History: Bootstrap Themes Transition
Preview of version: 17
This page documents Bootstrap classes transition targeted for Tiki 13 and onwards to help Tiki themers and designers.
1) download bootstrap files (http://getbootstrap.com/), copy bootstrap.css to your /styles folder
2) create a bootstrap folder in the /styles folder
3) copy to /styles/bootstrap the downloaded boostrap.js file and rename it to custom.js
4) in the admin panel switch your theme to bootstrap
Boostrap files
Location: vendor/bootstrap/
To include bootstrap in a tiki theme, create a theme css file (eg. tiki-bootstrap.css) in the following folder: styles/
In the created css file use the @import css function before any css setting as described below:
/*Import Bootstrap*/ @import url("../vendor/bootstrap/dist/css/bootstrap.css");
css selectors
use classes, don't use ids - Tiki uses id selectors only in some core areas (eg: to define main zones). Feature specific styling should not include id selectors.
[+] Discussion
Styling of external sources
External sources come with their own styling. How is this neutralized and turned into Tiki styling?
Vendor (external) source codes contain lots of own formatting. This causes problems when trying to achieve a unified look&feel. For example jquery-ui is nice, but has its own styling. Using bootstrap how will a jquery-ui dropdown will look the same as a dropdown anywhere else in Tiki? Or a button?
One way is to simply add the needed classes, stop and override the usage of external css. This might work for buttons, tables, hyperlinks, etc, but how about divs?
Overview of the main elements classes changes
Buttons
How to approach and handle buttons
1.1.1.1. when should an element be a button or a link
Tiki sometimes uses hyperlinks ( a> tag), sometimes input type submit, sometime buttons
How to unify?
1.1.1.2. usage of navbar
Boostrap has a navbar component (http://getbootstrap.com/components/#navbar) that could be used as a standard background for buttons.
1.1.1.3. default classes for a Tiki button
A way could be to agree on a naming convention, assign type or class accordingly in tiki templates, than use the smaty function to add the bootstrap class for styling.
An approach could be for example according to functionality:
- Action buttons that result in a commit to the database -> tiki class/type name: "button-action". Use smarty to add btn-primary class for styling
- Cancel action buttons (eg: Cancel Edit) -> tiki class/type name="cancel-button". Use btn-default bootstrap class for styling
- Query buttons (list something, run a report, etc) -> tiki class/type name="button-query". Use btn-default bootstrap class for styling
- Navigation buttons (eg: jump to another screen/feature) -> tiki class/type name="button-navigation". Use btn-default bootstrap class for styling.
issue #1: Bootstrap offers button style and size options, which one to pick? See http://getbootstrap.com/css/#buttons
- btn-default seems ok for most buttons
- btn-primary requiers additional css sytling to have white color for links on buttons
issue #2: use span tag or add class directly in the element?
1.1.1.4. how to customize
eg: I dont like that on the edit page the save button class is btn-primary, I want it to look like btn-warning, how do I do that without modifying php or tpl source files?
[-] lib/
[-] smarty_tiki/
[-] function.button.php
btn class added;
<span class="button" ...>
renders now in mobile mode as
<span class="btn button" ...>
otherwise
<a class="btn" data-role="button" ...>
- issue #1: not all buttons are picked up for styling, for example the comment button on tiki-page_bar.tpl (it has span class="button")
- issue #2: in Tiki input types such as submit look like buttons, but they are not picked up by this function (eg: Create tracker button on tiki-list_trackers)
Overview of grid layout issues, etc.
These changes will be made in templates/layouts/bs_grid (or some name indicating Bootstrap grid compatibility. At issue is where to add class="row" container divs.
In parallel with this, presumably the idea of moving everything in the center column to modules will happen. This will simplify the template and give a lot of flexibility to page layout as well.
Overall page
This includes the top module zone, topbar module zone, side columns, center content (less div#role_main, which should be addressed separately), page bottom module zone (bottom of center column), and footer (bottom module zone).