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#1 2020-01-16 07:57:44

colak
Admin
From: Cyprus
Registered: 2004-11-20
Posts: 9,007
Website GitHub Mastodon Twitter

themes on 4.8beta

Although it is known that I have been experimenting extensively with 4.8beta, those experiments were mostly concerned with the structure of the site and how that structure can be reflected with txp tags.

I am now checking the themes pane which admittedly I do not understand.

In txp 4.7.3, there is a preview link where a new theme can be previewed but in 4.8 I see no such link.

Can somebody walk me through the process of previewing themes?


Yiannis
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#2 2020-01-16 09:18:41

philwareham
Core designer
From: Haslemere, Surrey, UK
Registered: 2009-06-11
Posts: 3,564
Website GitHub Mastodon

Re: themes on 4.8beta

Hi Yiannis,

Destry has done great work documenting the theming process in 4.8 – you can find the full instructions (including how development theme preview works) here:

docs.textpattern.com/build/themes-creating-using-and-sharing

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#3 2020-01-16 11:29:29

colak
Admin
From: Cyprus
Registered: 2004-11-20
Posts: 9,007
Website GitHub Mastodon Twitter

Re: themes on 4.8beta

Thanks Phil
I’m going through it and hopefully not come back with any questions.


Yiannis
——————————
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I do my best editing after I click on the submit button.

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#4 2020-01-16 12:51:52

phiw13
Plugin Author
From: Japan
Registered: 2004-02-27
Posts: 3,058
Website

Re: themes on 4.8beta

I am still very confused by how the whole theme mechanism works in 4.8, and like Colak I kinda miss the preview link. Yes, I think I understand now you go to themes or sections panels and assign development themes to sections?

Incidentally, when using the multi-select widget on the sections panel and choose “Change Theme/…”, both the development and the live checkboxes are checked. This ought to be a bug, right? In TXP 4.7.x, only one was checked.

–~–
Related Q, as I haven’t tested yet (will prolly happen soon) – updating a theme from disk works just as in TXP 4.7, right? Extra –new– assets (Pages, Forms) are imported without issue?


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#5 2020-01-16 13:27:12

Destry
Member
From: Haut-Rhin
Registered: 2004-08-04
Posts: 4,909
Website

Re: themes on 4.8beta

phiw13 wrote #321126:

I am still very confused by how the whole theme mechanism works in 4.8

Can you be a little more specific, because I was once very clueless about the functionality, too, until I spent weeks diving into it and documenting it all by trial and error.

Yes, I think I understand now you go to themes or sections panels and assign development themes to sections?

Yes. It doesn’t matter whether you arrive to the Sections panel by the main navigation’s panel link or by the ‘Assign sections’ link in the Themes panel next to a given theme name. As long as the development themes preference is set to ‘Yes’ in preferences, the Sections panel is essentially a stage at that point for ‘previewing’ themes development, and whatever state it is in at any given time, is what the preview is. It can either be not much (all regular live sections and live theme assignments), or someone could have started setting up new (dev) theme assignements, whether or not they have finished. Whatever it is, that’s the preview, and the sections panel saves that condition until further actions are taken.

To advance the development preview along, you assign theme assets to existing or new sections to keep on with your development project. The only difference of arriving to the Sections panel by main navigation or ‘Assign sections’ link for a given theme, is the ‘Change theme/page/style’ controls will have the latter’s theme already selected in the controls, but that’s a pretty trivial advantage, IMO.

Incidentally, when using the multi-select widget on the sections panel and choose “Change Theme/…”, both the development and the live checkboxes are checked. This ought to be a bug, right?

This is indeed a major annoyance, as I reported yesterday, and that will be changed for 4.8.0, I hope. In fact, you can see some other ideas for progress there, but those might not happen until 4.8.1/2/3. I’ll take what we can get at this point without having to rewrite the damn(ed) holy book.

updating a theme from disk works just as in TXP 4.7, right?

Detailed, though I haven’t given it the final pass yet.

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#6 2020-01-16 13:45:38

Destry
Member
From: Haut-Rhin
Registered: 2004-08-04
Posts: 4,909
Website

Re: themes on 4.8beta

Read this section of docs, which I just posted yesterday, and see if it doesn’t help a bit more. It’s a kind of walk-through of a larger theme development project using a hypothetical situation. It recaps all the sections that came before it, plus puts it in a context of site structure planning.

