Look & Feel: Manage Skin Sets & Templates
Submitted Mark, Oct 02 2009 07:36 AM | Last updated May 09 2011 03:59 PM
You can manage skins from Admin CP --> Look & Feel.
IP.Board comes with three included skins:
Beside each skin you will notice either one of these icons:
This icon is for the default skin. To make it not the default skin, you cannot change the visibility of the default skin.
This icon means that users (who have permission) can select this skin. Click on it to make it hidden.
This icon means that users cannot select this skin and it will only be available if set to a particular forum or browser (we will explain how to configure this later).
If you do not want users to be able to change their skin selection at all, and only wish users to use the default skin you can go to Admin CP --> System --> System Settings --> Members --> User Profiles and set the "Allow users to choose skins?" setting to no.
You will also notice an "Output Format" which will say either "HTML" or "XML" - as mentioned earlier, you can ignore XML skins. The default skin has a slightly darker icon. To change the default skin, click the "HTML" icon for any other skin.
Skin Settings
To manage settings for a skin to go to Admin CP --> Look & Feel. For the skin whose settings you wish to edit, select the "Edit Settings" from the drop-down menu.
Basics
Here you can set the name of the skin and the output format.
IP.Board supports two output formats: HTML and XML. Your skin will almost certainly use HTML output, but, should you wish to create a skin which uses XML output (like the "IP.Board 3 XML" skin) then you can configure the output format in the settings for the skin.
Set Permissions
You can customise which user groups can use any skin. This may be used if perhaps you are considering adding a new skin but for the time being only want your staff to see it.
You will notice a checkbox that says "Select ALL current and future groups" - if this is checked, all groups will be able to use the skin. When you uncheck this box, you will notice that the selection box below it will become enabled. This selection box contains each of your groups - simply select which groups you wish to be able to use the skin (to select multiple groups, hold ctrl on a Windows PC, or cmd on a Mac) and when youʼre done, press "Save Set".
You should note that the default skin must have the "ALL current and future groups" checkbox checked.
You can also use the toggle at the bottom to set whether or not the skin is provided in the skin selection list.
Default Skin
Also in this section you can select whether this skin is the default skin (the default skin is what users who have not specified a skin choice will see). Simple check the checkbox to make a skin the default - this will automatically uncheck this setting for the current default skin.
Skin Set Parent
IP.Board features skin inheritance - that is, you could create a "child skin" based off of any other skin and the child skin will inherit changes from their parent skin.
You can specify the parent skin here.
Skin Set Key
This is a unique key to identify the skin. You needn't provide a value.
CSS Options
These settings configure how CSS should be rendered. We recommend you leave these settings to the default values.
Image Options
This allows you to choose which image set and which emoticons set should be used by the skin. If your skin is displaying the incorrect images, the wrong image set it likely selected here.
Set Author
This is for informational purposes only and is not actually used by the system.
IP.Board comes with three included skins:
- IP.Board
This is the default skin which you see when you visit your forums. - IP.Board Mobile
This is a ʻliteʼ skin which is designed for mobile devices. If you visit your forums from an iPhone or Blackberry mobile phone, you will automatically be shown the lo-fi skin (we will explain how to configure this later). - IP.Board 3 XML
This is a special skin that developerʼs can use. Most users can ignore this skin.
Beside each skin you will notice either one of these icons:
This icon is for the default skin. To make it not the default skin, you cannot change the visibility of the default skin.
This icon means that users (who have permission) can select this skin. Click on it to make it hidden.
This icon means that users cannot select this skin and it will only be available if set to a particular forum or browser (we will explain how to configure this later).If you do not want users to be able to change their skin selection at all, and only wish users to use the default skin you can go to Admin CP --> System --> System Settings --> Members --> User Profiles and set the "Allow users to choose skins?" setting to no.
You will also notice an "Output Format" which will say either "HTML" or "XML" - as mentioned earlier, you can ignore XML skins. The default skin has a slightly darker icon. To change the default skin, click the "HTML" icon for any other skin.
Skin Settings
To manage settings for a skin to go to Admin CP --> Look & Feel. For the skin whose settings you wish to edit, select the "Edit Settings" from the drop-down menu.
Basics
Here you can set the name of the skin and the output format.
IP.Board supports two output formats: HTML and XML. Your skin will almost certainly use HTML output, but, should you wish to create a skin which uses XML output (like the "IP.Board 3 XML" skin) then you can configure the output format in the settings for the skin.
Set Permissions
You can customise which user groups can use any skin. This may be used if perhaps you are considering adding a new skin but for the time being only want your staff to see it.
You will notice a checkbox that says "Select ALL current and future groups" - if this is checked, all groups will be able to use the skin. When you uncheck this box, you will notice that the selection box below it will become enabled. This selection box contains each of your groups - simply select which groups you wish to be able to use the skin (to select multiple groups, hold ctrl on a Windows PC, or cmd on a Mac) and when youʼre done, press "Save Set".
You should note that the default skin must have the "ALL current and future groups" checkbox checked.
You can also use the toggle at the bottom to set whether or not the skin is provided in the skin selection list.
Default Skin
Also in this section you can select whether this skin is the default skin (the default skin is what users who have not specified a skin choice will see). Simple check the checkbox to make a skin the default - this will automatically uncheck this setting for the current default skin.
Skin Set Parent
IP.Board features skin inheritance - that is, you could create a "child skin" based off of any other skin and the child skin will inherit changes from their parent skin.
You can specify the parent skin here.
Skin Set Key
This is a unique key to identify the skin. You needn't provide a value.
CSS Options
These settings configure how CSS should be rendered. We recommend you leave these settings to the default values.
Image Options
This allows you to choose which image set and which emoticons set should be used by the skin. If your skin is displaying the incorrect images, the wrong image set it likely selected here.
Set Author
This is for informational purposes only and is not actually used by the system.
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