RE: [Phpwebsite-developers] Template system (Smarty)

[Alain F. <al...@va...>]

Hi there,

> -----Message d'origine-----
> De : php...@li...
> [mailto:php...@li...]De la part de
> Frits Jensen
> Envoyé : jeudi 29 mars 2001 20:12
> À : 'php...@li...'
> Objet : SV: [Phpwebsite-developers] Template system (Smarty)
>
[cut]

[quote]
Totally agree! "This tarball works. U want more? Code!"
[/quote]

Okay, if we follow this direction, and that is what the main part of your
mail expresses, we will just hand out a text editor, the PHP source, the
mySQL source and a Linux distribution to the guy and say: This is
phpWebSite. Want more? Code!.
Or even better, send them an E-mail with the URL's to php and mysql, and
tell them that this is all they need to have their portal site :). I agree
that this is ridiculus, but where I want get to is this:

It's all about finding the "right middle-way".

As far as I know, our target audience are people who don't really feel
comfortable fiddling around in style sheets, HTML, let alone PHP code. I
guess, unless I am really mistaken, that we want phpWebSite to be a Portal
Application in the "Windows" sense, e.g. "point&click, setup.exe,
click-click" and there you have your own customized portal site.

In that sense, I definitely feel that a "theme editor" would be very
welcome. Don't forget that there will be many phpWebSite users that don't
even know HTML. Actually, the guy I am currently setting up phpWebSite for
is one of them.

Anyway, even if we don't include an editor, going the "templatized themes
definition" direction will probably prove to be much less of a hassle to
manage. Which of the following is better:

* 10 themes equals 10 directories, each having 15 files
or:
* 10 themes equals ONE directory, having 15 slightly more complex files

The first possibility means 150 entities to manage, the second means 15
entities. It's clear that both from a developer's point of view, AND from
the user's point of view, the second possibility is the way to go. In any
way, we will end up with an "easier to manage" factor equalling
approximately the number of themes. The more themes we have, the more the
second solution will become easier to manage/update.

I can somehow understand the points you make about including the theme
editor (although I don't agree with all of them). However, I cannot agree
with you on the fact that it would be better to have the "10 themes == 10
directories" structure. That is not dynamic, not manageable, and not
challenging. The last point is something we shouldn't forget: Most of us are
doing this because it is fun, and because we want to learn. If it weren't
for that, we could simply start creating static portal sites and keep our
lives busy updating them using Frontpage 2000.

No offense taken, and these are just my personal views on the matter :)

Alain