Forums / Cotonti / Skins / Skin ideas.

..dot..
#1 2008-08-07 23:18
So while I have been spending allot of time making design and skins, I think I finally closing in on some neat ways to write the code so it’s understandable even to people not so use to write CSS.
And I have some ideas on how to make a pretty nice skin that I think could serve as an standard and flexible one.

The first thing would be to set some standard “class” and “div id´s” so that the main part of a skin is easy to recognize and also editable true the css file.

[red]example[/red]
.page-container 
.header
and so on....

To take the edit part a step forward I think we also should use explaining and matching texts markups in both the css and tpl file.

[red]example[/red]
CSS
/* start header */
the css code here
/* end header */
TPL
<!-- start header -->
the html code here
<!-- end header -->

So what do you think about this, would it be worth the effort?

Also have some more ideas on providing 3.parts of the header, index and footer tpls. Like 2.column, 3.column, and a 4 column one so that the designers will have more standards to start with.
Could also make a pure and fast css one without images and one that uses images ,, well well have plenty of ideas about this tell me what you think and we could start from there..
Trustmaster
#2 2008-08-08 04:22
I agree that there should be a standard CSS basement for skins. There are classes which are commonly used like <div class="block"> or <table class="cells"> but that is not documented. So if you could make a complete list of standard classes with descriptions and also provide some recommendations for skinmakers, that would be an awesome job.

And you are right, CSS files should be split into logical blocks with comments depending on part they describe. I actually do so when I make CSS files.

I don't think that providing 2, 3, and 4 column templates in one skin is so reasonable, they could be merely 3 different skins. But obviously there should be other kinds of versions like: 1) Normal version; 2) Printable version; 3) Version for mobile devices.
May the Source be with you!
Lombi
#3 2008-08-21 01:46
But using the proposed css/xtemplate coding would give you horrible duplication if you did it correctly or horrible inconsistency if you didnt...
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Trustmaster
#4 2008-08-21 04:07
Which thing do you mean?
May the Source be with you!
Orkan
#5 2008-08-21 07:47
I think he meant that in ..dot..'s idea, you cant re-use one class in different sections.
You must define it twice - thats the duplication thing he meant.

but theres no doubt that the idea is worth thinking. With some standardization added to "skins" we'll be able to build tools for skinners like this: http://ui.jquery.com/themeroller
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