FluxBB

I am delighted to announce the immediate availability of [b]FluxBB 1.4 RC2[/b], the very last release candidate before the final release of v1.4. Since RC1 we have been busy fixing bugs (thanks, testers!), with particularly many changes in the ... [More] update script and some tweaks to the parser. There have also been quite a lot of improvements to the markup which allow for more advanced styling. We are also delighted to now include the winner of our [url=http://fluxbb.org/forums/topic/3565/new-styles-for-fluxbb14-a-competition]styling competition[/url], Technetium and three new styles by Paul - Air (the new default), Fire and Earth - in the official download package. Things to do before we can release 1.4 Final include the currently [url=http://fluxbb.org/trac/query?status=assigned&status=new&status=reopened&group=status&milestone=1.4+Final]three known issues[/url], e.g. optimizing the update script performance, as well as testing and cleaning of the Technetium style (we need your help here!). As always, the release can be downloaded on the [url=http://fluxbb.org/downloads/dev.php](development release) downloads page[/url]. You can also find changed files and patches for the 1.4 beta versions and rc1 in the [url=http://fluxbb.org/download/releases/1.4-rc2]release folder[/url]. Please report any bugs you may encounter in the [url=http://fluxbb.org/forums/forum/27/bug-reports-14/]Bug reports (1.4)[/url] board. For anybody wondering, I can also say that before we release 1.4 final, we will move this site to a new server with our brand-new website. It has been announced for a long time, but is really right around the corner now! [Less]

I am delighted to announce the immediate availability of FluxBB 1.4 RC2, the very last release candidate before the final release of v1.4.Since RC1 we have been busy fixing bugs (thanks, testers!), with particularly many changes in the update script ... [More] and some tweaks to the parser. There have also been quite a lot of improvements to the markup which allow for more advanced styling.Probably the biggest news is, though, that the admin panel is now translateable, thanks to an effort by Paul and some community members.We are also delighted to now include the winner of our styling competition, Technetium and three new styles by Paul - Air (the new default), Fire and Earth - in the official download package.Things to do before we can release 1.4 Final include the currently three known issues, e.g. optimizing the update script performance, as well as testing and cleaning of the Technetium style (we need your help here!).As always, the release can be downloaded on the (development release) downloads page. You can also find changed files and patches for the 1.4 beta versions and rc1 in the release folder.Please report any bugs you may encounter in the Bug reports (1.4) board.For anybody wondering, I can also say that before we release 1.4 final, we will move this site to a new server with our brand-new website. It has been announced for a long time, but is really right around the corner now! [Less]

Technetium! The decision has been made. We are pleased to announce [b]Technetium[/b] by [url=http://fluxbb.org/forums/user/2727/]Lirodon[/url] as the winner of our ... [More] [url=http://fluxbb.org/forums/topic/3565/new-styles-for-fluxbb14-a-competition/]official FluxBB 1.4 Styling Contest[/url]. Technetium will be included in the official v1.4 download package. Lirodon will also be awarded €50 as a little motivation to maybe create more nice styles for FluxBB in the future. We were obviously hoping for more participation in the contest, but I believe that we can be content with the results. Technetium is nice on the eyes, uses "glossy"-style gradient backgrounds, a serif font and is thus a real contrast to the "old" styles which are still included in the package. And that is a good thing, as offering a diverse set of default styles can obviously serve to attract more users. A sneak peek at the winner: [img=Technetium style]http://upit.cc/images/8e50dd50.png[/img] Getting the competition done and uploading the winner was also the last major task before we could release the second and last release candidate of 1.4, which will happen in the next days. [Less]

Technetium!The decision has been made. We are pleased to announce Technetium by Lirodon as the winner of our official FluxBB 1.4 Styling Contest.Technetium will be included in the official v1.4 download package. Lirodon will also be awarded €50 as a ... [More] little motivation to maybe create more nice styles for FluxBB in the future.We were obviously hoping for more participation in the contest, but I believe that we can be content with the results. Technetium is nice on the eyes, uses "glossy"-style gradient backgrounds, a serif font and is thus a real contrast to the "old" styles which are still included in the package. And that is a good thing, as offering a diverse set of default styles can obviously serve to attract more users.A sneak peek at the winner:Getting the competition done and uploading the winner was also the last major task before we could release the second and last release candidate of 1.4, which will happen in the next days. [Less]

As promised, below are the style competition entries which we received. We are posting these to get feedback from the community, and also so the styles are available for anyone wishing to use them. Within the coming week we will aim to announce a ... [More] winner. Please note that the downloads provided are as we received the entries. We have not done any tidying up of them or checked the validity of the code. The entries are ordered in that which they were received. [Less]

