The template system runs on phpBB 2.x own template system which means if you're familiar with phpBB templating, then you should be able to whip up a DAC style fairly easily. If you aren't familiar with that system, there's no need to worry as making a template is remarkably simple.
main.tpl
The first thing you need to do is download main.tpl. Main.tpl is the "master file" that all content on the site is plugged into. Main.tpl is also the only file you should ever really need to change in order to make your own template (there are a bunch of other .tpl files which do everything from show news items to list content but main.tpl is what matters).
Now, if you've had a look at main.tpl, you'll see it's the layout for the DAC "classic" template. Among the standard (and rather poorly written) HTML you'll also see a bunch of stuff inbetween curly braces {} as well as some BEGIN and END things that are in comments. THESE ARE IMPORTANT! They are explained below.
Curly Braces
Stuff inbetween curly braces is replaced with stuff generated by the code. "{DC_IDENTIFIER}" becomes whatever we set it to in the code for example (which in this case, is simply the URL of the page). "{TEMPLATE_URL}" becomes the URL to your template which makes it easy to include images (though in reality, you could just as easily replace it with "/system/templates/mytemplate/"}. One important thing to mention (apart from the fact that you need to keep everything inbetween curly braces in the code) is that "{CONTENT}" is replaced with whatever the content is of the page the visitor is viewing. It could be a news item, it could be an administration page, it could the content listing.
So instead of having a separate header and footer, I decided to go with this way because I could and because it worked nicely (there are pro's and con's). Basically it makes it easier to deal with tables and what-not when it's NOT broken up into multiple files.
HTML Comments
For the code to work for things such as say, displaying news headlines, it needs a way of being able to display as many headlines as are determined by the code. Take a look at the example below:
Code: Select all
<!-- BEGIN news_headlines -->
<table align="left" width="100%">
<tr>
<td align="left">
<img src="{news_headlines.HEADLINE_HEADING}" alt="Headlines" /><br />
<img src="{TEMPLATE_URL}images/divider.gif" width="100%" height="7" />
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">
<!-- BEGIN headline_date -->
<ul class="headline">
{news_headlines.headline_date.DATE}
<!-- BEGIN headline_item -->
<li><a href="{news_headlines.headline_date.headline_item.HEADLINE_URL}">{news_headlines.headline_date.headline_item.HEADLINE}</a></li>
<!-- END headline_item -->
</ul>
<!-- END headline_date -->
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<!-- END news_headlines -->You'll notice that within that block however, there are two others called "headline_date" and within that "headline_item". "headline_item" is how the actual individual headline itself is displayed. In this template, you can see that it is as a HTML list. If you wanted, you could change that into a table or God knows what else you might want to turn it into.
"headline_date" is the date of the headlines for that day which as you can see here, are simply being shown as text (with the class="headline" in the CSS determining the colour and what-not). Overall, you can see that all of this appears within a table, just because that's the way it worked for formatting.
For example this code block when processed by the PHP code will turn into something like this:
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Top Story: DAC Needs HTML Help!
* DAC - Now with searchable news and changeable templates!
Thu 19 May 2005
* Hellgate: London E3 interview
* Metalheart for June
Wed 18 May 2005
* S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Q&A With Yavorsky
Tue 17 May 2005
* DAC Needs You...again
* Fallout 3 ISN'T at E3
* Bethesda splash out on voice actors
* A bunch of Hellgate: London screenshots
* Fallout 3 at E3
Mon 16 May 2005
* Read about 14 minutes of Land of the Dead
* And there was much rejoicing!CSS File
Every template also needs a .css file. The .css file (if you don't know what one is, google CSS or Cascading Style Sheets) must be named the same as the template ditectory (So if your tempate is system/templates/tubgirl then the css file has to be named tubgirl.css - this is only really a matter for the person uploading your template though).
If you have questions, ask.
