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[pwhodges]

Details here.

[celticgeek]

Onward, Blindly Onward!

[pwhodges]

You can see my test server with the new theme here.

[Carl-E]

Now, that's  what I call service! 

[Carl-E]

Oooh!  Shiny! 

[nobo]

Cool. Whatever it takes to keep our little community going.

[Barmymoo]

Good plan! Although please can I put in a request for a theme which doesn't contain any bright colours? Muted greys are my eyes' friends.

[pwhodges]

I've made a close, though not perfect, replica of the present theme which you will be able to choose; there is also a conventional pale theme (essentially the software's default, in fact).  You can see the three themes in action if you log in to the test forum using the user names "test-new-theme", "test-old-theme", and "test-light-theme", each with the password "testme". 

But I felt that a somewhat more punchy and modern-looking theme would be a good idea for the default; it's also a fixed-width theme, which may have advantages on wider monitors. I might even make a light version of the default theme as well.

[Akima]

Thank you for the notification. You're a pro!

[Lines]

I like the look and layout of the new themes, but I still like the grey color scheme best for the same reason as May. But I do like the new layout! And I'm glad we'll be more updated and secure.

[Mister D Nomms]

Will this affect the mobile version of the site at all? I like the mobile.

[pwhodges]

There will continue to be a Tapatalk plugin for mobile use.

Change is bad.

When you reach my age - or sooner, perhaps - you will have seen enough change to know that it's not that simple.

[Sorflakne]

So um...any way to keep the original setup as an option?  Not really feeling the new format.

[pwhodges]

No. 

If you select my reconstruction of the current theme, the only obvious differences in layout are a slight narrowing of the whole page, and a rearrangement of the stuff at the top (which can no longer be collapsed, in that theme only).

[Toba]

This is horrible. Change is bad.

I will miss this exact theme because I have been on this forum for so long and damn.

[Barmymoo]

Change-resistors, I have a plan.

Go to the home page.
Press "print screen".
Save the image.
Create a website using just that image.
Whenever you want to use the forums, go to your website.
Look at the image and revel in what you know.

[bicostp]

The only thing I'd really change is the width, especially since it's multiple layers of heavily-padded boxes. Fixed-width website layouts just irk me for some reason...

Maybe try setting the width to something like 90% of the window layout with a minimum of 900 pixels, or however wide the current version is? It's fairly straightforward to do that with CSS if everything is in a wrapper div.

e: Try setting the black_rain div to 95% width with 15 pixel padding instead of 30, and add "min-width: 900px" to the "mainframe" div. (That will keep it from getting squished into a mess on narrow screens.)

e2: Why did the dev set a 50 pixel left margin on the tab bar then shift it 40 pixels to the left, leaving a big gap on that side on screens narrower than 1280x1024

e3: I made those changes to a copy of the stylesheet. You're welcome to give it a try if you want! It scales up to 1920 fine, and still looks good down in smartphone and netbook territory.

[pwhodges]

I'm happy to make that change (I've done it on the test server); I have no strong view on fixed width versus fluid (my own web pages are fixed), though I thought that at least some people might prefer a choice including a fixed layout.  Actually, I've noticed that the same designer has reverted to fluid for his later designs.

The margin oddity is neither here nor there, really.  It's worth noting that some things that might seem odd make sense when you can also see the large number of really complicated pages of settings in the admin area, but in this case I see nothing that it affects.

For smartphones, I think the Tapatalk app is better than fiddling around with themes (although it's installed on the test server, you can't get to it because I don't want to link my server to the world through the Tapatalk network).  Also, in the new software, you can go to the bottom of the page on a phone (or not) and select WAP2 to get a bare-bones version - but you lose pictures and stuff.

[bicostp]

Well, I always shoot for a minimum width of 1024 pixels, since that's where netbooks and older desktops live. (Screw 800x600, if you're still using that you need glasses and/or a new monitor.)

That's one the only reason I like phpbb: it uses a separate template for the admin pages.

[Patrick]

I assume that all old posts will still continue to be accessible, and that formatting and tags and such will still use BBCode?

[pwhodges]

Sure.

[Welu]

Not a fan of the light theme. Very bright. Happy with the other two, I like how the main one matches QC. I agree the fixed width looks odd, especially on my widescreen monitor.

[philharmonic]

I tried to log into new server but it said my username does not exist......wait huh? On the up side i've also installed the Tapatalk app on my iPown and am glad to see that one works.

[pwhodges]

There is no new server; the test server is just that - a test, in my loft, and has only the users I listed and about four messages in the database.

The update to the forum is expected to be done tomorrow (Monday), afternoon my time, morning US time.

[doombilly]

full.speed.ahead.

[celticgeek]

I don't know what the progress status is, but everything is working fine here.

[pwhodges]

Nothing has happened yet; when the job is done, you will have the new theme.  I am dependent on the admin of the host server to start the process, so I am just waiting for him to reach this job in his list of things to do today.  He is in California, so the day is yet young for him.

[pwhodges]

Timing update:

The forum upgrade will start at around midnight, California time (8am UK time).  I have little to go on for the time the database conversion will take, so I'll just say I expect it to take something between 1/2 hour and some hours.

[celticgeek]

Well, I should be safely in bed at that time.

