A Web Design Community curated by Chris Coyier

#48: Skinning phpBB

By: Chris Coyier on: 12/29/2008 with 17 Comments

Creating a completely custom theme for the popular forums software phpBB would be a monster job. Fortunately, to get up and running quickly, we can simply wrap a default installation of phpBB into the skin of an existing site pretty easily. We do just that in this screencast, and work out the kinks that pop up.

Running time: 27:22

Direct Download: High Quality, Quicktime .M4V Format (AppleTV Ready)

Links from Video:

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17 Responses

  1. Frodo6432 says:

    Woot! Nice, I really wanted to know how to do this work, thanks Chris :)

  2. Hey, to fix the cache log in to the admin control panel and click purge cache and go to your styles and click refresh for everything.

    If you want to learn more there is startrekguide.com (not trying to advertise but its helpful)

    • Chase says:

      About the Cache issues.. There is an option within the Admin Control Panel that allows you to avoid having to refresh the theme. This is not recommended as it causes more load on the server that can otherwise be avoided, but is certainly a temporary solution that makes editing a much smoother process.

      ACP / General / Load Settings / Recompile Stale Style Components / Yes

      With that enabled, no refresh/deleting is necessary.

      Just remember to turn it back off once finished.

  3. I could never figure phpBB out. Thank you so much.

  4. Manko10 says:

    Thanks, great Screecast!
    Long time ago I tried to make my own phpBB 3 theme and gave it up, thanks to show us how to make a theme. A little suggestion: you should also change the ugly default theme of phpBB 3 and its icons to match it to your site. ;-)

    But I really have to say: I would never use phpBB 3, because I dislike its “feature war”. It’s extremely oversized, I think.

    Anyway… Great podcast, thanks again!

  5. Libby says:

    Excllent thank you. I have to do this for a client and was muddling through. I especially like the live troubleshooting… and not I’m not kidding.

  6. Steve Robillard says:

    I am glad to see I am not the only one whose dog makes his presence known. I have been on more than one conference call when he barked or even better snored loud enough that the other person asked what that was. I finally gave up and named one of my software products after him (Digger).

  7. John says:

    I can only watch ten minutes worth. Was looking forward to watching this :(

  8. Matt says:

    Great screen cast. How do you get rid of the top search bar to replace it with google search? or even just have the search bar in an better place, i.e. so it takes up less room.

    Would you say bbpress or PHPbb is better on a site using WP?

  9. Trozdol says:

    Thanks a BAGILLION times! I was hoping you would cover this in one of your screencasts. I’ll love you forever for this.

  10. Combus says:

    I preffer using MyBB since you can easly manage templates from the ACP ;) Actually skinning it and theme it is pretty pretty easy.

  11. This is a really nice tutorial, I am not a fan of PHPBB myself, I am a vbulletin man, maybe you could do one about that one day :)

  12. ZenemiG says:

    Id like to see one on bbPress :P Thanks for a great screencast, as always ;)

  13. Henry says:

    Nice videocast. For future editing, you can enable automatic style recompilation in the ACP (load settings). Also, for cleaner development of new styles it is an idea to use inheritance:
    http://www.phpbb.com/blog/2008/07/31/templating-just-got-easier/

    Cheers,

    H

  14. kayapsestinty says:

    Nothing seems to be easier than seeing someone whom you can help but not helping.
    I suggest we start giving it a try. Give love to the ones that need it.
    God will appreciate it.

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