Who's interested in making a Textpattern theme over the coming months?

jakob · 2020-01-06 18:59:57

txpthemes.com is by Bert Garcia who in the past has been very active here. The layouts he provides on that page are from the pre-txp-themes era and are individual page templates with a corresponding style sheet. Some of them can be done now with other means, e.g. different column layouts can be done with css alone.

Re the definitions:

A template is a single page template: an HTML page with txp:tags. You can access them via Presentation › Pages.
A front-side theme is a collection of pages, forms, stylesheets (and other things too are possible) packaged up in a folder along with a so-called manifest file that holds its metadata and describes its name, version, author etc. You can import and export them via the Presentation › Themes pane. You can assign all your sections to a new theme, or mix different templates from different themes.
An admin theme changes the look of the admin area of Textpattern and has no effect on the public facing site. They are stored in the /textpattern/admin-themes folders and you can switch between them on the Admin › Preferences pane.

That’s the quick run-down :-) Possibly the confusion comes from the fact that themes (like they used to be) have gone by various names in the past.

EDIT: answered a few more of your questions after having something to eat:

What i like about them is that they are complete templates that replace the default installation.

Yes, that’s the idea of the new/current theme mechanism. You can install them alongside your default/own theme and then either switch wholesale between them or try out how individual sections look with another theme’s design. Your content is not changed, but the look changes.

Having worked with “themes” that we install in our ~/themes/ directory I prefer to replace the default look with my own design. I am not comfortable with installing themes via the admin interface. i remain wary that using this method is fail proof.

Actually having worked for years with other theme editing methods (cnk_versioning, rah/oui_flat etc.) I would say the current themes mechanism is safer to work with. Each theme is separate and you can have several installed alongside one another and switch – or mix/match – between them. How well mix and match works depends on how consistently two (or more) themes are designed and coded.

If you’re worried about losing your existing design, you can give it a name and details on the Presentation › Theme pane, and then export it to disk for safe-keeping. You should get a folder with that name on your server that you can back up for safe-keeping. You can also duplicate a theme if you decide you want to do a different variant or a revised version of your existing design without worrying about losing your old version.

Bloke · 2020-01-06 19:12:09

And to add to the second point, in the upcoming 4.8, a front-side theme can also be more easily previewed by logged-in users. Assign a theme that you’re working on as “in development” to one or more of your sections and see how it looks using live article data, without affecting your existing users.

Tweak it until you’re happy with it, then switch it to live so that everyone sees it. No more staging/database syncing dance required!

jakob · 2020-01-06 19:45:28

WebmistressM wrote #320881:

here is a visual re: how his theme looked: https://web.archive.org/web/20121013105140/http://protextthemes.com/themes/ambience

The demo page is linked to on archive.org, too, so you can see the resulting HTML markup here: https://web.archive.org/web/20121014215940/http://protextthemes.net/?name=ambience

The theme was originally a WooThemes WP theme, which you can still find out there if you want to explore the theme more. It’s not responsive though.

gaekwad · 2020-01-06 19:52:49

For what it’s worth — and surprising absolutely nobody — I haven’t made any real progress on the theme stuff. Work got busy, as is usual for me in Q4 most years, but let’s see what the future brings.

There are lots of responsive CSS frameworks to use as a base, many are MIT licensed, so perhaps that’s enough of a prod for someone to start exploring or building. Here are some, including a few I’ve had recommended by people around here:

Inuit CSS (thanks Jakob for the pointer on this)
Tachyons (I love this one)

…and some of the old guard:

bici · 2020-01-06 19:54:11

jakob wrote #320883:

txpthemes.com is by Bert Garcia who has in the past been very active here. The layouts he provides on that page are from the pre-txp-themes era and are individual page templates with a corresponding style sheet. Some of them can be done now with other means, e.g. different column layouts can be done with css alone.

Re the definitions:

A template is a single page template: an HTML page with txp:tags. You can access them via Presentation › Pages.