[pwhodges]

OK, we're back; quicker than I feared it might be.  I'll put up some notes on the changes in a while.

If you have things to say about it, continue in this thread.

[Barmymoo]

That was quick! It seems to be working but I haven't poked around everywhere yet. Are the alternative themes also up? I can't remember how to find them.

[pwhodges]

Click Profile in the top menu, then Modify Profile | Look and layout.  Then the "change" link next to "current theme"

The last item can be a dropdown from the sectional menu, or on the left, according to another setting; I think I've made it so that the menu on the left is the default setting.

[Barmymoo]

Excellent, thank you I shall have to readjust to things being in slightly different places but that's not a reason to complain, that's just life. The only thing that is a bit of a problem is that on the main index page, the "209,259 Posts 4,958 Topics" info for each page goes onto four lines, which means that the page is very long. I only have a tiny little laptop screen so I have to scroll down to get to Discuss. Not a huge issue but would it be possible to make the posts/topics box slightly wider please?

[TinPenguin]

help help what is this foreign land.

[dr. nervioso]

Well, isn't this all fancy and shiny

[pwhodges]

It seems that the forum timezone was set incorrectly; following the update it is correct, so you may see the wrong time until you go into your profile, look and layout, and adjust your time offset there appropriately (just clicking the auto button will normally do it) - and remember to save after changing it.

[Barmymoo]

Thanks for the width change!

Also where did you find this guy ?

[pwhodges]

"blank" is just a template, which the upgrade exposed for some reason and I haven't yet hidden again (edit: have now).  I brought back Afro (it's in "more", at a slightly more modest size), and added a "meh" face.  The smiley style is what we had before; I really, really didn't like the updated ones.  The "more" link offers a couple that were always there if you knew the code, but hidden.

Oh, and on the width thing, I missed it because my test forum only had one topic and four posts!

[LTK]

Well, isn't this all fancy and shiny

Yeah, I could get used to this.

The massive font size in the reply box, however, I could do without.

[pwhodges]

I'll deal with that; I changed it on a test server, but not, it seems, on the one with the master copy of the theme.  Thing is, I have to find where it was (in this case, not the CSS file as I recall).  (edit - sorted; and it was in the CSS file after all.)

Meanwhile, the font in the WYSIWYG editor is OK (click the [A] on the right above the box).

[jwhouk]

Okay, I can live with the one white-background skin. Even though it looks like I'm an Illini fan or something.

EDIT: I guess it's called "QC-Light". Thanks for keeping that option, Paul.

[bainidhe_dub]

Well isn't this shiny! I definitely went "geaughhhhh?" when the page loaded, though. But it'll be like Facebook, give me a week and I'll forget what it used to look like.

[pwhodges]

Actually, I copied the colours in QC-old from the old forum exactly.  It's just that in contrast to the new more sharply defined theme they seem a bit drab.

[celticgeek]

Looks good, Paul.  Keep up the good work. 

[Lines]

I like the new theme, actually. It's still easy on the eyes and less drab. Also the fixed width works pretty well on my laptop.

[pwhodges]

In fact, it's no longer fixed width, though it has a fairly wide minimum width - I went with the change that was suggested earlier.

I'm glad people like the theme - although I ran it past the other mods, it was essentially my own decision to go with it.  Also, Jeph felt no particular attachment to the old theme and so just let me go ahead. 

I had originally intended just to replicate the old theme, but when I had reached the point that the QC-old theme is now at, I realised that there were things missing that would be a huge amount of work to put right.  That was the result of a poor choice, basing the theme on one that was developed for a release candidate version of the new software - I just hadn't realised how much more had changed in places that affected the theme (that's why the stuff at the top of that theme can't be folded away, for instance).  So I looked again specifically at themes that were up to date, and this caught my eye, not least for the use of the orange which links up nicely with the logo.

[valley_parade]

Well isn't this shiny! I definitely went "geaughhhhh?" when the page loaded, though. But it'll be like Facebook, give me a week and I'll forget what it used to look like.

[LTK]

Actually, I copied the colours in QC-old from the old forum exactly.  It's just that in contrast to the new more sharply defined theme they seem a bit drab.

Yeah, I've since realised that, and coupled with my mostly nighttime use of these forums, f.lux wasn't helping at all

Maybe Dimmer will? It's not as convenient as f.lux switching itself on and off, but is easily managed as a taskbar shortcut.

Oh, okay, embedding URL's manually suddenly became a whole lot harder. Or... no, that's just the WYSIWYG editor - whatever that is.

Excellent, thank you I shall have to readjust to things being in slightly different places but that's not a reason to complain, that's just life. The only thing that is a bit of a problem is that on the main index page, the "209,259 Posts 4,958 Topics" info for each page goes onto four lines, which means that the page is very long. I only have a tiny little laptop screen so I have to scroll down to get to Discuss. Not a huge issue but would it be possible to make the posts/topics box slightly wider please?

Ah, I just noticed I'm getting the same thing (on a screen twice as big) but this appears to be caused by the Last Post box not filling the excess space, and possibly also the big orange New Posts button being larger.

[Avec]

This is interesting...

[Barmymoo]

This may be something that I could very easily change myself if I had any brains but the font seems to be supertiny on QC-old. Not the font in the reply box, but all the other font.