Eblah Theme Editor - Make your own themes easier - Print Topic

I have noticed numerous theme requests and have decided to make a theme generator to make life easier. Right now, this program can generate a basic theme based on the user's input and it can be edited using the built-in code editor. The theme generated is based from the X theme for Eblah 10.2 and allows for easy modifications with a few parameters. Please download it and give me some feedback on features you would like added. Please note that I have worked very hard on this program and would appreciate constructive criticism. Thanks much and I hope you enjoy the program!

great to see someone done this, i was just thinking to myself, why hasn't someone made a simple theme editor then i found this post, editing themes and variables on eblah seems quite difficult unless u know what your doing and it can be very frustrating as there seems to be no guide to explain it all, it would be great to have maybe even an online theme editor where u have a forum u can view but have like little boxes where u can enter the colours u want or titles etc, rather than have to edit the HTMl directly, it would make eblah alot more welcoming and user friendly. i will check out your new program now, hope it will make my life a bit easier.
but u ask for any input of features we would like to see well i'd like to see a graphical editor where u can actually be viewing the forum u are changing without the need to known any html or colour codes, like typing the colour name would be better or clicking on the colour u need etc.

just had a go on it but i think i need something a bit more simply, i'm very good with computers and know a little html but still find this very difficult, all i want to do is change my colours and a few other simply things like add pictures or maybe background pictures but finding it very hard to do, thanks for putting you program up tho im sure it will help lots of people, it would be nice if you incorporated a view button so u could just view what your template looked like, is there anywhere i can get a How To guide on eblah? i basically want to know exactly what the different templates do, and which ones i need to edit etc. i did manage to change all the colours on my forum a few months back but found it very hard to do and was a matter of just messing about, would love to find a guide on how to do all this........

Thanks for you input. I hope to have a graphical editor ready within the next few releases. I will also see if I can make the theme generation wizard easier to manage as well. I will add features to have a background image and also a header image. I was just kind of putting my program out there and wanted to see what else I should put in there. Thanks much for your review.

Upcoming features I would like to see:
-colored coding within the editor like dreamweaver
-quick changing of values within a css template
-ftp uploading to user's server
-visual theme editor
-preview theme button
- and much more as I think of them

I will try and get some of these that I mentioned ready for the next release within the next week or two. I have school starting up next week and may not be able to spend too much time updating the program. If anyone would like to help with development of this, please pm me here or give me an email. Thanks much.

Looks great still playing with it so i will give a proper review later.

Admin what you think of this?

WhiteKnight

I think this is a great start... well done. for Noobs, well I use a hex colour finder, and there are many free ones, that you can down load.

I will try to add a hex color finder to this program eventually. I just have to figure out how to convert rgb colors to hex. I bet that it's not too hard.

Ok, I got the rgb to hex converter so now users can pick colors with the windows color chooser and it converts to html hex colors. Note: At the moment, this is for the only wizard. My next task is to allow users to edit individual colors of the forum with a few clicks of a button, preventing them from having to find the line of code in the css template.

In case any of you were having problems running this application like me, here is a pretty simply fix that should take care you. 8)

I had an error message prompting me that richtx32.ocx was missing and could not be found on my system. I remember running into this similar problem executing some other visual basic programs in the past while using XP. All you need to do is install a newer version of those files to fix the missing files that are not part of most system installs including Windows XP download from the link below.

1) Download the file from here: http://activex.microsoft.com/controls/vb6/richtx32.cab
2) Extract both those files to your windows/system (Windows 95, 98, ME) or windows/system32 (Windows XP, etc) directory (*This is probably optional, see below for more info)
3) Right-click on the "RICHTX32.INF" file and choose "Install" from the right-click menu.

*When I did this install, I forgot to do step 2 and installed from the root of my C Drive which went just fine. The paths listed above is where the file will be copied and setup to when you run the .inf file listed just in the rare chance the .ini file doesn't copy the file right for you.

That all you need to do and it works just fine for me and I am starting to get used to working with this promising theme editor.
Hope this little mini-guide helps anyone else out there that was having the same problem like I was having. ;D

Hi KyleOdin

thanks for that Ihad that problem and that fixed nice one

davy

What were you using to write this? Looks like a really old version of VB :P

Anyways, when I get a chance I'll write an installer.

Seems like a very complicated fix. For the time being, why not just get the VB6 runtime? I'm trying to make a VB .NET version. I am not as skilled with VB .NET as I am with VB6 though. Once I make the VB .NET version, all you will need is the .NET 2.0 Runtime which is designed for Windows XP.

That is really neat. Have you done any more work on it?

Yeah. I'm working on converting the code from VB 6 to VB .NET. I'll upload as soon as I'm done with that. It may not be for a little bit as I am in school, but I will try to upload it as soon as possible. I will try incorporating some more features as well.

