GPB: The GPL PHP Board

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Theme Development

1. Introduction

1.1: Base
1.2: The layers

2. Development

2.1: PHP Files
2.2: Links
2.3: Useful global vars
2.4: Icons
2.5: Smilies
2.6: Getting the data

1.1: Base

GPB started to be fast and flexible. That's why we decided that the forum should have theme support. Now it's very easy to add themes. Yust put a theme in the "themes" directory in de GPB root. Now they are available for everybody. Making themes is not that difficult, but without knoledge of PHP you won't come very far. We try to handle as many as possible on the background, so that it'll be easier to create themes. But it must stay flexible, so themes can do many, many things.

1.2: Layers

GPB consists of a backend and a frontend. The backend is the API for handling the database-, cookie- and mail functions. Also there are a lot of common used functions in it, to parse UBB tags and so on.
The databasetype doen't matter. In theory all databases supported by PHP will work if you write an implementation of it. The database implementation offers a simpel API to the frontend. The frontend is just a theme. A theme is nothing more than a couple of simpel PHP script which receive their data by calling the backend and making fancy HTML code of it.
The type of database which is used doen't matter, the API will be the same, so you don't have to care about it while developing a theme.

2.1: PHP Files

We made a big change in here. Now you can use the files you would like to. You need at least the follwing files:

File	Parameters	Function
index.php	-	The indexpage of the forum.
profile.php	uid=[userID]	To view the profile of the user with the given userID.
listtopic.php	sid=[subcategoryID]	To view the topics in a given subcategoryID.
showtopic.php	tid=[topicID] page=[pageID]	To view the posts in a given topicID and on a given pageID.

The rest is free. But for compatability you should use the filenames used by the default GPB themes. If you have a static theme for your own site (users can't chose their own theme), you only need an index.php.

2.2: Links

You cannot use the default method of refering to other pages, because 'index.php' in the GPB root is responsible for including all the other files. If you type the follwing url: "http://www.foo.bar/gpb" the index.php will include the index.php in the users theme root, or the index.php of the default theme, in case the user isn't logged in.
If you want to make a link to an other page in your theme you have to call the index.php like this:

"<A HREF="?file=listopic.php&sid=2">subcategory 2</A>"

2.3: Useful global vars

To make life a bit easier, there are several userful global variables:

Variabel	Description
$logged_in	If is set to "1" the current user is logged in. Otherwise the user is not logged in.
$gpb_username	If the user is logged in, this is the username from the cookie.
$gpb_password	If the user is logged in, this is the password from the cookie (md5 encrypted).
$last_visit	The last visit of the current user from the cookie. This is a timestamp, so it's easy to compare it with timestamps from the database.
$user_prefs	If the user is logged in, this object will keep his/her preferences: $user_prefs->status: the status of the user: 0 = disabled account, 1 = member, 2 = moderator, 3 = administrator. $user_prefs->show_days: the last XXX days of which topics must be shown. $user_prefs->avatar_enable: if set to "1", avatars are visible, else they may not be displayed. $user_prefs->language: The language the user is using (something linke "en" or "nl"). $user_prefs->theme: The theme the user is using (something linke "simple" or "ubb").
$forumname	The name of the forum.
$adminmail	The e-mail address of the forum administrator.
$title_image	The URL of the title image of the forum.
$max_topics_pp	The maximum number of topics per page.
$max_posts_pp	The maximum number of posts per page.
$show_topics_days	The number of the last XXX day's of which topics must be shown.
$hot_topic	When the number of posts is higher than or equal to this value, than the topic is "hot", which could result in a different icon.
$allow_custom_theme	If "1" users may choose their own theme, else they may not.
$allow_custom_language	If "1" users may choose their own language, else they may not.
$pwd_min_length	The minimum number of characters of a password.
$pwd_max_length	The maximum number of characters of a password.
$username_min_length	The minimum number of characters of a username.
$username_max_length	The maximum number of characters of a username.
$ttitle_min_length	The minimum number of characters if a topic title.

2.4: Icons

The following icons are the basic GPB topic and post icons. A theme doen't have to support these icons by the way. You can also add icons if you like, but remember that other themes may not support them. This is not a problem when your forum has a static theme.

File	ID	Description
	1	Just a post (the default icon).
	2	Check this out!
	3	I've got an idea/discovered something.
	4	Notice this.
	5	I've got a question for ya.
	6	This is really cool.
	7	This is nice, go read it.
	8	I'm angry, why does this f*cking thing not work?
	9	I'm sad, my car wont start.
	10	Hehe, i'm satisfied.
	11	Hmm, i don't understand it anymore.
	12	Just kiddin', don't take it too serious.
	13	Kinda bad thing I suppose.
	14	Wow, this is good man.

2.5: Smilies

Themes have their own smilies (or emoticons). GPB has a basic iconset, which is parsed by the gpb functions. You can add your own smilies, but remember that other themes are unable to display them and you have to write your own parsing functions for it.
Icons must be placed in "images/smilies/" in your theme directory, for the build in smily parser to work.
The default iconset:

File	Text	Filename	Description
	:)	smile.gif	The happy icon.
	:D	biggrin.gif	Wow this is cool.
	;)	wink.gif	Just kiddin
	:(	frown.gif	Hmm, i'm sad
	:#	mad.gif	Damnit!!
	8)	cool.gif	Wow this is cool.
	:o	eek.gif	That doesn't look so gooed.
	:p	tongue.gif	Nanananana
	:@	rolleyes.gif	Ehhhhhh
	:}	redface.gif	Ohoh

2.6: getting the data

There's a whole bunch of functions in the GPB API. For information about what the different functions do, you should have a look at the api reference.