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Subject: Basic tips to customise how UNB looks
I've been using UNB for a while now and think it works well (www.thetreehouseguide.com/forum/forum.php). However, to try and make it match my main site I made a couple of changes to the design. As this was not obviously documented I've put together this basic list for others doing the same. I have some CSS knowledge, but little PHP, so there may be better ways to do this.
Create your own design template
1. Copy the /unb_lib/designs/modern folder and rename the copied folder with your design name, eg /unb_lib/designs/newdesign.
2. To get the forum to use this design, open board.conf.php in the main forum folder. Change the line design = modern to design = newdesign (I couldn't get the usual method in the admin settings Board Appearance to work so this can probably be set up differently).
3. Check your forum is working as normal before starting on any changes.
Add your own logo
1. Upload your logo to /unb_lib/designs/newdesign/img. The image can be almost any size but is best restricted in width to 750px to work on smaller screens.
1. Go into the newdesign folder and edit config.php. Adjust the line $UNB['Image']['toplogo'] = 'src="' . $imgurl . 'logo_unb_dark.png" width="343" height="36"'; as appropriate (this tip from elsewhere in the UNB forum). There are a lot of other images referenced here which can be changed in the same way.
Change the navigation link text
I found the standard Main site and Forum labels were slightly confusing to visitors. You can change the text of these links (and any other button link throughout UNB) by changing the language files.
1. Open the lang/en folder in the forum root.
2. Open common.php and change the text $UNB_T['main site'] = 'Main site'; as appropriate. In my case this was changed to the name of my main site.
3. Make the same change in the lang/de folder if the text is appropriate in German.
Add extra navigation links
There is a plugin to do this. See http://newsboard.unclassified.de/forum/thread/904. I used this method to add a new Contact link to the contact page on my main site.
Adjust the forum colours to match your site
This is covered elsewhere in the forums in more detail. The only changes I made were to remove the background image (which creates the scan lines grey/white pattern) and to change the background colour, both of which can be done by changing just one line of code. This CSS file allows lots of control over all layout aspects of the forum.
1. Open unb_lib/designs/newdesign/css/common.css.php.
2. Find the entry below and adjust the parts marked in bold as appropriate. Deleting url(../img/back_hlines.png) entirely removes the background (leave the ;). Changing the hex value #FFFFFF changes the solid background colour - this default is white.
html
{
background: #FFFFFF url(../img/back_hlines.png);
cursor: default;
}
These are basic tips only but do seem to work. When making any major changes to your code it is always worth making a copy of the complete working forum before you begin!
Create your own design template
1. Copy the /unb_lib/designs/modern folder and rename the copied folder with your design name, eg /unb_lib/designs/newdesign.
2. To get the forum to use this design, open board.conf.php in the main forum folder. Change the line design = modern to design = newdesign (I couldn't get the usual method in the admin settings Board Appearance to work so this can probably be set up differently).
3. Check your forum is working as normal before starting on any changes.
Add your own logo
1. Upload your logo to /unb_lib/designs/newdesign/img. The image can be almost any size but is best restricted in width to 750px to work on smaller screens.
1. Go into the newdesign folder and edit config.php. Adjust the line $UNB['Image']['toplogo'] = 'src="' . $imgurl . 'logo_unb_dark.png" width="343" height="36"'; as appropriate (this tip from elsewhere in the UNB forum). There are a lot of other images referenced here which can be changed in the same way.
Change the navigation link text
I found the standard Main site and Forum labels were slightly confusing to visitors. You can change the text of these links (and any other button link throughout UNB) by changing the language files.
1. Open the lang/en folder in the forum root.
2. Open common.php and change the text $UNB_T['main site'] = 'Main site'; as appropriate. In my case this was changed to the name of my main site.
3. Make the same change in the lang/de folder if the text is appropriate in German.
Add extra navigation links
There is a plugin to do this. See http://newsboard.unclassified.de/forum/thread/904. I used this method to add a new Contact link to the contact page on my main site.
Adjust the forum colours to match your site
This is covered elsewhere in the forums in more detail. The only changes I made were to remove the background image (which creates the scan lines grey/white pattern) and to change the background colour, both of which can be done by changing just one line of code. This CSS file allows lots of control over all layout aspects of the forum.
1. Open unb_lib/designs/newdesign/css/common.css.php.
2. Find the entry below and adjust the parts marked in bold as appropriate. Deleting url(../img/back_hlines.png) entirely removes the background (leave the ;). Changing the hex value #FFFFFF changes the solid background colour - this default is white.
html
{
background: #FFFFFF url(../img/back_hlines.png);
cursor: default;
}
These are basic tips only but do seem to work. When making any major changes to your code it is always worth making a copy of the complete working forum before you begin!