A front-side theme is a collection of pages, forms, stylesheets (and other things too are possible) packaged up in a folder along with a so-called manifest file that holds its metadata and describes its name, version, author etc. You can import and export them via the Presentation › Themes pane. You can assign all your sections to a new theme, or mix different templates from different themes.

An admin theme changes the look of the admin area of Textpattern and has no effect on the public facing site. They are stored in the /textpattern/admin-themes folders and you can switch between them on the Admin › Preferences pane.

That’s the quick run-down :-) Possibly the confusion comes from the fact that themes (like they used to be) have gone by various names in the past.

many thanks! good explanation

jakob · 2020-01-06 19:59:17

gaekwad wrote #320887:

For what it’s worth — and surprising absolutely nobody — I haven’t made any real progress on the theme stuff. Work got busy, as is usual for me in Q4 most years, but let’s see what the future brings.

Ditto, but it’s coming, along with other things. Like you say, there’s that thing called work that takes first place…

WebmistressM · 2020-01-06 21:59:14

jakob wrote #320883:

txpthemes.com is by Bert Garcia who in the past has been very active here. The layouts he provides on that page are from the pre-txp-themes era and are individual page templates with a corresponding style sheet. Some of them can be done now with other means, e.g. different column layouts can be done with css alone.

Re the definitions:

A template is a single page template: an HTML page with txp:tags. You can access them via Presentation › Pages.

A front-side theme is a collection of pages, forms, stylesheets (and other things too are possible) packaged up in a folder along with a so-called manifest file that holds its metadata and describes its name, version, author etc. You can import and export them via the Presentation › Themes pane. You can assign all your sections to a new theme, or mix different templates from different themes.

An admin theme changes the look of the admin area of Textpattern and has no effect on the public facing site. They are stored in the /textpattern/admin-themes folders and you can switch between them on the Admin › Preferences pane.

That’s the quick run-down :-) Possibly the confusion comes from the fact that themes (like they used to be) have gone by various names in the past.

This actually just cleared up a few things for me as well, caught up in the switchover to txp-themes. Thanks for clearing that up. I am hoping I can hang onto this info right here, so Im gonna make sure this is subscribed to.

To clarify, which is the space where the documentation is being updated/rebuilt? I would like to see if I just have a different link than I should have.

Bloke wrote #320884:

And to add to the second point, in the upcoming 4.8, a front-side theme can also be more easily previewed by logged-in users. Assign a theme that you’re working on as “in development” to one or more of your sections and see how it looks using live article data, without affecting your existing users.

Tweak it until you’re happy with it, then switch it to live so that everyone sees it. No more staging/database syncing dance required!

I know that the stable release is still 4.7.3. If one builds txp themes in 4.7.3, will the 4.8 upgrade (when its ready) be able to bring in that theme and apply this “in development” choice option in the interface, related to that theme?

Bloke · 2020-01-06 22:37:29

WebmistressM wrote #320891:

If one builds txp themes in 4.7.3, will the 4.8 upgrade (when its ready) be able to bring in that theme and apply this “in development” choice option in the interface, related to that theme?

You can already do the ‘in development’ thing in 4.7.3, it’s just that we’ve made it a bit clearer and more powerful in 4.8. So yes, everything will migrate just fine.

michaelkpate · 2020-01-07 13:25:36

jakob wrote #320883:

txpthemes.com is by Bert Garcia who in the past has been very active here. The layouts he provides on that page are from the pre-txp-themes era and are individual page templates with a corresponding style sheet.

For anyone who doesn’t know or has forgotten Bert was upset about the decision to convert the documentation to Markdown so that it could be used with Github Pages and decided to take his leave. Hopefully he comes back at some point.

Destry · 2020-01-07 15:16:37

I went to http://txpthemes.com/ when it was first mentioned in this thread many days ago and I’ve seen no themes there whatsoever, just a black dog staring back at me. That might be Bert playing a joke on me, however. He’d be the type to figure it out. (Or, come to think of it, it might be how my browser is set. No tracking.)

gaekwad wrote #320887:

For what it’s worth — and surprising absolutely nobody — I haven’t made any real progress on the theme stuff.

