I have been looking at what it means to develop some Tailwind v4 themes and to experiment a little with the Spark CLI theme tool I was developing, so I've started to create a couple of new themes. Now that the variables are in CSS, it means changing colours is super easy by just overriding the variables.

Just by changing a few variables the blue Theme becomes this:

This one is another theme I'm playing about with, unrelated to the one above (but would be equally as easy to recolour) :P

Will it be implemented to add the buttons (as above in the message box) for: insert image link or URL link?

Or is that something I need to change in the Admin CP?

Thank you in advance.

It’s not difficult..:D
I cannot work out how to make a new category…everything just appears under ONE category..
I cant work out how I made a sub forum, and when I look in the ACP it isn't there…..

The option to make a new category and then add forums…as has been done here is a mystery…what am I missing?

I also cant work out the correct img link for smileys.. everything I add doesn't work… we need a more detailed HELP section please…one that is idiot proof for users like me..

I found a screenshot of the ZB acp..happy days.,, anyway…IF the acp could be as similar to this as poss that would be great. It was SO user friendly…dont get me wrong..I love Jcink…I’m just still nostalgic for ZB…<3
ps…ignore the red arrow…that was already there.

Boy this looks familiar… I see a couple of familiar names…
So..I can see it’s early days yet..lots to do..but it looks good so far…

Like young Cory I’m with Jcink since ZB got sold… Will the ACP be ‘updated’ in any way? IF it could be as near to ZB as poss that would be awesome.And…will there be any way to convert? Is that even a remote possibility? Anyway..good to be here,

Wow, can't believe forums are still around. Checked my email and looks like Cedric sent a email blast of some sort, decided to hop in and see if I recognize any of the old names from the last two decades. Revision Reviews, Ad Utopia, Hireem, Atrium, studio59 so many others I can't remember them all.

This release includes several more quality-of-life improvements, such as the ability to toggle between relative and absolute timestamps and a new setting to disable auto-subscription when replying to topics. Key bug fixes include improved filtering in the weekly digest, which now ranks posts based on recent replies rather than view activity. Mobile layout has also been refined: moderator actions are now tucked into a dropdown, keeping primary actions like quote, multiquote, and react easily accessible.

Most notably, this update introduces optional membership approvals, allowing admins to review and approve new user accounts before they can log in.

Full changelog below:

Features

• Add auto watch replies setting
• (menu) Open external links in new tab
• Add relative time toggle
• (web) Add abuse report page
• Require admin approval for new users
• Add unsubscribe message to weekly digest

Bug Fixes

• (admin) Add pagination to theme list
• Restrict username tooltips to mouse hover
• (admin) Restore selected page when editing menu item
• Filter weekly digest by last reply rather than last update time
• Ensure in-app notification resolution is more resiliant
• Ensure topic templates do not allow content to be null
• Improve layout of reply action on mobile

To support data ownership and make it easier to replatform (and just to demo the API some more :D) I’ve created a utility that exports data from the ForumSpark API to CSV format using AI assistance. You can then import the data into a SQL database or use the CSV files directly with another platform.

The tool is available here: https://github.com/forumspark/data-exporter

It's a terminal-based Node.js script, so some familiarity with the command line is required.

To get started:

• Clone the repo: git clone ...
• Run one of the available npm scripts (see package.json)
• Provide your board URL and API token (generate one from the Admin Control Panel)

Full setup instructions are in the repository README.

I just spent an hour or so using the ForumSpark API to prove how a (helper) bot could be created. In the demo I listen to incoming webhooks on the replies/create topic. The extension parses the reply to determine if the bot was tagged and which command to issue. If it was tagged and a command was given then it will automatically create an appropriate reply:

Obviously this is a toy example. But I could how something like this could have various applications, RPG forums to extend the playing experience, enabling moderator actions through posts instead of via clicks, requesting ai summaries of long topics so far.

If anyone is interested in making their own bot-like extension for ForumSpark I'd be happy to chat about how it all fits together.

