:DR I?m stupid.

Alpha 0.3.0

• First release

Terms of Use, In plain English:

• You are free to use the style on any vBulletin site you wish.
• Please leave my copyright intact, if you wish to remove the branding, please support my work*
• You are not required to leave the link back to font awesome in place, per the license terms of the font awesome project.
• You won't hold me liable for damages, because of the style.

* I'll work out something for branding free when we get to non-beta. If you'd like to support me now, please send me a PM.


Ugh enough already, where are the screen shots right?

IE:
http://styles.zacherywoods.com/iconic/preview/IE-2.png

Firefox:
http://styles.zacherywoods.com/iconic/preview/FF-1.png
http://styles.zacherywoods.com/iconic/preview/FF-2.png
http://styles.zacherywoods.com/iconic/preview/FF-3.png

Chrome:
http://styles.zacherywoods.com/iconic/preview/CH-1.png
http://styles.zacherywoods.com/iconic/preview/CH-2.png
http://styles.zacherywoods.com/iconic/preview/CH-3.png

Current Live demo

[Zachery]

Are you on the latest firefox build?

[blackberry]

Originally Posted by Zachery

Are you on the latest firefox build?

its 31.0

[Zachery]

It looks like you're using the "standard" postbit,. I haven't updated that one yet. It only works with the postbit_legacy template/ setting.

[blackberry]

Originally Posted by Zachery

It looks like you're using the "standard" postbit,. I haven't updated that one yet. It only works with the postbit_legacy template/ setting.

will you update it for post-bit? how can i show in IE but not chrome or firefox :-s

[lazytown]

Interesting idea and I encourage you to finish it.

Does this have much benefit over using something like CSS sprites? Sprites will also reduce http requests significantly.

Would this have any impact on SEO whatsoever (other that page speed increase)? If you're using "fonts" for images, I wonder if google will see the image as some type of strange character.

[Zachery]

Right this moment, its on hold. I'm in the final steps of moving my life to another country. Unless a really terrible bug rolls along I wouldn't expect another update soon (30-60 days)

As for google, the page should load faster. While CSS sprites are good, I think you'd be hard pressed to do your css sprite(s) under 60k total, for everything.

Most everything still has the correct title marks filled in, so google should be taking it from that. I think the thread display still needs to get cleaned up a bit, but otherwise should be fine.

[Zachery]

Speaking of which, I am now in a new country.

I'll be updating the package to use FA 4.2.0 and updating some icons in places.

I'll continue to work on bugs and expand the projects scope as covered by the Future versions list.

[blackberry]

Originally Posted by Zachery

Speaking of which, I am now in a new country.

I'll be updating the package to use FA 4.2.0 and updating some icons in places.

I'll continue to work on bugs and expand the projects scope as covered by the Future versions list.

Thank you .. thumps up.:up:

[Nirjonadda]

This style is no more updated ?

[Zachery]

Its just slow going right now, sorry guys hopefully should have an update soon. I'm working on a lot of stuff.