SMF2.1:Themes and Layout

Work in progress, expect frequent changes.

Please see SMF1.1:Themes and Layout or SMF2.0:Themes and Layout depending on the version of SMF you are using.

Manage and Install

The Manage and Install page is the default page loaded in the Themes and Layout section of the Administration Center. Here you can select whether the SMF default theme can be chosen, which Theme guests will use, as well as other options. The following are all the options shown on this page:

Themes and Layout Settings

Themes that the user is able to select - When clicking [ Show the list of themes ] a list of all the Themes currently installed on your forum will appear with a checkbox before their name. Checking the box will allow users to select the theme, otherwise if it is unchecked the theme can only be used by Administrators.

Overall forum default - Specify the overall Forum default theme. This theme will be used for guests, new members and members who did not specify any theme.
Reset everyone to - You can reset all members to a specific theme, regardless of their theme preference. Note that even when this setting is set to No change, all users that have Forum or Board Default set as their theme in their profile will still have their theme changed when the setting Overall forum default is changed.

Latest and Greatest Themes

This area shows a few of the latest themes, as well as one featured theme and one randomly selected Theme of the Moment from the Simple Machines Theme Site. However, it may not show up properly if your computer cannot connect to the Simple Machines server.

Install a New Theme

This section provides three ways to install a new theme.

From a file -- a theme archive file, such as can be found on the Simple Machines Theme Site
1. Find a theme archive file in the Simple Machines Theme Site and download the file to your desktop. Be certain that this theme is compatible with your version of SMF. The version is also listed on the page where you downloaded the theme. Themes for prior versions of SMF will not work on SMF 2.1. Themes for SMF 2.1 will not work on prior versions.
2. Click the "Browse" button to the right of the "from a file" label.
3. From the pop-up, navigate to the theme file (still compressed as a .zip or .tar.gz file) on your computer.
4. Click Install and confirm if you want to install the theme in the popup
5. Installation will take a few seconds. If all goes well, the installer will tell you that the theme "... was installed successfully."
6. From your profile, select the theme, to test it.
7. If you have any difficulties with the theme, switch back to the SMF default theme by using theme=1 in your query string (example: http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?theme=1)

From a directory on the server -- If the files are not packed into an archive
1. Make sure the files are already arranged in directories, just as SMF expects to find them. Keeping them in subdirectories of your forum's Themes/ directory will make them easiest to keep track of
2. Be certain that these theme files are compatible with your version of SMF, and that they include a file called theme_info.xml (for more on theme_info.xml, please read Packaging a Theme). The version is also listed on the page where you downloaded the theme. Themes for prior versions of SMF will not work on SMF 2.1. Themes for SMF 2.1 will not work on prior versions.
3. Select the "Install" button.

Create a copy of Default named -- To create a new copy you can customize yourself
1. In the input box, enter a name for your new theme.
2. Select the "Install" button.

Theme Settings

Admin Center > Configuration > Themes and Layout > Theme Settings shows a list of all themes currently installed on the forum. On the right side of the page, beside each theme's name are 3 icons. Depending on whatever theme you might be using, these icons will look different. But they all provide the same functions.

The right of those 3 icons, such as a red X or a trash can icon, removes this theme from your forum. It does not uninstall the theme from the server. It only removes it from the forum. If you want to remove the theme from your server, you'll need to use FTP or your server's tools. You can find where they are in your server by looking at the Base Path and Base URL in the Reset Theme URLs and Directories section at the bottom of this Themes Settings page.

The middle of the 3 icons disables the theme, but does not remove it.

Clicking the left of the three icons displays a page of all the options and settings used by that theme. While these options are generally the same for all themes, they are not identical. You may find options in some themes that are not available in other themes.

Note that Admin Center > Configuration > Current Theme is considered to be a shortcut to the left icon for the theme you are personally using. While it looks like it should be a free-standing page in the Configuration menu, it opens the same page as the left icon for the theme you are using, on Themes Settings page. So it is a shortcut to your theme's options and settings. There is no shortcut to other themes.

Following are the descriptions for the Curve 2 default theme's options and settings. Remember that you may find other options if you are setting up other themes, but they are generally the same as these.

This Theme's name - Although this field will be filled with the name of whatever theme you have clicked on, you can change it if you like.
This Theme's URL - This field will also be filled automatically with the address of the selected theme's main directory (the address in the browser).
This Theme's images URL - This is similar to the above but must point to the images directory that the theme uses. It does not have to be the same location as the theme directory. Some themes will use images from a different theme resulting in a different location.
This Theme's directory - This automatically shows where this theme is located on your server.
Logo image URL - If you leave this blank, either your forum's name, and/or the default logo will be displayed. Otherwise, upload your forum's logo wherever you like, and enter the URL here. Then your forum's logo will be displayed.
Site slogan - If you leave this blank, the SMF logo will be displayed. Otherwise, enter a slogan that you would like for your forum.
Open Graph image - If you want your forum to be integrated with social media, enter the URL for the image you want to represent your forum. Follow the text link "Open Graph" beside the field, to learn more about it.

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Select default smiley set for this theme - Choose which set you want to use, from the four options in the dropdown menu.

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Enable random news line in the forum header - If checked, a news item will be shown randomly each time you refresh the page or navigate through the forum. The news items can be configured in Admin > Main > News and newsletters.
Show news fader on board index - This will cause the news items to be shown with a fading effect between them.
Fading delay between items for the news fader - This sets the amount of time in milliseconds, before the next item is shown, in the news fader.