Edit: a slightly more involved example allowing the bot to respond with Giphy GIFs:

Is there a way to make it so I can approve each person that registers?

Thank you in advance.

This release brings several quality-of-life improvements and new features aimed at boosting engagement and ease of use.

Most notably, we've introduced email notifications for watched topics and a new weekly digest to help bring users back into the conversation. You’ll also find multiquote support, making it much easier to reply to multiple posts at once.

The default theme has also gone through a small round of polishing to start to mature the design.

See the full changelog below:

Features

• Filter users by username in admin API
• Add <!-- BOARDSTATS --> theme token with board stats panel
• Show admin welcome on first login
• Multiquoting and insertion into replies
• Polish default theme
• Add extra html to forum row stats for better theming
• Add email notifications for watched topics
• Add weekly digest email to re-engage users
• Add class to body to better identify pages for theming

Bug Fixes

• Parse bot names from user agent in active user list
• Emoticon and reactions optmisations

I have been queuing up a few changes and thought it would be good to push these up as the release includes a bunch of quality of life improvements. For the full list of changes please see below:

Features

• Add moderation queue badge to ModCP menu
• Create default forums with permissions
• Email board owner with welcome email after creation
• Board creation wizard ux improvements (autofocusing)
• Optimisation: Reuse member tooltip across page
• Conditionally display reaction controls
• Include guests and bots in active user list
• Add skip links
• Simple Theme export and import via json
• Allow setting default user avatar
• Improve reactions popover by using Tippy
• Hide emoticon box when none exist
• Abbreviate join date in user profile

Bug Fixes

• Retain input after validation errors on post create screen
• Wait for theme styles before taking theme screenshot
• Prevent stale theme selection after session expires

Features

• Ability to select a best answer in forums with the feature enabled
• Ability to view poll results before voting
• BREAKING replace frontend_secret with short lived JWTs for frontend extensions (documentation to follow)
• Admin can remove 2FA for user via admin panel
• Admin can remove avatar for user via admin panel
• BREAKING Drop name entirely in favour of usernamme
• Ability to promote users to new user group based on post count
• Replace Livewire session expired alert with a user friendly modal
• Allow admin to remove board favicon if one was previously set.

Bug Fixes

• Add noreferrer to external links
• Mark new topics as read for the author
• Maintain (new) mentions if a user changes their name
• Favicon alert counter now sets immediately on page load
• Remove whitespace gap for newest member in board stats

Miscellaneous Tasks

• Minor cleanups with internal documentation

In the interest of transparency, I wanted to share a quick update on what’s currently in development for ForumSpark. This should give you a good idea of where things are headed and what to expect over the next few versions.

Coming in Release 1.2.6

The next release includes a number of new features and a couple of breaking changes for those building extensions or integrations.

New features and improvements:

• You’ll be able to mark a post as the best answer in forums where this feature is enabled.
• Poll results can now be viewed before you vote, if the poll allows it.
• Admins will be able to remove a user’s avatar and reset 2FA directly from the admin panel.
• Automatic promotion to a new user group based on post count will be possible.
• The "session expired" warning has been replaced with a cleaner, more user-friendly modal.
• Admins can now remove a board favicon if one was previously set.

Breaking changes:

• The frontend_secret used by frontend extensions is being replaced with short-lived JWT tokens. Documentation will follow.
• The name field is being dropped entirely in favour of username.

Built but not yet released

These features have already been merged and will be included in a future release:

• Improved spam detection via new heuristic rules.
• Users can block incoming messages or conversations from others.

Currently in development

A number of new features are actively being worked on. Some are nearly complete, others are still in progress:

• Command palette for fast, keyboard-driven navigation across the forum.
• Multiquote support, now in final polish.
• New custom profile field types: dropdowns and radio buttons.
• Guest and bot visibility in the online users list.
• Weekly digest emails highlighting new and active topics.
• General email notifications for replies, mentions, and other interactions.
• Post attachments, allowing file uploads in posts.
• Filtering topics by label within individual forums.

