Advanced Forum Alpha 12

Advanced Forum Alpha 12 has been released. I jumped ahead the D6 numbering so I'm using one number on both branches. Not only is it easier for me to refer to one number but it makes more sense as the module is at the same point in development on both branches and is being developed in parallel.

The theme changes in this version are huge. First off, in the D6 version, there is an entirely new way of handling "forum themes" which we now refer to as "styles" to avoid confusion with "site themes" (Thanks to merlinofchaos and sdboyer). The default styles live in the styles directory. Existing styles can be overridden by copying files to your theme. Completely new styles can be created by adding a hook to your site module. The advantage in creating a new style is that it lies outside the theme system and can be used by any theme on your site. Because of limitations in the D5 theme system, the D5 version still uses the old method of copying a style to your site's theme.

Along with the new system comes new styles. Stephanie Pakrul (aka stephthegeek), maker of professional Drupal themes stepped up to do the new base style, "Naked". We called it Naked because it gives form to your forums without adding styles that that could clash with your theme and need to be unstyled. In addition, she provided a variation called, "Naked Stacked" that places the author information pane on top, which is great for narrow themes. These two styles will provide the foundation for all future Advanced Forum styles, starting with blue_lagoon, which is also included in this alpha. Blue Lagoon, named after the Garland color set that it was designed to match (thanks again, Steph), is a basic blue style that will look good in several existing themes, such as Pixture. It also lists the colors at the top of the .css file for easy search and replace color changes.

The graphics in the old "advforum" theme, aside from the ones provided by yoroy, were a hodgepodge of files gathered from icon sharing sites. While we're still using yoroy's icons, the rest have been replaced by Dave Paris. He's provided two sets: a desaturated, recolorable set that's used in the Naked and Naked Stacked themes and a pretty, blue tinged, set that's used in Blue Lagoon. If you're using Drupal on a non English site, don't worry, there is an option to turn off the buttons with writing on the settings page.

In addition to the style changes, there have been options added to the settings page for easier customization, numerous small tweaks and fixes as well as some code clean up. I did quite a bit of testing to try and avoid releasing this alpha with a glaring bug like the last one. Even so, I'm going to hold off on any big features and focus on small additions and tweaks until this alpha has been in the wild a while. If any major bugs come up, I'll do a new alpha right away. If not, it's onwards towards version 1.

Now that the style system has settled down, I want to give a shout out to you themers out there. The more styles I can ship with Advanced Forum, the less work there is for end users to match the forums to their theme. Also, if you maintain a contributed theme, you can feel safe now including some theming for Advanced Forum. There will be minor changes to styles to add in new features but the really awful throw-your-existing-themes-away kind of changes are behind us.

I hope everyone enjoys this release. As always, if you find bugs or are looking for support, please use the issue queue.

Michelle