Formatting issue in "recent threads" template

[Ozymandyus]

Hello, I just gave RC1 a whirl, and overall the upgrade was fairly painless. The only visual issue I have right now is in the "Recent Threads" section. Normally the information in this section gets separated out by different-colored backgrounds in the different tables, and if I load the "expanded" template (adv_portal_recthreads_exp), then this does indeed happen. However, "expanded" is too large for my forum, so I use "lean" (adv_portal_recthreads_lean) instead. "Lean" apparently has a missing element somewhere that isn't allowing the different-colored backgrounds in the table elements.

Does anyone happen to know where in the "adv_portal_recthreads_lean" template I could set this? I've looked at it 'til my eyes spin, but I can't find the specific spot.

If you want to see what I'm talking about, look at the "Recent Threads" section at http://www.warbarron.com/, my site. Without the different-colored backgrounds, it looks a little wonky. Everything else seems to work fine.

[Brian]

Looks like the template is displaying fine for me. If you'd like to change it though, just edit your 'adv_portal_recentthreads_lean' template.

[Ozymandyus]

Looks like the template is displaying fine for me. If you'd like to change it though, just edit your 'adv_portal_recentthreads_lean' template.

Thank you for the response, Brian. As indicated above, I'm aware that the the template I'd need to edit is "adv_portal_recentthreads_lean". However, I'm not sure what, exactly, is the part I need to change within said template, and I don't want to mess up my board by trying blind changes.

[Brian]

It already alternates between your 'alt1' and 'alt2' classes, just as it did in v2.x. You seem to be using the same color/image for both though, so that's why there's no difference. If there was with v2.0, then you most likely modified your 'adv_portal_latesttopicbits' template in that version. That template has since been renamed and split into the two adv_portal_recentthreads templates. The old 'adv_portal_latesttopicbits' one should still be listed under the custom templates in your style manager though, so you should be able to check it to see if any changes were made.

[Ozymandyus]

It already alternates between your 'alt1' and 'alt2' classes, just as it did in v2.x. You seem to be using the same color/image for both though, so that's why there's no difference. If there was with v2.0, then you most likely modified your 'adv_portal_latesttopicbits' template in that version. That template has since been renamed and split into the two adv_portal_recentthreads templates. The old 'adv_portal_latesttopicbits' one should still be listed under the custom templates in your style manager though, so you should be able to check it to see if any changes were made.

Thank you, I'll try that and see what I can find. Just as a note, this didn't seem limited to one template...both the ones I used had the same display issue with RC1, and they use quite different colors/images.

I'll see what I can find and post the results here, if any.

[stonepilot]

I'm having a similar type issue, but I didn't update any templates.

Otherwise, the installation went smoothly and quickly. Did it at lunch, good job!

[Brian]

Can you post a link to your site?

[Ozymandyus]

Brian...I was unable to find a 'adv_portal_latesttopicbits' template to work with. From what I can tell, after playing around with it a while, it has to do with how RC1 is importing image paths, or in this case not importing them. Like the other fellow who posted, I had not customized any of the display templates at all, so that wasn't the issue anyway...I also found that it displayed improperly regardless of which template I selected. They all function, but not that particular area/color.

Although I'd just run the upgrade utility last night, I decided to go back and run the install script again to check on image paths. It seems that in all my templates, it's having an issue with a couple of the paths, most notably 'Body' and 'Extra 2' ones. I've tried entering them manually, but that seems to make things even worse. I noticed that in all the ones the install script was having issues with, there is a CSS definition as well as just the image path. It may be that the install script is having trouble with formatting elements that have their own CSS code in them?

Here's a sample of the error message from the install script:

Warning: is_file() [function.is-file]: Stat failed for
./a:7:{s:10:"background";s:7:"#9D8D79";s:5:"color";s:7:"#000000";
s:4:"font";a:3:{s:5:"style";s:0:"";s:4:"size";s:4:"10pt";s:6:"family";
s:70:"verdana, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', arial, helvetica,
sans-serif";}s:5:"EXTRA";s:137:"margin: 0px; padding: 0px;
background-image:
url(http://www.warbarron.com/rok/images/rohan/rohan_bg.gif);
background-repeat:
repeat;";s:6:"LINK_N";a:3:{s:10:"background";s:0:"";s:5:"color";
s:7:"#663333";s:15:"text-decoration";s:0:"";}s:6:"LINK_V";
a:3:{s:10:"background";s:0:"";
s:5:"color";s:7:"#663333";s:15:"text-decoration";s:0:"";}s:6:"LINK_M";
a:3:{s:10:"background";s:0:"";s:5:"color";s:7:" in
/admincp/vbacmps_install.php on line 3153

Hopefully that information is helpful. I have five different styles installed now for testing purposes, and they all have the problem with the recent threads display.