As promised, below are the style competition entries which we received. We are posting these to get feedback from the community, and also so the styles are available for anyone wishing to use them. Within the coming week we will aim to announce a ... [More] winner.Please note that the downloads provided are as we received the entries. We have not done any tidying up of them or checked the validity of the code.The entries are ordered in that which they were received. [Less]

As some of you are probably aware, the 1.2 branch (and hence 1.4 branch) currently do not support admin panel localization. There have been numerous discussions about including it into 1.4, but so far it hasn't made it. The original argument ... [More] against it was because 1.4 is meant to be a quick and easy upgrade from 1.2, and changing the whole admin panel would require extra work for end users, however like normal it has got a bit carried away and has had far more work done than originally planned, making updating using hdiff not really viable anyway. It can also be argued that mods would require extra work updating them to support the changed admin panel, but at most this will be a couple of strings moved into language files and worst case, the mod uses hard coded strings as before. Since we have had quite a few requests to include this, we are opening this up for discussion. We are now leaning towards including this, especially since all the work has [url=http://fluxbb.org/forums/topic/3567/fluxbb-14rc1-administration-localisation/]already been done[/url], but would like to get the communities input before doing so. PS. Yes I'm aware 1.4 is in feature freeze technically, but since this has been strongly requested it may be worth breaking the rules... [Less]

As some of you are probably aware, the 1.2 branch (and hence 1.4 branch) currently do not support admin panel localization.There have been numerous discussions about including it into 1.4, but so far it hasn't made it.The original argument against it ... [More] was because 1.4 is meant to be a quick and easy upgrade from 1.2, and changing the whole admin panel would require extra work for end users, however like normal it has got a bit carried away and has had far more work done than originally planned, making updating using hdiff not really viable anyway. It can also be argued that mods would require extra work updating them to support the changed admin panel, but at most this will be a couple of strings moved into language files and worst case, the mod uses hard coded strings as before.Since we have had quite a few requests to include this, we are opening this up for discussion. We are now leaning towards including this, especially since all the work has already been done, but would like to get the communities input before doing so.PS. Yes I'm aware 1.4 is in feature freeze technically, but since this has been strongly requested it may be worth breaking the rules...UPDATE: The response being almost entirely in favour, the admin panel now supports localization (as of FluxBB 1.4RC1 r.1362). [Less]

