New developer looking for customization information and tips

[echamberlain]

I'm starting a new vBulletin based website and my graphic designer has never developed for vBulletin before.

Are there any documents that would help him understand how to customize the vBulletin styles?

Any development tips?

[CyberAlien]

Just mess with content of "template" table for a while and you'll understand how it all works.

Also write some script that exports content of that table to plain html files (use unserialize() for templates with type="css"). I've searched for such scripts for a while but didn't find anything and wrote my own script. Then you'll be able to see code in all template files without going thru nightmare of editing template files in vbulletin control panel.

I'm sure there are other methods of figuring out how vbulletin templates work, but that one worked for me.

[Princeton]

Just in case: Skinning: Understanding A Template-Based System

What you can do:

• Make sure you have $debug enabled. (A tutorial can be found within the Articles section.) Some important information is available when you have this enabled.
• Set Add Template Name in HTML Comments to YES. (ADMINCP / vbulletin Options / General Settings)
• Test on a development board.

The vBulletin Manual has some good information regarding the Styles Manager.
http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/styles_and_templates