phpBB • Styles Submission Policy (3.2.x & 3.3.x)

Styles Submission Policy (3.2.x & 3.3.x)

All styles that have been approved can be found in our Styles Database. Within the database, visitors can filter styles by phpBB version, by author, by color, and more.

If you create a style and want to submit it to our database, it will first be automatically sent to the Style Customisations Team for review. The Style Customisations Team is responsible for ensuring that your submission follows the guidelines below. If two members of the Style Customisations Team inspect your submission and find no obvious errors, it will be approved for release. Please note the Style Customisations Team has full discretion on what it approves or denies.

This process can sometimes take a considerable amount of time, so it's in your best interest to follow all of the guidelines from the start. If your style is denied and then resubmitted, it is placed at the end of the queue.

Submission Guidelines

Latest Revision: 12 January 2017
Feedback: If you have any suggestions/questions, visit the feedback topic.

For ALL Submissions

All submissions must be your own work. Submissions cannot contain any copyrighted material (code, images, or otherwise) without express (and provided) permission from the original source.
Submissions must inherit phpBB's general public license. No additional or alternative licenses for your style are permitted.
Submissions must not have an offensive name or contain any offensive content. The Style Customisations Team has full discretion on this, and also reserves the right to deny any submission that it feels does not conform to a certain level of aesthetic quality.
Submissions must be stand-alone and not require:
- Altering phpBB's PHP code in any way.
- Installation of any Extensions.
- Files from other styles or from an external website (i.e. linking to images in another style's directory, or linking to an image on your personal website). The only exception to this is for submissions that do not have their own template set included (these can then reference prosilver's template files).
Submissions should be submitted as a single .zip file.
- The .zip file should not contain additional directories and should extract directly (i.e. "ABCstyle" should extract to /ABCstyle/, not /XYZ/ABCstyle/). The only exception to this is for board style variants in the package (see below).
- The .zip file should not contain any extraneous files (such as Thumbs.db files or images not directly related to the style, such as advertisements).
  - All .psd (Photoshop) files (i.e. logos or buttons) or extra images should be placed in a single directory of your submission named contrib/ (i.e. /ABCStyle/contrib/). Extra .html files (relating to Extensions, for example) are not allowed in your submission.
  - Any links to your website, donation requests, general information, etc. should be placed in a single readme.txt file inside the contrib/ directory. Keep in mind that advertisement is not allowed on the readme.txt, if there is any advertisement on your readme.txt the Style Customisations Team are free to remove it.
- The .zip file should be named Stylename_Version.zip, in which Stylename is the name of your style, and Version is the version number of YOUR style (not the phpBB version it is compatible with).

For Ranks, Avatars, Smilies, and Topic Icons

The rank images, avatar images, smilie images, or topic icon images should be placed within a single folder named after your style. You may place recursive child folders inside this parent for organization at your discretion.

For Board Styles

All submissions need to be compatible with the latest version of phpBB 3.2.
Submissions must be compatible with Internet Explorer 9 (and above) and Firefox.
- If there are minor display issues with your style in a specific browser (i.e. Internet Explorer 9), it may still be submitted as long as it does not interfere with any phpBB functionality. Please detail any known display issues with your style upon submission.
Styles should be licensed with GPL v 2.0 so they are compatible with phpBB's license.
In case you style only modifies a small number of templates (compared to the prosilver template files), we strongly recommend you to use Template Inheritance.
Files should not have any hard-coded (static) text in them. All text should come from the phpBB language files (to allow for localization).
The phpBB copyright in the footer of the board style must be kept completely intact and immediately visible on all pages.
- In addition to this, one link to your personal site may also be included as an author credit in the footer if you choose. Please note that the Style Customisations Team has complete discretion on what is acceptable as an author credit link.
phpBB 3.2's styling system is broken into two components (3 if you count style.cfg):
1. Templates (.html and .js files that determine the page structure, layout, and functions).
2. Themes (.css files that determine color schemes, fonts, images, etc).
3. Collectively these are referred to as a Board Style. You may submit all components in one package as long as each component is modified from the vanilla phpBB 3.2 version. Do not submit each component individually in this case.
4. You may instead submit only one of the components in a package if you do not intend to modify the others. For example, you may submit theme assets without also submitting an associated template.
- Each component has a respective folder and that structure should be kept intact.
  - For a board style submission, the folders for all components should be included.
  - The structure for your board style submission should be as follows (using example "ABCstyle"):
```
/ABCstyle/
    contrib/ (optional)
    template/
    theme/
    style.cfg

(Leave style.cfg named as is; only edit the contents with your style's information. Note that the version number in this file should be the version of YOUR style, not necessarily the phpBB version.)
```
  - If submitting only one component, omit the folders of the irrelevant components.
  - The structure for a submission with just a collection of theme assets should be as follows (using example "ABCstyle"):
```
/ABCstyle/
    contrib/ (optional)
    theme/
```
- There should be no other files outside of this structure.
- There should be no additional files that are outside of a vanilla phpBB 3.2 installation (with the exception of those in the optional contrib/ folder, or any relevant additional .html template files). Likewise, there should be no files or images missing.
No separate clone submissions (variants of a style, such as color or slight design variants) are allowed for phpBB 3.2. The Template/Theme/ structure allows you to include several variations (i.e. different themes to achieve different color schemes) all in one package.
- Example scenario (using example "ABCStyle"):
```
/ABCStyle/
    contrib/ (optional)
    template/
    theme/
    style.cfg

/ABCStyleBlue/
    theme/

/ABCStyleGreen/
    theme/

/ABCStyleRed/
    theme/
```
- Once the user installs the primary style ("ABCStyle" in this example), the supplemental variations ("ABCStyleBlue", "ABCStyleGreen", etc) can be selected in the Administration Control Panel.

