Re: [Phpwebsite-developers] Defining and implementing design standards in phpWebSite

[Shaun M. <sh...@ae...>]

On 5 Jan 2005, at 16:51, Mike Noyes wrote:

> On Wed, 2005-01-05 at 04:34, Shaun Murray wrote:
>> It would also have to have a template module css import as well. So 4
>> style sheets. I do hope theme developers never have to modify anything
>> other than the /themes/zen/style.css in this example and that the
>> module css is largely free of fonts, colours, alignment and spacing
>> unless it does something out of the ordinary for a good reason.
>
> Shaun,
> Any class can be modified or overridden by the theme developer in
> /themes/zen/style.css. The css cascade loads that last and it therefore
> gets preferred status in the cascade.

That's merely a bandaid over a self inflicted wound IMHO.

Perhaps I should clarify that with an example before donning my nomex 
pants.

phpwsRSSFeeds includes it's own module css to alter the look and feel 
of the menu from that of the system default (yes, I know we don't have 
one defined but go with me for now). As you say above, I could override 
that in /themes/zen/style.css or even in 
/themes/zen/templates/phpwsrssfeeds/module.css which would probably be 
a better place. Great. Fantastic. Powerful even.

However, that's merely masking the problem, that the module developer 
has chosen to override the system default. Personally, I'd rather edit 
the module css, removing the change, than patching over it in all my 
themes by introducing extra css in the themes themselves.

The problem then is that you have to either persuade the module 
developer to conform or continue patching module css every time they 
release a new version, just to make it look like the rest of the 
system.

This is the exact same situation we have with templates currently where 
the module developer has chosen to do something differently to the 
'standard'. The problem is, we've no 'standard' to which a module 
developer can conform to, and you can't slap wrists without one. 
Michael's article perhaps is a good start on one. We need to be much 
stricter on the UI otherwise my fear with the new css system will be 
the proliferation of admin across 100's of extra files just to strip 
out fancy css that shouldn't be there.

The module css and templates need to be as bland and generic as 
possible in order that they don't have to be overridden on a per module 
basis. It's also why I'm so hot for core functions/classes to produce 
most UI elements so that it's less likely a mod developer will roll 
their own.

How that is policed and by who might be interesting but it needs doing.


Shaun
aegis design - http://www.aegisdesign.co.uk