I already mentioned two scripts for phpbb3 that are more than useful in this post. Quick edit and quick reply are both offering you the possibility of gaining some speed when it comes to interacting with a phpbb3 forum. Their names says it all so I think no further explanation is  needed.

Furthermore there are yet two other scripts that can help you with your forum browsing. With them you can toggle pagination on and off for both threads and topics.

Another interesting script is helping you to view posts older than 24 hours. You don’t have to be an expert to change a few lines of code in order to get it to show you the latest posts in X hours (which might be useful).

A preview of the content from the last post is automatically displayed when the small post icon is hovered using this script. Unfortunately this only works on a prosilver based theme (don’t know why).

For better accessibility you can use this script because it will highlight your topics which could be relatively useful.

There are a few greasemonkey scripts for WordPress. One of them can be used to display the version of the installation behind the blog you are currently browsing. It will also tell you if that blog allows trackbacks or not.

Another script will tell you which package is used for gaining statistical information on a blog. This script knows to identify a bunch of potential stats collectors so you don’t have to worry about that. If stats collector is used you will know it.

The next greasemonkey script isn’t exclusively for WordPress as it can be used web wide. It identifies nofollow links and applies a pink background to the corresponding url, so that you can identify it.

As a wrap up these are a few interesting scripts for greasemonkey that are worth trying.

So why use RSS instead of email subscriptions ?

Power of choice. That my friends, has a tremendous power. I’ve been interacting with forums for many years now and early in 2006 i started to help a friend of mine with a forum instance. That forum was then using phpbb2. Every now and then i helped this guy with different things and i loved it mainly because I looked up at phpbb2 as a great thing. That great thing was indeed a neat forum platform. Easy to administer and most important: easy to use. We kept installing different official and unofficial mods. I just loved playing with phpbb2. At that point we had about 500+ registered users. Finally i convinced my pal to grant me administrator privileges. I was very excited and since that day I kept playing with phpbb. I remember the day when phpbb3 was launched. Of course not the final version. I upgraded our phpbb2 forum almost without any problems. Minor issues were solved. Anyway, all I want you to know from these off-topic, irrelevant (you name it) lines is my opinion about this awesome forum platform called phpbb. To get back to what i was trying to tell you earlier, phpbb3 offers a decent amount of control for both administrators and users. Decent when it comes to comparing phpbb3 with IPB or vBullentin. As i was saying, it is really important to let your users/visitors choose the way they want to be kept informed. For example the basic email notifications are pretty decent but we all know what RSS can do. Because of the fact that you want all of your visitors or users to enjoy their stay on your forum you might consider enhancing it with an optional RSS subscription. Practically an important extra option is always very handy and when it comes to a popular and very useful method of keeping your visitors informed about almost everything that happens on your forum, the RSS mod is a must-have. Overall this mod is very likely to do you more good than harm.

How does it work ?

Of course that this has to be one of the first questions you ask yourself. What this great mod does is to generate a valid RSS or ATOM feed based on your selection. Basically you can select your preferred forums to include them in your feed. Another great thing is that you can choose to syndicate posts or only topics. The amount of items displayed in the feed can be customized as well. These few but important options help you manage your subscription making sure your feed suits you best.

Sound great but is it difficult to install it ?

No, not at all. For example it took me about 10 minutes to get it working with all the afferent settings. Backing up your files is very important because if you somehow manage to mess things up you can restore your original files. I think that even a person with almost no PHP knowledge at all can follow the readme that contains the install guide. Basically all you need to do is to edit some files according to the given instructions. You need to find certain pieces of code and insert after or before them the corresponding code. This mod can be installed without any problems whatsoever on both prosilver and subsilver2 based styles. I don’t see any reason because of which i should post the install instructions as you can download the mod and inside the archive you have the readme file containing everything you need.

Just a small notice

If you plan to install the 1.0.RC1 version you should know that you need to rename the file info_acp_syndication.php located in /language/en/mods/ directory to acp_syndication.php

Here is the official forum from where you can download the Full Syndication Suite (RSS/ATOM) mod. You can choose play with the mod a little on the same forum if you want to make sure that it’s the right thing you need.

