[contrib] Looking for a community-picked Textpattern admin theme

thebombsite · 2009-05-30 14:15:02

Bloke wrote:

Then all we need are beaucoup de themes. Where’s nemoorange when we need him?! :-)

Has he converted any yet?

I’m thinking if we can’t have a common login then we may as well stick to the normal registration method employed by the plug-in. I don’t think the extra work of creating a “pool” is worth the effort. This may require that whoever administrates the site would need to go in on maybe a weekly basis to “clear out” the existing user base so that it doesn’t grow to monstrous proportions but other than that I can’t see any major problems with just sticking to what the plug-ins do naturally.

Now then, I’ve had an email from Jonathan (jstubbs) relating to the TXPTips site. He was asking about producing a tutorial so that people can get a handle on how to produce an admin theme. I’m not sure I’m totally qualified to do this myself as I really haven’t looked into all the new UI additions we now have. In any case there are various ways that it can be done, for example, it could simply be a new CSS, or it could be a new CSS with new images, or it could contain changes to the header via the PHP file or, as far as I can tell, it could be all of the above PLUS a plug-in.

Obviously Jonathan is looking at this from the point-of-view of adding it to TXPTips but I’m thinking that it should be here, in the forum, probably in the “How-tos and Examples” forum, which is still closed to the vast majority of us at least for creating a new topic.

I would suggest that one of the moderators create a new topic in there with just a general opening post so that those of us who have some experience with this stuff can post to it and others can ask specific questions if necessary. I think that until enough users know how to do this we are not likely to get a lot of competition entries or else they are all likely to come from the same small group of users which doesn’t lend itself to getting “variation” of form, for example a dozen or so entries from Nemoorange (not that I’m complaining about Nemoorange you understand, but you can see my overall point).

From there, Jonathan could take all the instruction bits and create a single article for TXPTips taking all aspects of admin theme production into consideration. The same could be said for TextBook.

wet · 2009-05-30 14:40:45

thebombsite wrote:

I’m thinking that it should be here, in the forum, probably in the “How-tos and Examples” forum,

I think, a wiki is a better place for this documentation. Forum threads tend to blur.

thebombsite · 2009-05-30 15:04:50

I agree Robert. I said so in my previous post but I’m thinking that there isn’t a single person with all the knowledge so maybe a thread here first to discuss all the possibilities then collate that information into a single article for TextBook and TXPTips.

Last edited by thebombsite (2009-05-30 15:05:57)

caruso_g · 2009-05-30 15:41:58

Well, after I red all of your posts, I am guessing if it would not be so much easier to implement a simple form in a brand new website made just for admin themes to let user to register themselves to access the admin backend.
I am not a php developer, I am just a designer, but I didn’t thought it could be so difficult to do it, am I wrong?
Than, another website for Txp resources, even if so specific, could be another “marketing” tool for Txp. :)
I know we all are REALLY busy, but as I told you before, I am ready to help you both in the design then in the host/domain side of the work.
I think a nice theme gallery ala http://welovetxp.com/ but with a rating system could be really great.
But, of course, just my two cents. :)

Bloke · 2009-05-30 18:10:20

caruso_g wrote:

a simple form in a brand new website made just for admin themes to let user to register themselves to access the admin backend.

D’oh! Much easier. Why didn’t I think of that, I do it often enough :-) I didn’t have much sleep yesterday, that’s my excuse.

I think a nice theme gallery ala http://welovetxp.com/ but with a rating system could be really great.

Well the gallery part is all ready to go on Stuart’s Textgarden. It makes a lot of sense to host it there because it’s already set up for both client and admin themes, and Stuart’s put a lot of work into the project. Rating system: not sure. They are patchy at best and I’d rather discuss the themes on a forum, but as a general indicator of usefuless it could be implemented if Stuart thinks it’s worthwhile.

As far as testing out the themes themselves, I really don’t mind where that part is hosted. With the admin theme plugin installed on that site we can just import themes (it’s a three-click process) and then simply add them to the list of ‘allowed’ themes that users can switch between. After that, mem_self_register does the rest to create accounts at a low priv level (staff writer?)

And with regards the docs, once I know more about the themeing process I’ll add some techie stuff to the wiki page that wet started (excellent, thanks). I’m sure some designers can add to it as well, as we all learn more about how to do it.

If people choose to install the admin theme plugin, the actual management process is simplified because you can choose an existing theme, clone it, edit it, export it and upload it to Textgarden, as well as importing / managing other themes without having to go near FTP. And if I can find a way of doing it I’d like to offer the ability to notify when a theme has been updated.

