what is a theme?

placenamehere · 2006-02-22 14:58:53

My problem with falling back to “instructions” is that is a lot for someone to get wrong… and a lot of bogus support requests coming my way (or the forums way) as a result of missing steps or flat out ignoring things. My 2 pages of instructructions I have written for my unfinished theme are just totally unweildy and yet I don’t see an item on the list that can’t be elimitinated by either TXP or the theme engine being smarter.

If a them “must” have things a certain way it’ll either need a way to get the install there (pref update calls from the installer) or it’ll need to be robust enough (or the core made robust enough) to deal with those cases on the fly. Dealing with switches like to use LIs or DIVs for comments is fairly easy to build into the theme just in the CSS file.. but not all are that simple.

Last edited by placenamehere (2006-02-22 14:59:48)

zem · 2006-02-23 00:34:25

It’s probably worth distinguishing between two scenarios:

Themes offered for general download. These ought to have minimal dependencies – i.e. be independent of site structure, and (hopefully) not require 17 different plugins to work.

If there are tags or features required to make these possible, the dev team needs to know about it. That’s why I created this forum and the requirements page on TextBook.

Themes that are custom made for a spcific client or web site. These might also need to include plugins, articles, site structure, configuration settings, etc. I don’t think “theme” is the right word for this – it might include a theme, but it’s more than that, like a backup or export. Perhaps “Site Package” or something like that.

Jeremie · 2006-02-23 10:20:31

Alex, you want to Tag Request made to fulfill the theme need here, and not on the Feature Request forum ?

hcgtv · 2006-02-23 11:41:37

Being so new to TXP, whatever insight I can offer would be my experience with other systems.

Over the years, I’ve used just about every Open Source PHP content management system. Some make it easier for the user, while making it very hard to customize for the designer and vice-versa. I can tell you that there is no utopian system out there, it’s a delicate balance that’s hard to achieve.

In my travels, I finally settled on using a blog for my site, I wanted a designer’s flexibility and gave up the move this column up or to this side paradigm. What I see in TXP is a blog metaphor with an evolving CMS mindset.

Using the blog metaphor, you can say sections are blogs. Being able to easily import the pages, forms, style and associated images would be plenty for me. Then I could go into the section and assign it the page and style (do we really need to have multiple choice styles in sections, wouldn’t the page have it’s style already assigned?)

There are other things to consider but at least being able to easily try a style would be a huge leap in user acceptance. This would also open up the template choices dramatically since the delivery mechanism would be in place for designer’s wares.

zem · 2006-02-23 22:52:43

Alex, you want to Tag Request made to fulfill the theme need here, and not on the Feature Request forum ?

I think they need some discussion first. We’re talking about mroe than just one tag or feature. First step should probably be to list the things that are difficult or impossible to do now, that would be necessary for a portable theme – navigation, etc.

placenamehere · 2006-02-24 19:26:33

Another consideration I left out of my comments above are localization issues… Sure some content blocks are expected to be changed from site to site (and that’s another discussion – how can you distingusih between forms that need editing and forms tht don’t.. and defining what kind of content goes in those forms) but there are also other items like section headings or other short strings that would need translation (or easy access to) in a theme setup…. the sky theme has a bunch of these strings like “Articles for Category: “ on the article list, a “Site Tools” header, “Sticky:” infront of stiky threads, and “NOTE: Your address will never be displayed.” on the comment form.

So I guess that’s 2 considerations.

Last edited by placenamehere (2006-02-24 19:27:54)

Jeremie · 2006-02-26 00:00:13

Myself, I would say that localization is not that big a deal. Right now, and for any foreseeable future, you can’t power-use TXP without some knowledge of english. And localisation of a theme is not that hard, or a big job to do.

I’m not sure a specific mechanism to i18n theme are needed. It might be nice if it’s simple and yet powerful, but it’s really the third cake after a full banquet :)

Shaliza · 2006-04-28 02:51:12

I remember when I was first looking into TP, I didn’t like how there was no “theme feature” like what WP has, but after looking around, I found it incredibly easy to implement my own design into it.

anoke · 2006-05-11 20:32:43

@maniqui,
simple questions are the hardest ones to answer! I have never understood theming/templating either.

<rant>

Themes I don’t like. There is something um.. distracting in the “oh! a trendy magenta!”-mindset.

Currently theming Textpattern is premature IMHO. This very tool is still taking a distinctive form and stretching its envelope. But then again I’m neither a developer of any sort or a seasoned user of CMS-es. (some people have called me with other names, like “designer”, though)

Only when we have premade sets (a combination of forms, pages and perhaps of plugins also) like “Corporate Site”, “Standard Blog” and “A Local Shop” we can start theming and stylising (css) them. Think CSS Zen Garden .There’s a slight difference between choosing a colour for a blog and choosing the way how site behaves. What comes to building such sets I’m all pro it.

There’s that particular aspect in Textpattern I currently enjoy very much.
</rant>

(i don’t know of what i’m talking about so bare with me…)

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#13 2006-02-22 14:58:53

Re: what is a theme?

#14 2006-02-23 00:34:25

Re: what is a theme?

#15 2006-02-23 10:20:31

Re: what is a theme?

#16 2006-02-23 11:41:37

Re: what is a theme?

#17 2006-02-23 22:52:43

Re: what is a theme?

#18 2006-02-24 19:26:33

Re: what is a theme?

#19 2006-02-26 00:00:13

Re: what is a theme?

#20 2006-04-28 02:51:12

Re: what is a theme?

#21 2006-05-11 20:32:43

Re: what is a theme?

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