This time i will keep things related to CSS much more simpler (almost non-existent) as i will make use of default classes. Instead of using an ad block that fits in relatively neat i will give an example of using a table. The visual effect will be almost the same. So feel free to play with some CSS and HTML code (why not even with some PHP as you might want to implement a post counter or other useful queries) to obtain a seamless integration of what i will try to cover here. Practically all the spots where ads will be placed will remain the same as for a prosilver based theme so this time i won’t post screenshots. If you want to make an ideea of how things look check out the other post. So with no further delays here comes the actual guide.

Displaying ads one the index page

1. Open index_body.html and find <!– INCLUDE forumlist_body.html –>
2. BEFORE it add the following code (this will create an ad block just before the forum list starts):

   <table width="100%" cellspacing="0"><tr><td class="cat"><h4>Ads</h4></td></tr></table>
   <table class="tablebg" width="100%" cellspacing="0">
   <tr>
    <td>
      <center>
   <script type="text/javascript"><!--
   google_ad_client = "pub-xxxx";
   /* 200x90 */
   google_ad_slot = "xxxxx";
   google_ad_width = 200;
   google_ad_height = 90;
   google_color_border = "A9B8C2";
   google_color_bg = "A9B8C2";
   google_color_link = "000000";
   google_color_url = "000000";
   google_color_text = "000000";
   //-->
   </script>
   <script type="text/javascript"
   src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
   </script>
   </center>
   </td>
    <td>
     <center>
      <script type="text/javascript"><!--
   google_ad_client = "pub-xxxx";
   /* 728x90 */
   google_ad_slot = "xxxx";
   google_ad_width = 728;
   google_ad_height = 90;
   google_color_border = "A9B8C2";
   google_color_bg = "A9B8C2";
   google_color_link = "000000";
   google_color_url = "000000";
   google_color_text = "000000";
   //-->
   </script>
   <script type="text/javascript"
   src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
   </script>
   </center>
   </td>
   </tr>
   </table>

3. If you want to display the ad block just after the forum list ends paste the same code AFTER <!– INCLUDE forumlist_body.html –>

Displaying ads one the viewforum page

1. Open viewforum_body.html and find <!– IF not S_DISPLAY_ACTIVE and (S_IS_POSTABLE or .topicrow) –>
2. Before it add the SAME code as for the index page.
3. If you want to display the ad block just after the forum list ends paste the same code BEFORE <!– IF S_DISPLAY_POST_INFO or TOTAL_TOPICS –>

Displaying ads one the viewtopic page

1. Open viewtopic_body.html and find the first appearance of the following code

   <table class="tablebg" width="100%" cellspacing="1">

2. Before it add the SAME code as for the index page.
3. If you want to display the ad block just after the topic list ends past the same code BEFORE the second appearance of the following code (it only appears three times)

   <table width="100%" cellspacing="1">

4. If you want to display ads before the content of the first post find the following code

   <div class="postbody">{postrow.MESSAGE}</div>

   and BEFORE it add the following

   <!-- IF postrow.S_FIRST_ROW -->
   <script type="text/javascript"><!--
   google_ad_client = "pub-xxxx";
   /* 728x15 */
   google_ad_slot = "xxxx";
   google_ad_width = 728;
   google_ad_height = 15;
   google_color_border = "ECECEC";
   google_color_bg = "ECECEC";
   google_color_link = "FFFFFF";
   google_color_url = "006699";
   google_color_text = "000000";
   //-->
   </script>
   <script type="text/javascript"
   src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
   </script>
   <br><br>
   <!-- ENDIF -->

5. If you want to display an ad block after the content of the first post AFTER

   <div class="postbody">{postrow.MESSAGE}</div>

   add the following code

   <!-- IF postrow.S_FIRST_ROW -->
   <br><br>
   <script type="text/javascript"><!--
   google_ad_client = "pub-xxxx";
   /* 728x90 */
   google_ad_slot = "xxxx";
   google_ad_width = 728;
   google_ad_height = 90;
   google_color_border = "ECECEC";
   google_color_bg = "ECECEC";
   google_color_link = "FFFFFF";
   google_color_url = "006699";
   google_color_text = "000000";
   //-->
   </script>
   <script type="text/javascript"
   src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
   </script>
   <br><br>
   <!-- ENDIF -->

