Surely somewhere in this world, there simply must be some documentation for these templates... I can find absolutely nothing to indicate what any of the stuff in any of these templates does.
The damn things aren't even commented! It's just poor!

Now, I'm not totally retarded... I can search through a billion different templates and eventually find the tiny little bit of code I'm looking for, and through a process of trial and error, I can eventually get the effect I'm looking for... but it's taking me forever.
The CSS map is incredibly helpful. Tell me... PLEASE tell me there's something similar for templates.

If not... Why not???

What are you trying to find? The php scripts use the templates that match the name of the script (the showflat.php script uses the showflat.tmpl template, for example).

I'm trying to find something similar to the CSS map...

I wanna see a picture of the entire forum, with little arrows that say 'This bit comes from template xxxxx.tmpl'.
See what I mean?

Did you find anything like it in infopop's documentation on ubbcentral? If not it's possible we could do it

I didn't find anything, and I did look, but who knows? My forum trawling skills are severely limited by my total lack of patience!

I would have thought it was an obvious thing to do... I mean, I use phpBB as well, and that's just SO much easier to skin, it's unreal.

I'll probably have finished with my shoddy 'trial and error' method of skinning by the time you've finished doing it, but I'd definitely suggest that someone come up with some kind of guide as to what template controls what element on each page of the forum... if it doesn't help me, it'll certainly help someone else.


While I'm here, can anyone tell me what's going wrong in my forum? It's at: http://www.EveryoneDoesIT.com/cannabis_forum/

I've just managed to put a boring green table around everything, and it works perfectly apart from in two places.

Firstly on a 'showflat' page underneath my 'quick reply' (I love mods... I absolutely LOVE mods!) box, it all kind of buggers up a piece...

Secondly, in my IIP page, it works on every pal apart from the news? Any ideas?

Example URLs:
http://www.everyonedoesit.com/cannabis_f...;o=&fpart=1

and

http://www.everyonedoesit.com/cannabis_forum/iip/index.php?Cat=0

I can't see a lot of it because I'm not logged in... you might want to start with http://validator.w3.org - you've probably got some errors in your html. Validating your code makes it much easier to find the errors.

http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http://www.everyonedoesit.com/cannabis_forum/ubbthreads.php

Well, here's where the problem with templates come in to effect!
I have absolutely no idea which template every line of code comes from! The ubbthreads.php is largely a mystery to me... (because of lack of tmpl documentation!)

I looked at the w3 page, it came up with a couple of hundred errors... none of which I understand... kept telling me that I hadn't closed off tags, followed by examples of my code, that clearly showed that I had closed off those tags... I don't get it.

Try the ubbthreads.tmpl file...

Every php file has a corresponding tmpl file. It only calls that file. It doesn't call multiple tmpl files for each page. Well, technically I suppose it does because every page calls the ubb_registerednav.tmpl(or ubb_unregisterednav.tmpl if you're not logged in), but the unique elements for each page are called from the php scripts corresponding tmpl file.

AND the tbopen and tbclose templates provide the main structure for every main table.

For some generally excellent info on how to do (x)html properly, go here:
http://www.alistapart.com/topics/html/

This one especially is a great referral piece that explains why xhtml is good for your site and the basics for getting it right:

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/betterliving/

Ok, maybe what I actually need is documentation on the variables then...
Because the templates are rather confusing...

*Whimper* I just want rounded corners!!!

(I'm getting there though, CSS is rather powerful 'twould appear.)

Ok, how's about this one:
Where do I find the phrase 'Post Extras:' in the templates? I can't seem to find it anywhere...

Oh, and while I'm thinking of it... changing the 'previous', 'next', 'index', 'threaded' links SHOULD be easier... Damnit. (I know you guys don't develop the software, but just lemmie vent, man!)

If all you wanted was rounded corners you only need to edit the tbopen and tbclose templates

[]Gary said:
Ok, how's about this one:
Where do I find the phrase 'Post Extras:' in the templates? I can't seem to find it anywhere...
[/]
Test strings aren't in the templates. They are in the language files.

Nope, I've already done the tbopen and close templates... I've got rounded tables... BUT... all the tables inside those tables... I wanna make those nice and rounded too... It doesn't really matter anymore, I've settled for the fact that it's not gonna happen... but still...
Ideally, I'd like to forget about the templates entirely, create my own pages using a nicely documented, commented set of variables and whatnot....

Now, as for the 'post extras' text, I understand all text is stored in language files, but I don't wanna have anything at all in that spot... Where in the templates, is it referencing the language file? (see? complicated!!!)

find the string in the language file and then take the caler $ubbt['?????'] and search for that in the php and the template

Not complicated at all. You're making it way more complicated.
Maybe Everyone Shouldn't do "it" or at least while they are editing their scripts.

Example - the ubbthreads.php script uses the ubbthreads.php language file. And it also uses the ubbthreads.tmpl template.

Sometimes If the language string appears on multiple pages (multiple scripts) (like the manu bar etc...) then it's located in the generic.php language file.

The words "Post Extras" is the $ubbt_lang['POST_OPT'] language string, and it's in showflat and showthreaded language files, since it appears on those pages.

And don't call me Shirley.

Shirley is right. It is pretty striaght forward, once you understand how it is structured. Using the "containing text" search in your local Threads folder is an easy way to track down language strings and varibles.

You know what?
I take it ALL back... Threads is difficult to skin... there's no doubt about that, it's fiddly and I could never hope to get it looking as nice as it does in my head, but it works ok...

Now Photopost however...

Fuckin' Christ! I've never seen such a mess of variables and templates in all my life!

*Sigh*

I've been on this stuff for almost three weeks now... I'm lookin' to smash my monitor with my head.

I think Rick will be gald to hear that

You can simply remove the variables from the templates files.