XF 2.2 When will we get FontAwesome 6 support?

[Stuart Wright]

Fontawesome 6 has some useful icons and I’d like to use one of them (slider-flip).
But there are some changes.

<i class="far fa-alarm-clock"></i>

in FA5 vs

<i class="fa-regular fa-alarm-clock"></i>

in 6.

Is FA6 support in the pipeline?

 

[Chris D]

We have a license for Font Awesome 5 Pro that permits us to use FA5 Pro the way we currently use it.

We do not have such a license for Font Awesome 6 and currently obtaining such a license is difficult due to their focus on a subscription model.

At least, for now, it may be necessary for customers wishing to upgrade to Font Awesome 6 to pay for their own license and implement the changes themselves.

 

[Kier]

I wish it were as simple as just switching the version number in XF (which it more or less is, from a technical standpoint) but there are licensing issues at play - our license for FA5 was already grandfathered from an earlier agreement to allow us to distribute it in the way that we do, but so far we have not been granted a license to do so with FA6.

 

[Kier]

Ninja'd

 

[Stuart Wright]

Thanks for the replies, guys. I think I'm going to create SVG icons and use those instead.

 

[Forsaken]

Support for Arty's project would be amazing: https://iconify.design

That or use one of the competing icon packs that are available for commercial use.

 

[beerForo]

The 5 library suits for now. The only annoyance I ran into was, I was trying to put an icon somewhere and it kept giving me the wrong one. I realized I was in the 6 library search, where, the same exact icon exists but is a different code. Why on earth isn't the code the same for the same exact icon?

 

[Stuart Wright]

Font Awesome was successful because it's a good idea done well.
But also because it was free. The owners need to make money, sure, but they should find a better way than charging a license fee for 6 as it will kill it off eventually.
Like going from a free-to-join forum to charging for membership would kill off that forum.

If I were the XF team, I'd be thinking about implementing a system where icon sets can easily be used and replaced. Some kind of mapping system for the icons themselves. Sure it's most likely an absolute ton of work in the back end, but it would make XF more future proof if any one of the icon providers disappears or, as in the case of Font Awesome, breaks in some way.

I also think that this addon should be in the core.

Font Awesome Manager

XenForo uses the icon font Font Awesome Pro 5 that contains over 7.000 icons of which XenForo typically uses only a few hundred. But as all icons are included in the CSS and font files, browsers have to download the full font files and CSS which...

xenforo.com

Because it's wasteful to load the whole font when only a small subset is used. And getting good with Google is what it's all about these days.

 

[Old Nick]

I also think that this addon should be in the core.

Font Awesome Manager

XenForo uses the icon font Font Awesome Pro 5 that contains over 7.000 icons of which XenForo typically uses only a few hundred. But as all icons are included in the CSS and font files, browsers have to download the full font files and CSS which...

xenforo.com

Because it's wasteful to load the whole font when only a small subset is used. And getting good with Google is what it's all about these days.

it seems that will be the case

Font Awesome Manager

Install pyftsubset and switch the processor option to use it. Transfonter.org doesn't work any longer (since January?) as they are actively blocking XenForo. https://xenforo.com/community/resources/font-awesome-manager.8407/update/41394/ Thanks, my friend I tried a lot but the installation...

xenforo.com

 

[briansol]

Last i saw, they can't deliver the truncated list like Kirby's mod does due to the license as well.

 

[Old Nick]

And since we shouldn't expect any more answers from the developers on this forum, apart from @Stuart Wright who had to offer them an OLED screen for everyone (his simple question woke up from their sleep and @Chris D and @Kier himself !!) we will have to wait for a HYS to see more clearly!

 

[EchoRomeo]

Reviving this thread... So I understand that if you subscribe to Font Awesome Pro you get all the Pro icons. Could someone explain how, if you do subscribe, you actually go about integrating with XenForo? Would you have to modify the font_awesome_setup template or something? Is there a setting in the ACP that lets you load stuff like that in?

Font Awesome Pro is $99. Like everyone else I'm reticent to pay that for just icons...



It mentions, though, that the Pro membership gives you five licenses for $99...I'd probably be willing to pay $20 for one license. Is this something that people can pool resources for (e.g., someone buys it and I send them $20 to get access for a year)? Excuse my ignorance, just thinking out loud about whether something like that might be workable...

 

[TimeWizardCosmo]

Reviving this thread... So I understand that if you subscribe to Font Awesome Pro you get all the Pro icons. Could someone explain how, if you do subscribe, you actually go about integrating with XenForo?

One could probably find where FA5 is being loaded and replace it there, or add it into the PAGE_CONTAINER template in the <head> tag, but you'd run into the mapping problems described by Stuart and beerforo:

If I were the XF team, I'd be thinking about implementing a system where icon sets can easily be used and replaced. Some kind of mapping system for the icons themselves. Sure it's most likely an absolute ton of work in the back end, but it would make XF more future proof if any one of the icon providers disappears or, as in the case of Font Awesome, breaks in some way.