Displaying ads one the search results page

1. Open search_results.html and find <!– IF S_SHOW_TOPICS –>
2. Before it add the SAME code as for the index page.
3. If you want to add the ad block just after the search block ends add the SAME code BEFORE the following code

   <div class="gensmall" style="float: {S_CONTENT_FLOW_BEGIN};">

Well, that covers pretty much the basics of an AdSense integration in a subilsver2 based theme for phpbb3. If you have any questions feel free to leave me a comment.

Don’t forget to fill in your Google AdSense ID. Also you can place any kind of ads not just AdSense ads, so it’s up to you how your forum will look as there are no limits on customizing.

I suggest that you create file backups before you proceed, just in case.

Setting up the styling aspects.

1. Navigate to your style files /styles/stylename/theme/ and open stylesheet.css.
2. At the end, add the following code

   @import url("adsense.css");

3. Create a CSS file and add the following code to it:

a body {
max-width: 1024px;
margin: 0px auto;
}
ul.forums1 {
background-color: #cddeee;
}
li.row1 {
border-top: 1px solid #FFFFFF;
}
dd.mali span {
display: block;
padding-left: 10px;
}
dd.veliki span {
display: block;
padding-left: 10px;
}

4. Name the CSS file adsense.css and save it to /styles/stylename/theme

Displaying ads one the index page.
AdSense on the index page-top

1. Open index_body.html and find <!– INCLUDE forumlist_body.html –>
2. BEFORE it add the following code (this will create an ad block just before the forum list starts):

   <div class="forabg">
   <div class="inner"><span class="corners-top"><span></span></span>
   <ul class="topiclist">
   <li class="header">
   <dl class="icon">
   <dt>Ads</dt>
   </dl>
   </li>
   </ul>
   <ul class="topiclist forums1">
   <li class="row1">
   <dl class="icon1">
   <dd class="mali"><span>
   <script type="text/javascript"><!--
   google_ad_client = "pub-XXX";
   google_ad_width = 200;
   google_ad_height = 90;
   google_ad_format = "200x90_0ads_al";
   google_ad_channel = "";
   google_color_border = "cddeee";
   google_color_bg = "cddeee";
   google_color_link = "10508b";
   google_color_text = "4a5d73";
   google_color_url = "ac0000";
   //-->
   </script>
   <script type="text/javascript"
   src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
   </script>
   </span></dd>
   <dd class="veliki"><span>
   <script type="text/javascript"><!--
   google_ad_client = "pub-XXX";
   google_ad_width = 728;
   google_ad_height = 90;
   google_ad_format = "728x90_as";
   google_ad_type = "text_image";
   google_ad_channel = "";
   google_color_border = "cddeee";
   google_color_bg = "cddeee";
   google_color_link = "10508b";
   google_color_text = "4a5d73";
   google_color_url = "ac0000";
   //-->
   </script>
   <script type="text/javascript"
   src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
   </script>
   </span></dd>
   </dl>
   </li>
   </ul>
   <span class="corners-bottom"><span></span></span></div></div>

3. If you want to display the ad block just after the forum list ends paste the same code AFTER <!– INCLUDE forumlist_body.html –>

Displaying ads one the viewforum page.
AdSense on the viewforum page

1. Open viewforum_body.html and find <!– INCLUDE forumlist_body.html –>
2. Before it add the SAME code as for the index page.
3. If you want to display the ad block just after the forum list ends paste the same code AFTER <!– INCLUDE forumlist_body.html –>
If you want to display the ad block after every forum block (though i don’t really recommend it if you have small forum blocks) find <!– IF topicrow.S_FIRST_ROW or not topicrow.S_TOPIC_TYPE_SWITCH –> and AFTER it copy the SAME code.
Find <!– IF topicrow.S_LAST_ROW –> and after (just before <!– ENDIF –>)

</ul>
 <span class="corners-bottom"><span></span></span></div>
</div>

paste the same code.