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Number of recent posts to display on board index - Here you can set the numbers of recent posts that will be displayed in the forum's main index. Set it to zero to disable this feature.
Show statistics on board index - Enabling this will display detailed stats in the Info Center, at the bottom of the forum index page. Statistics such as total topics, total posts, total members, etc. will be shown.
Show latest new member on board index - Enabling this will include the latest new member as part of the statistics in the Info Center.
Show group key on board index - Enable or disable showing a membergroup color legend in the Users Online section of the Info Center section on the board Index page.
Show who is viewing boards and topics - Three options are available to choose from. If you do not like this feature, simply choose Don't show. Otherwise either choose Show only numbers or Show Member names, to show how many members in numbers/names are looking at boards or topics.

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When you finish with all the settings, be sure to click the Save button in the bottom, right corner of the page.

If you have questions about options in other themes, you could try visiting the Community Forum. There are special boards set up specifically to provide support for each and every SMF theme. You could search the forum, in case other administrators have asked the same question before. If you don't find a helpful answer, you could post your question in a new topic.

Finally, below all your themes, at the bottom of this page is a section called Reset Theme URLs and Directories. If you need to move your theme's directories and reset their URLs, for some reason, you can do that here.

**Page updated from Theme Settings heading, to this point.**

Member Options

On the Member options page of your Administration Center you can control the default theme options for your members.

Resetting the options

First you will be given the following options for each theme you have installed on your forum:

Configure guest and new user options for this theme - These are the default values for some member specific settings. Changing these will only affect new members and guests. Check the box to make the statement next to it true, otherwise the option will not be used.
Change current options for all members using this theme - The options below will reset options for everyone. To change an option, select "change" in the box next to it, and then select a value for it. To use the default, select "remove". Otherwise, use "don't change" to keep it as-is.
Remove all member's options and use the defaults - This option will remove any altered options a user has selected from the default options set for the theme the member is using. Next to the link you can see the number of members that are using non-default options for that theme. Note: no confirmation will be asked before the reset to default the options.

The options and their meanings

Upon clicking on one of the above options you will be taken to a page that has the following theme options that you can manage:

Show board descriptions inside boards. - This will show the description you see next to each board on the board Index inside each board as well.
Show child boards on every page inside boards, not just the first. - If you select this, child boards will be listed on every page of a board rather then just the first page. A board will have multiple pages when more topics than the defined number of topics per page has been reached.
Use sidebar menus instead of dropdown menus when possible - This option allows to set as default to use a sidebar with all the navigation menus whenever possible in SMF's interface (e.g. in the admin panel) instead of the dropdown menus.
Don't show users' avatars. - Select this to hide the display of members' avatars. This may speed page viewing for those who have dial-up internet connection.
Don't show users' signatures. - To disable the showing of signatures underneath each post made by a member, check this.
Leave words uncensored. - With this setting checked, words that normally would be replaced with the censor filter will be left untouched.
Return to topics after posting by default. - Check this box if you wish to return to the post you just submitted instead of returning to the index of the board you posted the topic in.
Don't warn on new replies made while posting. - While posting a topic, another member could have posted a reply since you started posting a reply, with this unchecked, a warning will be shown before the post is submitted telling you a reply was made to the topic. Check this if you wish to not show the warning and just submit the reply.
Show most recent posts at the top. - Having this checked will show the newest posts first in a topic and the replies will get older and older as they go along instead of showing the oldest posts first.
Show most recent personal messages at top. - Checking this will show the most recent personal messages on the top, and they will go down as they get older and older.
Hide messages posted by members on my ignore list - If activated the messages posted by members present in the user's ignore list will not be displayed.
Show WYSIWYG editor on post page by default - Checking this will have the What You See Is What You Get style postbox shown as the default editor each time the posting page is loaded. You can always switch back and forth to the editor you want however by clicking the Toggle icon next the bbcode buttons.
Show a pop-up when I receive new messages - Set this to have a pop-up shown to the user after they receive a new personal message.
Save a copy of each Personal Message in my sent items by default. - With this selected, the checkbox when sending a a personal message to save a copy of the message into your sent items directory will be initially checked.
Remove the inbox label when applying another label. - With this checked, when a label is applied to a personal message, the inbox label of the personal message will be removed.
Turn notification on when you post or reply to a topic. - With this checked, the checkbox to send out notification of replies to a topic you post in will by default be checked.
Topics to display per page - Determines how many topics (topic subject with link to topic, as well as view and reply count and last post information) should be shown per page on the topic listing when inside of a board.
Messages to display per page - Determines how many posts should be shown per page when inside of a topic.
Use Quick Reply on Topic display - Select if you wish to not show quick reply at all, or show it but collapsed, or just show it at full height.
Show quick-moderation as. - Select whether you wish to show quick moderation boxes on the message index next to each topic of a board as icons (which would disable the use of mass-moderation), checkboxes or not show them at all.

Modify Themes

Every theme you have installed on your Forum is listed here. Underneath every theme the following are listed:

Browse the templates and files in this theme - Lists all template files a theme has. You may click on any template file and edit it straight from there.

Edit this theme's style sheet - Shows the theme's style sheet. There is a built in preview of the theme you are editing and you can see what the changes would look like before you even save the changes.

Copy a template from the Theme this is based on - Here you can select a template file that the Theme is based on (usually the default SMF theme) and copy it over to the theme.

It is not recommended to edit a theme in this way as no backup is created if an improper edit is made so there is nothing to restore which can not be done if the forum is in a crashed state.

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