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    • Building themes.tw.o

    Posted by Gary Cunningham-Lee on Thu 19 of Jan, 2006 02:15 GMT-0000 posts: 254 Japan

    Hi, and welcome!

    As the summary says, this should be a fun project, and an interesting web site. I know a number of people are into coming up with cool Tiki themes, either for their own use or for others. And of course "normal" Tiki users want to find new themes or more appropriate ones or whatever, and want to know how to tweak existing themes. So this site can be the definitive showcase and howto place. I hope anyone interesting in these things will participate any way they like.

    So here at the beginning we need to know how to organize the site. Please share your ideas. It's a blank slate, you're on the ground floor, and the sky's the limit!

    To let you know what's planned so far, the Templates/CSS forum at tikiwiki.org will be moved here, as I understand it, and people logged in at that site will automatically be logged in here. My idea was to have a wiki page for each contributed theme (rendered in its own style, of course), with links to a forum and download area (file gallery). Damian (Damosoft) has written a script that will make it possible for contributed themes (via CVS submit) to be zipped up and ready for download. I don't know the details yet. He mentioned an upload form for people who don't want to go the CVS route.

    Anyway, I figured we'd also have tutorials on the basics or details of Tiki theme-making; links to resources like graphics, CSS references, Web standards info, commercial Tiki theme producers, example sites, etc.

    I haven't done much in the way of site navigation, just adding the basics to a phplayers menu as things are made. We'll want to consider wiki structures, etc.

    Of course in true Tiki fashion, any member here can start a blog, make wiki pages, etc. If a gallery or forum or other admin thing is needed, just say the word.

    -- Gary

    Reads: 23168
    Posted by cgc0202 on Tue 02 of May, 2006 16:10 GMT-0000 posts: 11

    Hi Gary,

    I saw this site awhile back but I did not really have time to participate. However, I like the ideas you were trying to develop in the zukakakina so I thought it was just appropriate that you became the moderator of this site.

    One of the reasons that prompted me to come here today is the announcement of the mediawiki format clone. I like its simple format, and I hope it is not too bloated like the other themes. More important, I hope it really is more flexible to accept add-ons like some other CMS layouts are able to do.

    For example, I have opted to use the Coppermine PhotoGallery instead of using the internal image gallery of Tikiwiki, for a number of reasons. It has a module feature that allows the photos in the database to be ported to outside website, for example those running in SMF Forums, PHPBB, WordPress, Mambo, Xoop just to name a few. The script is PHP based though, just like many of the "randomizers" I was considering. My trials with the "wiki" indicate that this could be done mainly on the "php file" so that it could be inserted mainly through the php files of tikiwiki — so that is global for all pages, rather than specific, as is achieved with the "Dynamic Content System". We started exploring this issue in some of the threads in the main forum, but I got busy the past few weeks. I will explore this further with you because it is more related to layout presentation, thus of themes.

    I posted some general outline of my ideas on template building in another post. If I responded to your general post here, it is more to persuade you perhaps as a moderator to also take on another project — that of re-evaluating the whole concept of generating theme layouts, and perhaps to devote as much attention on this. The long term goal should be to eventually influence the way Admin control panel is designed as it affects the layouting.

    The basic issues are the same: How to encourage flexibility, originality, portability and simplicity. I saw you exploring this with your experimentations on the layout in Zukakakina and I hope there would be as much emphasis on exchanging ideas regarding these issues, and not just presentation of new themes.

    The goal must be ease of development from the perspective of the and ease of use by the visitors. This will require that we will be able to distinguish the basic elements of a good layout from those that are mere whistles and bells.

    My true measure of success of this site is when every Tikiwiki website can develop a unique layout just like Rick has done with his page — without a person really needing so much expertise in scripting to do that, and perhaps with simple tools, like creating simple logos, without the need to invest in a photoshop.

    cgc0202