Please I need some help with modifying nodebb (themes/plugins).

[Azurepulse]

Hi I'm a beginner and I'd like to create a forum with nodebb.

Though nodebb is great but I need some major changes,and I 'm getting more and more confused. The documents needs to be more specific.
. e.g I 'd like a new hompage,and some other functions (an exam system).

• Do I need to develop a new theme for that? or a new plugin?

• If I want to add some new pages to it,should I just create some tpl files?

• What do I do to connect these tpl files? Register them in Router.js file?
  e.g. I'd like to modify categories(which is the default home page for nodebb),but I don't see any in dir "views". I found one named "categories.tpl" in dir "build ".But can I modify it?Aren't those files in dir "build" automatically built by "build" command?
  I'm quite lost.Could anyone just give me hint or something? Thanks.

[PitaJ]

You can probably use a combination of nodebb-plugin-custom-pages and nodebb-plugin-customize.

[Azurepulse]

@PitaJ Hi,u r the author of "nodebb-plugin-calendar" right? Very nice to meet u,I've been reading ur code but little progress by now.
I don't feel well about using "nodebb-plugin-custom-pages", that's for a landing page right? I need a whole new set including tpl and backend code(controller,database connection etc) . I don't see any files other than .tpl in dir build which gives me doubts.
Haven't used nodebb-plugin-customize before,but that's for translation?I 'd like to develop a new function which would need everything from inserting data into database to a new page.
e.g I'm using theme-slick as a starter, but what should I do other than making a new tpl if I want a page which would query some data from mongodb and insert them into the page?
Sorry the upload func is down. I'll use text instead.

theme dir
less
lib
templates(both admin & client)
library.js
plugin.js

what should I do if I want to make a new tpl in client side? Where do I put controller?Do I need to keep anything else in mind?

[PitaJ]

You probably want to look at nodebb-plugin-quickstart

[Azurepulse]

@PitaJ Already downloaded nodebb-plugin-quickstart and nodebb-theme-quickstart.
Please excuse me,I worked with Vue before,don't know much about node.js.
Perhaps I should look up documents on express to get a better understanding on nodebb?
One thing that confuses me the most is I never found categories.tpl which serves as the home page.Where is it? I can see that controller renders "categories"
res.render('categories', data).But the dir "categories" works as a service layer ,obviously not the one I'm looking for. There has to be a tpl file named "categories", and I can only find one in dir "build".
That's not the one I'm looking for,is it?

[PitaJ]

categories.tpl is provided by whatever theme you're using. For a default install and this site, that is under nodebb-theme-persona/templates/categories.tpl. That template is used as the source for constructing the templates you see under build/

[Azurepulse]

@PitaJ Indeed...Thanks a lot.
I'm still having trouble making my new pages. Neither adding params.router.get('/myentrance',renderEntrance()); in theme.init function or adding router.get('/myentrance', controllers.user.getCurrentUser); works.
What do I have to do to register a url in router?

[PitaJ]

You should have renderEntrance not renderEntrance(). Additionally you must register the API route or it will only work on cold load.

What do you see when you go to /myentrance

[Azurepulse]

@PitaJ Thank u so much!! So the correct way is to register my new url as router.get(url, middleware)in src>routes>api.js ,and then register params.router.get(url,controller); in nodebb-mytheme>lib>theme.js> theme.init = function(params, callback) {
I need to spend some time checking what do these middlewares do.May stumble into a few more errors after.Hopefully I can still go to u for advice.

[PitaJ]

You don't need to edit any NodeBB core files to add a route in your theme. The quickstart plugin has working examples, follow those for how to add an API route.

[Azurepulse]

@PitaJ Hi,sorry to bother you,but I ran into some errors.
I set up a new page,registered it with params.router.get('/myentrance',renderEntrance).And I'd like to import the default header(with some modification later) so I placed these (<!-- IMPORT header.tpl -->) on entrance.tpl. Then the page went down.The error on console says Uncaught SyntaxError: Unexpected end of JSON input at JSON.parse (<anonymous>) at myentrance:12 The page shows only "Login" button and progress bar kept flashing.
I know I must've missed the data "header.tpl" needs,but what do I do to get these data? Looking forward to your reply,thanks.

[PitaJ]

Your don't need the header in your template. You need to add it like this:

router.get('/calendar', middleware.buildHeader, renderPageHandler);
router.get('/api/calendar', renderPageHandler);

https://github.com/pitaj/nodebb-plugin-calendar/blob/1.0.x/src/lib/controllers.js#L109-L110