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How does the Framebuilder theme work?

Thread began 8/09/2010 3:01 pm by saf01 | Last modified 12/27/2010 11:06 am by Ray Borduin | 3978 views | 13 replies |

saf01

How does the Framebuilder theme work?

Hi. Ive seen the video for Framebuilder and am interested in the themes part. How would Framebuilder help me to make and manage themes quicker? I would like to buy it, but I require some understanding of how to use the themes options of the extension of my templates. Please can someone explain. Thanks

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Eric Mittman

When it comes to themes in Frameworkbuilder you can think of templates. With a template you can easily share common design areas of a site without having to manually keep track of each place where that design is displayed. You can just update the template file to force all of the other pages derived from it to be updated in DW.

Themes work kinda like this but are much more robust. Rather than having the common elements of the page come from a template file you can use Framework builder to use include files for the common elements. This allows you to make changes to the pages that make use of this include by updating the include file only. There is no need to reapply anything to the pages since they have the includes on them. This is a great way to offer quick and easy updating of the design elements as well as have the potential to have many different themes in use and have the active one selected using parameters to completely change the look and feel of your site. You can also use parameters to include or exclude portions of the page for greater flexibility. Here is a link to the getting started guide, it explains how to make use of the themes and plug-ins:

framework-builder_gsg.php

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saf01

Thanks Eric. So if I have a html menu saved as PHP file which uses an external css attached, I can use this PHP file as an include on my template and it will apply the external css in the template automatically?

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anonymous

Saf,

That is correct. The beauty of this framework is that it allows you to create the included files and you can see them with full markup and not have to worry about the folder hierarchy and paths... as the framework builder will update all the paths to be correct.

Before, with a typical PHP include there were not only far more limitation but the paths had to be edited for where the include would be called - not where the actual include file resided - so you really couldn't see your work.

But now, you can save includes right in the includes folder - for example - and you can leave all the header and body information and design your include file like a webpage. Then you just use Framework builder to include it wherever you want.

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biesheuvel378713

I'm building a cms system for my own, now I've got tables with section, category and article. (much like Joomla) Framework builder made it real easy. I've created three pages; one to display the sections, one for category and one for article. The section page is dynamically placed in the index page along with a contact page. The category and article page are dynamically nested in the section page. Its very easy now, since you can also nest the includes (including all javascript, css and widgets) its like a walk in the park.

Not even to mention the theming facility. Before framework I would argue that using DW templates wasn't a way to go in these type of websites. But now that has changed too. The templates came alive and now I can build in a function where the user chooses the skin of the site.

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saf01

Hello, thanks for your posts - Im beginning to understand this. So I can make a Framebuilder theme template instead of a dreamweaver template and apply Sitescultptor to it to create a CMS wihich will keep all includes in the footer still, for example? This is what I would like to do. Any help or advise on this is appreciated. Cheers

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Eric Mittman

You could make use of the theme includes in place of the DW template that is applied to the pages, but since the pages are generated by Sculptor as template derived it might make more work for you to go and update it to work with the includes after the fact. You would need to make an include out of the template or multiple includes for the various parts, then detach the template from the pages and use the theme includes on the pages instead. This would give you the advantage of being able to update the theme by adjusting or adding styles to your included theme or themes.

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saf01

thanks for your answers

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saf01

If all is good with framework builder, can I convert a site scuptor CMS site to framework theme and then use site sculptor admin to update text on a framework theme?

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Ray BorduinWebAssist

Yes it will work, but there is one minor issue where a function will be redeclared and you'll get an error.

To see the error and solution read: showthread.php?t=15328

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