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]

This is a quick and dirty comparsion of the default forumhome, and the iconic forum home.

Semi-local machine:
Default Style
Attachment 148889
Iconic
Attachment 148890
A live site
Default Style
Attachment 148892
Iconic
Attachment 148891

If you look at the live site, we go from 5.57 seconds (no cache) to 1.97 seconds (also no cache).

[davidg]

Zachery can u upload your png icons to ? thank you for the style is very clear

[Zachery]

There are no PNG icons, this is all done with CSS and embedded fonts

[Max Taxable]

Really cool. Innovative idea and execution.

[Zachery]

I added some info I forgot to copy and paste into the opening, also updated the first post with some quick screen grabs for before/after comparisons.

[davidg]

Zachery nice work very fast it was

Page Speed Grade:
(76%)

YSlow Grade:
(92%)

Total number of requests: 34 before

now with your style is

(94%)

YSlow Grade:
(92%)

Total number of requests: 23

Total page size: 248KB increased from 161KB
Page load time: 3.19s it was 6.96 before

[Zachery]

Even though your initial page size increases a tiny bit, the CDN helps mitigate that mostly.

Its only 2 requests

[K4GAP]

Would this be more beneficial for a mobile style if built for such?

[Zachery]

Mobile support is so so, more modern mobile browsers do well with it.

The primary benefits on the skin is that it should adapt with your stylevar choices for the most part.

I should have some more uipdates for this sometime next week.