Advanced Forum & custom template

[Arkham]

Hi Gio & all:

I have been rapidly realizing that by using Advanced Forums I can solve a few of the problems I've had in achieving the look and functionality I need to set up.

I enjoyed the video demo of AF and caught your mention of custom template work being available. Could I briefly illustrate what I need and find out if that will be possible?

I am setting up a site for a friend who requires a forum for book reviews. I'd like to have it look something like this:

 _________
|         |   "Title" (thread title)
|Thumbnail|   "Author" (Extra Threadfield, clickable for sorting/results page)
|         |   "Category" (currently 'prefix')  
|         |   ***** (Rating)
|         |
|_________|   <"reply"/review button>

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
<current thread title area, moved above>        tools  Search  Rate
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

I just included the standard bar above the msg for reference so you can see where I want it, below the navbar.

I've used a Thread Thumbnail mod from vb.org to get the thumbnails to show up on the listing pages, but I understand that Advanced Forums can take care of this for me. I'd love to remove the code changes I made, so that's one problem solved. The 'Prefix' is what I've been using for categories/subject (eg. Fiction, Mystery, Biography, etc), and I've made it clickable on thread listings via a vb.org prefix mod. Getting that to work on this page shouldn't be an issue, but I can work that out. (I'd rather stick with Prefixes than Extra Threadfields for the time being, because its stock-functionality works well.)

It's getting the thumbnail ("book cover") to appear on the actual thread page that I can't do, and would like to solve with a custom forum look via Advanced Forums.

Is this possible? If it is, and if you could give me an idea of how much that custom template would be (via pm if you want), I think I'll just have to add Advanced Forum to my cart when I get Extra Threadfields!

Thanks so much for your on-going pre-purchase support. I'm very happy with how you've been supporting your products.

Thanks!

[Gio~Logist]

A layout like that is definitely possible via Advanced Forums. It automatically process thumbnails on forumdisplay, getting rid of that work for you.

When it gets down to your actual thread, i'm assuming you only want to pull one thumbnail for the book cover, correct? A plugin will be needed in order to pull the first attachment's url as the attachments are being processed, follow? At the moment, the thread's obviously process all of them.

You can also do the title, author, etc. via extra threadfields and look into manual placement in order to achieve a more customized look (if you don't want them simply one after another).

Are you looking to have a custom Advanced Forums template built for you, or guidance on how you can use the products to achieve most of what you're looking for? The only real php hurdle I can see at the moment is grabbing the first attachment's url within the thread itself - which isn't too difficult.

[Arkham]

A layout like that is definitely possible via Advanced Forums. It automatically process thumbnails on forumdisplay, getting rid of that work for you.

When it gets down to your actual thread, i'm assuming you only want to pull one thumbnail for the book cover, correct? A plugin will be needed in order to pull the first attachment's url as the attachments are being processed, follow? At the moment, the thread's obviously process all of them.

You can also do the title, author, etc. via extra threadfields and look into manual placement in order to achieve a more customized look (if you don't want them simply one after another).

Are you looking to have a custom Advanced Forums template built for you, or guidance on how you can use the products to achieve most of what you're looking for? The only real php hurdle I can see at the moment is grabbing the first attachment's url within the thread itself - which isn't too difficult.

Yep, first I wanted to know if it would theoretically be possible to achieve that above-the-first-post placement of thumb and extrafields (prefix, etc). The latter ones I figured would be easy, but the first thumbnail of the first post is the one that I am most concerned about. It's absolutely necessary for what I want to do.

And yes, I was interested in paying for a custom template for Advanced Forums. I can customize templates myself, but this thumbnail bit is a bit out of my league.

I think what I'm trying to achieve is a bit of a combination of some of your examples for Advanced Forum first-posts.

So, maybe it would be easier to put this book info:

 _________
|         |   "Title" (thread title)
|Thumbnail|   "Author" (Extra Threadfield, clickable for sorting/results page)
|         |   "Category" (currently 'prefix')  
|         |   ***** (Rating)
|         |
|_________|

...into the top-left corner of the first post instead of outside the post, that might be an alternative. Looking at your default template for a Graphic thread page, maybe the thread creator's info could be where you currently have the Designer's box on the left, and the book info (as laid out above) in the top-left beside it, with the actual review (the first post content) below that.

Could you let me know if you'd be able to create a custom template like this? Does custom template work have to be paid for at the same time I purchase Advanced Forums?

You can PM me to discuss specifics, or even better if you wanted to call me or chat on Skype we could discuss details. I'm anxious to move forward on this so I can finish up my friend's site for him.

Thanks again for all your help!

[Arkham]

Hi Gio -

Just wondering if you had a chance to look at my previous post. I'm interested in getting these products up and running as soon as possible. Thanks!