Last edited by Bloke (2009-05-30 18:12:14)

thebombsite · 2009-05-30 19:54:06

Just remember that it’s not Stuart’s Textgarden, it’s Textpattern’s Textgarden. Hate to keep pointing it out but it is an “official” site in all ways though people like to ignore it.

caruso_g · 2009-05-30 20:25:56

I also agree for Stuart’s Textgarden (Just kidding Stuart :P ).
C’mon, let’s choose the domain name. We should choose one that could be always used, not just for this competition but as a sister website for Textgarden admin themes section.
I am not English mother language so, it is up to you. :)

zero · 2009-06-01 14:24:08

textpatterncms.com expires on 4 June. If you like I’ll renew it for a year and change the dns to one of your choosing so you can use it. I don’t have much bandwidth on my host but if you do, Giuseppe, then the domain is yours if you want it.

johnstephens · 2009-06-01 19:05:42

This doesn’t have a voting mechanism, but David DeSandro has implemented a beautiful interface for previewing and downloading admin themes.

EDIT: You best believe that David has Two Capital Letters in his last name.

Last edited by johnstephens (2009-06-01 19:07:33)

hcgtv · 2009-06-01 19:48:53

John, I like simplexmild, and the interface to preview themes is rather nice.

nemoorange · 2009-06-02 00:43:19

I would really like to contribute an admin theme, but given the limited documentation, the process of putting one together escapes me. What’s the the best (or simplest) example of a theme I can grab?

Also – I don’t think the community would need more than a couple flat images to show the interfaces. Having a full-blown interactive demo for each theme is a bit overkill.

This doesn’t have a voting mechanism, but David DeSandro has implemented a beautiful interface for previewing and downloading admin themes.

Why thank you! That demo site is actually built with Textpattern running it. A bit of a Russian Nesting doll, but it works.

Bloke · 2009-06-02 10:56:40

nemoorange wrote:

What’s the the best (or simplest) example of a theme I can grab?

How about a port of your very own simplexbubble :-) Unpack that and drop the dds_simplexbubble directory in the themes dir of your SVN install. For CSS-only themes like this one, that’s all you need because you tell the theme it is “based on” classic.

I whipped the theme up in under 5 minutes using the editor plugin I’m writing. Clone, copy, paste, tweak, export. Hope I caught all the images and links and stuff — might have missed one or two.

Also – I don’t think the community would need more than a couple flat images to show the interfaces.

Fair enough. In which case, all the tools we need are already available. Yay!

Last edited by Bloke (2009-06-02 11:54:51)

alexandra · 2009-06-02 18:27:06

With regard to a coorporated TXP design it would be helpful to get an idea of the new frontpage design, color scheme, logo etc.. or am i wrong and that does not matter at all?

els · 2009-06-02 18:44:28

As Robert said, it’s an additional theme, so I don’t think it has to match the corporate looks. A contrast would even be nice I think.

At least that’s how I understand it.

wet · 2009-06-03 05:16:32

Els wrote:

At least that’s how I understand it.

Correct. I’d rather have something complementing the two existing themes in an “interesting” way, like Remora supersedes the classic tab navigation with dropdowns.

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#16 2009-05-30 14:15:02

Re: [contrib] Looking for a community-picked Textpattern admin theme

#17 2009-05-30 14:40:45

Re: [contrib] Looking for a community-picked Textpattern admin theme

#18 2009-05-30 15:04:50

Re: [contrib] Looking for a community-picked Textpattern admin theme

#19 2009-05-30 15:41:58

Re: [contrib] Looking for a community-picked Textpattern admin theme

#20 2009-05-30 18:10:20

Re: [contrib] Looking for a community-picked Textpattern admin theme

#21 2009-05-30 19:54:06

Re: [contrib] Looking for a community-picked Textpattern admin theme

#22 2009-05-30 20:25:56

Re: [contrib] Looking for a community-picked Textpattern admin theme

#23 2009-06-01 14:24:08

Re: [contrib] Looking for a community-picked Textpattern admin theme

#24 2009-06-01 19:05:42

Re: [contrib] Looking for a community-picked Textpattern admin theme

#25 2009-06-01 19:48:53

Re: [contrib] Looking for a community-picked Textpattern admin theme

#26 2009-06-02 00:43:19

Re: [contrib] Looking for a community-picked Textpattern admin theme

#27 2009-06-02 10:56:40

Re: [contrib] Looking for a community-picked Textpattern admin theme

#28 2009-06-02 18:27:06

Re: [contrib] Looking for a community-picked Textpattern admin theme

#29 2009-06-02 18:44:28

Re: [contrib] Looking for a community-picked Textpattern admin theme

#30 2009-06-03 05:16:32

Re: [contrib] Looking for a community-picked Textpattern admin theme

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