Introduction
Smileys have been in style since discussion forums first saw the light of day. All sorts of
smilies have been created since. If the original smilies aren't original enough for your taste, or if you wish to offer more by installing another pack,
phpBB-design is the site that you need. In this tutorial, I am going to explain to you how to proceed to install a
pack of smilies.
Installation
- Let's first start by choosing the smiley pack that you would like to put on your phpBB forum. Download it, and then decompress the archive.
- The smilies in the file which you just decompressed put them at this location on your remote server:
/phpBB2/images/smiles/. If a file with a .pak extension is included, also include this in the directory with your new smilies.
- Now head into your administration panel, heading "General Admin", section "Smilies". As you surely notice, the original smilies are attached here with their codes.
- I encourage you highly to save the base configuration in a
.pak to find it later on more easily. For that, below to the right, click on "Create Smiley Pack", then download it, when phpBB offers you this choice. Name this file whatever seems good to you, while leaving intact the .pak extension.
- On your remote server, now put the smilies in a folder of your choice, for example
/phpBB2/images/smiles/old/, with the folder that you just created. It is now necessary for you to inform your new form that there are new smilies present. To do this, let's head to the next section.

Configuration with .pak
- Click on "Import Smiley Pack", still in the smiley administration section.
- Now, choose the .pak folder. Click the option which will erase the old smilies (remember, you have already previously saved this configuration). In case of conflict, click also on the option that will permit you to replace the existing smilies.
- Finish by clicking on "Import Smilies". Voila, your smilies are installed.
Configuration without .pak
- Click on "Add a New Smiley" in the smilies administration section, down and to the right
- For the second field, select the smiley of your choice. It will be posted to the side.
- For the first field, put in the code that you wish to see used for this smiley, for example
:-D.
- For the third field, enter now the style of emoticon that this represents, for example « Very Happy ».
- You can now submit. Repeat this operation for all the smilies contained in the directory.
How .pak files work
- A .pak file is a simple text file that your phpBB forum decrypts. Each smiley is represented on a line. In each line, there are three variables:
- The first is its exact name, as well as its extension, for example :
icon_biggrin.gif.
- The second indicates the emotion represented by this smiley. For example
Very Happy.
- The last variable represents the code of the smiley, such as
:-D.
- These three variables are separated, one from the other, by this code :
=+:
which gives, for a complete line :
icon_biggrin.gif=+:Very Happy=+::-D
- The next line, for another smiley, works in exactly the same format. Here is an example, show below in image.
Conclusion
You now know how to install a
pack of smileys, avec ou sans fichier .pak. You now know how to install a pack of smileys, with or without a .pak file. You can also use this tutorial to modify, add, or manually replace the smiley of your choice.