Theme updates for 4.5.0

[Ehren]

Hi everyone!

It seems as though Invision Community 4.5.0 is nearing completion, which means another round of theme updates will be coming soon!

Due to some significant changes in terms of the css code, I figured this would be a perfect opportunity to recode the themes from scratch using a cleaner framework and some new features. The new framework is roughly 50% completed at the moment and I'm looking forward to sharing some screenshots of new features in the near future. In the mean time, here's a sneak peak of the redesigned Background Picker including a new feature!

If there's a feature you've always wanted in your theme, now's the time to let me know in the comments below!

As always, if you're an existing subscriber, you'll have free access to your theme update when it's released!

 

Note: One fairly significant change with 4.5 is a lack of support for IE11 due to css variables. Similar to the default Invision theme in 4.5, there are no plans to support IE11 in my themes moving forward, so please keep this in mind if you are thinking about upgrading your community.

[SC36DC]

Love the Random picker idea. Any new features that can be added will be a huge plus. Thank you so much for creating such great themes. I look forward to the end result.

[pequefocus]

Hello @Ehren, and thanks.

I would like many themes to have the option of choosing a rounded style

so that certain areas look like this:

 

 

[ThomasP]

Looking forward to the upgraded skin on the upcoming new version. Well done

 

[Davyc]

Would like to see the options to add more information to the user panel, something like this, but a bit more restrained:

Say something like:

• Group
• Rank
• Followers/Friends
• Post Count
• Reputation
• Days Won
• Status
• Timezone

With options to use any combination or all.  I've seen other developers add these features into their themes, so it would be nice to have this available without having to purchase another addon which may or may not plat nice.

With thanks and looking forward to what you have in store for us.

[The Heff]

I'd like a smarter grid view than the default allows.

Looking at the IPS home page, it's got too much wasted space because even in a category of 3 forums it insists on displaying in a 2x2 layout. It'd be great if it'd display a different layout depending on whether a category has one forum, an even number of forums or an odd number of forums.

From:

To:

Obviously that's a very crude mock-up, but I'm sure you'll be able to either make it look superb or come up with a better solution to avoid that horrid empty space.

Here's to 4.5 and some new flashy themes!

[Davyc]

2 hours ago, The Heff said:

I'd like a smarter grid view than the default allows.

Absolutely this - I don't understand why IPS have not got an intelligent means of allowing a choice for grid columns - it's the same in 'Our Picks' it's two columns wide regardless; something to do with the patchwork thingy and not being able to state how many columns you prefer based upon the kind of content you are pushing - very restrictive and totally unnecessary in this day and age of modern responsiveness.

[uA_Y_C_A]

 

and settings for font size for Blog and main board

[Freddie M]

In-built dark mode

User panel CSS tweaks: Allow for the post area and user panel to be different colours.

@Ehren would it be possible to test early releases of your skins (which I use).

[ThomasP]

I'd love to see an option in the backend to change the different fontawsome "icons" from a menu.

Also this read/unread markers here

 

That would be really awesome to further customize the look on that level by ourselves.

Thanks

[Ehren]

13 hours ago, joey_m said:

In-built dark mode

This is something I experimented with a couple of weeks ago, but decided it was best to have two separate versions (light and dark) instead of trying to combine them into one theme. All 4.5 themes will come with a light/dark toggle though, allowing you to easily switch between either:

1. A light/dark version of the same theme such as Chameleon and Chameleon Dark
2. Any light/dark themes, such as Ortem and Carbon

 

13 hours ago, joey_m said:

User panel CSS tweaks: Allow for the post area and user panel to be different colours.

This is already possible in the 4.4 themes

13 hours ago, joey_m said:

@Ehren would it be possible to test early releases of your skins (which I use).

I don't really plan on doing an early release of themes, especially since I haven't finished any yet. But if I finish them on a beta version of the software, I'll release them early

13 hours ago, ThomasP said:

I'd love to see an option in the backend to change the different fontawsome "icons" from a menu.

This would likely involve significant changes to the Menu Manager rather than a theme setting. The icons can be changed easily using css (in both 4.4 and 4.5) so I unfortunately don't have any plans to improve on this.

