The future of prosilver (phpBB 4)

[danieltj]

Hello

I wanted to create this topic to share with you some news about the future of prosilver and phpBB 4. Firstly, the Chameleon project has been discontinued and is no longer going to be the new official style of phpBB 4.0. There hasn't been any work on Chameleon for some time so this won't necessarily be a surprise, however I'm pleased to announce that prosilver2 (codenamed Operation Cold Friday) has begun!

It's still too early to share anything (mostly because work has only just started) however the team is collaborating on this project (initially) privately just so we can set a foundation and then everything will be made public in due course. Whilst we all know that phpBB 4 has been in development for some time, creating a new style is no easy task which is why phpBB 4 and prosilver2 won't be developed together and instead phpBB 4 will lead development and prosilver2 will simply follow.

I'd like to invite the community to share your ideas with us on what you may like to see and to also ask questions you might have for us. Please note that this topic is not serving as a feature request topic for the new style. It's important to remember that prosilver2 must be a style that looks good and works well for a multitude of forums but also be a platform for style authors to create more advanced styles from.

LEARN MORE

• Area51 tracker ticket
• GitHub Pull Request
• Development Branch (subject to change)

Thanks

[rxu]

phpBB 4 and prosilver2 won't be developed together and instead phpBB 4 will lead development and prosilver2 will simply follow.

This is the main thing to know, thanks.

[dbrewood]

Seconded, good to know there is going to be development.

[GanstaZ]

Will new prosilver use twig inheritance (extends, block etc.), modern css (nested etc.) and less javascript/jquery?

[danieltj]

Will new prosilver use twig inheritance (extends, block etc.), modern css (nested etc.) and less javascript/jquery?

Yes, it will use modern Twig syntax (that is slowly rolling out in core at the moment anyway when new template changes are made). jQuery will of course feature as it currently does as there's various JavaScript functions that the front-end relies on to talk to the back-end. One instance that comes to mind is bookmarking topics, I believe that uses Ajax if I'm not mistaken.

CSS will inevitably include modern features that have broad browser support (in fact browser support is a topic of conversation that will need to happen at some point too) but there won't be any additional tooling like preprocessors (Sass, Less, Stylus etc...). The reason for this was so that style authors can decide themselves what tooling they wish to use for their own projects, but mostly importantly it means site admins that want or need to change CSS don't need to figure out how to set up a development environment to make small CSS changes. Meaning the barrier to entry is lower for those with less knowledge.

[Mannix_]

Can we drop jquery? It's not needed at this point and it just slows down the page load. Vanilla javascript is enough imo there's no need for extra library to handle js.

[Anișor]

I’m curious about the look.
Do we keep it the same but add a modern touch?

[danieltj]

Can we drop jquery? It's not needed at this point and it just slows down the page load. Vanilla javascript is enough imo there's no need for extra library to handle js.

As of right now there's no plans to drop jQuery. I do agree that vanilla JS would be better but jQuery is still in core and so as long as it's in core it makes sense to use it. That wouldn't stop style authors from not using it or using less of it though.

I’m curious about the look.
Do we keep it the same but add a modern touch?

There will be a brand new look. Whilst it will have recognisable elements of the current prosilver, it will ultimately be a new design that is used to reimagine phpBB as a project. Having said that, one thing that is extremely important is to not be too opinionated on the design itself so that the style can serve as both a good looking design for those who don't want to change it (or make minimal changes) but also but adaptable by style authors to make awesome custom designs.

We need to try and strike a nice balance basically.

[GanstaZ]

Will prosilver2 rely on some available framework like bootstrap, tailwind etc.?

[Mannix_]

Will prosilver2 rely on some available framework like bootstrap, tailwind etc.?

If we wanna do that i propose Open Props . So we can keep css in css files instead of bloating the html files

[halil16]

I was excited about phpBB 4 and the new style. Now I have done so much and spent time on the frontend that major changes in the backend scare me. But it's good to know that phpBB 3 will be saved for a while longer, so we can slowly adapt to the new version.

[wintstar]

Will prosilver2 rely on some available framework like bootstrap, tailwind etc.?

If we wanna do that i propose Open Props . So we can keep css in css files instead of bloating the html files

It would be better to stick with pure HTML and not add more third-party software. Storage space is scarce and expensive with some hosters. There is no need to add more files. See the link in my signature.

For version 4, it should be called something other Name than Prosilver2.

[Madalin10]

Kinda sad the initial style is no longer in the works. It was looking really promising and on another level versus prosilver. But I believe the new so called prosilver2 will be looking good, hopefully will use modern html5 & css3 features that are baseline in all modern browsers.

About jquery topic, I would like if would be dropped and every phpbb function to be written only in vanilla js. Personally I see jquery as something outdated, stopped using it many years ago... but I guess is still okayish in some cases.

[Kailey]

Will prosilver2 rely on some available framework like bootstrap, tailwind etc.?

No

[wintstar]

My idea would be that prosilver should have its own icons again and not those of Font Awesome. This would then be a library that does not need to be maintained. Currently version 4.7 is still being used although 6.7.1 is the current version.

Perhaps a side panel would be conceivable with current information on the respective forum, topic or post. Side panels are now also easy to handle in mobile design. The new design should also be easy to customise for your own individual design.