Hey,

For this you can simply comment out the login logout and register buttons from the template. However I’m not 100% sure what you mean when you refer to ‘Account Info’, maybe you can elaborate on that one?

Using ‘Default’ theme as an example, you would open the spHead.php template –

sp-resources > forum-themes > default > templates > spHead.php

Simply locate the function calls to the buttons you want to remove, so find:

sp_LogInOutButton('tagClass=spButton spRight', __sp('Log In'), __sp('Log Out'), __sp('Log in and log out'));
 sp_RegisterButton('tagClass=spButton spRight', __sp('Register'), __sp('Register'));

And comment it out so it should look like:

/*sp_LogInOutButton('tagClass=spButton spRight', __sp('Log In'), __sp('Log Out'), __sp('Log in and log out'));
    sp_RegisterButton('tagClass=spButton spRight', __sp('Register'), __sp('Register'));*/

Remember you can do this for any template function you want to remove, and commenting is a far better method than deleting, as it allows you to easily put the function back in should you want to at a later date.

As always we recommend making a custom or child theme to preserve the changes you’ve made.

Hope this helps!

Thanks, Ike!

I meant the Profile button. I’ve found it in the spHead.php as well. Thanks!

As I’m testing the website, I found another issue. The timestamp of when the topic was first posted and when the last replied was received is in error when the time is less than a day. For example, please see the attached image. 

http://imgur.com/zjZOuad

Thanks,

Jean

My forum is located at http://www.boardgamelove.com.tw/forum-2/

Thanks!

Actually, I’ve just followed the instructions in https://simple-press.com/documentation/codex/faq/troubleshooting/why-do-my-new-posts-show-as-posted-minus-seconds-ago/

That solved the problem. Thanks for the great support here!

Excellent! good to hear!

Hi Ike,

I have a few more questions relating to the setting up of simple press.

First three questions are shown in this image.

http://imgur.com/Yewyv6C

Regarding (2), if i can’t change the icon, can i disable it? 

(4) For pinned topics, can they have special background colour so it’s more clear that those are pinned topics?

(5) Can I remove footer?

(6) When a topic is being created, the user may enter tag names. Can there be a list of all existing, or selected list of tags, displayed?

(7) How do I display featured topics and posts?

(8) Right now, the tags are displayed below topics. To see the name of the tags, first I need to click “tag”, and then the tag names will be displayed. Can I skip the step clicking “tag”, and just have all the tag names displayed?

I know this is a lot of questions. So many thanks in advance!

Cheers,

Jean

Hey Jean, I will go through them one at a time in the same order for you..

You can change the icon for your forum group (or even forum icon) by going to your admin panel – then Forum > Forums > Custom Icons. You can browse for your custom icons here, and then enable them from the drop down box when editing a group or forum in ‘Manage Groups and Forums’.

When you create a pinned topic, it adds the class of .spPinnedTopic to the topic section. You might not already have this class in your stylesheet, but you can certainly make use of it for something like background or even font colour. Just make a new element in your style sheet i.e

#spMainContainer .spForumTopicSection.spEven.spPinnedTopic,
#spMainContainer .spForumTopicSection.spOdd.spPinnedTopic {
    background: red;
}

and

#spMainContainer .spForumTopicSection.spEven.spPinnedTopic:hover,
#spMainContainer .spForumTopicSection.spOdd.spPinnedTopic:hover {
    background: red;
}

Depending on what theme you are using dictates how you would go about removing the stats section. I will use Default theme as an example as it looks like that is what you are running. Open your theme folder and go to default > templates > spFoot.php. If you scroll down until you find the ‘start the stats section’ message, you can comment the whole thing out using /* before the text and */ after.

You can put these tags before the first section start such as: /* sp_SectionStart(‘tagClass=spStatsSection’, ‘stats’); and you can finish by putting */ when that section closes i.e sp_SectionEnd(‘tagClass=spClear’, ‘stats’); */

 I’m not too sure what you mean when you are referring to the list of tags. If you create a topic and add a title, it gives you the option of ‘Get Suggested Tags From’.. One of the options is ‘Local Tags’.. Is this what you were looking for?

Have you read the Codex article on featured topics and posts? Definitely a good place to start if not..

