Style updates 2.2 Style updates (LESS IS MORE)

Hello everyone, we're pushing our 2.2 updates out today. Once you receive the email you'll be able to download it immediately with an active license via your purchase area.

This is a rather large update that I have nicknamed "LESS IS MORE". The concept behind these updates was to reduce some of the potential conflicts our styles have with plugins and outdated templates for future upgrades. We've removed some options and cleaned up templates as much as possible to allow for easier upgrades in the future. Over the years of developing styles, I've found that one of the biggest frustrations is outdated templates. While no matter what you do, depending on how complex your style is you may always have outdated templates but this update should help all around with that going forward. Ideally, you shouldn't really notice a difference in the overall appearance of your style. I've talked about some important points with these updates here and here.

Recommendation
Seeing as this is a large update, I'd strongly recommend upgrading your style on a test forum first. If you do not have a test forum and plan to work on your live site, I'd strongly recommend importing this as a brand new style. Your existing version of our styles should run fine on 2.2 (with a lot of outdated templates) while you test out the new version. After you've imported the new style, simply export your current style and import it under the new version.


Installing 2.2 styles
After you've backed up your styles ( See step 1 here: https://pixelexit.com/documentation/upgrading/) you can proceed with the installation. Going forward, you'll be able to download the zip from our store and import it directly into the admin panel. You'll no longer need to access FTP to process the install/upgrades. To install simply browse to Appearance -> Styles -> Click the import button and browse to the zip you've downloaded from our site.

NOTE: Our store is currently limited to how we can distribute the light/dark combos for 2.2. I'm working on upgrading our site with a new store that will allow me to distribute the alternate styles with the downloads. If you require the dark version of a style, please submit a ticket and I'll provide it for you.

Run into issues? Please create a ticket and we'll respond to you as quickly as we can.

Found a bug? Let us squash it, submit a bug report.
 
New
  • Added the xb_footer_links template to allow for easy insertion of custom links in the default footer (left of the contact link)
  • Added xb_notices.less to hold all custom notice CSS
  • New footer logo option to easily upload a logo in the footer (Style properties -> Footer -> Footer logo
  • New footer logo block option to place your uploaded logo in a specific block
  • New footer block 5 ability, easily configure a 5 block column setup
  • New node stats & last post width adjustments (Style properties -> Node/forum list -> Node stats width / Node last post width)
  • New custom asset style properties, you can utilize these to easily upload images to use in your style (Style properties -> Custom settings)
  • New upload support for all image fields (backstretch, mobile logo, images for styles, and many more areas)
Changes
  • Removed "Style folder" option under Style properties -> Basic options. With XF 2.2, they've introduced "style assets" which is similar.
  • Removed icon for style switcher in footer
  • Removed "Node helpers" option, while this was nice, it was causing four different templates to be edited solely for this purpose. Here are some alternatives
  • Reverted templates (removed our edits to avoid them being outdated in the future)
    • node_list_page
    • node_list_link_forum
    • node_list_forum
    • thread_list_macros
    • app.less
    • notices.less
  • Removed "node-extra--inner" from node_list_forum, this was the only other edit in this template that I did not feel worthy of having a customized template for. Currently, only one style was utilizing it (Core). If you want to add it back it, see our post below for "Things you might miss"
  • Removed "Avatar column" option from Style properties -> Discussion list. With the new node types, the various icons
  • Removed "Node stats icons option xbNodeStatsIcons
  • Removed xbThreadListLocked
  • Removed collapsing message elements in conversations: conversation_message_macros template it's a simple edit if you want to achieve that still.
  • Removed separator on the selected tab when the nav is sticky
  • Removed "Martel Sans" font, no italics are inside the font family which caused issues
  • Added CSS to set max-width on page width items to 100% when viewing on mobile. Previously if you had 90% as the page width, that would carry all the way down to a mobile device leaving an undesired gap on the sides.
  • Reverted to using default XF collapse icons on the nodes
  • Had to create a new property for the style switcher icon to avoid layout breaks with the new approach
  • Removed "Hide page title on forum list" - This was an option in our XF1 layout which worked well, but with XF2 it adds call-to-action buttons there leaving a large gap. It just doesn't really make sense. If you still want to hide the title even with the gap:
    Code:
    body[data-template="forum_list"]
    {
    .p-title-value
    {
    display: none;
    }
    .p-title-pageAction
    {
    margin-left: auto;
    }
    }
    Place inside extra.less
  • Removed "Responsive padding" - Styles have gone a rather extensive revamp when it comes to padding. Larger padding is now shown primarily on desktop displays with it reverting to the default XenForo paddings for smaller displays
  • Removed "Sub-navigation row inner" property as it served no purpose
  • Removed "Navigation row inner" property as it served no purpose
Fixes
  • Removed an underline effect happening on ratings in overlays
  • Removed our CSS that was removing the spacing in the navigation when the nav was set not to stretch
  • Footer stretch had extra padding some of the divs
  • Threadstarter is now properly hidden on the first post of the thread
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Unfortunately, the plugin needs to be updated. You can disable the plugin while you upgrade the style.