 

On 7/18/2020 at 12:56 AM, The Heff said:

I'd like a smarter grid view than the default allows.

Looking at the IPS home page, it's got too much wasted space because even in a category of 3 forums it insists on displaying in a 2x2 layout. It'd be great if it'd display a different layout depending on whether a category has one forum, an even number of forums or an odd number of forums.

The current grid code uses a minimum width of 300px. This can be changed on a per-forum basis, so if you wanted to display 3 in each row of one category and 2 in another, then that's easy to achieve

[Dean_]

I think I mentioned this idea before and you said wait for the surprise, but I'll just add it here just in case.

@Davyc Had a nice custom grid layout for the forums (StarTrekGate) which I absolutely loved! I see IPS added a grid view, which has been updated. Is this something that can still be done on the new creation of the themes? (namely; Titan?)
(Below is a quote from our PM's)

On 2/9/2020 at 9:57 PM, Ehren said:

I can code something like that if you're interested, yeah. It wouldn't be a copy/paste solution since I'd need to experiment with it while I code it, but it's possible.

Otherwise, if you're not in a rush, there will be a nice surprise for you in 4.5

On v3 of IPS we had the options to show AuthorPane horizontal/vertical, this would be great to have the option again.

Could we still get holiday features? And if so, could we get a separate tab to enable these with a toggle button? (Christmas, Valentines Day, etc).

And similar to the above, could we have all the forums features/tweaks in acp theme tabs with toggle buttons, instead of going into CSS and changing code? I'm not sure if that's easier for you but having all the options in one place and being clearly shown on the store page of what themes have what features would be very welcomed. That is really my only niggle about these themes.

[Ehren]

9 hours ago, Dean_ said:

Had a nice custom grid layout for the forums (StarTrekGate) which I absolutely loved! I see IPS added a grid view, which has been updated. Is this something that can still be done on the new creation of the themes? (namely; Titan?)

Yeah that's correct, the new grid layout is an update I worked on for Invision. Is there something you think is missing which you'd like to see included?

9 hours ago, Dean_ said:

On v3 of IPS we had the options to show AuthorPane horizontal/vertical, this would be great to have the option again.

This isn't on my official todo list, but I like the suggestion so I'll keep it in mind!

9 hours ago, Dean_ said:

Could we still get holiday features? And if so, could we get a separate tab to enable these with a toggle button? (Christmas, Valentines Day, etc).

Yeah, I'll be looking at doing some holiday effects shortly.

9 hours ago, Dean_ said:

could we have all the forums features/tweaks in acp theme tabs with toggle buttons, instead of going into CSS and changing code?

Features which require both HTML and CSS modifications (such as the animated snow effect or background picker) will be configured using the settings tab. If features can be accomplished using a line or two of css (such as changing the navigation icons), they'll stay as "css changes" in 4.5. A completely new tutorial forum for 4.5 will be added with instructions on how to accomplish everything in the new themes

[Dean_]

On 7/23/2020 at 2:40 AM, Ehren said:

Yeah that's correct, the new grid layout is an update I worked on for Invision. Is there something you think is missing which you'd like to see included?

If you could have the option to have set image sizes on the grid layout maybe have the option to also have 3 or 4 topics across. Right now on IPS you can only have two. Topic description underneath with subforums too.

[David..]

On 7/22/2020 at 1:28 AM, Ehren said:

This is something I experimented with a couple of weeks ago, but decided it was best to have two separate versions (light and dark) instead of trying to combine them into one theme. All 4.5 themes will come with a light/dark toggle though, allowing you to easily switch between either:

1. A light/dark version of the same theme such as Chameleon and Chameleon Dark
2. Any light/dark themes, such as Ortem and Carbon

Could we possibly duplicate a dark theme and change all the color settings to a light version? Would that work or would it require manual CSS editing too?

[David..]

Integrating some cool CSS animations would be nice too!

[Dean_]

Might be the best time to ask, but would you be willing to make/release a landing/home page like the one you have with customisable options?