Re: [Phpwebsite-developers] Template system: Proposal

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On Fri, Mar 30, 2001 at 07:56:17AM -0500, Todd Owen wrote:
> > leftbox
> > rightbox
> > main
>=20
> I think we're selling the project short if we have leftbox and rightbox,
> etc.  The themes need to be more generic and flexible.  Such as the
> following:
>=20
> --Objects on a certain page
> nav_bar, weather, articles, poll1, poll2 (second instance), job_posts,
> header, footer

Right. But will these be "blocks" or not? That is, do we need special styles
for those?

I think we should stick with something like left,right,main, for the sake of
simplicity. If we jave something like {leftblocks}, we have the opportunity
to let the system reorder the single blocks within that.

> --Theme/template
> <html><body>
> <style sheet here>
> {header}<br />
> <table>
> <tr><td>{nav_bar}</ td><td>{articles}</ td>
> <td>{poll1}</ td><td>{poll2}</ td></ tr> <hr />
> <tr><td>{weather}</ td><td>{job_posts}</ td></ tr>
> </ table>
> <br />{footer}
> </ body></ html>

How would the system know that those placeholders exist? And what about a
plugin? Is this was to go into the {plugin} part of the template, all would
be well. But if that plugin neede something like {my_blah_plugin}, you
wouldn't be able to use that plugin with some other theme...

> You see my point.  We need to have each of the page objects separate, then
> allow the theme/template to arrange them independant of left, main and to=
p.

Yes, seperatley, but following some rules. If I may lay out some ideas...
(we might have something like this as documentataion on "how to write
themes"):
--------------------------
- A theme has to provide at least one page template, one block template and
  exactly one stylesheet.

- The stylesheet *must* define the following classes and tags in that class=
es:
  (insert with what Frits and/or others come up) [1]

- The stylesheet *may* define additional styles for classes or tags used
  solely in the corresponding template. The must not interfer with the
  standard PHPWS style/class names. [1]

- The page template *must* provide placeholders for:
  - blocks1, blocks2, blocks3, blocks4 [2]
  - plugins1, plugins2 [2]
  - header [3]
  - footer [3]
  - main [4]
  - menu

- The block template *must* define a standard block for use with the
  format_block($title,$content) function (or whatever function there may
  be).

- The theme *may* define more block templates, which can be assigned to
  individual blocks through the admin interface.
--------------------------

This is mainly a proposal, although I would consider it thought through, at
least in a basic way :-)

[1] By setting up rules for the stylesheet, we achieve a minimum level of
compatibility between templates. By allowing additional rules in them, we
give designers some more freedom.

[2] The page must define 4 block and 2 plugin placeholders, because we could
give the possibility to assign a plugin or block to one of the block or
plugin "places". I do not name them blocks_left, blocks_top, et al, because
that would imply a position. Having them numbered, gives a theme author the
possibility to place blocks1 and blocks2 directly above each other, for
example.
 - Question: shall we seperate blocks and plugins, or shall plugins be plced
   like blocks?
 - Question: Are 4 (6) blocks/block positions enough?

[3] These would be for placing some smallprint (like at the bottom of the
page and what is $titlebar in config.php now)

[4] Here would go anything else that is produced dynamically (except the
menu, of course).

REMEMBER: These rules are for standard themes (and their authors), they make
sure that a theme is fully compatible with an out-of-the-box install of
PHPWS. If one wants to develop a theme for personal use, he/she could easily
omit blocks3 and blocks4, as well as the header. He wouldn't be able to
complain about being able to assign plugin x to blocks3, though :-) And such
a template wouldn't pass QA at Appstate and therefore wouldn't be offered on
the download page.

That's it, sorry for the much too long post (again!) :o)

Regards,
Karsten
--=20
Why do we have to hide from the police, daddy?
Because we use emacs, son. They use vi.
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