This isn't unique to our styles, I tried editing the default XF style with that plugin installed and it would not let you edit PAGE_CONTAINER.
 
Btw, is it no longer possible to create child styles under the main one (eg Omni) and just make edits to the parent style? I've tried parent and sub parent, but end up having to make changes to each 'child' style separately. :shame:
 
Btw, is it no longer possible to create child styles under the main one (eg Omni) and just make edits to the parent style? I've tried parent and sub parent, but end up having to make changes to each 'child' style separately. :shame:

It's definitely possible. You'll just need to create a main style under Omni, then child styles under that one with only changing the colors.

Make sure you're creating the styles as new styles and not importing the Omni XML as a child. That will cause it to not work.
 
It's definitely possible. You'll just need to create a main style under Omni, then child styles under that one with only changing the colors.

Make sure you're creating the styles as new styles and not importing the Omni XML as a child. That will cause it to not work.

So that was my mistake. Thank you, Russ, for helping me regain some IQ. :shame: :notworthy: :ROFLMAO:
 
With respect to Flat Awesome Plus - I have downloaded the updated style and imported it as per instructions but I don't seem to see the dark version anywhere. (I'm probably missing something obvious, again.) :shame: :angelic:
 
With respect to Flat Awesome Plus - I have downloaded the updated style and imported it as per instructions but I don't seem to see the dark version anywhere. (I'm probably missing something obvious, again.) :shame: :angelic:
Just a minor inconvenience until the new store for PE is setup. I'm not zipping up bundles of light and dark versions because I want folks to be able to download the zips and install right away (using the new style archive install).

Just submit a ticket and I'll get you squared away!
 
Trying to import as a new style on my live site so I can test it and get this error.
 

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Yeah, what @Davey said. Also, if you have other TH add-ons, I'd disable those, too. I used to have a Covers Add-on that would constantly interfere with almost every update on my site...
 
I've gone ahead and added a little workaround for the alternate styles until the new store is up. You can now find the dark styles on the license page https://pixelexit.com/products/purchases

Screenshot_8.png



The child styles can be installed directly under your main style. The full versions are intended to be run on their own (for someone who only wants to use the dark style).
 
Hey Russ, are us custom style folk safe to upgrade to XF2.2? I've been holding off as I didn't want to have any issues, but now that it's appearing very stable (2.2.2 will probably be the one I upgrade to) I'm kind of keen to jump on board the bandwagon. :)

What do you think?
 
Hey Russ, are us custom style folk safe to upgrade to XF2.2? I've been holding off as I didn't want to have any issues, but now that it's appearing very stable (2.2.2 will probably be the one I upgrade to) I'm kind of keen to jump on board the bandwagon. :)

What do you think?

:D, as long as you don't have heavily modified core templates it should be an easy upgrade. If you've made lots of edits, simply use a test forum first. Past that though our 2.2.1 release is rather solid.
 
:D, as long as you don't have heavily modified core templates it should be an easy upgrade. If you've made lots of edits, simply use a test forum first. Past that though our 2.2.1 release is rather solid.

Thanks Russ.

Do I need to update Xenbase for 2.2? Has it changed?
 
Thanks Russ.

Do I need to update Xenbase for 2.2? Has it changed?

We released 2.2.1 which fixed a few bugs and I think an outdated template:

 
We released 2.2.1 which fixed a few bugs and I think an outdated template:


Hi Russ, because I got a custom style I don't think I have access to a purchase area to download Xenbase. What should I do?
 

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