Yes you can have the tags show all the time without the need to use the ‘tags’ button.. You will need to go to your theme, open forum-themes > default > templates > spForumView.php

First find the tags function line which is:

if (function_exists('sp_TopicIndexTagsList')) sp_TopicIndexTagsList('tagClass=spTopicTagsList spButton spLeft', __sp('Tags'), __sp('Show the tags for this topic'));

All you need to do is add the collapse argument which defaults to 1 (true), but you want ‘&collapse=0’

It will then appear

if (function_exists('sp_TopicIndexTagsList')) sp_TopicIndexTagsList('tagClass=spTopicTagsList spButton spLeft&collapse=0', __sp('Tags'), __sp('Show the tags for this topic'));

I think I covered everything!

Wow! Thank you, Ike, for the very fast response and detailed and clear explanations!!!

I am using the default theme, so thank you for the examples you gave. I will go ahead and try to follow the steps you’ve described. While I do that, I have a few more questions, as I’m quite new to working with WordPress. 

(1) Regarding the custom icon, the one I’m looking to replace is actually the icon in front of the topics (the blue chat icon) in the forum. My forum is in Chinese, and I guess that’s where the confusion was. I would like to replace it with a custom icon, or perhaps the avatar of the member who created the topic.

(2) In the codex article on featured topics and posts, it says 

“This plugin requires the installation of a special template functions which allow the Forum Admin to decide where to display the featured topics or posts. These display template functions are installed into your Simple:Press Forum Theme files or can be used in other WordPress pages or widgets.”

     Which “special templates functions” is the article referring to? Is that where I will put the codes for displaying custom topics/post in? I want to display the featured topics and posts on the main forum page, under the list of Groups.

(3) I will proceed to create a custom theme before I make further customization. Regarding pinned topics, you mentioned that the class of .spPinnedTopic is added to the topic section of my stylesheet when a pinned topic is created. Which file is this “stylesheet”?

(4) Regarding tags, the ‘Get Suggested Tags From’ >> ‘Local Tags’ is almost what I’m looking for. With this it appears the suggestions are given based on the context of my title and perhaps comments. I think that’s a really neat feature!  

    What I was looking for is that I would like to have a list of pre-defined tags displayed for the members to select from. If possible, I would like to force the members to select at least one tag from that list before they are allowed to successfully create a topic.

Thanks again!

Jean

(1) The icon you are referring to can be changed in the themes images folder. See spTopicIcon.png, spTopicIconLocked.png and spTopicIconPosts.png

(2) I haven’t ever actually used the featured topics plugin believe it or not! The Codex page does go on to describe in detail exactly how to set it up however, using for example ‘sp_FeaturedTopicsTag();' which it mentions - you can place directly into a theme template such as spGroupView.php wherever you like. As standard it isn't included in the template, because as far as I can see it's pretty flexible.

If you wanted it under the groups, you could add it after the recent posts list in spGroupView.php before the foot is called at the end.

I would suggest giving it a try, and if you get stuck just shout and either someone with more experience with the plugin can jump in, or I can go through the motions of setting it up myself locally, and advise.

(3) Sorry, the stylesheet for default would be forum-themes > default > styles > default.php

(4) I'm not sure about the tags question here. I certainly don't think its possible currently to 'force' specific tags. Will wait for Mr Papa to take a look and offer his opinion on this one..

Thanks a lot, Ike!

I’ll get started editing while waiting for Mr. Papa’s feedback!

No afraid its not possible currently to force users to enter at least one tag…  its probably possible using our api and the post class to create such a requirement, but it would need writing…  same for predefined list of tags… the api would probably let you hook in an and a new button, but again code required…

if you are trying to force a tag from a predefined list, perhaps you should look at the topic status plugin for sp…  it lets you define a set of statuses (could be tags) that a user can assign to a topic when its created…  I think (would have to check) you can give it a default status too (if not, then cannot force as is either, but again api would allow customization),,,

Thank you, Mr. Papa! I’ll give Topic Status a try!

Cheers,

Jean

Glad to help

Hello, Ike,

I’m back with another question. I’m not sure if this is Simple Press related, I think it might.

As you can see in the first image, my menu bar is set up so that the link to the page where I’m at (in this case, forum) will have a light grey box.

http://imgur.com/zKWlN9G

Beside “Forum”, which is the my main forum page, is “Secondhand”, which is also a forum listed in the main forum page.

The problem I’m experiencing is that when I go to “Secondhand” forum, both “Forum” and “Secondhand” in the menu bar lights up (only “Secondhand” should). Please see the second image.

http://imgur.com/bE9gFoI

Before using Simple Press (awesome forum and support!!!), I tried bbPress, and this did not occur. Only the “Secondhand” link lit up when I was on the “Secondhand” forum page. As a result, I think this might be Simple Press related. 

Any thoughts or suggestions will be very much appreciated!

Cheers,

Jean