History: Tiki Theme Generator

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            ^ Work has started for Tiki7 at ((dev:Theme Generator)). ^


Proposed steps to building a Tiki theme generator (with focus on colors):

Please first read an [tiki-view_forum_thread.php?topics_offset=5&topics_sort_mode=commentDate_desc&forumId=3&comments_parentId=2|idea for generating a custom css style from a photo / logo]. ''Is this URL still correct?''

Step #1
Modify one of the current CSS (style) to have a small number (3-6) of basic colors. Maybe [tiki-switch_theme.php?theme=jqui.css|jqui] as the first one. 

{CODE()}changing colors:
you can list them with:
  grep -i " #[0-9a-f]\{3,6\};" styles/jqui.css | cut -d\# -f2 | sort | uniq -c
and change them with:
  perl -pi -e 's/AAAAAA/bbbbbb/g' styles/jqui.css
*/
{CODE}

Step #2
Turn these colors into variables, for example $background, $basecolor, $highlight, etc 

Step #3
Use a ((ColorSchemeGenerator)) (like Step 3 of [http://www.redalt.com/Tools/builder.php|WordPress Index Builder])

Step #4 
See the theme in action, and 

Step #5 
Save CSS

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Alternate step #3 (nice to have)
Generate colors from a photo / logo. There is a "Random From Image" button. So the user could try several times until he finds something pleasing. (like StrangeBanana) http://www.colr.org/ 

Alternate step #3 (nice to have)
Generate colors which contrast well (for text over backgound) http://www.barelyfitz.com/projects/csscolor/ 

Step #6 (nice to have)
For cases where we need a gradient (example, calendar event importance), we could have a formula which generates them. Please see "Generating Palettes With PHP" from site above for an example. #Another possible tool: http://www.meyerweb.com/eric/tools/color-blend/ 

Step #7 (nice to have)
For all the images, logos, etc in Tiki, we should try to make sure they are all transparent so they look good with different backgrounds.

Step #8 (nice to have)
Use ImageMagick or GD to manipulate graphics HSV values so that multiple graphics themes such as *metal can be combined into a single metal theme that can be colourised to any hue and saturation the administrator desires.  Step 8 would allow the colours of any graphical theme (eg new tiki themes such as the default tikithemes theme and kubrick) to be modified.

Step #9 (nice to have)
Create some nice on the fly logo like: http://cooltext.com/

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Previous forum post about Tiki theme generator idea:
[tiki-view_forum_thread.php?forumId=3&comments_parentId=2] ''Is this correct? Talks about Tiki's calendar.''

Related links:
[http://kuler.adobe.com/|Kuler] A web-hosted application for generating color themes.

[http://www.redalt.com/Tools/ilyc.php|I Like Your Colors!]

[http://www.redalt.com/Tools/builder.php|WordPress Index Builder]
Step 3 offers a color picker and Generated Color Scheme.

[http://xlecom.com/?q=node/152|Drupal CMS Theme Generator]
In Excel
http://www.positioniseverything.net/articles/pie-maker/pagemaker_form.php
http://www.maketemplate.com/form/

[http://drupal.org/node/209561|Theme developer module for Drupal 6 - Screencast] ''"We have built Firebug for Drupal Theming. You may now click on any part of the page and a sexy popup display shows which theme function/template outputted the HTML, and what other files could have done so. Armed with this info, a themer may quickly and accurately override the presentation. Further, all the variables passed into the template/function are presented for review."''

[http://bloghelper.is-there.net/wordpress-mt-and-drupal-template-generators/|WordPress, MT and Drupal: Template Generators]

CSS Constants
http://www.icant.co.uk/articles/cssconstants/
Dynamic CSS
http://www.stylehack.com/wordpress/index.php?p=71&page=3

CSS Tools:
http://www.soxiam.com/Notes/CSSTools
http://www.alvit.de/handbook/

[http://www.alexking.org/software/wordpress/theme_browser.php|Wordpress theme browser]

Related:
http://jqueryui.com/themeroller/
http://www.webappers.com/2008/04/14/colortoy-20-flash-based-color-scheme-generator/
http://www.joomlatemplatebuilder.com/


-=alias=-
* (alias(TikiThemeGenerator))