Skins, modules & 2.2.

[Joem]

Hi there.

I have a couple of quick questions regarding IPB 2.2.

Firstly will 2.2 be able to accept skins that were designed for 2.1 ?
and secondly we have a number of modules added to the forum ie. Arcade, Prison, Points system, etc
Will there be any problems with these ?

Thanks

JoeM

[Luke]

Hi there.

I have a couple of quick questions regarding IPB 2.2.

Firstly will 2.2 be able to accept skins that were designed for 2.1 ?

and secondly we have a number of modules added to the forum ie. Arcade, Prison, Points system, etc

Will there be any problems with these ?

Thanks

JoeM

No not all the skin templates will work because the html logic was changed. This may seem bad at first, but it is actually a very good thing. The older versions of IPB did some "special", but weird, things to the statements... Now 2.2 leaves it alone and inserts them directly. Here is an example:

Before

<if="var==true">
1
</if>
<else>
2
</else>

Now (2.2)

<if="$var==true">
1
<else />
2
</if>

As you can see variables now have "$" in-front. PHP uses these symbols for variables, and the templates are cached to PHP... So before it was "adding" it which really hampered on the things you can do with it. Also, nesting was not supported (but is now). So now you can nest html logic and you can put your statement in directly, with functions like substr, without the system screwing it up. It opens the doors for developers in a big BIG way. Also believe a loop statement was added to reduce redundant html (when needed).

Also the "ipb." prefix was removed. You will need to replace them with "$this->ipsclass->"... it makes more sense anyway.

As far as the components themselves they should work fine. The html templates they use would need to be updated. (Also believe "script_url" was removed. Now it's only "base_url"). The components that need code updated is when they plugin to the AdminCP..... But even then it's just template cache changes.

It really isnt that bad. Not nearly as bad as some of the previous updates. This is actually very mild. It took me 4 1/2 hours to update one of my own components only because I was going blind trying to figure out what was what... But after knowing these things it's very easy. If I had known these things before, it would have taken me 30 minutes max.

[Guest]

you should pin your post somewhere cj, I'm sure that post will be helpfull to a lot of people. :thumbsup:

[bfarber]

He's pretty much got it spot on.

Oh, except for the added fact that in the next release, we have already added a tool into the ACP that will update older templates to use the newer HTML logic automatically for you - so you don't even need to manually do this. :)

Most components will work fine with 2.2 out of the box, aside from the template changes. Note: I did say most

[Joem]

:thumbsup:

Thank you all for your answers.

I guess I'll go add the new skins while I'm waiting for the final release and do the appropiate edits to make existing modules work in them.


Thanks again

JoeM.

[Luke]

He's pretty much got it spot on.

Oh, except for the added fact that in the next release, we have already added a tool into the ACP that will update older templates to use the newer HTML logic automatically for you - so you don't even need to manually do this. :)

Most components will work fine with 2.2 out of the box, aside from the template changes. Note: I did say

most

Can't expect it to be perfect though.

[backdream]

Oh, except for the added fact that in the next release, we have already added a tool into the ACP that will update older templates to use the newer HTML logic automatically for you - so you don't even need to manually do this. :)

Have noticed it, But he's post let me know which section the skin templates has changed.