Displaying ads one the viewtopic page.
AdSense on the viewtopic page

1. Open viewtopic_body.html and find <!– BEGIN postrow –>
2. Before it add the SAME code as for the index page.
3. If you want to display the ad block just after the topic list ends past the same code AFTER <!– BEGIN postrow –>
4. If you want to display ads in the first post find

   <div class="content">{postrow.MESSAGE}</div>

   and BEFORE it add the following code

   <script type="text/javascript"><!--
   google_ad_client = "pub-xxx";
   /* 728x15 */
   google_ad_slot = "xxxx";
   google_ad_width = 728;
   google_ad_height = 15;
   google_color_border = "E1EBF2";
   google_color_bg = "E1EBF2";
   //-->
   </script>
   <script type="text/javascript"
   src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
   </script>

5. If you want to display an ad block after the content of the first post AFTER

   <div class="content">{postrow.MESSAGE}</div>

   add the following code

   <script type="text/javascript"><!--
   google_ad_client = "pub-xxx";
   /* 728x90 */
   google_ad_slot = "3092398785";
   google_ad_width = 728;
   google_ad_height = 90;
   google_color_border = "E1EBF2";
   google_color_bg = "E1EBF2";
   //-->
   </script>
   <script type="text/javascript"
   src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
   </script>

Displaying ads one the search results page.
AdSense on the search page

1. Open search_results.html and find <!– ENDIF –>
   <!– IF S_SHOW_TOPICS –>
2. Before it add the SAME code as for the index page.
3. If you want to add the ad block just after the search block ends add the SAME code AFTER it.

If you encounter problems with this method please give me a notice.
Also, if you want to see a live example check out this forum.

Of course you can customize it’s output by modifying the $query variable. If you are a newbie and need a quick php Where clause reference as you want to get a hang of the operators, check this one out: PHP MySQL Where Clause

Finally here’s the script:

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 <?php
    // How Many Topics you want to display?
    $topicnumber = 5;
    // Scrolling towards up or down?
    $scroll = "up";
    // Change this to your phpBB path
    $urlPath = "/forum";
 
    // Database Configuration (Where your phpBB config.php file is located)
    include 'forum/config.php';
 
    $table_topics = $table_prefix. "topics";
    $table_forums = $table_prefix. "forums";
    $table_posts = $table_prefix. "posts";
    $table_users = $table_prefix. "users";
    $link = mysql_connect("$dbhost", "$dbuser", "$dbpasswd") or die("Could not connect");
    mysql_select_db("$dbname") or die("Could not select database");
 
    $query = "SELECT t.topic_id, t.topic_title, t.topic_last_post_id, t.forum_id, p.post_id, p.poster_id, p.post_time, u.user_id, u.username
    FROM $table_topics t, $table_forums f, $table_posts p, $table_users u
    WHERE t.topic_id = p.topic_id AND
    f.forum_id = t.forum_id AND
    t.forum_id != 4 AND
    t.topic_status <> 2 AND
    p.post_id = t.topic_last_post_id AND
    p.poster_id = u.user_id
    ORDER BY p.post_id DESC LIMIT $topicnumber";
    $result = mysql_query($query) or die("Query failed");									
 
    print "<marquee id=\"recent_topics\" behavior=\"scroll\" direction=\"$scroll\" height=\"170\" scrolldelay=\"100\" scrollamount=\"2\" onMouseOver=\"document.all.recent_topics.stop()\" onMouseOut=\"document.all.recent_topics.start()\">
    <table cellpadding='3' cellSpacing='2' width='350'>";
    while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_ASSOC)) {
 
    echo  "<tr valign='top'><td><font face=\"Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif\" size=\"1\"><font color=\"#FFCC00\"><b><a href=\"$urlPath/viewtopic.php?f=$row[forum_id]&t=$row[topic_id]&p=$row[post_id]#p$row[post_id]\" TARGET=\"_blank\">" .
    $row["topic_title"] .
    "</a></td></font></b><td><font face=\"Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif\" size=\"1\"><font color=\"#C0C0C0\"> by: <a href=\"$urlPath/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=$row[user_id]\" TARGET=\"_blank\">" .
    $row["username"] .
    "</td><td><font face=\"Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif\" size=\"1\"><font color=\"#C0C0C0\">" .
    date('F j, Y, g:i a', $row["post_time"]) .
    "</td></tr></font>";
    }
    print "</table></marquee>";
    mysql_free_result($result);
    mysql_close($link);
    ?>

Feel free to use it as you want. If you have any questions just drop a comment.

