Forum Layouts

[Dorign]

Wow, this is kind of a pain.. :/ I never realized before I bought the vBulletin 3.03 that it'd be SO complicated. I've been tinkering with different sorts of forums since I was 12.. I'm now 19, and have never had problems with customizing a forum up until now. O_O

It's crazy. The new 3.03 layout is.. well, ew.. It's not very clean at all, and the old legacy style is so naked now, not to mention disorganized. There only seems to be a few skins available (for free) for 3.00 and up, none that really work for what I'm looking for. And I haven't seen any thing for themes you have to purchase (links please, if anyone has them).

So anyway, as far as skin goes.. images and what not, I plan on customizing that myself.. but it's the layout that's complicated to me. I really like the way the skin is layed out here, but I don't imagine this skin is available. I don't really plan on keeping anything on a "skin" other than the layout, but so far I've not seen much that would fit what I'm looking for. The horizontal style is.. too spacey. To much naked room, too much uneven space.. I've seen it modified on a few forums so that the space remains consistant, but of course those themes aren't available for download. It's very hard for me to customize this board yet as I haven't learned all of vB's code, and in the past the only way I could learn a forum's code was tweaking a premade code (like using subSilver and modifying that to my needs using phpBB).

So I'm really lost.. in general. I don't really know what to look for anymore, only that I feel I've payed $160 bucks and I won't be able to look my vB look as good as my phpBB (which doesn't even look that great). If anyone has some support links or.. skin links or.. something, please help me out. I'd appreaciate it.

Thanks

[defi]

Originally Posted by Dorign

Wow, this is kind of a pain.. :/ I never realized before I bought the vBulletin 3.03 that it'd be SO complicated. I've been tinkering with different sorts of forums since I was 12.. I'm now 19, and have never had problems with customizing a forum up until now. O_O

It's crazy. The new 3.03 layout is.. well, ew.. It's not very clean at all, and the old legacy style is so naked now, not to mention disorganized. There only seems to be a few skins available (for free) for 3.00 and up, none that really work for what I'm looking for. And I haven't seen any thing for themes you have to purchase (links please, if anyone has them).

So anyway, as far as skin goes.. images and what not, I plan on customizing that myself.. but it's the layout that's complicated to me. I really like the way the skin is layed out here, but I don't imagine this skin is available. I don't really plan on keeping anything on a "skin" other than the layout, but so far I've not seen much that would fit what I'm looking for. The horizontal style is.. too spacey. To much naked room, too much uneven space.. I've seen it modified on a few forums so that the space remains consistant, but of course those themes aren't available for download. It's very hard for me to customize this board yet as I haven't learned all of vB's code, and in the past the only way I could learn a forum's code was tweaking a premade code (like using subSilver and modifying that to my needs using phpBB).

So I'm really lost.. in general. I don't really know what to look for anymore, only that I feel I've payed $160 bucks and I won't be able to look my vB look as good as my phpBB (which doesn't even look that great). If anyone has some support links or.. skin links or.. something, please help me out. I'd appreaciate it.

Thanks

Quick Tips for New vBulletin Designers
by Jonathan Hawley

introduction to vbulletin

Well first off, vbulletin may seem very complicated at first... But take a good look at all the features of it for a few hours; Just explore the admin control panel and bask in the glory of the vast variety of features vbulletin offers.

First off, the admincp style can be changed by going to

Usergroups > Administrator Permissions > (choose your account and click edit permissions) > on the very bottom is the admincp choice. Most prefer the vbulletin 2 theme since it's the easiest to work with for some reason... I prefer this also.

Now with this being said, lets get into the forum themes called "styles"

introduction to vbulletin styles

What is a style? A style is everything that appears on the vbulletin page(s) in which the user has chosen the style to his desire. vBulletin allows multiple styles, so the more you have, the more options your members have to choose from which is always a great attraction.

vBulletin 3.0.3 is run off of mostly css coding which allows you to input a definition into the css field(s) and your vbulletin coding which runs the <div> style will pull that definition, read it, and display it. To find out more about css, click here.

The main layout (header, footer, category table, table footer, etc) Can be found under all style options, which will bring up what I like to call "the universal css page of vbulletin" in which you can almost completely customize your style on this page.




I'm tired, so I'll post more later, but for now, it's not that it's complicated, it's more then you're used to

Regards,

Jonathan

[Tony G]

Your problem is just that, you haven't learnt the vBulletin system fully. Until you get familiar with the vBulletin system, specifically the templates, you won't get far at all when it comes to modifying the skin.

My advice is to take time to learn the vBulletin template system. You can get to the list by going to Style Settings - << >> button next to the style you wish to view it's templates, in your Admin CP. Look at what templates affect what on your forum, see what code affects where and learn some of the vBulletin variables.

With template knowledge, XHTML knowledge and some sort of image-making knowledge, you should be able to skin. It's not easy, it takes time to learn these things. And there is no 'tutorial' that can teach you all of this, it's up to you.

[Dorign]

I can skin multiple forums, and have plenty of "image-making knowledge." My problem is that my method of learning is based on molding what others provide. I just haven't found anything that anyone else is providing that meets the criteria of what I need. The "free skins" category is a little low right now, and paying for one would be kind of pointless since I'm wanting to make my own.

[defi]

If you can skin multiple forums, what's the problem with vbulletin?

There's a header template, a footer, and then the css tables... those are the core components...

Why not learn through trial and error?

[Dorign]

Well, I guess it's just easier for me to have the template files offhand on my desktop in a folder, rather than in the Admin CP. Things are sorted much differently on vBulletin.. much differently. And if you screw up, you have to rely on the "revert" thing, which has proven already that it's not failsafe. -.-

[defi]

You should maybe make a copy of the edited template file before you edit it again if it's already been edited once.

Just play around and eventually techniques will become habits as a vbulletin developer

[Tony G]

Always backup if you're scared of making mistakes. Copy what area of code you're modifying. Change it, and if something's wrong, just substitute the code you edited with the previous backed-up code. Simple.

[defi]

Originally Posted by Tony

Always backup if you're scared of making mistakes. Copy what area of code you're modifying. Change it, and if something's wrong, just substitute the code you edited with the previous backed-up code. Simple.

Thanks for elaborating on my statement .

Regards,

Jonathan

[Dorign]

Alright, well, I've sort of got it figured out.. at least now I can tweak around with the organization of things. You're right, I'm quite overwhelmed at.. everything that vBulletin does.. at great length. :P