One of the common problems with phpbb is that the forum design expands in width when users post images that are too wide for the forum. Here are two fixes to this problem.

There is a fairly advanced mod for phpbb3 that allows you to apply an automatic image resize in forum posts, together with an optional lightbox. You can find it here.

For those of you who are interested in a less advanced solution, here is a little hack that will automatically resize all posted images down to a width of 550px wide.

Preview

With this hack, images that are too large to fit, like this:

are automatically resized in a size that fits, like this one:

Download

Download the file from here.

A useful tip for webmasters:

Click to Play

The templates for the phpbb3 forum software are available here.

These are phpbb3 ports of Mike Lothar’s Ad Infinitum, Conundrum, Nosebleed, AI2, CND2 and NB2.

A few new resources have become available since my previous post on the subject. Here’s an updated list of iPhone website templates and of iphone themes and skins for mobile phones.

iPhone compatible website themes

Once installed, your website will look good on the iPhone or iPod Touch. Most websites already good look on the mobile Safari browser, but these themes are optimized with the iphone/ipod touch in mind (low bandwidth, no flash, etc.).

1. Countries in Colors RapidWeaver iPhone theme [source - download]
2. Real Mac Software RapidWeaver iPhone theme [source - download]
3. iWPhone WordPress Plugin and Theme [source - download]
4. all4wordpress WordPress Theme [preview - download]
5. Not exactly a theme, but MoFuse is a web-based service that allows the easy creation of mobile websites [go to Mofuse]
6. Again not a single theme, but a tool allowing for the easy creation of iPhone and iPod Touch compatible photo sites [go to Foliolink]
7. WPtouch is a theme installed as a plugin on your WordPress blog or website that will format your content with this Apple-inspired, full-featured theme when your visitors are using an iPhone or iPod touch. [source - download]
8. Wordpress iPhone / iPod Touch app. This application will allow you to post directly to your Wordpress blog. It is going to be made available very soon on the App store. Below is a screencast demoing the app.

iPhone centered website themes

1. Hello 1.0 / iPhone Wordpress theme [source - download]
2. Jinsona’s Hello iPhone Wordpress theme [source - download]
3. iFoney Wordpress theme [source - download]
4. Hello by 2bitoperation theme for RapidWeaver [source - download]

iPhone skins and styles for popular phones

• iPhone theme for Nokia N80 [source - download]
• iPhone theme for Nokia N6300 and Nokia 40 Series [source - download]
• iPhone theme for Sony Ericsson w810i [source - download]
• iPhone themes for BlackBerries [source - download]
• bPhone, another iPhone theme for BlackBerries [source - download]
• iPhone theme for Sony Ericsson w900i [source - download]
• iPhone theme for Sony Ericsson k750, w700, w800, w810 [source - download]
• iPhone theme for Sony Ericsson k610i [source - download]
• iPhone theme for pocket pc [source - download]
• Gigabit Software’s iPhone theme for pocket pc [source - download]
• Leo S60 iPhone theme for Symbian OS S60. Works with Nokia N70, N72, 6630, 6620, 6680, 6681, 6682, 6670, 7610, 6260, 3230, 6600 Samsung SGH-D720, SGH-D730 Panasonic X700, X800 [source - download]
• iPhone Black theme for Sony Ericsson k750, d750, k600, w800, w700 [source - download]
• iPhone theme for Sony Ericsson K800, K790 [source - download]
• iBored theme for Sidekick [source - download]
• iPhone theme for Sony Ericsson w850 [source - download]
• iPhone theme for Sony Ericsson k800, w850 [source - download]
• iPhone theme for Sony Ericsson k750, w800 [source - download]
• k800 iphone theme for Sony Ericsson k800 [source - download]
• iPhone style for BenqSiemens E71 [source - download]
• iPhone theme for Sony Ericsson k800 [source - download]
• iPhone theme for Sony Ericsson w900 [source - download]
• Java iPhone theme for most java-compatible phones [source - download]

The forum is back online, with continuous updates to the Ad Infinitum, Conundrum and Nosebleed templates from Mike Lothar. Forum users are also providing tips on how to integrate the most popular mods for phpbb3 in the templates. Work on the second generation Mike Lothar templates will start soon.

The forum is here.

M

I have been quietly working for a while on a phpBB3 upgrade of Mike Lothar’s great forum templates. You can check out the Nosebleed, Conundrum and AdInfinitum templates in action on the Countries in Colors forums. The most adventurous among the forum members can already download the first alpha release of Nosebleed.

Lots of new resources have become available since my previous post on the subject. Here’s an updated list of iPhone website templates and of iphone themes and skins for mobile phones.

iPhone compatible website themes

Once installed, your website will look good on the iPhone or iPod Touch.

