How To Get Rid Of The Message Bubbles In PMs

Product Support

AI-generated summary

In a support discussion titled ‘How To Get Rid Of The Message Bubbles In PMs’, CaptainZac asks if it’s possible to retain the old private message (PM) layout instead of the new bubble style in Discourse 2.8.beta4. Don responds that it’s possible via CSS overrides or by removing the archetype-private_message class from the body using JavaScript, noting that the latter preserves custom theme styling. orangeandblack5 shares a JS snippet using onPageChange and a loop to remove the class, acknowledging it’s not ideal for a JS novice and that CSS tweaks are still needed to prevent momentary bubble flashes. Don offers a cleaner JS alternative: replacing archetype-private_message with archetype-regular on page load to maintain global CSS compatibility. orangeandblack5 confirms the solution works perfectly. The consensus leans toward CSS for safety and simplicity, but JS offers theme-preserving flexibility.

1

Just a quick question, I am in the process of upgrading to 2.8.beta4 and I am just curious if there is a way to keep the old PM style, rather than have the new bubbles. Thanks!

2

Hi Zac :slightly_smiling_face:

It is possible with override the current css if you really want to. Try something like this :thinking:
This will looks like the default Discourse Light theme. Probably the best option is remove the archetype-private_message class from body with js. That keeps the custom theme style.

COMMON

.archetype-private_message {
  .topic-avatar,
  .topic-body {
    border-top: 1px solid var(--primary-low);
  }
  .topic-body {
    .cooked {
	  box-sizing: unset;
	  border: none;
	  margin-top: 0;
	  margin-left: 0;
	  padding: 1em 11px 0.25em 11px;
	  border-radius: 0;
	}
	&.highlighted {
	  animation: background-fade-highlight 2.5s ease-out;
	  .cooked {
	    animation: none;
	  }
	}
  }
  .post-menu-area {
    margin-top: 0;
  }
  .small-action-desc.timegap {
	flex-wrap: wrap;
	flex: 1 1 100%;
	align-items: center;
	padding: 1em 0;
	text-transform: uppercase;
	font-weight: bold;
	font-size: var(--font-down-1);
	color: var(--primary-medium);
  }
  .current-user-post,
  .current-user-post:not(.moderator) {
    .topic-body {
      .cooked {
        background: none;
	    border: none;
      }
      &.highlighted {
	    animation: background-fade-highlight 2.5s ease-out;
	    .cooked {
	      animation: none;
	    }
	  }
    }
  }
  .topic-map {
	border: 1px solid var(--primary-low);
	border-top: none;
	border-radius: 0;
    padding: 0;
	section {
	  border-top: 1px solid var(--primary-low)
	}
	.map:first-of-type .buttons .btn {
	  border: 0;
	  border-left: 1px solid var(--primary-low);
	  border-top: 1px solid transparent;
	  border-radius: 0;
	}
	.participants .user {
	  border: 1px solid var(--primary-low);
      border-radius: 0.25em;
      padding: 0;
      background: none;
	}
  }
}

DESKTOP

.archetype-private_message {
  .topic-map {
    margin: 20px 0 20px 11px;
  }
}

MOBILE

.archetype-private_message {
  .topic-post {
    margin: 0;
    article {
       border-top: 1px solid var(--primary-low); 
    }
  }
  .topic-body,
  .topic-avatar {
    border-top: none;
  }
  .topic-body {
    flex: unset;
  }
  .boxed .contents {
    padding: 10px 0 0 0;
  }
  .topic-map {
    margin: 0;
  }
}
3

As a complete JS newbie, what would be the best way to do this? A while loop or infinitely recursive function seems unideal.

My current solution looks like this:

<script type="text/discourse-plugin" version="0.8">

    api.onPageChange(() =>{
        window.onload = noBubbles();
    });

    async function noBubbles()
    {
        var elements = document.getElementsByClassName('archetype-private_message');
        
        while(elements.length > 0){
            elements[0].classList.remove('archetype-private_message');
        }
    }
</script>

This actually seems decently elegant to my novice eyes but I’m sure somebody will have a more efficient way lol

You’re still going to want to manually undo as much of the bubble stuff as you can via CSS because it does pop up for a split second when you load in but this at least prevents it from sticking around in a very simple manner that should work regardless of future changes to your themes

4

I would try something like this but I don’t know if this change has any side effect. CSS is always the safest and easiest for change something. That is why I posted that.

I don’t remember what was the body class before the changes but I just replace it to archetype-regular instead of remove archetype-private_message class because there are some global css for [class*="archetype-"] class so we keep that in private messages too.

Header

<script type="text/discourse-plugin" version="0.8">
  const body = document.querySelector("body");
  api.onPageChange(() => {
    if (body.classList.contains("archetype-private_message")) {
      body.classList.replace("archetype-private_message", "archetype-regular");
    }
  });
</script>
5

As far as I can tell, works like a charm!