Hi, I'm brand new here.

I just had had Yaf.Net installed on my test website and have everal questions about customizing the look and feel of the forums...changing themes, and logos to match my website.

First, the forum itself looks like as far as functionality that it is exactly what I'm looking for, but I need to do a few things and could please use a little help and or direction on where to find help/answers.

I would like to have a link to the forum located on my main website. I'm not sure which file is the correct file to use a a link on my main website page. I.e., I have my menus set up in ASP.Net as follows:

So I'd like to place the same sort of link on the main page of my website to link to the forum.

Second, in order to make the forum look like my website, I need to change the logo and the alignment (i.e., it needs to be centered, not aligned left) I've been looking through the code for the yaflogo, and found it referenced in many places, but all I really want to do is change the logo to be that of mine, and use some .css to include the text for the title of my website.

What I'd really like to do is load this into my localhost (I have VS2010) so that I can tweak it like I want and then upload the changed theme files/directories to my test website.

Is there any place that has documentation on how to do the above? I have run a search and can't find any instructions on how to change the theme or how to easily change the logo/format of the Yaf.Net header section of the default theme. Any help or links to instructions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Coleen

You can directly link to the folder where the Forum is installed... the default.aspx will be opened from with in that folder .. yoursite.com/your_yaf_folder

Thank you, your response is appreciated.

How do I change the theme's .Css and logo though? Aren't there any instructions on how to customize Yaf.Net anywhere? I could really use some documentation. It would be very helpful to have instructions, or more information. Although I know VB.Net, HTML and CSS I do not know any JavaScript and I am not familiar with the way the classes are linked to in the design of the forums. Truly - any instructions or documentation o customization would be very helpful.

thanks!

Coleen

I posted a little guide on how to change the logo

http://forum.yetanotherf...go-banner.aspx#post56851 

The forum theme can be changed from the Board Settings. And you can enable the User to change the theme in the Host Settings, then they can switch the theme in the User Profile.

for the forum theme there is no documentation, if you want to make your on theme the easiest way is to duplicate the default cleanslate theme and start from there.

In the themes folder there is an skinname.xml file which defines the theme (any modifications on that file require an application restart), and there is the skin folder. Containing all images and the theme.css.

If you know html and css you can use the page inspector in your browser to find out which css class is for which object.

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Thanks watcha, your help is appreciated.

I saw the info on changing the logo, and was able to do that, but what I need to do is adjust the CSS for it to include the forum name over the top of the logo (I don't like to imbed the text in the graphic for SEO reasons) but then again, I do want this forum to be private, so maybe in this instance I'll re-do my logo with the forum name imbedded. Still, it'd be nice to be able to just make a few simple changes to the CSS file to change the colors of the theme, because other than that the main color is just slightly the wrong tint, the default "clean slate" theme is fine. I'll go do some more searching .

One other thing - My hosting company installed Yaf.Net on my test website via the Microsoft Web Platform, but I'd like to install it on my local machine to "play" with it, before I actually go live with it on my real website. I thought I had seen a VB.Net version? I use VS2010 and would like to install Yaf.net locally to learn it and make my changes before I go completely live with it. I can do C#, but I'm much better at VB. Any links? - Now I can't seem to find the one I had previously seen...(d'oh!)

Thanks watcha, your help is appreciated.

I saw the info on changing the logo, and was able to do that, but what I need to do is adjust the CSS for it to include the forum name over the top of the logo (I don't like to imbed the text in the graphic for SEO reasons) but then again, I do want this forum to be private, so maybe in this instance I'll re-do my logo with the forum name imbedded.

This can only be done if you modify the default.aspx

One other thing - My hosting company installed Yaf.Net on my test website via the Microsoft Web Platform, but I'd like to install it on my local machine to "play" with it, before I actually go live with it on my real website. I thought I had seen a VB.Net version? I use VS2010 and would like to install Yaf.net locally to learn it and make my changes before I go completely live with it. I can do C#, but I'm much better at VB. Any links? - Now I can't seem to find the one I had previously seen...(d'oh!)

No there is no VB Version of yaf only the ASP.NET Website Sample which yaf integrated is in VB

http://yafnet.codeplex.c...rringTitle=Documentation 

But yaf itself is only in C#!

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Thanks - that's where I saw it! Okay, I can deal with C#, it's just that my entire website and Masterpages are done in VB.Net. I know all .Net works together so it shouldn't be an issue - it's now just a matter of downloading it to my local host so I can "play " with it, and get a much better feel for making my changes than by trying to do it from the hosting server (downloading & uploading files without being able to first see if my changes work locally) At least I have an idea of where to go from here, and I'm honestly liking the fact that I can find and change things easier with Yaf.Net than I could with Neatforums which I also tried. Thanks again for your help, it's much appreciated. 🙂