1. Countries in Colors RapidWeaver iPhone theme [source - download]
2. Real Mac Software RapidWeaver iPhone theme [source - download]
3. iWPhone WordPress Plugin and Theme [source - download]
4. all4wordpress WordPress Theme [preview - download]
5. Not exactly a theme, but MoFuse is a web-based service that allows the easy creation of mobile websites [go to Mofuse]
6. Again not a single theme, but a tool allowing for the easy creation of iPhone and iPod Touch compatible photo sites [go to Foliolink]

iPhone centered website themes

1. Hello 1.0 / iPhone Wordpress theme [source - download]
2. Jinsona’s Hello iPhone Wordpress theme [source - download]
3. iFoney Wordpress theme [source - download]
4. Hello by 2bitoperation theme for RapidWeaver [source - download]

iPhone skins and styles for popular phones

• iPhone theme for Nokia N80 [source - download]
• iPhone theme for Nokia N6300 and Nokia 40 Series [source - download]
• iPhone theme for Sony Ericsson w810i [source - download]
• iPhone themes for BlackBerries [source - download]
• bPhone, another iPhone theme for BlackBerries [source - download]
• iPhone theme for Sony Ericsson w900i [source - download]
• iPhone theme for Sony Ericsson k750, w700, w800, w810 [source - download]
• iPhone theme for Sony Ericsson k610i [source - download]
• iPhone theme for pocket pc [source - download]
• Gigabit Software’s iPhone theme for pocket pc [source - download]
• Leo S60 iPhone theme for Symbian OS S60. Works with Nokia N70, N72, 6630, 6620, 6680, 6681, 6682, 6670, 7610, 6260, 3230, 6600 Samsung SGH-D720, SGH-D730 Panasonic X700, X800 [source - download]
• iPhone Black theme for Sony Ericsson k750, d750, k600, w800, w700 [source - download]
• iPhone theme for Sony Ericsson K800, K790 [source - download]
• iBored theme for Sidekick [source - download]
• iPhone theme for Sony Ericsson w850 [source - download]
• iPhone theme for Sony Ericsson k800, w850 [source - download]
• iPhone theme for Sony Ericsson k750, w800 [source - download]
• k800 iphone theme for Sony Ericsson k800 [source - download]
• iPhone style for BenqSiemens E71 [source - download]
• iPhone theme for Sony Ericsson k800 [source - download]
• iPhone theme for Sony Ericsson w900 [source - download]

Since I am upgrading my sites to the wonderful Conundrum/Ad Infinitum/Nosebleed themes, which are not yet compatible with Wordpress 2.3, I had to manually add the (only) feature which I find worth upgrading for: tags. In addition to categories, posts may now be tagged with certain keywords.

Adding to Conundrum/Ad Infinitum/Nosebleed. It is easy to upgrade the Conundrum/Ad Infinitum/Nosebleed themes: currently those themes show the categories in which the posts are put below each post. This is a line that starts with “Posted in”. The corresponding code in the Wordpress theme file is “Posted in < ? php the_category(', ') ? >“. To add tags, simply add the code “< ? php the_tags(); ? >” after the category code, and the tags you have entered for each post will appear like magic!

The files to edit in the Conundrum/Ad Infinitum/Nosebleed themes are index.php, archive.php, search.php and single.php.

Adding a tag cloud in the sidebar. A simple tag cloud can be added by editing sidebar.php and adding the following lines of code:

< ? php if ( function_exists('wp_tag_cloud') ) : ? >
< li >
< h2 >Popular Tags< /h2 >
< ul >
< ? php wp_tag_cloud('smallest=8&largest=22'); ? >
< /ul >
< /li >
< ? php endif; ? >

In the above codes make sure to delete the spaces after “<" and before ">“.

One of the main reasons for switching part of my Bluebulgaria site to Wordpress was the need to have a cross-platform, cross-browser theme that would work with not too many adjustments. The hard lesson I learned as a newbie webmaster is that the more changes you make to your RapidWeaver or Wordpress style, the higher the risks that something will not work with one browser or another.

That’s why I chose one of the most robust yet eye pleasing Wordpress theme: Mike Lothar’s Nosebleed (also available in different colors as Conundrum or as Ad Infinitum). I limited my changes to changing the image at the top (the file to edit or replace is called “top_image.jpg” and is found in the “images” folder of the theme) and the text colors in the cascading style sheet: simply edit the “style.css” file which is in the theme folder. Every time you see “color” followed by an hexadecimal number preceded with the “#” character, simply change the value to what you need.

In Nosebleed/Conundrum/Ad Infinitum, I also wanted to change the background color on both sides of this fixed-width theme. That was more complicated as this is not defined by a css. Instead the theme puts a “background-color” value in the first and last columns of the table. To achieve a color change there, you need to edit the value in the “header.php” file for the left column, and again in the “footer.php” file for the right column.

I will be putting my iPhone website theme development efforts on hold for the time being, as RapidWeaver just released a theme done right. You can see it in action on this page, although you will need an iPhone or the iPhoney emulator to view it properly. Currently in beta, the theme is not yet able to detect whether the site is being accessed with an iPhone or with another device. But it is already beautiful and makes a smart use of the sidebar, which slides in when the little menu icon to the right of the navigation bar is pressed (or clicked on if you are still using a mouse and not a finger).

The only issue we have found so far is that the title style (the “h1″ css style) is not suited for long titles because its height is fixed to 34 pixels. Still, this is a much better RapidWeaver theme than our own amateurish attempt, and we would recommend it to all RapidWeaver users who want to develop sites specifically for the iPhone.

RapidWeaver users can grab it here.