I've given up on installing the release software until it's all ready so I can literally just port it across. The main reason for this is that moving it across in batches tends to create havoc and cause unexplained errors board-wide. I'm changing too much of the underlying code.

However I wanted to sample a page I've created because it's probably the biggest re-design of the release software so far. That page being the add reply screen. So if you noticed a few errors here and there it's because I've just spent a couple of hours trying to move that page across. It's been tested and it seems to work okay standalone without the rest of the software upgraded so hopefully as a sample piece it should do the job.

I'm just interested in getting feedback with this new design. Very few of the release pages will drastically change appearance. They will be a bit tidier and a bit more compressed with hopefully better performance but they'll look pretty much as they do now. Reply screens are the exception because they were long overdue for an overhaul.

When I first made the software I went with a familiar style just to get things out there but it's really not the best and neatest way to present these screens. The new style is in my opinion a lot neater. I'm mostly happy with the smiley box being shuffled around because that's always been the biggest eyesore. That's also the most significant change (plus the addition of the character count at the top).

Anyway this new screen is only updated on the add reply page which is where you hit the button to reply to a thread. Though this page style is re-used in several places, I haven't ported the updates for those ones yet (creating PMs, creating threads and editing posts). They will be updated once the software is at release level.

One minor administrative change worth noting is that some smilies are set to not appear on the smiley list. Previously, they would still be visible if you clicked to expand the smiley box. I've removed this option because it seems a bit unnecessary now the whole box is hidden. Any smilies that are set to be off the smiley list will now not appear at all. They're still programmed in and typing the code for the smiley will make it appear but it's not visible to users on the add reply screen, making it almost a hidden smiley that you have to already know the code for. Frankly I quite like this because it gives communities a chance to have "in the know" smilies (like the face ones could be setup like this so only members who know what they're about will use them). I'm open to feedback on this and all other aspects.

Also worth noting is the preview box. It's functional but I've trashed conversion of the BBCode on there. The reason being it hasn't worked for a long time due to a redesign that never got finished. I've reverted the preview box to its most fundamental stage; that is to say it will display a replica of your post with line breaks and it won't convert typed HTML. It will also display smilies correctly. The BBCode will come, it's just going to be a slower haul. Most of the tags are uncomplicated but presenting nested tags like quotes and spoilers in the preview can be a headache. That particular aspect caused me to give up midway before. Needless to say it's coming, for the time being I'd just rather have a functional preview box that works in a way I understand though.

All in all let me know what you think.

If you go to edit post or create a thread you'll see the difference.

Figures. I had to make a small change to the thread page. I'll sort it out.

Fixed. That was easy.

Kana @ 7/11/2012 4:51

Ooh, nice and large, I like it. Although, this is probably just personal preference, but I don't really like that the font in the preview box is the same as the one in the post field. At least if that's intentional and not just because of the skin I'm using or something.

It's actually a skinning thing. The box for the preview has its own defined class in the skinning, I just need to tidy up the default skin (Next Dimension is the default).

There's going to be a skin conversion before release that should tidy up some of the rough edges around badly skinned pages.