introduction to themes

8/11/2010 8:15 am | #1 Russell CollinsBeta Tester

Hi,

I just thought I'd do a little guide to themes for those who would like to understand the concept better.

view the pdf file attached.

Regards

Russ

Attached Files

themes.pdf

8/11/2010 8:40 am | #2 Ray BorduinWebAssist

I like it...

You could even take it a step further... add a third diagram, because now you could have multiple templates running through the same theme as well.

It opens up the possibility to skin by providing any number of templates per theme without ever having to update the pages themselves.

Did this help? Tips are appreciated...

8/11/2010 8:44 am | #3 Steve

Thanks Russell, that helps as the documentation is a bit sparse to date.

I'm starting by creating dummy templates and testing to learn how things work. One thing that I found out is that if you add a new editable region to the parent template, it is not propagated to the sibling pages.

So while the ties to the Theme are pretty cool you do have to realize that the parent is in stone and will need to be removed and re-set to each page using the parent template.

Is the idea to use a plugin as the editable region in this case? Or just something to be aware of when using this extension in a new site?

8/11/2010 8:52 am | #4 Ray BorduinWebAssist

Just add the same named editable region to the theme as you do to the template and you should be all set.

You can't just add the editable region to the template because the theme page is now separate and the pages are based on the theme. If you add the same named editable region to the theme, then it will be added to all of your pages and the content can be edited.

Did this help? Tips are appreciated...

8/11/2010 9:33 am | #5 Steve

Originally Said By: Ray Borduin

??

Ray,
In my tests I created a base page with one editable region in the main body area.
Turned that to a template and then applied it to my first test page (page1.php)
Next I opened the DWT and turned that into a theme.
Then created page2.php as a "Create Page with Theme"

Next I decided I needed a new editable region since there is some client change etc that will require a new area for the whole site.

Open theme, add region and save.

Now all "new" pages created with the Theme show the new editable region. But all pages prior do not.

Prior pages do show the region with default content when rendered in the browser but they not display this in the page so you can not add content to the new region.

I'll post a couple screen shots as an example:

8/11/2010 11:13 am | #6 Ray BorduinWebAssist

Thank you for taking your time on the phone with me.

After looking into the issue and discussing your experience, expectations, and seeing what you were trying to do, it definitely gave me some ideas on how to improve the product and user experience in the future.

For one thing you were trying to use a simple .css page as your plugin source... Plugins are currently designed to work with complete .html pages (although pages can have any extension you would like and can contain php code)... but it expects a document with a <head> and <body> tag minimally.

I have a few comments about your usage:

1) if you only want dynamic .css pages, you can just add them all to the page, then use the show if utility that comes with framework builder so that it only shows one based on the desired trigger. Plugins and Themes don't really add any benefit to such a simple use case.

2) An implementation using themes may be a better option for you anyway... you can not only switch out .css dynamically but the html and entire page structure as well. This will allow you a much greater flexibility in skinning beyond just changing a .css file.

3) If you really wanted to use plugins, you could create a page that has the link to the css file in the head. Then use that as your plugin. Then framework builder will add the css to the page head where it is included.

I'm glad we had time to talk. Thanks again for your valuable feedback.

Did this help? Tips are appreciated...

8/12/2010 8:47 pm | #7 anonymous

Originally Said By: Russell Collins

Hi,

I just thought I'd do a little guide to themes for those who would like to understand the concept better.

view the pdf file attached.

Regards

Russ

Thanks Russell! That is a great way of looking at it and a way I hadn't used the product yet.

Regards,

Brian

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introduction to themes

8/11/2010 8:15 am | #1 Russell CollinsBeta Tester