Question Hard - Coded CSS in Kunena PHP?

I just upgraded to 1.6.3 and had no issues until I tried to create my own custom template. It shouldn't be that difficult with Firebug but I kept on running into a "stylesheet" I couldn't find under the com_kunena\templates folder.

I finally broaded my search and discovered this in the source html:

Looking further, I see the initialize.php script under the template folder has logic that generates this. It looks to be some type of scripting / skinning engine.

The template I'm trying to create isn't anything fancy, I just want to change the color of various elements. I had no problem under the previous kunena version I was using. I actually liked the old forum menu tabs, and I used a nice color gradient for a smooth effect. Plus you had the tab size changing as you scroll across them. That is now gone unfortunately.

What really puzzles me is that it is obvious alot of effort was put into redesigning the template structure, yet something as basic as font color was overlooked. Moreover, what appears to be hard coded css styles require specialized knowledge to change, due to the 3rd party tools employed.

You know, if the font colors would have been surfaced in the parameters like the header background colors were I'd be OK with this design. As it is I need to invest a bunch of time to make simple color changes. And who knows if that time investment will payoff or if it will change again in the next release.

Am I missing something here? Is there some FAQ or other thread that I can read to guide me on how to change that initialize.php script for font color changes?

richmarks wrote: Is there some FAQ or other thread that I can read to guide me on how to change that initialize.php script for font color changes?

Some information (and it's really the only information I could lay my hands on at short notice) about creating your own template and modifying initialize.php is contained in How to create a template for Kunena .

When K 1.6.4 is publicly released there are more options that have been added to the Kunena template that make things a little easier in respect of colouring and styling.

However, as I'm sure you're well aware, the CSS styles in the Kunena template subject to the the CSS rules that exist in the Joomla site template.

Thanks for your question. I hope I've been able to help in a little way.

I decided to just force it by changing the initialize.php so the default baby blue colors are my choices. There's 5 tertiary statements that set the #53xxxx blue color. I also changed the default state of the top collapsable area where the registration / login is, since it is redundant. I prefer to leave the primary site login column visible in the forum too, along with most other modules.

Your msg did help in that I now know there is another release coming, and hopefully it will make life easier for those of us that want to change things up a bit.

I discovered and downloaded Kuena yesterday and installed it on one of my websites today. Worked like a charm but the documentation is really poor.

The turorial "How to create a template fpr Kuena" is, sorry that have to say this, absolutely useless.

The best thing to do ist to download the default template folder in the Kena template folder on your computer and to rename that one.

you can find it here:

your-joomla -> components -> com_kuena -> template -> default

In this folder are all the files you need to modify the styles of Kuena to your needs.

The example template is way too basic and the file "initialize.php" is missing.

After you downloaded, renamed and uploaded the default template folder, you visit the page with the forum on your site and have a look at the sourcecode.

There you will find the custom css in the header. You just copy all the stuff and insert it in your "kuena.default.css"-file.

your-joomla -> components -> com_kuena -> template -> your_template -> css -> kuena.default.css

The styles (background colors for example) are not in the kuena.forum.css but in the kuena.default.css.

Than you can delete all the stuff after the conditonal comment in the initialize.php

your-joomla -> components -> com_kuena -> template -> your_template -> initialize.php

After this:

<!--[if lte IE 7]>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="<?php echo $cssurl; ?>/kunena.forum.ie7.css" type="text/css" />
<![endif]-->

Everything after that can be removed and the styles in the header of your Joomla index.php will be gone.

Now you can style these classes the way you want them to look.

Hope I could help someone with this!

best regards, Rob

P.S.: I would recommend the devopers of this marvellous component to remove the option in the backend of Kuena to choose the background colors of the headers and stuff.

People who will take care of the design don't need this option because they know about CSS, XHTML. Php & Co. People who don't know wont try to change the design.

Would be great if all the CSS stuff would be actually in the CSS files

Have a good one

cyberviews wrote: The tutorial "How to create a template fpr Kuena" is, sorry that have to say this, absolutely useless.

No need to apologise. I agree with you: not that it's absolutely useless, but that it's almost totally incomprehensible.

Simple changes are easy to make (colours, styles, alignment, etc.) with CSS: see the FAQs How do I change the colours of my template in Kunena? which should be a little easier to understand than the Wiki.

The "example" template is a bare-bones, non-functional template that requires a lot of work. It's there for serious developers to use, to adapt, to build upon, to develop templates that they can share with others but for me, it's more than I can handle with my own work. I just keep things fairly simple with the Blue Eagle template on my own sites, and I'm happy with that. But, if you want to completely rearrange just about anything and everything in Kunena, then you have to start somewhere and that's what the Example template is for. It's a start, but people need to do a lot more if they want a totally unique, custom, forum experience.

cyberviews wrote: I would recommend the devopers of this marvellous component to remove the option in the backend of Kuena to choose the background colors of the headers and stuff.

People who will take care of the design don't need this option because they know about CSS, XHTML. Php & Co. People who don't know wont try to change the design.

Would be great if all the CSS stuff would be actually in the CSS files

I also agree with all that you've written here, too. I would prefer that the Example template should be removed from the basic installation kit and offered as an optional add-on for serious web-developers. In that way we would reduce the number of questions and complaints when people ask "why doesn't my forum work the way that it should?" This might be something that will have to wait until K 2.0 but, in the meantime, I will pass your worthwhile comments on to the project development team.

Dear sozzled,

first of all thank you for your kind reply.

sozzled wrote:

Simple changes are easy to make (colours, styles, alignment, etc.) with CSS: see the FAQs How do I change the colours of my template in Kunena? which should be a little easier to understand than the Wiki.

The problem is that a lot of fields of the forum have mutliple classes and than it is just a hazzle to find things. Even in Firebug

sozzled wrote:

But, if you want to completely rearrange just about anything and everything in Kunena, then you have to start somewhere and that's what the Example template is for. It's a start, but people need to do a lot more if they want a totally unique, custom, forum experience.

If someone wants me to make his website, I have a lot to do (explaining how to maintain a site takes a lot of time besides modifying things). In these moments I am really glad and grateful for extensions that work quickly.

Kuena is such an extension, no doubt. But it would be a perfect one if all the CSS styles were actually in CSS files.

I would suggest that there will be a turorial which explains that the template is copied and renamed like it was done in Virtuemart 1.1.X. Another helpfull feature of this turorial would be which folder in the template s responsible for which feature. And a list of PhP files and where to find them would be smashing as well

I am used to find my way through extensions for Joomla, but there are a lot of people who just don't want to or can't do it. I often experience that webmasters get totally nervous when they have to work with their site and that they get ppanic-attacks if something goes wrong.

I am always spending a lot of time to make turorials which are dead simple to make it as comfortable as possible for the people who use Joomla. want my customers to be happy with their site and have fun when working

And I am very sure the devolpers of Kuena have the same goal!

Best regards, Rob