Responsive work on a forum theme alongside the client's own developer

Four contracts in 2020 as a second developer on one board, ending with a pass to make the theme work properly on phones.

The objective

The client already had a lead developer and wanted a second person for forum work, which means fitting into somebody else's code rather than replacing it.

The main piece was responsive CSS. They'd written some themselves over a weekend and wanted it reviewed and finished, so the board worked in portrait and landscape on the phones their members actually use, and on desktop.

Smaller pieces came along the way: reworking the theme, a related topics list, a top menu, changing how last post, replies and views are laid out in the forum list, and a session problem that had locked users out.

What I did

I reviewed the CSS the client had written and finished it rather than starting over, since they're the ones who have to keep maintaining it.

I worked through the layout on several phone sizes in both orientations, on Android as well, and on desktop.

I made the logo scale down properly on small screens instead of forcing a horizontal scroll.

And I fixed the session handling that had blocked user access, along with the other template changes they asked for.

The result

The board reads correctly on phones and on desktop. Four contracts with the same client over seven months.