There are also several smaller improvements and some early groundwork being laid for future features.

If you have any feedback, suggestions, or things you’d like to see added to the roadmap, feel free to share them.

1.2.5 is a hotfix release to patch the creation of boards.

It was reported that it was not possible to create a new board due to a 404 error appearing when typing in the board creation form. This was due to a collision in middleware preventing access from the main domain to Livewire routes.

This has now been fixed and a regression test added to prevent it from ocurring again.

I'm unable to create a new board, a 404 error pops up.

Another smaller bug is that the tab order should be set so users wont have to tab continuously to reach the textarea.

Features

• Admins now have the ability to remove avatars from a user via the admin area
• New Merge Topic moderation action
• Groups can now be allocated as moderators to forums

Bug Fixes

• Timezones are now generated based on environment rather than a hard-coded list
• Admin user form did not previously select current user group for user

Other

• Query optimisation in topic watchers
• Minor optimisation in how the next member number is allocated

https://headwayapp.co/forumspark-changelog/1-2-4-2025-06-06-316889

Changelog

[1.2.3] - 2025-04-20

Features

• Add custom menu management
• Filter banned users from board statistics

Bug Fixes

• Add missing migration
• Tenant default file_storage value
• Fix issue where user ranks would not be recalculated during rank deletion
• Fix issue where custom profile field maximum length would be exceeded

Want to remove the Forum Spark logo from the top of my forum, how would I do that? Thanks!

Our hosting provider will be performing scheduled network maintenance on 18/03/2025 20:00 UTC until 18/03/2025 23:00 UTC.

During this time you may experience delays, failures or short term outages. Disruption will be kept to a minimum during this period.

2023/24

pre-2016/17

Saw that this started back up again and it gives such a nostalgic feel that i had to join up to keep up with this project. Hope everyone has been living their life to the fullest since we last spoke. ^_^

I was thinking about this the other day - I think it'd be nice if the page did not refresh as a whole upon saving theme code (more specifically the CSS) so that, upon saving your code, you would remain on the same view of the code editor. It's kind of a pain if you have to scroll all the way down every time and you're writing the code in there and would like to continue at the bottom.

Sorry I did not post an update already but here are the main things that have changed in the most recent versions.

Most notably are the changes to the theme css editor to improve theme dev experience when editing a theme through the admin, and that themes now apply to guest / non-authenticated pages (ie. login / register).

Additionally it is now possible to create themes that have the option of a sidebar. You can use new theme tokens <!-- USERSONLINE --> <!-- RECENTACTIVITY -->, <!-- RECENTLYONLINE --> and <!-- SHOUTBOX --> to include additional panels in your theme layout. More documentation will follow, in the meantime checkout my Flux theme for an example.

Full changelog below.

[1.2.2] - 2025-02-05

Features

• Theme stylesheet editor no refresh on save and autosaving
• Add save keyboard shortcut to theme css editor

Bug Fixes

• Guest layout for error pages causes exception
• Better error handling on board registration
• Active topics no longer include first post in count

Miscellaneous Tasks

• Update marketing cta wording

[1.2.1] - 2025-01-30

Features

• Add guest layout to themes
• Web component modal response to dark mode setting

[1.2.0] - 2025-01-30

Features

• Show notification count in favicon
• Additional theme tokens for panels
• Apply board theme to auth screens

Bug Fixes

• Js error on guest layout initialising user
• Shoutbox multiple livewire roots
• Spelling error moderator panel
• ToDataURL on favicon counter
• Do not show reactions div if no reactions related to post

[1.1.6] - 2025-01-28

Features

• Increase template and layout sizes to 10k and 50k respectively

Bug Fixes

• Webhook topics should allow more than one subscription
• Users endpoint not returning user
• Board time layout when viewing as guest in mobile

[1.1.5] - 2025-01-23

Features

• Latest user is now determined by creation time and not id

Bug Fixes

• More strict with worker jobs and multi-tenancy

Hey everyone, how's it going? :)