FluxBB 1.4 is now nearing completion. Soon we will be transferring fluxbb.org to its new server, and the new website will go live, with the forums running FluxBB 1.4 RC1. However we have one last feature we wish to add before the final release of ... [More] FluxBB 1.4; a new skin. The old skin from FluxBB 1.2 is now looking rather old and out-dated, and could do with being updated and given a more modern look. We would like to get the community involved in this, and make a competition! If the competition proves to be successful (i.e. we get more than just 1 or 2 entries) then [b]we will ship the best entries with FluxBB 1.4[/b]. There will also be a [b]cash prize[/b] of €50 (~$70) for the best entry (payable via Paypal only). [h]Rules[/h] [list=*] [*]The entries will be judged by the FluxBB Development team. While we will take the communities view into account, the final decision is ours.[/*] [*]Members of the development team can enter if they wish, but they are not eligible for the cash prize.[/*] [*]We may tidy up some of the code before a skin is released as part of FluxBB.[/*] [*]Obviously the skin must be released under the GPL. Any artwork you use it in must either be your own, or released under a compatible license.[/*] [*]The skin should not include any extra copyright notices or advertisements.[/*] [*]Users may submit multiple entries if they wish, within reason.[/*] [*]Joint entries are allowed/encouraged (for example one person doing the CSS and one doing the graphics work)[/*] [*]Obviously you may not edit the core files (i.e. anything outside the style folder). If you need markup in the core altered to be able to do anything we may be able to do this for you, so let us know.[/*] [*]The skin will be judged using the latest SVN version of FluxBB 1.4. While there will only be bug fixes and small tweaks after RC1, sometimes these may affect markup (though shouldn't break backwards compatibility). We will list any changes to the markup at the bottom of this post. [/*] [/list] [h]Suggestions & Hints[/h] [list=*] [*]Keep in mind FluxBB's philosophy. We are much more likely to be impressed by skins which are lightweight and clean.[/*] [*]Your code should be valid (though the use of things such as -moz-border-radius is allowed as long as it degrades gracefully) and tidy.[/*] [*]The skin must work in all major browsers (the latest versions of Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Safari, as well as IE6, 7 and 8).[/*] [*]The skin should be flexible enough to work with any language. Remember items of text will vary in length between languages (especially ones with a non latin character set).[/*] [*]1.4 now supports overwriting the template files, so if you need you can include modified copies of the templates in style//.[/*] [/list] If you have any questions about whether or not something is possible, feel free to ask! [h]Judging[/h] The skins will be judged on the following points: [list=*] [*][b]Design[/b]: Does it look good?[/*] [*][b]Performance[/b]: Is the skin lightweight or does it use lots of images etc? Does it load quickly? This can be tested with tools such as [url=https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1843]Firebug[/url]/[url=https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5369]YSlow[/url][/*] [*][b]Usability[/b]: Is it intuitive to use? Can all important aspects be easily reached without scrolling? How does it work on different screen sizes (such as 1024x768)? The [url=https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/60]web developer toolbar[/url] for Firefox may be useful.[/*] [*][b]Compatibility[/b]: Does it work properly in all browsers? If it degrades in older ones (such as IE6), does it still look acceptable? Does it use web safe fonts?[/*] [*][b]Originality[/b]: Does it look original or like a modified existing skin? For example don't just take Oxygen and change blue to green.[/*] [*][b]Completeness[/b]: Is it totally finished? Obviously we want skins to be finished, but a 90% finished skin wont necessarily be [i]disqualified[/i].[/*] [/list] Obviously some of these are fairly subjective so I'm sure not everyone will agree, ultimately the choice lies with the developer team. [h]How to Enter[/h] If you wish to enter then you can either email your skin to [email][email protected][/email], or post it here - it's up to you if you want to keep your design hidden until the closing date or not. If you have already got a skin made that you wish to enter then feel free, but please first check it works fully on the latest release of FluxBB 1.4. It should be common sense, but please note that submitting a skin which you did not make is not allowed. Anyone found submitting work that they don't have the appropriate permission to use will automatically be disqualified. [b]The closing date will be the last day in February[/b], giving anyone wishing to enter just over 6 weeks to prepare their entries. ------------------------------------------------------ [h]Markup changes to FluxBB since RC1:[/h] [list=*] [*]2010-01-08 - [url=http://fluxbb.org/trac/changeset/1236]r1236[/url]: Added a div wrapping the board description, this should make it easier to style the description without affecting the title.[/*] [*]2010-01-10 - [url=http://fluxbb.org/trac/changeset/1246]r1246[/url]: Added a div wrapping the forum descriptions, this should make it easier to style the descriptions without affecting the titles.[/*] [*]2010-01-10 - [url=http://fluxbb.org/trac/changeset/1246]r1246[/url], [url=http://fluxbb.org/trac/changeset/1247]r1247[/url]: Added a different class to the first post on each topic page, this means the first post can be more easily styled differently from the rest.[/*] [/list] [Less]

