Themes panel - preview/active links

phiw13 · 2019-11-14 08:19:41

Some clarification ?

The theme name is followed by a “Preview” and an “Active” link. Based on wording and presentation, it is no so clear to me what both do (and if they are actually necessary). After some trial and error, I think the “active” link activates/sets that particular theme as the (active…) theme – for all sections – that all visitors will see. And after clicking/activating, it is styled differently, with the success class, but still remains a link.

Maybe some different wording is needed here, such as “activate” and when the theme is actually in use (default ?), change it to “active” and it is a non-link, maybe bold?

As for the “Preview” link – does that just allow to see how that theme looks like on all sections for logged-in users or logged in users with the necessary permissions ?

philwareham · 2019-11-14 09:34:35

Hi Philippe – hope all is well with you. I think this is related to the following issue: github.com/textpattern/textpattern/issues/1421 – we just need to settle on some good UX that covers all outcomes.

etc · 2019-11-14 10:08:22

phiw13 wrote #320067:

As for the “Preview” link – does that just allow to see how that theme looks like on all sections for logged-in users or logged in users with the necessary permissions ?

It requires skin.preview permissions and enable_dev_preview pref set to on.

jakob · 2019-11-14 10:30:53

Just a heads up: I noticed BTW when setting up a new staff writer privilege, that the dev_preview question (Enable development theme preview?) shows under Admin » Preferences for staff writers (along with default publish status). Is that intentional?

etc · 2019-11-14 10:59:06

jakob wrote #320077:

Just a heads up: I noticed BTW when setting up a new staff writer privilege, that the dev_preview question (Enable development theme preview?) shows under Admin » Preferences for staff writers (along with default publish status). Is that intentional?

Thanks, probably a bug. Staff writers currently have no skin.preview privilege.

phiw13 · 2019-11-14 12:25:38

philwareham wrote #320070:

Hi Philippe – hope all is well with you. I think this is related to the following issue: github.com/textpattern/textpattern/issues/1421 – we just need to settle on some good UX that covers all outcomes.

I see you are thinking more or less along the same lines as me: a link or button ( I think button) to activate and static text (or icon, although I am not of fan of that) to indicate a theme is actually active & live.

Note that, unless I miss something, the same could be achieved from the section panel with the multi-edit widget, I think.

etc wrote #320075:

It requires skin.preview permissions and enable_dev_preview pref set to on.

Ok, so “Preview” does the same as the “Activate” one, but on a temporary basis, and only for the privileged users (not much different from 4.7 when the privileged user goes to the Pages / Forms panel and switches a theme ?) .

etc · 2019-11-14 13:11:13

phiw13 wrote #320086:

I see you are thinking more or less along the same lines as me: a link or button ( I think button) to activate and static text (or icon, although I am not of fan of that) to indicate a theme is actually active & live.

Since multiple themes can be live simultaneously (for different sections), static text would remove the possibility to completely switch to a partially live theme.

Note that, unless I miss something, the same could be achieved from the section panel with the multi-edit widget, I think.

Ok, so “Preview” does the same as the “Activate” one, but on a temporary basis, and only for the privileged users (not much different from 4.7 when the privileged user goes to the Pages / Forms panel and switches a theme ?) .

True, it’s just a faster global switch. On Sections panel you can make fine-grained choices.

phiw13 · 2019-11-15 07:01:24

etc wrote #320087:

Since multiple themes can be live simultaneously (for different sections), static text would remove the possibility to completely switch to a partially live theme.

Hmm, that leaves me still somehow (lots ?) confused – I thought it was that themes “activated” here could only apply to section for which pages/forms/… exist in the theme ? Or maybe I don’t fully understand how this feature works, due to using different workflows.

-
One more thing; (Why) should an “active” / live theme have a “Preview” option?

etc · 2019-11-15 08:12:57

Themes A and B (say, a copy of A) can include all necessary assets for both Sections A and B. If Section A uses Theme A and Section B uses Theme B, both themes are ‘live’. But each theme is eligible to become ‘live’ for both sections, so their links should stay active. We could replace them with a text in the case of only one ‘live’ theme, though.

Active and Preview are the least meaningless strings available on Themes pane I’ve found. They should rather be replaced with live_theme and dev_theme from Sections pane.

etc · 2019-11-15 16:37:27

etc wrote #320083:

Thanks, probably a bug. Staff writers currently have no skin.preview privilege.

Somehow fixed, but our current prefs system does not seem to allow for level-restricted private prefs (they are available for all levels).

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#1 2019-11-14 08:19:41