Testing out a theme/style without it being live

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TheJay
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Testing out a theme/style without it being live

Post by TheJay »

Hello there,

I want to customise a premium theme but don't want it to go live until I am happy with it.

Is there a way (aside from installing two instances of phpBB) of developing the second theme on the forum so that only myself and someone else can see the development version and no one else sees any different when they visit?
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Mick
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Re: Testing out a theme/style without it being live

Post by Mick »

The easiest and probably safest for development is Knowledge Base - Installing and Setting Up Your Own Web Server
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TheJay
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Re: Testing out a theme/style without it being live

Post by TheJay »

The thing is, this is being developed by myself and someone else who lives remotely. Surely there is another way?
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david63
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Re: Testing out a theme/style without it being live

Post by david63 »

TheJay wrote: Tue May 25, 2021 10:28 am Surely there is another way?
Set up a test site on your hosting account, or use one of the free hosts while you develop the style
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Re: Testing out a theme/style without it being live

Post by warmweer »

TheJay wrote: Tue May 25, 2021 8:25 am I want to customise a premium theme but don't want it to go live until I am happy with it.

Is there a way (aside from installing two instances of phpBB) of developing the second theme on the forum so that only myself and someone else can see the development version and no one else sees any different when they visit?
It's possible but not worth the effort (+ the risk of breaking something during development).
Just follow Mick's advice and test on a copy of the board (a live board shouldn't be a guinea pig anyway!).

You could set up a copy of the live board in a different directory (or on a free host, just temporary).
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TheJay
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Re: Testing out a theme/style without it being live

Post by TheJay »

It would be good if a theme/style could be set on a per user basis so we could have a development account as that seems like the easiest way to do it without duplicating everything.
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david63
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Re: Testing out a theme/style without it being live

Post by david63 »

TheJay wrote: Tue May 25, 2021 10:42 am without duplicating everything
You don't have to duplicate everything. Just upload the files, create a database and run the install - all done in 15 minutes.
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Re: Testing out a theme/style without it being live

Post by TheJay »

Thank you, that is what I have done
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Re: Testing out a theme/style without it being live

Post by Mannix_ »

You could install the new style and access it via link yourdomain.com/index.php?style=xx where xx is the id of the style. But you need remember to set override user style to yes in ACP so no one can use in ucp.
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Re: Testing out a theme/style without it being live

Post by TheJay »

Thank you, that also sounds like a good option! I guess it's good to have a second board we can test on so I'll leave it in place for future use.
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Re: Testing out a theme/style without it being live

Post by stevemaury »

Make a forum on your board only you and your collaborator can see. Copy some topics to it to populate it. Assign that style to that forum. Easy. Most people do not know (or forget) that each forum can have a different style.
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Re: Testing out a theme/style without it being live

Post by TheJay »

stevemaury wrote: Sat May 29, 2021 5:43 pm Make a forum on your board only you and your collaborator can see. Copy some topics to it to populate it. Assign that style to that forum. Easy. Most people do not know (or forget) that each forum can have a different style.
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Re: Testing out a theme/style without it being live

Post by Mannix_ »

stevemaury wrote: Sat May 29, 2021 5:43 pm Make a forum on your board only you and your collaborator can see. Copy some topics to it to populate it. Assign that style to that forum. Easy. Most people do not know (or forget) that each forum can have a different style.
What about if you want to work on styling ucp mcp FAQ members lists etc? That won't work.
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Re: Testing out a theme/style without it being live

Post by stevemaury »

Create some dummy users.
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Re: Testing out a theme/style without it being live

Post by GTI »

stevemaury wrote: Sun May 30, 2021 2:46 pm Create some dummy users.
I think Mannix is making the point that using the settings you mention does not let users test out the UCP using the style.

The best way to properly test out a style thoroughly is using a test forum, other methods are cutting corners and will ultimately lead to silly mistakes that wouldn't have been made if using a proper test setup from the start.
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