In conclusion: don’t mind the header because you’ll probably remove it with a themed one anyway, don’t let the imageset change your mind because it’s very easy to replace it, don’t mind the impressive background because chances are very high that you’ll need to change that too. Its more than likely that right about now you’ll be asking yourself the question: “Ok, then what should i look for ?”. The layout. Make sure the layout is fully stylished and that no areas are left behind so that your users will have a pleasant bugs-free experience. Also make sure that it’s an easy to customize theme so that you won’t have any problems changing different aspects. Be aware of the third-party javascript’s that may be needed or any other auxiliary stuff.

1. BF_Vista

An interesting looking style based on subsilver2. Neat looking icons and plenty eye candy even for a Web 2.0 lover. PSD files for logos are included. Rotating background images feature (you just need to include your background images in the /images/bg folder and the script will do the rest from there). Unfortunately the transparency effect may slow down browsing. Show/Hide toggle buttons would be nice for showing and hiding sections. Overall it’s a nice looking style but i think it’s a little hard to customize it by following a different theme approach other than Vista.

Demo

Download BF_Vista and background package.

2. AeroBlue

Another style covered by Vista theme. Really intuitive imageset however in the inner section of a sub forum the posts related icons are too small. Nice looking hover effect added to the search field as well as post list and forum list. Numerous PSD files included. Fixed and fluid width versions are included.

Demo

Download AeroBlue

3. CodeBlack

A black, simple and fast style. Good looking imageset and interesting “Offline/Online” text showing in the profile row. Also numerous PSD files included. There’s nothing much to say about this one as it’s plain and simple. I almost forgot to mention that it’s really easy to apply a certain theme to it.

Demo

Download CodeBlack

4. X-Treme

A lot of Photoshop and CSS went into this one. Unfortunately it takes a little bit long to load the graphics set. Great looking, ideal for gamers clans forums. PSD files for logo, matching avatars, matching ranks and signature are included. Also smilies and topic icons are available (with instructions on how to use). “Liveclock” javascript is also included. Many instructions files are available (which is great). I’m not pleased by the hover effect on the posts list. Great threads icons are available (big and shiny).

Demo

Download X-Treme

5. SkyBlue

Some imageset problems (nothing big) but overall it’s a neat style. Check out this other article of mine if you’re into this style.

Demo

Download SkyBlue

6. bo2Soft

Clean blueish interface with nice looking round corners. Maybe the best looking imageset (finally a custom icon_topic_latest.gif) yet with original icons like “New topic”, “Post reply”, “profile”, “e-mail” and many more. Easy to apply a different theme approach.

Demo

Download bo2Soft

7. Proglass

If you are a fan of prosilver this blueish prosilver interface with nice a looking blue imageset is the thing for you. It’s very fast, simple and easy to use. However the typically fact for prosilver is the right aligned user profile. If you want to align it to the left you shouldn’t run into severe problems but if you do make sure you drop me a few lines and i will get back to you with the solution. If you like this style you might want to give it a try to Proglass Red which has a cooler imageset. Logo PSD included for the red version.

Demo for Proglass or Proglass Red

Download Proglass or Proglass Red

8. Smooth Blue

Huge amount of blue (maybe too much?). Original imageset with cool buttons and icons. Hover effect is implemented ok but is slowing down the browsing of the forum. Metal like round corners. Unfortunately the demo forum is very slow.

Demo

Download Smooth Blue

9. N.Design

Rotating header. Unique and very appropriate imageset. An old school, simple, fast and whiteish style.

Demo

Download N.Design

10. Ubuntu

An ideal themed style for your own Ubuntu community. Simple, fast and easy to use. Oh, and of course brown is the color.