The 5 library suits for now. The only annoyance I ran into was, I was trying to put an icon somewhere and it kept giving me the wrong one. I realized I was in the 6 library search, where, the same exact icon exists but is a different code. Why on earth isn't the code the same for the same exact icon?

It's doable, you'd just have a lot of template edits to make and time spent chasing things down where the icon codes aren't the same between versions.

 

[mjda]

Reviving this thread... So I understand that if you subscribe to Font Awesome Pro you get all the Pro icons. Could someone explain how, if you do subscribe, you actually go about integrating with XenForo? Would you have to modify the font_awesome_setup template or something? Is there a setting in the ACP that lets you load stuff like that in?

Font Awesome Pro is $99. Like everyone else I'm reticent to pay that for just icons...

View attachment 291111

It mentions, though, that the Pro membership gives you five licenses for $99...I'd probably be willing to pay $20 for one license. Is this something that people can pool resources for (e.g., someone buys it and I send them $20 to get access for a year)? Excuse my ignorance, just thinking out loud about whether something like that might be workable...

I'm thinking there is actually a template where these are all loaded in that needs to be changed, but I haven't looked around to be certain. I'm just thinking that's something I've read here before. I do need to have a peak at it, though, because I'd like to upgrade myself.

It'd be really nice if XF would add an option for folks who are looking to upgrade to make it a bit easier...or maybe we can talk @Chris D into making us a little tutorial on how it's done in all his spare time.

 

[EchoRomeo]

It'd be really nice if XF would add an option for folks who are looking to upgrade to make it a bit easier...or maybe we can talk @Chris D into making us a little tutorial on how it's done in all his spare time.

Agreed, it seems like there's enough interest, combined with XF's inability to upgrade itself, that you'd think XF might at least better facilitate an independent upgrade for those forum admins wishing to pursue that. Especially if support for FA 6 isn't happening in the near future. $99/year for an icon library isn't ideal but it's not totally crazy and I've definitely spent that kind of money on much less worthwhile add-ons around here (lol).

I'll also go ahead and mention @ChrisD, and will throw in @Kier. We're hoping a developer (or someone) can explain how a FA 6 subscriber can integrate that into XF. Thanks!

 

[James]

@Kirby has the font awesome manager addon. He may be able to shed some light on how easily this can be achieved.

 

[Chris D]

The short answer is: we don’t know what’s involved.

We haven’t explored FA6 as it’s not currently viable for us to provide due to there not being an appropriate license that would allow it to ship with XF.

But loosely speaking I’d expect it would involve replacing the existing web fonts we ship, the existing Less variables we ship and the existing CSS that we ship.

This isn’t really something we can support you with other than directing you towards the existing code and files that make FA5 work and tell you that it’s those that hold the clues, along with the FA6 documentation, that would perhaps enable you to retrofit FA6 in place of FA5.

All I would say is that 2.3 almost certainly will change the approach you need to take, so weigh up carefully whether it’s something that’s worthwhile investing time in now.

To put it another way, we cannot ever guarantee we’ll use anything other than FA5 for the foreseeable future and, personally, I’m very happy with that. It’s a good set of icons that is incredibly comprehensive and should be capable of meeting our needs for years to come.

 

[James]

The short answer is: we don’t know what’s involved.

We haven’t explored FA6 as it’s not currently viable for us to provide due to there not being an appropriate license that would allow it to ship with XF.

But loosely speaking I’d expect it would involve replacing the existing web fonts we ship, the existing Less variables we ship and the existing CSS that we ship.

This isn’t really something we can support you with other than directing you towards the existing code and files that make FA5 work and tell you that it’s those that hold the clues, along with the FA6 documentation, that would perhaps enable you to retrofit FA6 in place of FA5.

All I would say is that 2.3 almost certainly will change the approach you need to take, so weigh up carefully whether it’s something that’s worthwhile investing time in now.

To put it another way, we cannot ever guarantee we’ll use anything other than FA5 for the foreseeable future and, personally, I’m very happy with that. It’s a good set of icons that is incredibly comprehensive and should be capable of meeting our needs for years to come.

Or you could investigate it and spend time on it for the ~5% who wish to buy an individual licence then the other 95% will lynch you for delaying 2.3 while you investigate something that doesn't benefit the majority of the collective.

 

[mjda]

Or you could investigate it and spend time on it for the ~5% who wish to buy an individual licence then the other 95% will lynch you for delaying 2.3 while you investigate something that doesn't benefit the majority of the collective.

I vote for this plan! Although, I seriously doubt it'd be even remotely close to 5% of members who would opt to pay for the FA6 license.

 

[Kevin]