Should I assume you’re talking about themes.textpattern.com, as Phil mentioned? And Jakob, you’re in on that project too? The three muskatrio, then? Anyone else? Not like you guys don’t already have your hands full with Txp project sites. Hopefully you’ll get some more volunteers, considering 4.8 themes are about to fly. Seems more important to people than plugins at this point. But that’s probably just me.

WebmistressM wrote #320891:

which is the space where the documentation is being updated/rebuilt?

At the top of every Textpattern website is a big ‘Documention’ link. That is where documentation is being developed, and thus a good bookmark. Very soon that list of links will change to this list of links. Not the URL, just the content. So follow along at both if you want, but this URL — https://docs.textpattern.com — is the link that always matters over time. The specific Txp-supported document on themes, which is probably what you’re referring to, is Themes: Creating, using, and sharing, which is listed on the main docs page. It is currently under revision for the latest 4.8 development changes, but that should be done in a day or two. (Of course, all documentation is ever-rolling.)

jakob · 2020-01-07 15:47:08

Destry wrote #320897:

I went to http://txpthemes.com/ when it was first mentioned in this thread many days ago and I’ve seen no themes there whatsoever, just a black dog staring back at me.

There’s a drop-down menu called “Themes” at the top that takes you to pages like: http://txpthemes.com/2-col-portfolio/ … They are not themes in the current sense but individual page templates with styles.

Should I assume you’re talking about themes.textpattern.com, as Phil mentioned? And Jakob, you’re in on that project too? The three muskatrio, then?

No, Phil has that covered at the moment. But we need some useful full-blown themes to put in it and at the moment only Pat64 has produced any non-core themes of significance (apologies if I’ve overlooked anyone). As you rightly say, between us we have plenty to be getting on with ;-)

On that note … thanks for your brilliant docs.

Destry · 2020-01-07 16:12:25

jakob wrote #320899:

There’s a drop-down menu called “Themes” at the top

Yes, but I just get an empty page with menacing black dog.

No matter, I’m not actually trying to get any themes there. I’m happy with my slapstick patchwork quilt of long-considered experimentation and recycled ideas through time. (Which reminds me, I still have to upload my homepage redo.)

thanks for your brilliant docs.

Well, they haven’t been tested yet. And the technical reviewers — cough-bloke-cough — deserve credit too.

I would love for someone to try out the theme doc in a few days and let me know. Learning txp tags, html, and css is your own doing, though. ;)

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#25 2020-01-06 18:59:57

Re: Who's interested in making a Textpattern theme over the coming months?

#26 2020-01-06 19:12:09

Re: Who's interested in making a Textpattern theme over the coming months?

#27 2020-01-06 19:45:28

Re: Who's interested in making a Textpattern theme over the coming months?

WebmistressM wrote #320881:

#28 2020-01-06 19:52:49

Re: Who's interested in making a Textpattern theme over the coming months?

#29 2020-01-06 19:54:11

Re: Who's interested in making a Textpattern theme over the coming months?

jakob wrote #320883:

#30 2020-01-06 19:59:17

Re: Who's interested in making a Textpattern theme over the coming months?

gaekwad wrote #320887:

#31 2020-01-06 21:59:14

Re: Who's interested in making a Textpattern theme over the coming months?

jakob wrote #320883:

Bloke wrote #320884:

#32 2020-01-06 22:37:29

Re: Who's interested in making a Textpattern theme over the coming months?

WebmistressM wrote #320891:

#33 2020-01-07 13:25:36

Re: Who's interested in making a Textpattern theme over the coming months?

jakob wrote #320883:

#34 2020-01-07 15:16:37

Re: Who's interested in making a Textpattern theme over the coming months?

gaekwad wrote #320887:

WebmistressM wrote #320891:

#35 2020-01-07 15:47:08

Re: Who's interested in making a Textpattern theme over the coming months?

Destry wrote #320897:

#36 2020-01-07 16:12:25

Re: Who's interested in making a Textpattern theme over the coming months?

jakob wrote #320899:

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