UBB.Developers Forums UBB.threads 6 V6 Modifications Templates Blam templates and other things.

I'm looking into creating a table wrapper graphic set similar to the one that is in Bookies Blam. I don't think doing a complete graphic set replacement would be practicle, because it would limit you to using just the Blam template itself (with the current use of table wrappers I don't think it's a good idea to limit yourself to one choice).

I need to know if anyone is still running the Blam set on a 6.1 Threads site (or even a Classic site so long as the graphics are the same). Please post the URL so I can check it out.

This wrapper will be different than the first one I released, and I'm going to choose a default dimention for the thickness of the graphics. I'll eventually develope several colors / styles of graphics based on the same physical dimentions so that once you install my template files you can change your graphics without doing any additional scripting or hacking. The most you'll have to change is the name of the graphic that you are using in your CSS. Unless JustDave jumps in here and tells me how to use a string variable within a CSS

I'll probably rework my own graphics first, and then create new graphics that are in the same style as the Blam set. The first template wrapper that I made was "quick and dirty", but the new table wrapper will be a little more complex. Bare with me cause I don't have much free time (I have a day job + my own web site to run + family )

I'll provide the png files that I create as well so you can customize my graphics for your site (provided you have MacroMedia Fireworks or some other application that can edit my files). If you want custom graphics please see the developer for hire section on this site (I'm not in it). I want to focus my attention on things that anyone could use, and I don't realy have the time to focus on specific things for specific sites.

I posted this in an related thread, but it fits here also.
PHP enabled Stylesheets

thanks!

Hmmm... If I'm reading that correctly, I'd have to add the style sheet script / CSS to every web page on a web site. If that's the case, then I wouldn't even consider using PHP enabled CSS...

The Bookies "Blam effect" of having a graphic at the top and bottom of a table cell is similar to what I've done with this test table. The graphics are not that detailed (it's just a proof of concept), but it gives you an idea of what you can do with a 5x3 table. No CSS is used, but I set it up so that I could easily convert it to using a CSS file if the test worked (all the visible images are background images).

This is what I've found:

• The minimum size of the table is limited to the minimum size of the images that you want to see. The top left and bottom right image are 80 pixels each, and the corners are 10 pixels each. So the minimum width of a table is 180 pixels. At low resolutions 180 pixels for a menu or a Pal box equals a lot of wasted space.
• I could have made the top left and bottom right graphic smaller, but when start dropping below 80 pixels the effect of having something special on the table wrapper is lost (especially at high resolutions).
• The table does scale well, but if you use IIP PAL boxes will be a problem at low resolutions. I have the left hand column on my site set to 15%, and at 800x600 resolution the table in the test file is too big. So, at low resolutions the PAL boxes will not be proportional to the rest of the page. It's not a limitation of IIP, it's just the nature of designing graphics to fit within the limits of a table.
• Using percentages to set limits on the size of side bars is better than using a fixed pixels size, because percentages scale better.

There is another way to create the "Blam effect": Make a table that contains a single table row, a single cell, and place the graphic that you want to display in it. Set all table borders, cell padding, and cell spacing to zero. Set the alignment in the table cell to left. Place the html for your new table "wrapper" above the table code in the tbopen.tmpl file. Make another table for the bottom graphic, but set the alignment in the table cell to right. Place the script for it at the end of the table script in the tbclose.tmpl file. I'm not going to do it, cause I don't like the way it looks. The graphic doesn't wrap around the table, and on small tables it just looks odd. But it's the only way I know of to pull off the "Blam effect" and still manage a small minimum table size with a wide range of scalability.

I'm gonna experiment with some smaller graphic sizes to see if I can get the minimum table size down to 140 pixels (120 would be ideal). If it doesn't look good / scale well I'm going to drop 5x3 array tables in favor of 3x3 arrays (smaller arrays scale better, but the graphics effects that you can do are limited when compared to larger arrays).

Sorry for the rant, but I thought seeing how this worked would help some of you who are developing table wrappers on your own (maybe I can save you some time).

I've had a chance to do some more graphics work and I've updated the test page. The minimum table size is 160 pixels wide, and that works well with a %20 sidebar in IIP even down to 800x600 resolution.

Time to cut some more graphics

I've finished the new set of grapgics. If anyone is interested, and when I get time *sigh*, I'll release a new table wrapper set with tbopen and tbclose templates.

I need to cut new graphics to pull out my domain name and the binary, but if you click on the link in my signature you'll see how the design looks.

Very nice design indeed. I very much like the positioning of the site name as well as the binary. It gives out a nice techie look

I would be most interested to see the new table wrappers. I am also in the process of building a new dev subdomain where everyone can have a play on stuff around here. I will keep you posted.

Warm regards

Nikos

Thanks Nikos!

I'll probably release the new wrapper set by this Monday. The table framework of this set will be the base for all my future graphic designs.