Best practice for re-styling XF?

[CTXMedia]

I've yet to make a start on styling XF for my forthcoming CycleChat.net migration, so just wanted some best-practice advice on re-styling XF.

I've seen the extras.css mentioned - how does that work?

Are there any shortcuts you can use within templates / CSS that make life easier?

Are there any reference guides that people have written that would point me in the right direction?

I just don't want to head off in one direction thinking I'm doing okay, only to find I could have done a much better job if I'd been given a bit of advice beforehand.

Cheers,
Shaun

 

[Paul B]

EXTRA.css is explained here: http://xenforo.com/community/threads/add-all-css-edits-to-extra-css.8644/

Other than that, use template hooks wherever possible, instead of editing templates: http://xenforo.com/community/threads/how-to-use-template-hooks.13167/

 

[Floris]

yoursite_template_thread_list

yoursite_template_discussion

yoursite_template_forum_index

yoursite_template_pagenode

and extra.css

include the custom templates in the situations where a plugin doesn't have an option to use a hook.

Write down 'offsite' the names of the templates, what they're for, where they're being included and how.
And them up.

Keep a list of plugins installed.

Move whatever you can into a custom plugin yoursite_template_inserts.xml with a Listener.php file you of course also have a backup of.

 

[Vilandra]

Get Firebug or something similar (note it will mess with XF overlays/popups a little in FF but you can enable disable it as needed) - invaluable in finding out the class names for things you want to alter.