Nice. I would suggest that you (eventually) expand it to actually show a screen that looks like a forum and shows them the colors. Or at least give an image that identifies what each css changes. It would be hard to do, and I have tried to do it several times via html, but have never succeeded.

-Craig.

I like that idea. I was thinking of that too. I have an idea of how I can approach this, but it may be a little while as I have to make sure it works correctly. Thanks for the suggestion.

Sorry Mac/Linux users. If I knew C++ better, I would make a version for both Mac OS and Linux. If your really wanted to, you might be able to get the program running in WINE, or another Windows emulator.

I just recently got a book from school on C++, if i learn anything ill tell you :P

Thanks man. I may make a C++ version later if there's enough demand for it. Been really busy lately though.

I get a missing component error when I try to run it.

Does it say which component is missing? I am currently working on a new version of the program that will work on any machine with the .NET 2.0 Framework. I'm going out of town this weekend, but I will work on it when I get back.

Sorry for the delay, but school was my priority for last 2 months. I had to finish the year strong. I'm off for the summer now and here is the first release of the program using the .NET Framework 2.0. Let me know if you see any bugs. I still have to add a few things like a theme generator and quick theme editor, but at least you can edit files side by side now. I will continue to work on this program and perfect any bugs, problems etc.

By the way, the theme wizard is in debug mode right now and doesn't do anything yet. I will work on that next.

bug cant push finished button on the wizard thing

I tried this on Vista, and when I get to the end of the theme wizard, it won't finish. It just sits there.

Ok, I know the wizard doesn't do anything yet. I'm working on that still. lol I'll try to have that fixed ASAP.

Ok, I've fixed the theme generator. After you have generated your theme, it will open the files for you. All you have to do is save the file to the directory you prefer when you are finished tweaking them. The theme files are based on the X Theme included with Eblah. If you have any ideas you'd like to have included in the wizard, let me know. It's pretty easy to add new fields.

Note: Theme files in the program directory will be deleted at the startup of the program. Be sure to put your work in a different folder so you don't lose it.

Hey, I'm looking for some feedback so if anyone has some, I would appreciate it. I hope that this program can become widely accepted as a tool for making themes for Eblah. I just need to know what the public wants so that I can try and create that.

It works very well.  Great job.  Here is an example of a theme I created in about 30 seconds using this great tool!
http://www.themes.blahdocs.com/theme-peach/m-4/

I think there is a problem with the site name because it says name = 'peach'  :-/

Also, the fonts look messed up.  When I get time I will look at the .css and see what the deal is.

This is a very nice tool, and I think everyone should chime in and let pcmantinker know what he can do to improve on it.

-Craig.

Ok I'm trying it now! :)

Yes some problems with the fonts...

but at least it's useful to figure out how themes work...

thanks

I'm glad you guys like it. I fixed the title problem. When the program generated the HTML, it accidentally put the first line of the theme.dat into the top. That was my fault. I should have checked that before uploading. lol I will try and look into the bug on why the fonts aren't working correctly.

I need a Mac OS X version. I would love to try this! Thanks-

Ok, I could do that, but I need someone to help port what I have over to C++ or another portable programming language. Right now I'm using VB .NET 2005. Does C# port over to Mac OS X? If it does, I'll see about re-writing this in C#.

The theme editor is not working for me. I downloaded the newest version but when i use the wizard i get the admin css and a html css (as well as a name box etc) but no main css.

I have been copying and pasting the contents into the new skin option on the admin panel. I just tried it incase i was wrong but i got a completely blank skin when i used the admin css as main....so the script is not giving a main css any more......anyone know what im doing wrong...? and why no help feature on it as the lack of instructions mean im just randomly trying to get the thing to work.

I'm sorry for the problems you are experiencing. I haven't made any help to go with the program yet as it is still very new. What version of Eblah are you using? I made this program to be compatible with version 10.2.5. The theme generation is based from the default theme included with that release of Eblah.

Here is a brief help documentation:
When you save your files, be sure that you save them with the correct filenames. Your CSS template needs to be saved as template.css or copied into your CSS template in the admin center. Your HTML template needs to be saved as template.html or copied into your HTML tempate in the admin center. The theme information file should be saved as theme.dat. This tells who created the theme if you re-distribute your theme. Also, you can simply make a folder in the templates directory of your blahdocs folder on your server and put all three files in there. Then in the admin center, search for new themes and your theme should show up as a selection choice.

Can you post the latest version please:)

Yeah, here it is with the bugs that were noted fixed. Sorry about that. :P

Ok, I'm currently working on a port from the Visual Basic .NET version to a Visual C# .NET version. I'm learning C# currently, but I am finding that it is much more versatile than Visual Basic. When I get a stable version of the Visual C# build, I'll upload it. Supposedly there is a way to port .NET applications to Mac OS X and Linux, but I am unsure of how well the ports are. The program is called Mono. If anyone would like to help with development of the C# version of this program, please let me know. Help is greatly appreciated!

