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New Template system

10 votes

Submitted by Wogan, 15th April 2008, 12:24:51 AM

I don't know about the rest of the world, but I could sure use a much easier template system than the one MyBB currently uses. Editing templates and CSS online is a nightmare, and a massive time-waster.

Why not include everything about the theme in a folder? Then you have a subfolder for all the HTML template files, a folder for images, a stylesheet and identifying xml file in the root, and that's all there is to it.

I wouldn't imagine that fetching the new file-based HTML in the scripts would be too hard. You're mostly just switching from MySQL storage to flatfile storage.

And it would make life that much easier for those of us that need to create customised templates for our sites. Given that this way of handling templates works for vBulletin, Invision, phpBB and SMF, there's no real reason it can't work for MyBB, right?

~ Wogan

7 Comments

  1. How is editing CSS+Templates online a nightmare?? I know MyBB has one of the easiest systems to do it..

    t0m, 15th April 2008, 10:10:41 PM

  2. @ t0m: one of the easiest systems? ... maybe, but when you design a new layout it´s really uncomfortable to handle.

    I love Wogan´s idea ;-)

    En-Gedi, 16th April 2008, 10:05:55 PM

  3. @En-Gedi: <q>maybe, but when you design a new layout it's really uncomfortable to handle</q>
    As it is with most Bulletin Board systems..

    t0m, 17th April 2008, 11:32:11 PM

  4. Oh yes, it's a hell to edit templates and CSS online!!!! I completely agree with Wogan! You should add a possibility (an option) to change the method of using (html code generation) and thus editing the template an CSS code, please!!!!! For my part on my own risk, but I don't want to waste time for that circuitous, laborious designing/modding. I think the current method is good and safe for beginners, but poor for "power designers". ;)

    No harm meant! :)

    Data, 17th April 2008, 11:57:27 PM

  5. @t0m: EDIT, yes. Edit is easy. That's what MyBB is good at. But try creating a new template from scratch?

    That's probably why all the MyBB templates I've seen so far look the same. Because coming up with something fresh is nearly impossible.

    I did a little digging, and I have to say that MyBB's template system is probably one of the worst I've come across, lol. Firstly, the get() function resides where no plugin can go, which immediately silenced my idea of writing a workaround plugin.

    Secondly, the default template consists of nearly 500 items - that would be 500 HTML files to edit and keep track of. And in these ~500, the <head> section appears over and over again.

    You'd think that you'd use a common <head> for all the pages you generate. And that you would use a hell of a lot less data for your templates. Apparently not.

    I really, really recommend that you guys come up with something better as a template system. And give template designers a chance to do their thing...

    ~ Wogan

    Wogan, 18th April 2008, 1:05:07 AM

  6. @Wogan: I've created a new template, and it's easy. It's like that with all boards..

    t0m, 22nd April 2008, 12:50:57 AM

  7. @Wogan:

    That's because all the other forum software's templates have behavioral logic in it. MyBB's templates are pure HTML with no logic embedded, truly separating code from HTML.

    Jeff, 4th May 2008, 9:34:15 AM

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