Submitting Your Style

After checking to ensure your style complies with all of the above guidelines, you can submit your style. Failure to comply with the following instructions could lead to an instant denial of your submission.

To submit a NEW style

(One that is not an update to a previously submitted style)

Visit the phpBB Styles Database and click "New Contribution".
Fill in the Required Information box as follows:
- Contribution Name: Enter the name of your style. Note that it must be a unique name and cannot already exist in our database.
- Contribution Type: Select the Style option.
- Contribution Description: A few brief words about your style. This will be shown to everyone once the style is released. It should be concise and informative.
- Contribution Category: Select the appropriate classification for your submission.
  - Board Style -- For board styles (with their own templates and theme assets included in the package)
  - Smilies -- For packages containing only smilies.
  - Avatars -- For packages containing only avatars.
  - Ranks -- For packages containing only rank images.
  - Miscellaneous -- For packages containing topic icons, imagesets and other items.
- Click "Continue" and proceed to next steps.
- Filename: Click the "Select file" button and locate the .ZIP file of your style on your computer.
- Revision Version: The version of YOUR style, not the phpBB version.
- phpBB Branch: Select the appropriate phpBB version from those listed.
- License: Select the appropriate license from those listed.
- Allow Repacking: If you uncheck this box, any errors we find will lead to denial of your submission. Otherwise, we will do our best to fix minor errors we notice during the validation process.
Click "Continue" and then "Continue" again! Your style will be submitted to the Style Customisations Team's private queue and you will later be notified of approval or denial via private message.

You can see your submitted style in the Styles Database by visiting the database, and clicking "My Contributions" in the drop-down menu of your username in the top-right corner.

To submit an UPDATED style

(One that has been submitted at least once in the past)

Visit the phpBB Styles Database and click "My Contributions" in the drop-down menu of your username in the top-right corner.
You will be presented with a list of every contribution you have ever submitted to the phpBB Customisations Database. Find the style you wish to update, and click its name.
Then, click the "New Revision" tab and fill in the information boxes as follows:
- Filename: Click the "Select file" button and locate the .ZIP file of your style on your computer. You should increment the version number for every update you submit. Usual numbering convention is:
  - For small updates (for example, code updates to match an updated phpBB release) increment the third number (1.0.0 to 1.0.1).
  - For more significant updates (for example, updated images, updated color schemes, layout modifications, etc.) increment the second number (1.0.0 to 1.1.0).
  - For substantial updates (for example, major layout changes, total revisions, new versions, etc.) increment the first number (1.0.0 to 2.0.0).
- Revision Version: The version of YOUR style, not the phpBB version.
- phpBB Branch: Select the appropriate phpBB version from those listed.
- License: Select the appropriate license from those listed.
- Allow Repacking: If you uncheck this box, any errors we find will lead to denial of your submission. Otherwise, we will do our best to fix minor errors we notice during the validation process.
Click "Continue" and then "Continue" again! Your style will be submitted to the Style Customisations Team's private queue and you will later be notified of approval or denial via private message.

You can see your submitted style in the Styles Database by visiting the database, and clicking "My Contributions" in the drop-down menu of your username in the top-right corner.