I have a question about upgrading from 4 to 5.

My site uses several themes, one default for forum sections with no ads in the header, and one for each specific section of the site so that I can show different ads in the headers for those sections.

If I can only have one theme, I wont be able to have ads only show for certain sections.

For example, the General Discussion section has specific advertisers, and another section for tools has its own sponsors in the header.

Will I be able to do this in version 5?

If not is there a workaround that would accomplish this?

Examples:

Edited April 10Apr 10 by TDS

You can have as many themes as you want, and select a theme for each forum.

10 minutes ago, TDS said:

If I can only have one theme, I wont be able to have ads only show for certain sections.

Nothing has changed between 4 and 5 for the number of themes you can have.

Will we still be able to edit templates?

This is how I show the ads and I need to rotate positions nightly in the Global Template::

Just now, TDS said:

Will we still be able to edit templates?

No, theme templates cannot be edited.

I either use custom blocks or the built-in add tools.

Just now, Square Wheels said:

No, theme templates cannot be edited.

I either use custom blocks or the built-in add tools.

Will the built in ad tools allow me to place 3 ads in the header and specific to a theme?

1 minute ago, TDS said:

Will the built in ad tools allow me to place 3 ads in the header and specific to a theme?

Sorry, that is beyond me.

3 hours ago, TDS said:

Will the built in ad tools allow me to place 3 ads in the header and specific to a theme?

The ad system has several spots that you can add in advertisements that are new to version 5. If you do not like those positions, you can also place your ads where you want them using the template hooks. However, template hooks does not use the advertisement module.

So, in the example, can two forum sections have different ads, would I still need to create unique themes for each section, such as General Discussion and Tools? Then be able to place different ads in the General Discussion section and the Tools sections as they each have individual sponsors? How exactly would I be able to do this?

1 minute ago, Jim M said:

The ad system has several spots that you can add in advertisements that are new to version 5. If you do not like those positions, you can also place your ads where you want them using the template hooks. However, template hooks does not use the advertisement module.

Are hooks specific to themes or site wide?

On 4/10/2026 at 6:28 PM, TDS said:

So, in the example, can two forum sections have different ads, would I still need to create unique themes for each section, such as General Discussion and Tools? Then be able to place different ads in the General Discussion section and the Tools sections as they each have individual sponsors? How exactly would I be able to do this?

The advertising features in v5 are more flexible and allow for you to set different ads for different forums. No customization - theme or otherwise - is required.

You can also make Blocks for ads now, and this is how I handle most of my ads. The Block positions are more than enough to meet my needs. I also use the block visibility features to handle things like mobile vs desktop ads and their permissions to handle who sees what ads.