Hi everyone,
Version 1.3.6 is here, and it's another big one - touching almost every corner of the platform. Let's get into it.
Theme Editor
The highlight of 1.3.6 is the brand new Theme Editor, available directly from the front end clicking your username dropdown.
You can now customize every color in your theme - in both light and dark modes - using a visual color picker. No more guessing hex codes or editing raw CSS.
Beyond colors, the editor also allows you to:
Write custom CSS
Edit layout templates
Upload your own board logo and forum marker images
All changes happen in real-time through a slide-out panel, so you can instantly see the results of your adjustments.
Under the hood, the entire theme system has been rebuilt using CSS custom properties and variables, making your customizations cleaner, more predictable, and resilient to future updates. Some custom themes may need some minor fixing. I tried to cause as little damage as I could. If wanted, I can look into an automatic migration later. But now our theme system is finalized, so we can stop pushing changes to the theme system. 😇
The theme editor is still a work in progress.
Custom Templates (RPG Templates)
For RPG and creative communities, this is a game changer. Due to some great feedback from the RPG community, ForumSpark now supports fully custom Mustache-style HTML templates across six key areas:
Mini-profiles
Profile pages
Forum rows
Topic rows
Replies
Categories
You’ll have access to variables, conditionals, and loops - everything needed to build immersive, highly customized layouts.
If you’ve ever wanted your forum to feel like it belongs in a completely different universe - now you can build it that way from the ground up. The custom templates are found in the theme editor.
TipTap Rich Text Editor
The old textarea is gone.
ForumSpark now uses TipTap v3, a modern WYSIWYG editor for all posts and replies.
Formatting & Structure
Bold, italic, headings
Text alignment
Lists and formatting tools
Media & Embeds
Images (paste + drag & drop)
YouTube embeds
GIF search (powered by Klipy) => Coming soon. We need to verify our production license.
Advanced Features
Tables
Code blocks
Mentions
Text color and highlight pickers
Legacy BBCode content is automatically converted, so nothing breaks.
The editor is lazy-loaded, ensuring it doesn’t impact page performance for browsing users.
And importantly - draft autosave is now built in. If a tab is closed or navigation is interrupted, your content will be restored when you return.
Gravatar Support
ForumSpark now integrates with Gravatar.
Avatars can be pulled automatically on registration
Members can link or unlink their Gravatar anytime
Help Pages & Custom Pages
Help pages and custom pages now support group-based visibility permissions.
This allows you to restrict content to specific user groups - ideal for:
Staff documentation
Member-only guides
VIP content
Both page types now use the TipTap editor, replacing the old plain textarea.
Google Analytics Integration
You can now add your Google Analytics tracking ID directly from board settings.
No template edits. No code injection. Just paste your ID and go.
Security Improvements
Security has been significantly strengthened in this release.
Performance Improvements
A number of performance enhancements have been introduced:
New database indexes for faster queries
Search result caching
Fixed N+1 queries in key areas (Most Active Users, Users Online)
Non-render-blocking font loading
Lazy-loaded images
Lazy-loaded editor and theme editor assets
Refactored CSS into smaller, component-based files
SEO & Accessibility Improvements
Building on 1.3.5, this release continues to improve:
Page structure
ARIA labels
Contrast ratios
These changes contribute to better accessibility and improved search engine visibility. We're nearing that perfect score:
Removed Widgets
The following widgets have been retired:
Today’s Active Topics
Today’s Top Posters
All Time Top Posters
These were lightly used and introduced unnecessary database queries on every page load.
The underlying data remains available, and these features will return in a more optimized form in the future.
As always, feel free to leave some feedback or suggestions.
