History: Theme header modules

As of Tiki 7, the page header items (formerly "site identity" items) are assigned using modules rather than Look and Feel admin configuration options.

In Tiki 7, these items can be assigned by using drag and drop on the Admin Modules page. However, for themes to display the logo and site title, log-in form, search form, and horizontal menu in Tiki 7 as they did in earlier Tiki versions, the theme stylesheets need to have CSS rules for these elements. (For these particular modules, if Admin Modules' drag-and-drop is used, or if a potentially conflicting style or class parameter is assigned on Admin Modules, the stylesheet will be overridden, so these methods should be avoided for these modules unless the site admin specifically wants to make CSS changes involving them.)

Of course these module assignments differ according to the theme. (New themes being made for Tiki 7 and beyond that have a particular design that specifies the positions of these page-top elements should similarly have CSS rules in their stylesheets for them, and should also have an info file, Tiki Profile, or other form of documentation to indicate how the relevant modules need to be assigned.)

Basically, what needs to be considered is which of two module areas to assign the modules to, and what order to put them in.

There are two module areas that handle this part of the page:

• Top Modules (div id="top_modules")
• Topbar Modules (div id="topbar_modules")

Having two rectangular areas at the top of the visible page instead of just one simplifies CSS positioning and admin configuration.

A "standard" layout is to have the site logo at top left and perhaps a banner or other content at center/top right of the upper area (in Top Modules), with the login form at bottom right of the upper area, and then, in the lower area (Topbar Modules) the menu to the left and the search form to the right. This is more or less the default arrangment in Tiki. There isn't any default CSS for this, though, as it's specified on the theme level. For this arrangement, the modules should be assigned (on tiki-admin_modules.php) like this;

Top Modules

Topbar Modules

("Order" means this sequence of assignment; not necessarily these order numbers.)

Themes (bundled and from mods.tiki.org) that use this arrangement include:

• absE
• Andreas08
• Andreas09
• Arcturus
• Business
• Candii Clouds
• Club Card
• Coelesce
• Darkroom
• Eatlon
• Feb 12
• FiveAlive
• Fluid Index
• jQui
• Kubrick
• Milky Way
• Mittwoch
• Planetfall
• Snow
• The News
• Tikinewt
• Twentyten (coming soon)

Themes that put the menu at the top of Top Modules

• Dark Shine
• Green Blog
• Judy
• Ohia

Top Modules

Topbar Modules

Themes that put all these items in Top Modules

• Mollio
• Smooth
• Strasa (uses negative bottom property to lower login below background image - maybe needs to be rethought)
• Twist (double check)

Top Modules

Topbar Modules

"Other"

• Underground
  • Top Modules contains custom user module for site subtitle; also menu
  • Topbar Modules contains custom user module for site title; also search form
  • Login to be determined.
• XtratoVeil (coming soon)
  • Top Modules contains site logo/titles, login (bottom left), and custom module that is graphic area at top right of the page.
  • Topbar Modules contains menu and search form.

In almost all cases, these items are placed using CSS relative/absolute positioning. This ensures that they will be where they are meant to be, but it also takes them out of the normal flow of objects in that rectangle. For this reason, additional modules can be positioned using the admin modules drag and drop method (which also usies relative/absolute positioning). Or, if a module is assigned "the old way" using a class or style parameter, appropriate margins or other properties will probably be needed to avoid visual overlapping of the absolute-positioned items, etc.