Does anyone know how to implement alternate background color shading of forum topics on index page and also the recent topics ?

see example:

You can try to add to <tr> in the template files the following: class="{$bg}" so that it looks like:

(and make sure .tbCel1 and .tbCel2 classes in bb_default_style.css file have a different background color set).

Just for being more precise - you have to edit these templates:

Have you take a look at the Basic skin theme for miniBB?
I suppose, this is what you need, and you could start/gain many ideas from it... you could also get templates and CSS of this theme from miniBB demo (right mouse click -> Save File As):

main_forums_cell.html
main_last_discuss_cell.html
main_topics_cell.html
bb_old_style.css

The other templates could be saved from the same URL, they all are named like default miniBB's templates.

Save all these files to your forum folder or templates folder, and then set in setup_options.php:

Thank you. So other than the bboldstyle.css file, these are the only template files I need replace ? : (41 of them)


from
go.html
main_access_denied.html
main_footer.html

down to

user_logged_in.html
user_login_form.html
user_login_only_form.html


There are 41 of them.

what about the admin template files ?

You may also check for

main_posts.html
main_posts_cell.html.

They provide the older-type look of messages (threads).

As about other templates, they all mostly are generic and do not change the layout type dramatically.

The same about admin templates. They are very basic and look the same in any CSS style. I suppose, you should only take care about public version of the forum :) Admin interface belongs to an internal one and could be quite simple.