A New Default Theme for Textpattern - Request for Proposals

Bloke · 2010-04-09 23:28:52

I see where everyone’s coming from now. My initial remark over putting the about content in the Page itself is retarded as wet pointed out. I was trying to minimse the amount of clutter / extra articles / extra forms that either need to be protected or otherwise added to a base install.

I’ve had a chance to review what Andreas has done behind the scenes and it’s rather nice. The About article is actually an article. Most sites will have some kind of about page or contact page so having this shouldn’t be too much hardship as I suspect most people will just change the content and not delete the article itself (or rename it). Even blogs have a Who Am I page.

Currently Andreas has added this to the default Page:

<txp:if_section name="about">
<div class="hfeed">
<txp:article form="static_articles" searchall="1" />
</div>
<txp:else />
...

A few things about this:

it could be taken out of this page and made into its own page but I don’t know if that’s necessary
it could have limit="1" added to ensure you never get an article list
it could be simplifed further to <txp:article form="static_articles" searchall="1" wraptag="div" class="hfeed" /> which shows off a few more attributes
the static_articles form holds just a simple heading, entry-content containing div and body tag

I suppose the same result could be achieved with <txp:output_form form="static_article" /> and then have an article (or article_custom) call inside the form; the article could be used as a container here. But as Els says there comes a point where you start to use tags for the sake of using them.

I also don’t know if creating aother form is the way to go. There are already plenty of the buggers and I don’t use a lot of them already — even the protected ones. If there was a way to render the same thing (perhaps a conditional in the default form?) that didn’t show the vcard stuff unless in the archive section, that would be preferable I think. But I can’t speak for everyone so maybe I’m wrong here too. There must be some balance we can strike between assigning page/form/article/tags as more resources that just have to be deleted by the majority of users vs terseness that confuses people.

And Stuart thanks for the bump on bert’s post. I missed that one.

Last edited by Bloke (2010-04-09 23:32:07)

Tuts_and_Tipps · 2010-04-10 10:34:02

Bloke schrieb:

3. it could be simplifed further to <txp:article form="static_articles" searchall="1" wraptag="div" class="hfeed" /> which shows off a few more attributes

This is actually better than my solution. I have changed it to:

<txp:article form="static_articles" searchall="1" wraptag="div" class="hfeed" limit="1" />

Last edited by Tuts_and_Tipps (2010-04-10 10:35:50)

philwareham · 2010-09-23 14:37:07

Hi,

Just been directed here by Stef, from my original post on a new default theme.

I’d be willing to help out on improving/building the TXP default theme if it is still an ongoing project? Let me know.

Phil

hcgtv · 2010-09-28 02:35:50

When I began using Textpattern, it was a bit confusing, two pages, all these forms that for the most part aren’t used.

So my question is, why do we need archive and default pages when 1 page could suffice?

Also, why not have forms for header, sidebar, footer, etc? We’re debating adding forms, yet we ship lofi, what the heck is lofi?

The way I have my sites setup, the Page is set in stone and I spend all my time in Forms. Sure beats having to bounce back and forth between the two tabs when you’re making changes.

Another thing that seems anti-productive is tab indenting designs. When you’re working on a Page or Form in a textarea, you can’t enter tabs, and if the line is long, it wraps weird and it’s not very legible.

Rather than concentrate on the look and feel of a default install, we should work towards making it as simple for a newbie to understand Textpattern. Jettison unneeded Pages and Forms, include Forms that make sense, so we can show how easy it is to reuse code. Make things simple, because at present it’s confusing.

One last thing, how about a readme file, explaining how the design is laid out and what each Form is used for.

bici · 2010-09-28 02:44:34

“Rather than concentrate on the look and feel of a default install, we should work towards making it as simple for a newbie to understand Textpattern. Jettison unneeded Pages and Forms, include Forms that make sense, so we can show how easy it is to reuse code. Make things simple, because at present it’s confusing.”

I second all that hcgtv has outlined. After three years of using TxP I still really don’t understand it. I mostly muck about, building of the same setup and hope things don’t break. I have yet to really get TxP … Any thing that can be change to help folks into using TxP i am totally for.

els · 2010-09-28 07:18:27

Hi Bert, that makes a lot of sense. I agree that the structure you propose would be very helpful for first-time Txp users. And a time-saver for those of us who change every new install to something like that anyway ;)

Algaris · 2010-09-28 08:27:32

I agree very much with Bert and Giovanni too. I’ve been using TXP for a while now and still don’t know what a lot of the forms are used for. I either delete them and start a fresh or ignore and work around them with my own forms.

