Modifying Forum Layout

PistolPete · Post by **PistolPete** » Sun Mar 27, 2011 2:41 am

Hey guys,

I'm new to editing forum themes and don't really have the time to experiment right now.
The theme I'm using is modestus and can be viewed Here (I was going to link to the creators page but they don't have a zoom in option to help you clearly see the layout)

1) Instead of displaying the number of posts to the left of the forum topic I would like the number of posts to be in a column to the right of "Topics".

2) I would also like the "Last Post" column to be moved to the left of of the "Topics" column.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

TheSnake · Post by **TheSnake** » Sun Mar 27, 2011 4:16 am

The general layout for that page is in the forumlist_body.html file. You would need to reposition 2 different parts to get what your after.

Find & Cut:

Code: Select all

						<dd class="lastpost"><span>{L_LAST_POST}</span></dd>

Add, before:

Code: Select all

						<dd class="topics">{L_TOPICS}</dd>

Find & Cut:

Code: Select all

					<dd class="lastpost"><span>
						<!-- IF forumrow.U_UNAPPROVED_TOPICS --><a href="{forumrow.U_UNAPPROVED_TOPICS}">{UNAPPROVED_IMG}</a><!-- ENDIF -->
						<!-- IF forumrow.LAST_POST_TIME --><dfn>{L_LAST_POST}</dfn> {L_POST_BY_AUTHOR} {forumrow.LAST_POSTER_FULL}
						<!-- IF not S_IS_BOT --><a href="{forumrow.U_LAST_POST}">{LAST_POST_IMG}</a> <!-- ENDIF --><br />{forumrow.LAST_POST_TIME}<!-- ELSE -->{L_NO_POSTS}<br />&nbsp;<!-- ENDIF --></span>
					</dd>

Add, before:

Code: Select all

					<dd class="topics">{forumrow.TOPICS} <dfn>{L_TOPICS}</dfn></dd>

The main possible issues, is differences between prosilver or subsilver based styles, as well as how the styling is done may mean the code is not quite the same, or parts completely different. Also, you may well need to contact RocketTheme, as that style is one of theirs.

PistolPete · Post by **PistolPete** » Mon Mar 28, 2011 1:14 am

Thanks for the reply.

Just by cutting and pasting some information as you stated did help but not completely.

1) There is no "Posts" column next to topics.
2) The format of the post count needs to be the same as the topic count (I changed dt_"" to dd"" and the format was the same but then it was moved down onto a different row)
3) This simple rearranging causes the forum names to be right up against the border. Ideally I would want a column for icons to be displayed.
4) If I were to complete 3) then I would also need to have icons for when all topics are read and when their not. This would need to be displayed somewhere towards the bottom of the page.
5) I would also rather have there be a row above all of the categories that labels the different columns. The first would be "Forum", then "Last Post", then "Threads", and finally "Posts". An example of this layout is of a stock vBulletin forum.

This seems like I would be re-doing much of the theme itself. I'm not sure I'm in for such a task. It almost seems easier to get a completely new theme or just use this one as is. Or maybe start from scratch so I really can get every little thing I want (although this would most likely be a long project).

At this point I'm basically just looking for opinions. Which option would you choose?

TheSnake · Post by **TheSnake** » Mon Mar 28, 2011 4:48 pm

Some Themes are easier than others to adapt.

If there is no Posts tab, just move the Last post to the left of Topics. Changing DT to DL will cause it screw up.

I don't know why your editing the DT though, if you were following my example code to try from my previous post, just cut the DD sections listed & move to the above sections, also DD.