phpBB Subscribe to Forum Clarification

steven · Post by **steven** » Sat May 22, 2021 6:09 pm

It is easy to subscribe to forums in phpBB. The forum subscription status is displayed in the navbar at the bottom of the forum page. Typically phpBB displays a checkbox when something is enabled. Forum subscriptions are a bit different. When you are subscribed you will see the following displayed in the navbar:

If you are NOT subscribed the following will be displayed:

When I first used a phpBB board, I found the check box misleading because it says Subscribe forum and the box is checked. So I thought I would receive notices when there was new forum activity but that was not the case. When you click on the forum status link it toggels between subscribed and unsubscribed and a popup box indicates the current status. However, users need to be careful because if a new forum was created, and you see the box is checked, you may assume you are subscribed when if fact you are not.

In my opinion the checkbox makes subscription status confusing, especially for new users. So I decided to remove the checkbox on this website.
You can remove the checkbox by modifying the navbar_footer.html file.

In phpBB 3.3.11 and 3.3.12 at about line 27.
Change the following lines from:

Code: Select all

<a href="{U_WATCH_FORUM_LINK}" title="{S_WATCH_FORUM_TITLE}" data-ajax="toggle_link" data-toggle-class="icon <!-- IF S_WATCHING_FORUM -->fa-check-square-o<!-- ELSE -->fa-square-o<!-- ENDIF --> fa-fw" data-toggle-text="{S_WATCH_FORUM_TOGGLE}" data-toggle-url="{U_WATCH_FORUM_TOGGLE}">
					<i class="icon <!-- IF S_WATCHING_FORUM -->fa-square-o<!-- ELSE -->fa-check-square-o<!-- ENDIF --> fa-fw" aria-hidden="true"></i><span>{S_WATCH_FORUM_TITLE}</span>

to

Code: Select all

&bull; <a href="{U_WATCH_FORUM_LINK}" title="{S_WATCH_FORUM_TITLE}" data-ajax="toggle_link" data-toggle-class="icon <!-- IF S_WATCHING_FORUM -->fa-check-square-o<!-- ELSE -->fa-square-o<!-- ENDIF --> fa-fw" data-toggle-text="{S_WATCH_FORUM_TOGGLE}" data-toggle-url="{U_WATCH_FORUM_TOGGLE}">
				<span>{S_WATCH_FORUM_TITLE}</span>

In phpBB 3.2.4 at about line 28.
Change the following lines from:

Code: Select all

<a href="{U_WATCH_FORUM_LINK}" title="{S_WATCH_FORUM_TITLE}" data-ajax="toggle_link" data-toggle-class="icon <!-- IF S_WATCHING_FORUM -->fa-check-square-o<!-- ELSE -->fa-square-o<!-- ENDIF --> fa-fw" data-toggle-text="{S_WATCH_FORUM_TOGGLE}" data-toggle-url="{U_WATCH_FORUM_TOGGLE}">
<i class="icon <!-- IF S_WATCHING_FORUM -->fa-square-o<!-- ELSE -->fa-check-square-o<!-- ENDIF --> fa-fw" aria-hidden="true"></i><span>{S_WATCH_FORUM_TITLE}</span>

TO

Code: Select all

&bull; <a href="{U_WATCH_FORUM_LINK}" title="{S_WATCH_FORUM_TITLE}" data-ajax="toggle_link" data-toggle-class="icon <!-- IF S_WATCHING_FORUM -->fa-check-square-o<!-- ELSE -->fa-square-o<!-- ENDIF --> fa-fw" data-toggle-text="{S_WATCH_FORUM_TOGGLE}" data-toggle-url="{U_WATCH_FORUM_TOGGLE}">
<span>{S_WATCH_FORUM_TITLE}</span>

Note in the TO code, • was added at the beginning of the first line as a separator.

After making the change, login in to the ACP panel and purge the cache.

If a user is subscribed to a forum the following is displayed:

If they are not subscribed the following will be displayed:

In my opinion checking and unchecking a subscribe box would be better but I have not had time to mess with it.