Fixed width vs Full screen styles - Can someone explain the +/-?

[CheapyD]

Can someone break it down for me?

[Dean C]

I'm not a fan of fluid designs. On 1024 * 768 they look fine but when you start getting up to larger resolutions to me it just looks too wide

[Icheb]

Fluid designs give people with bigger monitors the advantage of seeing more (like long text) and they can still resize their browser window if it's too big for them.
With fixed width designs you determine where an element will be placed relative to other elements, especially for sites that depend heavily on graphics. With fluid designs the elements would float around depending on the size of the browser window.

[dsmcd01]

For fixed width you may need to tweak certain elements, particularly the new message area, code block, and control panel message widths to get them fit within the main table widths. IMHO fixed width is 'neater' and worth a few extra tweaks. It's certainly easy to offer your members the choice, like this forum does.

[CheapyD]

If I offer my users the options of both, does that mean I have to have to completely seperate styles? I had two styles on PHPBB and it was a real pain in the ass when I wanted to add hacks/mods.

[dsmcd01]

Separate style yes. But having one the child of the other and making your template and css changes to the parent should minimize the bother. Can't speak to file hacks, though.

[M1th]

Actually, wrong. You dont really need to create a separate style. Just create a new user profile, with options Expanded and Fixed. Then put this in the headerinclude_start template:

if ($bbuserinfo['yournewuserprofilefieldid'] == 'Expanded')
{
$stylevar['outertablewidth'] = "95%";
$stylevar['outerdivwidth'] = "98%";
$stylevar['spacersize'] = "0";

}
else
{
$stylevar['outertablewidth'] = "760";
$stylevar['outerdivwidth'] = "760px";
$stylevar['formwidth'] = "640px";
$stylevar['formwidth_usercp'] = "480px";
} 

[filburt1]

Actually, wrong. You dont really need to create a separate style. Just create a new user profile, with options Expanded and Fixed. Then put this in the headerinclude_start template:

if ($bbuserinfo['yournewuserprofilefieldid'] == 'Expanded')
{
$stylevar['outertablewidth'] = "95%";
$stylevar['outerdivwidth'] = "98%";
$stylevar['spacersize'] = "0";

}
else
{
$stylevar['outertablewidth'] = "760";
$stylevar['outerdivwidth'] = "760px";
$stylevar['formwidth'] = "640px";
$stylevar['formwidth_usercp'] = "480px";
} 

You can do it entirely through Javascript (with cookies) and CSS, as on my site (http://www.webdesignforums.net/ ; "Bigger"/"Smaller" link in the header).

edit: actually, it does require a snippet in phpinclude_start to choose which CSS class to initially use. But the overall approach has the benefit of not having to reload the page for the changes to be viewed.

[Polinco]

Pray tell...

This is Interesting.

Now I could, of course, spend half an hour of my life trying to find that phrase "phpinclude_start" and pat myself on the back afterwards at being so resourceful in finding it (if at all) or I could ask you to spend 30 seconds of yours to read and answer this message.

Thus done and said I have decided that the latter is the wisest choice. Would you please be so kind and direct us to that location, and, if you'd care to expend another 30 seconds include the Javascript AND the snippet you refer to, That would be so wonderful and prevent the possible reinvention of a known wheel .

Thanks,

Pol

[Andrew111888]

phpinclude_start is a template.

[Polinco]

Well, I did find three files in which the phrase actually occurs, namely vbulletin-adminhelp.xml, vbulletin-language.xml and vbulletin-style.xml. Considering it is a visible element we can safely assume that the only candidate here would be the vbulletin-style.xml file. However, these are files in the 3.0.x series of the vbulletin software; I have not seen the phrase in any of the files of the new version 3.5.0. Any ideas what is is now?

[Andrew111888]

No... you don't modify those files.

All you do is add whatever code filburt used to the phpinclude_start template, then put the JS somewhere else.

[MGM]

You can do it entirely through Javascript (with cookies) and CSS, as on my site (http://www.webdesignforums.net/ ; "Bigger"/"Smaller" link in the header).

edit: actually, it does require a snippet in phpinclude_start to choose which CSS class to initially use. But the overall approach has the benefit of not having to reload the page for the changes to be viewed.

OMG Filburt... if you could show me how you did that or provide a tutorial, you will be my favorite vB.org team member! I've been trying to figure this out for myself for ages...

MGM out

[Polinco]

OK, but as I said, I did not find the phrase in the new files of Vbulletin 3.5.0 so does that phpinclude_start template still exist? If yes, how does it get referenced if there is no mention of its name anywhere??

[Steve Machol]

The phpinclude templates were removed with Beta 2:

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=143261

The phpinclude_start and phpinclude_end templates have been removed. You should use the global_start and global_end hooks instead.