Different themes on different sections

Attention: the doc is not cast in stone yet. Intra-doc links are subject to change still, as is expected with developmental editing. :)

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#7 2020-01-16 14:56:10

Bloke
Developer
From: Leeds, UK
Registered: 2006-01-29
Posts: 11,250
Website GitHub

Re: themes on 4.8beta

phiw13 wrote #321126:

I am still very confused by how the whole theme mechanism works in 4.8

The principles are the same, but there are two big changes:

  1. Instead of Txp guessing/hoping which page and style applies to a theme, based on the name of the asset that was previously in use, development assets are now actually assigned to a section and can override the live assets if you choose.
  2. A consequence of this, is that the preview is no longer just for you. Once you assign a development theme to a section, anyone can preview it if they log in and the ‘Enable development theme preview’ radio preference is on.

Thus you, as designer, determine both what is shown to the public, non-logged-in users (and also to logged-in users who have the ‘Enable development theme preview’ switched off) AND what is shown to logged-in users that have the preference switched on. It’s more deterministic.

Consequently…

I kinda miss the preview link

… this link is not needed. The preview on/off is a preference setting instead.

Incidentally, when using the multi-select widget on the sections panel and choose “Change Theme/…”, both the development and the live checkboxes are checked. This ought to be a bug, right?

Yes. imo, it should be Live: unchecked and Dev: checked (by default) but if you change it and commit the action, the state of the checkboxes should be retained in localstorage and applied next time.

updating a theme from disk works just as in TXP 4.7, right?

Yes. No change there.

Last edited by Bloke (2020-01-16 15:35:31)


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#8 2020-01-16 20:35:35

etc
Developer
Registered: 2010-11-11
Posts: 5,028
Website GitHub

Re: themes on 4.8beta

phiw13 wrote #321126:

I kinda miss the preview link.

metoo

Bloke wrote #321132:

… this link is not needed. The preview on/off is a preference setting instead.

I’m not sure we are speaking about the same link. ‘Preview’ was used to quickly assign a dev theme site-wide. But Destry’s cyanic tooth stops me from restoring it :-)

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#9 2020-01-16 21:48:04

Bloke
Developer
From: Leeds, UK
Registered: 2006-01-29
Posts: 11,250
Website GitHub

Re: themes on 4.8beta

etc wrote #321147:

I’m not sure we are speaking about the same link. ‘Preview’ was used to quickly assign a dev theme site-wide.

Oh, that link. Yeah, it’s been so long since I saw it I’d forgotten it did that. It did have a certain charm, but the method we have now is safer and more deterministic than having you ‘guess’ which sections it would apply and which it wouldn’t.

If anyone can think of a way to make switching themes faster than using the multi-edit, without introducing confusion, I’m all for it.

Are you going to make the live/dev checkboxes remember their state? I presume that’s possible?

I can look at moving Reset to live and Deploy to live as first-class citizens of the multi-edit, if everyone thinks that’s okay as an approach. EDIT: unless you’re already working on that, in which case, be my guest.

Last edited by Bloke (2020-01-16 21:49:11)


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#10 2020-01-16 22:06:58

etc
Developer
Registered: 2010-11-11
Posts: 5,028
Website GitHub

Re: themes on 4.8beta

Bloke wrote #321148:

Are you going to make the live/dev checkboxes remember their state? I presume that’s possible?

Wish I remembered how it works… will try.

I can look at moving Reset to live and Deploy to live as first-class citizens of the multi-edit, if everyone thinks that’s okay as an approach. EDIT: unless you’re already working on that, in which case, be my guest.

Please do, it should be independent of JS localStorage stuff, so we can work in parallel.

Edit: I have unchecked ‘Live’ checkbox, on popular demand.

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#11 2020-01-16 22:18:11

phiw13
Plugin Author
From: Japan
Registered: 2004-02-27
Posts: 3,058
Website

Re: themes on 4.8beta

Bloke wrote #321132:

Yes. imo, it should be Live: unchecked and Dev: checked (by default) but if you change it and commit the action, the state of the checkboxes should be retained in localstorage and applied next time.

Aha! I feel less lonely now. There are the two of us, or make that 3, Destry would really like to change it too.

etc wrote #321150:

Wish I remembered how it works… will try.

Yes please? TY.


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#12 2020-01-16 22:21:53

Destry
Member
From: Haut-Rhin
Registered: 2004-08-04
Posts: 4,909
Website

Re: themes on 4.8beta

etc wrote #321150:

I have unchecked ‘Live’ checkbox, on popular demand.

/ bows deeply /

The scales are now tipped in the right direction.

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