Forms for Header, Sidebar and Footer would be a very good idea in my opinion. Just my pennies worth.

philwareham · 2010-09-28 08:33:24

Hi again. I’m going to take all your comments into account and develop my default template proposal, which already addresses a lot of the points that Bert made – I’ll probably put it on github when I’m back from holiday end of next week and welcome any comments and questions.

As stated in the other thread, it needs to be crystal clear what each part of the templates/forms actually do (using comments) and be as simple codewise as possible, so people can customise it easily if they wish.

redbot · 2010-09-28 08:43:32

hcgtv wrote:

When I began using Textpattern, it was a bit confusing, two pages, all these forms that for the most part aren’t used….

I agree 100%

Bloke · 2010-09-28 09:17:47

Slightly OT: another +1 for Bert’s suggestion of simplification.

I’m discussing templating with Bert and others offline from the forum because it’s a messy business. When we’ve hammered some concrete and workable solutions into shape I’ll post here or dev weblog about it and see where we can go with it.

This isn’t just about switching templates easily, it’s also about how we reduce the TXP learning curve by removing cruft in TXP 5. It’s an opportunity to make things leaner and we should take it if we can (i.e. upgrades won’t remove forms, but new installs will ship with a reduced set and a sexier template).

And yeah, lofi… ha! wtf is that for anyway?

Tuts_and_Tipps · 2010-11-01 13:11:54

Bloke schrieb:

how we reduce the TXP learning curve

That makes sense :-)

bici · 2010-11-01 14:03:44

I am all in favour of making TxP a little easier to start using! If there is anyway to have two templating options: a simple Blog, and a simple non-blog type of installation i think this would go a great way to making TxP that much more user friendly. Something perhaps for future consideration after the new simple version is up and running

cheers

P.S. given some of disaffection with the way EE is going means that will open up greater opportunities for TxP.

philwareham · 2010-11-01 14:26:30

I’m up for writing a couple of simple, clean default templates when I get a spare couple of days, but am awaiting the outcome of whatever feedback Stef gets (as stated in post #55) before going any further.

Pat64 · 2011-01-17 17:16:51

… Why don’t use html 5 structure into TXP…5 default theme layout?

Last edited by Pat64 (2011-01-17 17:17:14)

philwareham · 2011-01-17 17:19:52

Pat64 wrote:

… Why don’t use html 5 structure into TXP…5 default theme layout?

I think that is the plan already, just don’t know when.

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#46 2010-04-09 23:28:52

Re: A New Default Theme for Textpattern - Request for Proposals

#47 2010-04-10 10:34:02

Re: A New Default Theme for Textpattern - Request for Proposals

#48 2010-09-23 14:37:07

Re: A New Default Theme for Textpattern - Request for Proposals

#49 2010-09-28 02:35:50

Re: A New Default Theme for Textpattern - Request for Proposals

#50 2010-09-28 02:44:34

Re: A New Default Theme for Textpattern - Request for Proposals

#51 2010-09-28 07:18:27

Re: A New Default Theme for Textpattern - Request for Proposals

#52 2010-09-28 08:27:32

Re: A New Default Theme for Textpattern - Request for Proposals

#53 2010-09-28 08:33:24

Re: A New Default Theme for Textpattern - Request for Proposals

#54 2010-09-28 08:43:32

Re: A New Default Theme for Textpattern - Request for Proposals

#55 2010-09-28 09:17:47

Re: A New Default Theme for Textpattern - Request for Proposals

#56 2010-11-01 13:11:54

Re: A New Default Theme for Textpattern - Request for Proposals

#57 2010-11-01 14:03:44

Re: A New Default Theme for Textpattern - Request for Proposals

#58 2010-11-01 14:26:30

Re: A New Default Theme for Textpattern - Request for Proposals

#59 2011-01-17 17:16:51

Re: A New Default Theme for Textpattern - Request for Proposals

#60 2011-01-17 17:19:52

Re: A New Default Theme for Textpattern - Request for Proposals

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