[stonepilot]

Can you post a link to your site?


www.gmtruckclub.com (I have a few more pages linking in from different URLs, likw www.silveradoclub.com as well, if that matters.

[Brian]

My apologies guys, but I must be just completely missing something here...

Ozymandyus - On your site, for both styles I can see, the alt1 and alt2 classes are using the same attributes, and both have the same background image.
url(/images/backgrounds/basalt.jpg) repeat;
url(http://www.warbarron.com/rok/images/rohan/rohan_alt1.gif)

Both seem to be using the correct URL and displaying fine for me. So I'm not exactly sure what it is that's supposed to be shown that's not...


stonepilot - All I'm seeing on your site is the default vB style. It also seems to be alternating between the alt1 and alt2 classes just as it should, so I'm not seeing any problems there either...

[Ozymandyus]

Alt1 and alt2 are supposed to be the same, it's not the background image that's supposed to be changing, just a different overlaying color in some areas to separate out the post information.

I guess a picture might be worth a thousand words, so I've linked a screenshot of what I'm talking about. Until I upgraded to v3RC1, the first part of every section in "Recent Threads", that contained the post name and poster's user name, used the same color as the tables in normal posts that contained the poster's user name. I circled the parts in the picture below that illustrate this. In the post, you can see that the username has a brown color that separates it from the rest of the post, but this doesn't happen in recent threads. It used to do this in v2, but does not now. If I'm reading the code right, the color value comes from the "thead" element.

http://www.warbarron.com/images/vba_example.jpg

[Brian]

The date/time the thread was started and "by {username}" parts were actually shown with the preview of the thread when you held your mouse over it in v2.x. It was moved out of there in 3.0 though since some people may want that to be more clearly visible, and that also allows for the proper coloring of the time and a link to the user's profile. The username is a different color in the expanded template since that was was made to look more like the normal vBulletin 'threadbit' template.
I'm not really sure I'm following you on the news part... There shouldn't be anything different in that template from v2.x that I can think of really.

[stonepilot]

I guess my issue was different. My page is showing recent threads as if it were narrow, like on the column, instead of wide on one line in the center.

[Suzie]

I want the old style for the center column with the spaces divided by lines as well. I don't like this look.

Is there a different template we link to or something?

[Suzie]

What you have on the front page here labeled "latest threads" that is what I want. Can I have your module? Pretty please with sugar on it. :D

[Ozymandyus]

The date/time the thread was started and "by {username}" parts were actually shown with the preview of the thread when you held your mouse over it in v2.x. It was moved out of there in 3.0 though since some people may want that to be more clearly visible, and that also allows for the proper coloring of the time and a link to the user's profile. The username is a different color in the expanded template since that was was made to look more like the normal vBulletin 'threadbit' template.
I'm not really sure I'm following you on the news part... There shouldn't be anything different in that template from v2.x that I can think of really.

It may be that I just had a different memory of it, Brian, and what I noticed was the new layout in v3. If so, I greatly apologize for taking your time.

For those who might be curious, here is the look I was trying to get to, which you can compare to the previous screenshot:

http://www.warbarron.com/images/vba_example2.jpg

To achieve this, I made the following changes to the template "adv_portal_recthreads_lean" for the style. You would have to do this for each style you wanted, or to their parent:

Find the code at the top:

<tr>
<td class="$bgclass">
<div class="smallfont">

and add the following directly underneath it:

<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%">
<tr>
<td class="thead">
<div class="smallfont">

Also find the code:

<else />
$vbphrase[by] $thread[postusername]
</if>
</div>
</if>

and add the following directly underneath it:

</div>
</td>
</tr>
</table>

This creates a wrapper around the top part of each item, and formats it the same way as other table headers in your theme.

[emiratesmac]

I guess my issue was different. My page is showing recent threads as if it were narrow, like on the column, instead of wide on one line in the center.

Same here (www.emiratesmac.com). Can someone give us a hint about what we can do to fix this?

[Ozymandyus]

I guess my issue was different. My page is showing recent threads as if it were narrow, like on the column, instead of wide on one line in the center.

I believe what you folks are looking for is:

AdminCP -> vBa CMPS -> Default Settings -> Recent Threads -> Use Expanded Threads Template

It's set to Dynamic by default, I believe. If you want it to be set to the wide view only, select the "Expanded" option and save.

[emiratesmac]

Thank you Ozymandyus, that did the trick! Much appreciated!

[stonepilot]

I believe what you folks are looking for is:

AdminCP -> vBa CMPS -> Default Settings -> Recent Threads -> Use Expanded Threads Template

It's set to Dynamic by default, I believe. If you want it to be set to the wide view only, select the "Expanded" option and save.

That was it. Thanks! :)

[Suzie]

Woo hoo. I am fixed too now.