FluxBB 1.4 is now nearing completion. Soon we will be transferring fluxbb.org to its new server, and the new website will go live, with the forums running FluxBB 1.4 RC1. However we have one last feature we wish to add before the final release of ... [More] FluxBB 1.4; a new skin.The old skin from FluxBB 1.2 is now looking rather old and out-dated, and could do with being updated and given a more modern look. We would like to get the community involved in this, and make a competition!If the competition proves to be successful (i.e. we get more than just 1 or 2 entries) then we will ship the best entries with FluxBB 1.4. There will also be a cash prize of €50 (~$70) for the best entry (payable via Paypal only).RulesThe entries will be judged by the FluxBB Development team. While we will take the communities view into account, the final decision is ours.Members of the development team can enter if they wish, but they are not eligible for the cash prize.We may tidy up some of the code before a skin is released as part of FluxBB.Obviously the skin must be released under the GPL. Any artwork you use it in must either be your own, or released under a compatible license.The skin should not include any extra copyright notices or advertisements.Users may submit multiple entries if they wish, within reason.Joint entries are allowed/encouraged (for example one person doing the CSS and one doing the graphics work)Obviously you may not edit the core files (i.e. anything outside the style folder). If you need markup in the core altered to be able to do anything we may be able to do this for you, so let us know.The skin will be judged using the latest SVN version of FluxBB 1.4. While there will only be bug fixes and small tweaks after RC1, sometimes these may affect markup (though shouldn't break backwards compatibility). We will list any changes to the markup at the bottom of this post. Suggestions & HintsKeep in mind FluxBB's philosophy. We are much more likely to be impressed by skins which are lightweight and clean.Your code should be valid (though the use of things such as -moz-border-radius is allowed as long as it degrades gracefully) and tidy.The skin must work in all major browsers (the latest versions of Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Safari, as well as IE6, 7 and 8).The skin should be flexible enough to work with any language. Remember items of text will vary in length between languages (especially ones with a non latin character set).1.4 now supports overwriting the template files, so if you need you can include modified copies of the templates in style//.If you have any questions about whether or not something is possible, feel free to ask! JudgingThe skins will be judged on the following points:Design: Does it look good?Performance: Is the skin lightweight or does it use lots of images etc? Does it load quickly? This can be tested with tools such as Firebug/YSlowUsability: Is it intuitive to use? Can all important aspects be easily reached without scrolling? How does it work on different screen sizes (such as 1024x768)? The web developer toolbar for Firefox may be useful.Compatibility: Does it work properly in all browsers? If it degrades in older ones (such as IE6), does it still look acceptable? Does it use web safe fonts?Originality: Does it look original or like a modified existing skin? For example don't just take Oxygen and change blue to green.Completeness: Is it totally finished? Obviously we want skins to be finished, but a 90% finished skin wont necessarily be disqualified.Obviously some of these are fairly subjective so I'm sure not everyone will agree, ultimately the choice lies with the developer team.How to EnterIf you wish to enter then you can either email your skin to [email protected], or post it here - it's up to you if you want to keep your design hidden until the closing date or not. If you have already got a skin made that you wish to enter then feel free, but please first check it works fully on the latest release of FluxBB 1.4.It should be common sense, but please note that submitting a skin which you did not make is not allowed. Anyone found submitting work that they don't have the appropriate permission to use will automatically be disqualified.The closing date will be the last day in February, giving anyone wishing to enter just over 6 weeks to prepare their entries.------------------------------------------------------ Relevant changes to FluxBB since RC1:2010-01-08 - r1236: Added a wrapping the board description, this should make it easier to style the description without affecting the title.2010-01-10 - r1246: Added a wrapping the forum descriptions, this should make it easier to style the descriptions without affecting the titles.2010-01-10 - r1246, r1247: Added a different class to the first post on each topic page, this means the first post can be more easily styled differently from the rest.2010-01-16 - r1253: Added a wrapping the offline label under users info.2010-01-16 - r1256: Placed the separator (») inside in the breadcrumbs. The link items are in tags and the final non-link item in 2010-01-17 - r1257: Made the markup for an empty forum match that for a normal one so they don't need styled separately.2010-01-17 - r1258: Adding the post number to search results so the markup is consistent with that in viewtopic.2010-01-17 - r1260: Added the ability to override the base_admin.css file2010-01-17 - r1261: Added breadcrumbs to the report page to be consistent with the delete and edit pages.2010-01-19 - r1270: Added class "required" to required labels in forms.2010-01-20 - r1271: Added id to footer debug elements to place them more easily2010-01-20 - r1273: Added Atom/RSS feed links in the footer2010-01-21 - r1276, r1282: Added class "imoved" to moved topics, added "Closed:" in front of closed topics but hidden in the default skins. Changed the "powered by" from a list to and moved the debug info outside the footer.2010-01-22 - r1285: Added a around the jump menu label to make it easy to style.2010-01-22 - r1289: Wrapped announcement and rule headings in a to make it possible to style the heading in a way that wont affect any headings inside the actual contents.2010-01-24 - r1295: Changed the "inew" class to "icon-new" in search.php so it isn't confused with the "inew" class in viewforum etc. Made the icon display on search results consistent with that in other places.2010-01-25 - r1298: Making the post review markup consistent with viewtopic.2010-01-27 - r1307: Added an id to the report form.2010-01-27 - r1310: Added extra class to top and bottom links that have breadcrumbs plus pagination/postlinks.2010-01-27 - r1313: Added a explanatory prefix to redirect forums.2010-01-28 - r1318: Added classes to email and website links. Fixed a few missing and inconsistent classes in various places.2010-01-30 - r1325: Tidied some markup on the change password form.2010-01-30 - r1326: Added some id's to scripts that generate more than one type of page. Added a couple of classes to user profiles.2010-02-01 - r1332, r1334: Fixing some inconsistencies in the markup and removing some pointless markup. Adding breadcrumbs to the user search results page.2010-02-04 - r1342: Fixed a missing in admin_forums2010-02-04 - r1344: Fixed a missing in admin_forums2010-02-05 - r1345: Added missing s inside headers in help.php2010-02-06 - r1351, r1351: Added class "isactive" (when they are active...) to main navigation links.2010-02-06 - r1352: Added missing class "warntext" and "buttons" in admin_prune2010-02-17 - r1410: Added required labels to required input fields. These are hidden by default in the default stylesheets. [Less]