End of phpBB as we know it?

Genesis

Administrator
Staff member
I learned yesterday when I was checking out phpBB version 3.1.6 that all styles pre 3.1.6 have been made obsolete. The differences in how styles work from 3.0 to 3.1.6 are so drastic that it's not an upgrade when one moves from 3.0 to 3.1.6. More like a conversion where one has to exclude the styles. And start from scratch. I'd say that must be a major disaster for most phpBB fans who had been loyal supporters of phpBB

Already in 2014 when I put together a phpBB Forum with old styles, I discovered that all of the really great tutorials were 2012. Meaning for me that phpBB started to go into decline in 2013. More and more people were moving to alternatives, blogging and maybe myBB, BBPress, etc.

phpBB is not the only Forum with a major leap from one version to another. myBB also has a major change from its 1.6 to 1.8. BUT I think the major change for phpBB is more significant than myBB. At least myBB has been very well supported, but if others are like me, the only reason I've been hanging on to phpBB was because of the styles. And now that all of of the styles have become extinct, why bother with phpBB any longer?
 

Tytoowns

New member
Just checked it out and I'm genuinely surprised at how responsive it is. Looks great! :good:
I don't think this will be the end of phpBB, at least not yet haha.
 

Snowflake

New member
I've seen the changes and I'm really regreting switching from phpbb to smf on one of my forums. It looks great and I think it will get more people to use phpbb rather than leave it.
 

Genesis

Administrator
Staff member
I've been doing research all night. Sad thing is the developer of that nice theme says he's not going to develop more themes. Looks as though the ability to modify 3.1 phpBB themes (versus 3.0) has been made almost impossible. Looks as though he is designing more for Xenforo now. Checked Xenforo, but I'd hate to fork out 120$ for a forum script - and then probably pay a maintenance fee every year to get security updates. :dodgy:
 

Peter

Member
phpBB is open source. If you don't like the direction it's going (and you know PHP) you can always fork it, or just keep using an older version.
 

Genesis

Administrator
Staff member
Peter said:
phpBB is open source. If you don't like the direction it's going (and you know PHP) you can always fork it, or just keep using an older version.
True. But updates for the version I'm using will end end of this month.

Not a big deal though. I spent some hours with the theme design last night and one can work around things. May take a few days to get it absolutely perfect - possibly Xmas time. I found a similar theme with a static background and scrolling forum that has been adapted from 3.0 to 3.1.6 and figured out how it works and what the differences are. Funny how there is always more than one solution to a problem. In the meanwhile I'll stick with phpBB 3.0.12 until it goes under.

I'd like to play more with myBB however. Never really got my hands dirty with a myBB theme yet.
 

marked

New member
I recently got my domain name registered and hosted with some germany based servers (sadly, they are running on a far slower speed than gigarank, but since I had to pay in cash and not through online money, giga wasn't an option) and I'm in the process of looking for a decent free forum software.

Which one do you suggest with your updated information on phpBB, Gen?
 

Genesis

Administrator
Staff member
From our previous discussions it looks as though you must have experience with phpBB so it may be a waste of time to have to learn a new script. I'd say phpBB is still OK, maybe better; its last version is a departure from previous versions with huge updates for security and new technology. Since you're not going to change from 3.0 to 3.1, it should be dead easy to work with it. I was able to load it from our Softaculous in cPanel in a few seconds - you don't need to create your own mySQL database. Softaculous script loader does it for you.

Latest version is 3.1.6

This theme developer has some fantastic genuinely responsive (to all devices) themes for phpBB3. I also noticed the author (Arty) is part of the development team at phpBB, so the themes are really reliable and well designed:
http://www.artodia.com/phpbb-styles/

My favourite theme in his list is "Elegance".
 

marked

New member
What I am apprehensive about is, would future updates null out these themes? :(

I mean, I won't feel the hammer coming on me now (because I am not upgrading) but do you think the hammer would fall on the users of this version when the updates for this version are released?

I understand I am asking your subjective opinion and not phpBB's official verdict on the matter. But I'd still like to know what you think about it.
 

Genesis

Administrator
Staff member
marked said:
What I am apprehensive about is, would future updates null out these themes? :(
I don't think so. myBB is also in the process of a huge leap change from 1.6 to 1.8. They both probably had to make changes to allow for new technology.

If you liked myBB for, I'd go for it. Try not to make too many improvisations to the style - with the ones I showed you I don't think you'll need to do it anyway.

By the way it's only the style that got nixed. The rest you can upgrade easily. Used to be easy to modify styles in the Admin Panel. They've removed that feature - probably for security reasons, and one now has to do all of the changes in the files from cPanel. The changes were how the file folders and images locations were arranged. I can't see them making another change like that soon. Like a fundamental one.
 
