Help on adding Styles

Hi.
This' the 3rd time I try this question, but nobody answered... so.
Well. I'm looking for a basic complete procedure or document to create styles.
Is there anything anywhere ?
Actually I wouldn't make mistakes adding a new style to my board, and still have a lot of confusion about.
I would create a second style (besides the 'purple' standard one), and for example use the drop-down style hack to make the users choose among them. Just like vb.org.

But, before, I absolutely need to do some questions:[list=1][*]What are the entity-relationships between the assets:
style - templateset - template - more... ?[*]A new templateset is necessary for a new style ?[*]When I'll have created a new style and would need to apply some hacks involving templates, should I reapply again and again the same modifications to the different templates in templatesets ?[*]If changing for example only the color-sets and some small behavior of few pages (for instance, as here with a framed-like html on the center of the page), how could I manage the different baselines/branches of templates which would be developed ?[*]Is there a checklist to avoid most famous mistakes ?[*]etc. ?[/list=1] Definetively, I would need some goodfellow wanted to clear out my ideas.

Thanks a lot for any answer !

Bye.

[samtha25]

Originally posted by Jawelin
]Hi.
This' the 3rd time I try this question, but nobody answered... so.
Well. I'm looking for a basic complete procedure or document to create styles.

Maybe no answers because your questions are more appropriate for vBulletin.com. Many of your questions are answered in their forums, but admittedly, it is not easy sifting through the threads and piecing together an overview of how styles work.

Is there anything anywhere?

The section of the vBulletin user guide dealing with styles has never been completed, but there is a template reference PDF file available in the member's area. Although it has not been updated to reflect template changes made in the last few upgrades, it does describe most of the templates used by each of the php files, for example, index.php, and is useful.

Actually I wouldn't make mistakes adding a new style to my board, and still have a lot of confusion about.
I would create a second style (besides the 'purple' standard one), and for example use the drop-down style hack to make the users choose among them. Just like vb.org.

Do you mean that you want to create other styles for your board?

What are the entity-relationships between the assets:
style - templateset - template - more... ?

A style consists of the templates and the replacements variables. It's more or less a convenient construct.

A new templateset is necessary for a new style?

Basically, yes, both a new template set and new set of replacement variables.

When I'll have created a new style and would need to apply some hacks involving templates, should I reapply again and again the same modifications to the different templates in templatesets?

A hack of the php code would affect every style, I guess, unless specifically designed not to. Do you have something specific in mind?

If changing for example only the color-sets and some small behavior of few pages (for instance, as here with a framed-like html on the center of the page), how could I manage the different baselines/branches of templates which would be developed ?

If you only make some minor changes, it's not very hard to manage, since vBulletin shows you the edited and original templates. You should download your styles files in any event as a backup. For more extensive changes, look at FireFly's Template Backup hack, which is also a very useful tool for editing templates offline and keeping track of template sets.

Is there a checklist to avoid most famous mistakes?

I've never seen one. Probably the biggest mistake you can make is not retaining a backup copy of your styles files and losing all your edits to a crash or some such.

Try some experimenting and you'll have a better idea of how it all works. Create a new style for testing rather than changing the default templates. If you like the new style and want to make it default, you can then modify the default style to use the templates and replacements from that style.

[Jawelin]

Actually I asked there too... And received almost the same answers. FoA, thanks for yours.
Besides, I would prefer ask it here because I mind to create something like this forum skins:
now my forum has default (purple/gray) look'n'feel. I would add a second style/set/colorscheme/template - call it as prefer - and make the two (only two, by now...) selectable by a combo box,
exactly like in the Change Style Drop-Down hack by FireFly... :kiss:
But I'm afraid to start a no-return way splashing in branches of templates to manage in many copies.
My board has now about +40 hacks installed, most of them involving templates. Many modified myself. And many many more planned to install in a near future. Of course, it should be better first install all of them before changing skins, but it isn't a good long-term policy, don't you agree ?
And if I had several copies, I had to mantain all of them in a parallel development.

Yes, I have installed even the TBS (along with a lot of code/db scheduled backups), but backin-up is a safety issue, not a procedural one (even I found some problem in TBS restore feature, but... not here!).

As said, simply I would change colors and buttons and - perhaps - the forumhome template (classical framed-like homepage...)
What should be a correct checklist and sequence of operations (i.e. creating new style, new templateset, setting new colors, etc.) ???

Thanks a lot.
Bye