I know this is sort of old news, but it was requested that we be able to make custom BB code tags, that do whatever we want.  I've finished implementing the code required to do that, so now there's this pretty admin page to allow someone to define whether or not the custom tag takes a parameter (as in our 'url' tag, which goes [ url = http://something ] ... [/ url]  .  You can also specify if the tags wraps some text (again, as in the url tag, or b,or i (this is the common case)).  Finally, you give it a set of HTML to replace the tag with, with regular expression back-references to the parameter and/or wrapped text.

Just thought I'd let you know.  You can do anything with it   And it's all powered by the theme's CSS, so different themes can do what they want with the styles.

Sorry for the lack up updates recently... I reformatted my computer last week, and then it was wacking out doing weird crap, so I just reformatted it again last night

I promise I'll get this done :P

Its ok we all know your hard at work, and we are patiently waiting the day you will post the thread that will end bandAMP as we know it, and bring on the new bandamp.

heh, sounds like an apocalypse

lol
to all us civilians it might as well be
   

I mentioned this to kings recently in a PM, but I was a little ashamed at the cluttered-ness of my theme's CSS.  To get around that problem, I've actually now enabled themes to use their own HTML templates.  This will allow for any theme makers to copy another theme's templates and CSS/images/js, etc, and then alter it entirely to give BandAMP a feel of their own.

This way, nobody will have to deal with my confusing CSS   Only the Traditional theme has confusing CSS though... The MusicBox theme is better (in terms of being organized).

This is so cool......if I've understood a bit more of the implications..........
So the 'template' we customise will be HTML , CSS and JS pages that we upload to a THEMES folder on the bandAmp server?
It will be a bit like www.CSSZenGarden.com and mySpace, though you wont have to go 'div div div div ul li a li div div div div{colour:red}'
If we can use JavaScript some very interesting things could happen !!  I hope someone keeps an eye on the uploaded themes.

Yep, javascript is at your disposal

oh, and I'm working to ensure that an extremely EASY 'ajax' interface will be provided to you.

AJAX is "Asynchronous Javascript and Xml", which is just a fancy way of saying "dynamically changing page content, like sorting tables, flipping pages, etc, without actually changing the webpage url"

I really want bandamp to be clean, instead of having to wack back buttons 90 times to get away from sorting a table 6 times and changing forum pages.

With ajax, you can dynamically update page content in super slick ways.  Appearance isn't everything, but it's a lot more than nothing.  I want BandAMP to be appealing to the masses :P

*gasp*

I know it has been forever since I've given a proper update, but I thought it was time to show you guys where we stand currently.

I have spent some considerable time making sure that future updates will be very very easy.  I'm using some languages other than PHP to write the website, and I know that'll cause some trouble for future developers.  Thinking ahead, I've really broken my back trying to simplify things so greatly that any one of you can rightfully blame the admins for not implementing a feature.

The unfortunate part is that this screen shot won't show you much of anything new, from where we were before I went radio silent.  But now, things can progress really fast.  I honestly hope to have a solid beta site running by mid April.

(sorry for the big images.. ImageShack.us seems broken right now.. the thumbnail images won't show correctly.)



Features of note:
-- This is an entirely different skin than the Traditional one.  I've made sure that any themes are really easy to implement.  Also, You can actually change the HTML layout a bit if needed, so theming can go beyond just CSS edits.
-- The threads with colored blocks next to them are "sticky". 
-- BBcode and pretty formating of dates works, but is not present in this screenshot.
-- I've added a new feature to how the forums work.  Before, if you click on a header, like "Title" or "Views" or whatever, it would sort the threads by that header.  But *now*, if you hold SHIFT and then click on a header, it will sort only the current page by that header.  You're able to sort only the currently shown items by the new header.  So if you're on the first page of the Audio Review forum, and if you want to know which one on that first page has the most/least views, you can just shift-click the Views header, and it will sort only that current page's threads by views.

Additionally, I've scrap'd page numbers in favor of a simpler "more" tab.  When that "more" tab is clicked, it'll dim the forum while it loads, and then shows you the new threads.  If needed, it'll show a "previous" tab and maybe another "more" tab:


And, as you can see, if there are no more threads to show, it'll say "no more".

I hope that you all haven't lost faith in me, but I promise you that BandAMP will not be a website notorious for being hard to update.

We're headed on down the road to Open Source!

hahaha sorry it just popped into my head when you said open source

not comparing your coding skills to a 2-bit OS that is lol

but yea man its GREAT to see some new updates..

for a min i thought we had lost you in the mess of a code we have never to be found

TonightsLastTron !! 

So thats where you've been hiding Tim?
so you have a date...that makes it exciting ...

awesome dude!!! your doing so great with this. cant wait till mid april

ALL HAIL TLS!!!

Okay, so here's my plan.

The site is not really "done", by any means, but I want to push it to the alpha/beta stage.  I'm going to get with the cheeses bigger than I, and see what I can do to begin pushing stuff onto our actual BandAMP server/computer.

In the layman's terms, I'm going to begin trying to keep my work more public, hopefully at http://beta.bandamp.com/  (dev.bandamp.com already exists, but it's more for actual development stuff, and not public beta stuff)

The core functionality will be there, but not all the pretty UI (user interface) stuff will be complete.  Usable, but not complete.

Kings, I know you specifically have shown interest in making a theme/skin for the new Amp, and you can probably get rolling on that once this beta goes live.

Skinning will be done with primarily CSS, but you also have the power to alter the HTML for your theme.  If you want to get a head start on the concepts (anybody, not just kings), then I would recommend reading up on Django.  It's a web-building framework for the Python programming language.

Python is simple to use, and even if you have experience with it, you'll need to understand how Django works.  Don't worry so much about its database model stuff.  Use their tutorials for that.  Pay attention to their stuff on their HTML template language, which is built into the framework.  Stuff on the template language beings in the last (fourth) tutorial, but it is well worth having a grasp on the first 3 tutorials so that you understand the playground that you're in.

I will be writing up documents on how to override parts of the base template that I've made, and what variables are available to you if/when you write templates.

I'll probably forgo further screenshots, in favor of simply making my progress available on the beta site.

Tim