Okay theme pros...

blith · Client Joined: Jul 18, 2003 Posts: 977

I would like to use a custom background that I made. How can I make all things blocks transparent so that my background can show through? I would like to keep the title bars and such but the block body I would like transparent... thanks!

blith · Client Joined: Jul 18, 2003 Posts: 977

Is it not possible to have transparency? I want my background to show through everything... thanks.

Raven · Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2004 12:22 pm

Yes it is. I have a theme that does that, that fury wrote for me. Send him a PM. I know he's not on much, if at all, but his account is still active. Maybe he'll respond. Also, try sending Dezina a PM.

blith · Client Joined: Jul 18, 2003 Posts: 977

Thank you I will deedly do!

dezina · Theme Guru Joined: Dec 26, 2002 Posts: 57 Location: UK

Quote:

Also, try sending Dezina a PM.

Got your PM, replied, then saw this post.
What you must do is NOT set a background colour for your Blocks in theme.php, but set background as a clear or transparent gif. That way, your background image, set at top of theme, in header, will show through Wink

blith · Client Joined: Jul 18, 2003 Posts: 977

Got your PM replied then saw YOUR post! Laughing

Thank you!

dezina · Theme Guru Joined: Dec 26, 2002 Posts: 57 Location: UK

No probs. Tried my suggestion on Dezina Clouds Theme, which Raven uses here on this site. Works fine Wink

blith · Client Joined: Jul 18, 2003 Posts: 977

Dezina, where do I set the background image again? I figured out the rest but where does the image go? thanks.

dezina · Theme Guru Joined: Dec 26, 2002 Posts: 57 Location: UK

Quote:

where do I set the background image again

Which image... main background or the block?

blith · Client Joined: Jul 18, 2003 Posts: 977

my custom made background image that i want to show through all the blocks. the whole page background... thanks

dezina · Theme Guru Joined: Dec 26, 2002 Posts: 57 Location: UK

Code:

function themeheader() {
global $user, $banners, $sitename, $slogan, $cookie, $prefix;
cookiedecode($user);
$username = $cookie[1];
if ($username == "") {
$username = "Anonymous";
}
echo "<body bgcolor=\"#E7EFFF\" background=\"themes/nameoftheme/images/yourimage.gif\" text=\"#000000\" link=\"#363636\" vlink=\"#363636\" alink=\"#d5ae83\">\n"
."<br>\n";

Alter the text/link colour codes to your choice Wink

blith · Client Joined: Jul 18, 2003 Posts: 977

Thank you!!

blith · Client Joined: Jul 18, 2003 Posts: 977

Okay sorry... but I now cannot find where to make the blocks transparent. I made a transparent gif and I have tried putting it everywhere... well not everywhere Shocked

but could you please tell me where I make the blocks transparent. Thank you for your help and patience.

dezina · Theme Guru Joined: Dec 26, 2002 Posts: 57 Location: UK

Code:

function themesidebox($title, $content) {
echo "<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" background=\"themes/yourtheme/images/pixel.gif\" width=\"150\"><tr><td>\n"
."<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"150\">\n"
."</tr>\n"
."</table>\n"
."<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"3\" cellspacing=\"1\" background=\"themes/yourtheme/images/pixel.gif\" width=\"100%\">\n"
."<tr><td bgcolor=\"#BDD6EF\" align=\"center\">\n"
."<font size=\"2\" color=\"#363636\"><b>$title</b></font>\n"
."</td></tr>\n"
."<tr>\n"
."<td background=\"themes/yourtheme/images/pixel.gif\">$content</td>\n"
."</tr>\n"
."</table></td></tr></table>\n"
."<br>\n\n\n";
}

pixel.gif is the transparent gif/image. Alter the colours stated to your own.
Alter width of block to suit your theme. Once again, above code, tested using Dezina_Clouds.
Works fine.
Have fun Wink

blith · Client Joined: Jul 18, 2003 Posts: 977

Well I have tried many different things and it is still not working. I followed your instructions to the letter and all that happens is my background image shows around the border of everythiing else. So I know I put that line of code in the right place... Smile

as far as making the blocks transparent it is not working. They stay the same color. If it helps I am using Nuke News as the only theme on my site. Thank you again. seriously. for putting this much effore into this.

dezina · Theme Guru Joined: Dec 26, 2002 Posts: 57 Location: UK

Quote:

If it helps I am using Nuke News as the only theme on my site.

From what remember, nuke news is coded using html, for blocks/header, and not php, which is how block/header examples given is constructed.
Without actually having the complete theme you are trying to code, i.e. html, images etc, difficult to test Sad

blith · Client Joined: Jul 18, 2003 Posts: 977

Okay, I found those particular html files and I am going to try and adapt your instructions to the html. Thank you for all your help up to this point... Smile

blith · Client Joined: Jul 18, 2003 Posts: 977

Well I tried and the one that is giving me trouble out of all html files would be the block.html file. All the other worked without a hitch but the block.html file made all my blocks go down the left side of the page... in addition when I put my background image instead of colors will this make the page load slower as it has to load each image...? thanks

dezina · Theme Guru Joined: Dec 26, 2002 Posts: 57 Location: UK

Quote:

when I put my background image instead of colors will this make the page load slower as it has to load each image...?

Well obviously, page/s will not load as quickly, because you are using a background image, not colours, but it will also depend on file size of that image i.e width,height, total k, and how many times it has to repeat.
When I tested using Dezina Clouds, loading time was not adversely affected, pro'lly 'cos the background image is not that large, in any department.
Wink

blith · Client Joined: Jul 18, 2003 Posts: 977

I have decided to load up the entire Nuke News folder into dreamweaver and work it out there... thank you dezina for pointing me in the right directions!!

dezina · Theme Guru Joined: Dec 26, 2002 Posts: 57 Location: UK

Quote:

Nuke News folder into dreamweaver and work it out there

Hope it works out for you Laughing