Xenforo advice for client site?

[keithpickering]

Hey guys. I’m doing a redesign of a relatively large site that’s run on Xenforo. Having had no experience whatsoever with Xenforo, I’m wondering how templates will work.

My original plan was to design and code the front-end (HTML/CSS/JS) initially, after which I would convert it to a Xenforo theme. However, every Xenforo theme I’ve found so far uses the default HTML – camelCase galore. Not my favorite. I figure the reason everyone sticks with this template is to save time, and this would be a definite benefit.

The problem is that this site isn’t just a forum. There are a few pages totally unrelated to the forum that will use the same template. As someone who prefers working with inuitcss and a BEM-based syntax, I’m not sure how well this would go using the default Xenforo templates.

One option would be to combine the two, creating a header/footer from scratch and reusing the Xenforo HTML for the actual forum area. I don’t see a reason why this wouldn’t be possible, and it would save me the trouble of reinventing the wheel.

If I could get some input from someone who has used Xenforo (or something similar) in the past, that’d be great. Thanks guys!

EDIT: While I’m at it, does anyone know the best way to test Xenforo themes? Can it just be installed on a local server like WordPress can?

[keithpickering]

It’s a pretty popular forum software – the forum isn’t the main part of the site, so I’d prefer to distance myself from it, but it looks like I’m stuck with Xenforo.

Right now it looks like the best option is to use my own custom code for all areas except for the actual body of the forum. This definitely saves me a lot of code writing. Still looking for other opinions though. I’d love to go through every single Xenforo template and make my own version, but that’s not time-efficient at all.

[shaneisme]

I did something similar to what you’re proposing with bringing forum software into a website a while back. I just worked around their code and made adjustments to the styles custom as I needed to inside the forum itself.

If you’re not familiar with the theme templates, and I’m in the same boat as Doc, that’s all you can do really :)

[__]

Do they have a (unaltered) template? That might be good reference material (i.e., for what classes you need to cover, how different components are built up, etc.).

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