Demo

Download Ubuntu

Neat prosilver based styles are hard to find (maybe because they are harder to style) but let’s face the fact that there are some eye cactchy subsilver2 based styles. If you have any suggestions or have a cool style of yourself feel free to drop in a few lines.

Don’t forget to backup your files before you proceed and to refresh your template files from ACP after you are done.

“Evil Quick Reply“ is the name of the MOD which adds a button next to “Post Reply” that says “Quick Reply” and when pressed toggles a textbox (without refreshing the page) in which you can type a fast reply and submit it right away without going through the “advanced reply form”. This MOD is extremly easy to install, it doesn’t require any database adjusting and you can get it up and running in like 2 minutes. It has been successfully tested on the latest phpbb3 version (3.0.0). Also it supports prosilver and subsilver2 styles engines. Optionally you can choose to add the BBcodes and the smilies to the quick reply form.

Unfortunately not even to this day there isn’t an official MOD designed to quick edit posts on both prosilver and subsilver2 styles. However if you use a subsilver2 based style you can consider yourself lucky because in spite of the fact that it’s just in its DEV state there is a MOD that provides the quick edit function. “Ajax Quick Edit“ is also a great MOD that’s easy to install, supports phpbb 3.0.0 and it doesn’t require any database adjusting. The single disadvantage for the moment is that it currently supports only subsilver2 style engine but as the developer promised, support for prosilver will soon be available (i might post a quick notice article when prosilver will be supported just to give the ones that are interested a heads up).

These being written all that remains now is to inform you on the alternatives you have in case of you’re not the admin on the forum but still want to use this great functions as the forum administrator didn’t implemented the above MODs. As some of you already know, GreaseMonkey is an awesome Firefox addon that supports user scripts. I bet most of you already know what i’m about to write because of the terms association firefox-greasemonkey-userscript-phpbb. You got that right ! There are two user scripts available that will enhance your experience with phpbb3 based forums.

“phpBBv3 Quick Edit“ for GreaseMonkey is just another breathtaking, must have script (with a little AJAX) that’s more than useful because it offers you the chance of editing an article without refreshing the entire page EVEN when no such MOD has been implemented to that forum !

“phpBBv3 Quick Reply” script offers the much needed quick reply function to phpbb3 forums users. Remember that this is possible even if the forums don’t have MODs implemented !

The above two user scripts for GreaseMonkey represent a kind of consolation yet a very viable alternative !
*to download/install the MODs or scripts mentioned in the above article please refer to the links given.

The style i am talking about is SkyBlue and it’s a style based on the prosilver engine. I must say that i prefer the prosilver engine just because it’s more classy than subsilver2 and adds a little more touch to the look while subsilver based styles are limited. It’s like you have Windows XP with the classic theme and you have some color schemes to choose from but none of them get even close to what you can achieve with the default Windows XP style and some cool themes for it (some of you out there may consider this comparison a little rough but that’s the plain truth).

I like this theme because it’s simple, it uses some one of my favorite colours and it already has a left orientated topic view list. Another factor that should determine you to choose this theme is that it’s fully compatible with the latest phpbb version: 3.0.0

• Demo
• Language: EN
• Download (Sat Feb 02, 2008 3:36 pm)

After you install this style you will see that because of some unknown reason the icons differ from the ones in the demo forum. Why is that ? I don’t know. However i managed to lay my hands on the icons used in the demo. If you have a closer look you can see that there is a problem with the default icons: you have to stare a while at them just to see which section has new posts and other new stuff in general (crappy vista-like folders). I also had a friend edit a couple of icons that had some graphical issues which now are solved. I’ve come up with a couple of pictures just to help make an ideea:

If you want to replace the original ones with the icons shown in the demo, which are most intuitive, go ahead and download the following archive:

SkyBlue new imageset

After you download the package you need to overwrite the theme’s imageset folder with the one in the archive and head over to the “Styles” tab in your ACP and hit the link in the right of SkyBlue’s imageset that says “Refresh”. That’s all. Now your SkyBlue style is looking even nicer.