We (and by we I mean pcmantinker, with my set-up "skillz") have made the project open-source. Anyone who wants to contribute something, PLEASE DO CONTRIBUTE! If you have no technical skill, write some documentation. We're hoping to set EBlah apart from other forums by creating an easy to use template editor, and to make it easier for you to create templates.

You can visit the project page at http://www.codeplex.com/EblahTemplateEditor (down as of the time I'm posting, as pcmantinker needs to chose a license, but it'll be up soon enough)

If you are a developer and are interested in helping contact him, either here or on the CodePlex discussion forums. We can use all the help we can get.

Also, we're looking for a logo for the project. If anyone has any design skills, could you help us out?

Cool! I look forward to seeing this develope.
-Craig.

Alright, the project is now online! I hope to continue working on making a Visual C# .NET version for Windows 2000/XP/Vista and also Windows Mobile 5.0. The Visual Basic .NET version is still available to download and modify, but I am more leaning towards the Visual C# version. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks much everyone. Hopefully this will help get Eblah out there some more.

Why would anyone want to edit on their handheld anyways? Cool, anyways. I think C# would be better to develop with, because it's more powerful, I think. I checked in a prototype for the live preview. It's in VB and it only supports customizing the CSS, the HTML is static, but it's proof it works =D

I have downloaded this but when I try to run it it gives me an error and says program failed to initialize?

@Tyler: Why not? lol You never know. :P
@ThunderBucks.com: Can you give me a screenshot? I may be able to diagnose your issue better that way.

Please get the latest version of the program from here: http://www.codeplex.com/EblahTemplateEditor/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx
If you have any questions about the program, please let me or Tyler know. Thanks.

Here is what I get when downloaded to my computer,

The first part is normal, Windows does this whenever you download EXEs from the internet.

Do you have the Microsoft .NET framework installed? It's nessissary to run this application. .NET 3.0 is the latest release, and can be downloaded for free from here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=10CC340B-F857-4A14-83F5-25634C3BF043&displaylang=en

It is very important that you have at least .NET 2.0 Framework because I used the .NET 2.0 Framework SDK to make the application. I would go ahead and get version 3.0 like Tyler suggested.

Hey guys, just in case you thought I forgot about this, I didn't. I'm diligently working on getting Beta 2 finished. I was very busy with school last semester. This semester is a lighter load so I should have some more time to work on this. Attached is a preview of what the interface will look like. Please understand that what you see here is not final. I may change some of the layout later.

The layout is coming along quite nicely, it looks like. :)

Looking really good, I like it, excellent work.

Thanks for the feedback. Hopefully it won't be too much longer for Beta 2 to be released.

hey pcmantinker, can this do anything with images? cause something that gives you a grid to put your images onto would be nice. also, this is a great editor. thanks Cameron. ;D

I made this a sticky so it won't get lost. :)

Thanks. I will post an update for Beta 2 within the next week or two.

I just realized that I have been working on the application for over a year now. It has come a long way since the first release. I hope that everyone that is using it enjoys using it. I have been working on it very diligently to make it run smoothly and look professional. I am always accepting feedback to make the program even better. Please let me know your suggestions.

Here is the Beta 2 release thread so that it won't get lost later. http://www.eblah.com/forum/m-1200273447/

Here is the new beta 3 release: E-Blah Template Editor Beta 3

I'm looking into porting this to Linux and Mac using C++ and the QT4 gui library. I am learning how to use the QT4 gui library still, but it is very powerful. I like it because code can be compiled for multiple platforms using the same source code. If anyone is interested in helping port this over, let me know. Thanks.

Hi pcmantinker  :)

Will you be making a version that doesn't need the .net?  I'd love to use this but I truly don't want to download the .net.  I've been told by many people that it changes a lot on the computer and they had to uninstall it to get their settings back.  Please let me know!

Thanks so much  ;D

The next release will not require you to download the .NET framework. I will make an installer to install the program and necessary libraries. It may be a little while before I can port the code as I have over 5000 lines of code currently in C# .NET. I will work on it diligently and get a release as soon as possible. There will also be a more in depth help file.

I actually like .Net applications pretty well. I really recommend installing it (.Net framework).

Hi pcmantinker ;D

Thanks!!!!! PLEASE PM me or send an email to me to let me know when you have that version ready, I can't wait...YEAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! :YouRock:

The .NET framework works well, but it's only available for Windows. That's the only draw back. There are people working on porting it to other platforms, but it's usually outdated in respect to Microsoft's current .NET version. With the QT gui library, the same code is compiled for Windows, Linux and Mac with each release. I like this because I don't have to modify the application source from one platform to the other. It's really helpful. I will maintain the .NET version of the application for those interested in addition to the QT4 version.

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