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2012 Textpattern Default Theme
The replacement default front-side theme for Textpattern CMS is now pretty much done, it will be in the SVN core soon (just awaiting a fix for Modernizr to land). It’s designed as a base framework to build your own modern sites upon and/or a way of learning how Textpattern actually works for newcomers (hence the many comments throughout the code).
Notable features
- fully valid HTML5
- theme uses no images whatsoever
- responsive ‘mobile first’ design – scales from mobile devices (320px) to desktop (1280px+)
- less template files than the old TXP theme
- fully commented code helps learn the basics of powering a site with Textpattern CMS
- tested in a wide range of browsers and devices including IE7 onwards (I’m not supporting IE6 anymore so while it may/may not display fine in that browser I won’t personally be providing any fixes for IE6)
I’ve got a test site running it here.
Using the theme
If you want to use it right now, then download the latest package from the Github repo – full installation instructions are provided in the download – the repo also contains a few extras you might find helpful such as Sass files and other handy code snippets which won’t be in the core version. Please download the beta2 package as that has a temporary workaround for the Modernizr bug and also works on TXP4.4.1 (the final version will require a newer release of Textpattern due to use of a brand new tag not currently in the 4.4.1 release).
The work is open source and you are free to reuse any of the code in your own projects.
Reporting issues
I want to make this theme as bulletproof as I can, so if you spot any errors or issues, please generate an issue on GitHub so I can track and fix it.
Future plans
I’ll provide further updates to the theme going forward, and plan to add to the extras folder in future with some handy bolt-ons like slideshows and suchlike (anything that does not require an additional TXP plugin is up for consideration). Extras won’t form part of the core.
For the curious amongst you, the Modenizr bug is discussed here – our workaround is to have a separate copy of respond.js, but the final version will have respond built into the Modernizr file instead).
Last edited by philwareham (2011-12-18 09:31:36)
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Re: 2012 Textpattern Default Theme
beautiful!!!
Is there a way to have valid css3 too?
Last edited by colak (2011-12-16 18:23:34)
Yiannis
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Re: 2012 Textpattern Default Theme
Very nice, bravo !
And thank you very much !
Though I have some doubts about the image you have chosen, that guy and his computer. I think it does not serve your design and the brand.
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#4 2011-12-16 18:39:36
- milosevic
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- From: Madrid, Spain
- Registered: 2005-09-19
- Posts: 390
Re: 2012 Textpattern Default Theme
Nice work! congratulations
<txp:rocks/>
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Re: 2012 Textpattern Default Theme
Good job! Had a look at your site last week and spontaneously considered theme switching :)
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Re: 2012 Textpattern Default Theme
colak wrote:
Is there a way to have valid css3 too?
No, it’s impossible at the moment. Maybe when CSS3 is finally ratified (it took the W3C 13 years to ratify CSS2.1, 1998 – 2011) and we don’t have to use IE hacks and vendor prefixes any more.
In the meantime valid CSS3 is pretty much a pipe dream.
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Re: 2012 Textpattern Default Theme
It’s very nice and beautiful indeed.
I have some suggestions; and questions;
- The theme probably should not use
<txp:php>as Textpattern has preferences to disable PHP support. This means that those PHP snippets are not going to work for everyone. - What about the future, the next day, or the year after? As it uses non-standardized CSS properties, what is going to happen in 5 years to the sites that use that theme if something changes in the rules? And how are updates provided then to the users?
- Should those favicons and iOS icon links be there? I don’t have those, and are just eating CPU cycles as the request goes right back to Textpattern’s 404 page.
- I don’t think it should be linking to external servers (fonts). Textpattern doesn’t require internet connection, should the theme? Is internet connection going to be added to Textpattern’s requirements list?
- How well does the theme play with localization, and text in design? Colons, text direction and what not?
Some bugs and issues;
- I see a strange left-over comma when category2 is set but category1 isn’t.
- Files form uses double quotes when it should be using single quotes. I.e.
value='<txp:file_download_description />'instead of what it current has. - Because of localization you should not set any date formats (aside
since). All date formats should come from Textpattern’s preferences and localization settings. For exampleformat="%d %B %Y"produces grammatically incorrect date in my first language.
Last edited by Gocom (2011-12-16 19:06:22)
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Re: 2012 Textpattern Default Theme
hablablow wrote:
Though I have some doubts about the image you have chosen, that guy and his computer. I think it does not serve your design and the brand.
It’s just my personal test site, not an official outlet for Textpattern. Though if someone wants to send me a nice (copyright/licence free) image instead I’ll happily drop that into the site and give a photo caption credit :)
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Re: 2012 Textpattern Default Theme
Gocom wrote:
The theme probably should not use <txp:php> as Textpattern has preferences to disable PHP support. This means that those PHP snippets are not going to work for everyone.
OK, the only use of php tag is to pull in current year for copyright footer – is there another way to do that?
What about the future, the next day, or the year after? As it uses non-standardized CSS properties, you can’t know if they are going to change or not. What is going to happen in 5 years to the sites that use that theme? And how are updates provided then to the users?
Since CSS3 is currently in flux any CSS3 property is open to change, you either jump in and use it or you don’t. However there are certain properties that are pretty much nailed in place now. Until TXP has some sort of in-built control over theme installation and updating you’ve got to work with what you’ve got.
What are the links to favicons and iOS icons? I don’t have those.
Good point, that’s left over from when this was my own personal framework. Maybe I’ll remove that from the final code, since it’s not essential as browsers automatically look in the root for those icons anyway. Removed by commit.
I don’t think it should be linking to external servers. Why is it? How am I supposed to use it without internet connection or on internal server? Is internet connection going to be added to Textpattern’s requirements list?
The only external link is to Google’s font API, but the font stack falls back to local fonts if the server is not reachable.
What about localization, and text in design? Colons, text direction and what not?
All text in the theme is from language strings on the RPC server, as it was in the old theme.
Some bugs and issues
File those on GitHub in the issue tab and I’ll look into them.
Last edited by philwareham (2011-12-16 19:23:27)
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Re: 2012 Textpattern Default Theme
Thanks Phil for all the work making Textpattern responsive! It will be the default theme in my next client project … :)
Last edited by RedFox (2011-12-16 19:44:09)
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Re: 2012 Textpattern Default Theme
Phil,
You can take a look at my Flickr account and tell me the one you think would match your design.
I would be glad and proud then to give it to the community and remove my copyrights.
Last edited by hablablow (2011-12-16 20:42:20)
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