Now that is distressing news, I was considering running my site on phpBB, haven't really got it going properly yet due to personal setbacks but was seriously considering going back to phpBB.

I've grown really tired of using vBulletin 4 and can't afford the upgrade to vB5, don't get on with MyBB any more and SMF has never been a favourite. I have created many styles for phpBB in the past so am quite at home with the script, I'm going to install phpBB later today or perhaps tomorrow and see what's what with this 3.1.6 version, not happy none of my old styles will work with it though.
 

Genesis

Administrator
Staff member
Briar Spirit said:
not happy none of my old styles will work with it though.
That part is not so good - for me also. The new version 3.1 major change is probably a good thing. I'm sure the forum development teams at both myBB and phpBB had to make some real changes to make the forums more secure.

I've figured out how to change the phpBB style this weekend (burned the proverbial midnight oil on Thursday). You could get a look alike style of yours that has already been designed for 3.1.6. Then compare what the style folder contents look like and how it has been put together. Could be as simple as just loading all of the images in one folder only as there is no more separate imageset folder any longer.

This is what the style folders used to look like before the major change was made:

Capture6.png


And this is what it looks like now - you'll note no more imageset folder:

Capture1.png


More detailed look of the new theme folder content:

Capture2.png


And a glimpse of the template folder contents - still the same type of content:
Capture3.png

Then of course the wording needs to be changed in the configuration file:

This configuration content is before the change (note I've changed the name to Dogmatix):
#
# phpBB Theme Configuration File
#
# @package phpBB3
# @copyright (c) 2005 phpBB Group
# @license http://opensource.org/licenses/gpl-license.php GNU Public License
#
#
# At the left is the name, please do not change this
# At the right the value is entered
# For on/off options the valid values are on, off, 1, 0, true and false
#
# Values get trimmed, if you want to add a space in front or at the end of
# the value, then enclose the value with single or double quotes.
# Single and double quotes do not need to be escaped.
#
# Available and used values:
# parse_css_file
#

# General Information about this style
name = dogmatix
copyright = © dogmatix 2011-2014
version = 1.0.1

# Some configuration options

#
# You have to turn this option on if you want to use the
# path template variables ({T_IMAGESET_PATH} for example) within
# your css file.
# This is mostly the case if you want to use language specific
# images within your css file.
#
parse_css_file = off

And this is after the change 3.1:

 
Genesis said:
Could be as simple as just loading all of the images in one folder only as there is no more separate imageset folder any longer.

The styles I made for phpBB 3.0# and earlier versions have extensive template changes, I'll be having a look see through the templates and see if it is something I want to get back into.
 

Genesis

Administrator
Staff member
Briar Spirit said:
Genesis said:
Could be as simple as just loading all of the images in one folder only as there is no more separate imageset folder any longer.

The styles I made for phpBB 3.0# and earlier versions have extensive template changes, I'll be having a look see through the templates and see if it is something I want to get back into.
Aha .... that may be problematic. But since you know phpBB from the roots up, could be simple as well. Maybe just a case of copying the templates over the ones that are modified.
 

GigaGreg

Moderator
Staff member
As a kid I only made forums based on PHPBB. I still would develop on PHPBB, but I think that there are better alternatives. The responsivness makes me go back to PHPBB one day and develop froums on it.

I'm thinking about doing it when I get time on Christmas breakup.
 

Genesis

Administrator
Staff member
GigaGreg said:
As a kid I only made forums based on PHPBB. I still would develop on PHPBB, but I think that there are better alternatives. The responsivness makes me go back to PHPBB one day and develop froums on it.

I'm thinking about doing it when I get time on Christmas breakup.
So am I. I'd like to get into the styles and see whether I can convert ones from 3.0 to 3.1.
 

starswper

New member
I used to have phpbb with version 3.1.6 and I wanted to use an old template for 3.0.x .. the result was really.. :bad: .. so I downgraded my forum to 3.0.12.

The point is, people made lots of themes in the past and the new ones are not really looking good.
 

Genesis

Administrator
Staff member
starswper said:
I used to have phpbb with version 3.1.6 and I wanted to use an old template for 3.0.x .. the result was really.. :bad: .. so I downgraded my forum to 3.0.12.

The point is, people made lots of themes in the past and the new ones are not really looking good.
Haha .... that must have been some experience. But why downgrade? There are some important security updates that you will be missing out on.

Did you check whether there was a modification of the old template available? As it's not too difficult to change it. One just needs to compare the themes of the two versions and rearrange the image files. There's an extra folder in the older version that needs to be redistributed.
 

starswper

New member
@Genesis as a lazy person, I can say was easyer to download 3.0.12 instead of trying to edit the theme.