Tons of Questions

adamti91

I plan to use Vanilla on a new website, which will be community (forum) focused, but also have some static pages and a news section. I really want to use Vanilla but there are a few questions I have. 1. Is there a way to move the user's name, avatar, etc. to a left column on each post (ala VBulletin or most other forums)? 2. Is there a way for the "Categories" page to be the forum's home page, and do away with "Discussions" all together (have people go through the topics first)? 3. Is there a way to record post counts and put them in my proposed 'left bar', and be able to search for "posts by this user"? 4. Will Vanilla be able to integrate with Swell (Lussumo's upcoming blog software) seamlessly (with users and user posts, profiles, etc.) 5. (About Swell) Will Swell have a Static Pages feature? I guess I am trying to make Vanilla look more like any other forum software, so users do not have to adapt to a different layout, while still retaining Vanilla's backend and features. Thanks, I look forward to using Vanilla in the future. -Adam

Bergamot

1-3: Save yourself the trouble, and install punBB instead.

Sure, you can do all that stuff with themes and extensions, but it's a lot of work and you end up destroying most of the benefits of Vanilla in the process.

4. Yes.

5. It will; it does not currently. Then again, swell doesn't really exist yet except as a demo running on Mark's server, so I suppose it doesn't currently have anything.

adamti91

So there is no way to achieve 1-3 with Vanilla at all? I have used and administered tons of forum and CMS software before, and I was really looking forward to using Vanilla. I installed it on a test server and it seems great. -Adam

Bergamot

No, all three are possible if you're handy with PHP; they're just IMHO not worth the trouble.

adamti91

OK, I have coded a few themes here and there for various CMS' so I guess I'm okay at that. I really think that it's worth it, and well, if I end up doing it, there is one more, more user-freindly (in my opinion) theme for Vanilla out there! Edit: I just checked out your Pong Forums, and that is the kind of thing I was going for pretty much. It retains Vanilla's flow, but doesn't differ from more mainstream forums so much. Filebrowser also looks very nice, an all around very nice site. Is that style up for grabs anywhere? -Adam

lech

Yeah, if you're hell-bent on destroying or "doing away" with features which vanilla offers, you're probably better off using something else. Otherwise, welcome aboard and enjoy what you have, you'll find out through editing the theme and it's associated css that much can be done if you're willing to get your hands a bit dirty.

adamti91

I never said I wanted to do away with any features. Just add some features and change the look. -Adam

lech

Well, that can be all achieved depending on how you attack the problem, in vanilla, you can either write a new style or theme to address the changes, be it major or minor. Else you can use or create your own template or introduce a modified template by altering only those files which you want to modify and then dump it into your own themes + style folder. Hope that helps.

adamti91

I'll start working on that soon, if I get the chance... I have a lot on my hands now with school finals, and I'll be away this summer for 8 weeks with no computer access. -Adam

Bergamot

The basic plan of attack is:

1. Get the userID of the comment's author
2. Use the userID to get the User object for the author
3. Get info about the author from their User object

It's not too involved; the hardest part is keeping track of what objects are in scope where.