Here are simple steps to follow to set up your Keystone theme
1. Enable Keystone:
Keystone is now Vanilla's default theme. If you're a new customer, it's likely enabled already. If not, navigate to the Theme section of your Dashboard-Settings and select Keystone.
2. Pick your Theme Options
When you enable Keystone, you'll notice a new Theme Options page in your Dashboard-Settings. Here you can select a basic style for your community, easily pick a dark theme and change the main panel's position on the page.
When you enable the Hero Image plugin, you'll also be able to easily integrate it with a quick click of a button.
3. Enable the Hero Image plugin
Enabling and integrating the Hero Image plugin will insert a banner image into your theme, which can be customized per-category. If the plugin is not yet enabled in your Add-ons section, contact your CSM and they will help you with this. Once enabled:
First, pick a default Hero Image. This can be uploaded in the Hero-image settings on the Add-ons page.
From there, go into your Category settings, and upload custom banner images for your categories or subcommunities, as shown below.
A suitable size ratio for a banner image is 1500x300.
4. Review Layout Options
With a quick toggle you can change your forum layout.
- Select your forum homepage - we suggest the Recent Discussions page to allow users to quickly dive into the conversation.
- Select the layout for your Categories page:
- Select the layout for your Discussion pages:
5. Organize your Categories, and select Display Settings.
Before modifying your individual categories, you can choose how they will appear on your homepage. In the Dashboard, under the “Appearance” panel there is a “Layout” section. In this area, there are options for how to display the Categories page for your users.
The Modern Layout removes the extra columns for discussion and comment totals, making for a clean look.
The Table Layout shows discussion and comment totals as columns, along with user avatar and the thread title of the most recent post in the section.
The Mixed Layout option shows up to five of the most recently updated discussions under each category, providing quick navigation to new content.
Choosing How Categories Display
Categories are easily arranged. Just click on the left side of a specific category to drag and drop it into your desired position. Changes to organization will be reflected immediately on the main forum index.
There are some other options that affect how categories are viewed on the forum. Opening the right drop down will reveal the “Display As” menu. These settings critically change the way a category behaves.
Discussions - The default category, where users can post discussions.
Heading - Unclickable Headings that help with forum organization. On the homepage, they will display differently according to your theme. Generally they are bold, and will split your categories into sections:
Flat - This is a paginated directory structure that can handle thousands of categories. They are sorted alphabetically by default, and cannot be manually arranged.
Flat categories have a module that can be inserted into your theme. This will blend right in with your index and list a small number of the categories that the section contains. It has a quick search module, allowing for users to shift through hundreds of categories with ease. This is great for sites that have a large number of products.
To add this to your theme, use this module:{module name="FlatCategoryModule" categoryID=00}
You can find the numerical categoryID in the URL when you are editing a category.
Nested - Creates a clickable heading that only contains more categories. Unlike Flat categories, this is generally for creating small sections within your forum, and can be manually organized.
See Configuring & Managing Categories
6. Review & Enable Add-ons as needed
Vanilla offers a ton of add-ons to help you build your community and add to your offering. Here are a few tools to add to your theme:
- Discussion Photos: Display the author's avatar on the discussion list.
- Discussion Excerpts: Show the first few lines of the post on the discussions list.
- Role Titles: Display user roles next to their posts
- Role Tracker: Add a tag to discussions and comments when users of configured roles participate in a discussion.
- Ranks: Display the users rank label next to their posts
- Flair: Shows up to 3 badges next to user posts.
- Post Count: Show the users post count next to their discussions and comments
- Post Numbering: Show a running count of comments throughout the discussion.
- Profile Extender - Titles & Locations: Add a Title or Location field in Profile Extender. When users provide this information, it will be shown when they post in the community.
Don't forget that Vanilla also offers the following tools to help you build your theme:
If you are interested in professional services, or finding out more about our Enterprise plan and theming options, contact your CSM.
