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Proper (meaning valid and semantic) Markup and CSS, Please.

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Comments

  • SpookyETSpookyET
    No, it's a hell to customize that.
  • MinisweeperMinisweeper New
    Who said anything about customising it? If he's that desperate for a forum i'm sure he can live with a simple stylesheet for a while.
  • chrischris
    edited March 2006
    .
  • lechlech ✭
    Modifying a stylesheet is far easier than writing a stylesheet from scratch on top of a dozen or so templates. Trust me, while it may seem like hell, comparing it, it's much easier because most of the work is already done for you.
  • MinisweeperMinisweeper New
    Although with marks latest changes people shouldnt have to write a whole new stylesheet from scratch, right?
  • blizeHblizeH ✭✭
    Awww, why isn't the css for that proposed layout working? I wanna see!
  • MarkMark Vanilla Staff
    I had to redo the entire set of themes for the new version, and I'm still not finished. I'm away on business right now (have been all week) and I haven't had a moment of spare time to work on it. I'm very eager to get it finished and launch Vanilla 1.
  • lechlech ✭
    I'll cover for mark and draw you all a nice mental picture: The markup/template is simply the skeleton for vanilla as is without the skin/muscle (stylesheet/js) in mind. So, if you want to plant the head in the crotch area and put the feet up on the collar bones, you're going to be busy rewriting most of the templates to create a new structure to use as you see fit. This would be doing, say, changing all the XHTML compliant lists and divs, and say, rewriting it all to be tables (ick, i know, but you can). So once you do that, you're still going to be forced to rewrite the stylesheet (skin/muscles) to fit that frame. Now you can also completely side-step having to do the first part all around. Just rewriting the existing stylesheet (skin/muscles) the bones are rigged and ready for you to repaint it all as you want. In the end, the CSS route is probably the easiest method if you want to seriously personalize things. To answer your question mini, marks latest changes will probably make things easier when just modifying the CSS alone, altho I'm certain many of the styles will get trimmed down to something a bit more elegant. Needless to say, we'll still have to go back through our old styles in order to update to fit the "default" template. Else we're off writing our own templates and styles for those templates created.
  • BenBen
    I'd rather make styles to fit the default template than force people to change their template just to use the style. Otherwise, the whole style-switching and use your own styles idea goes out the window if the site's template is different to the one your style is for.
  • lechlech ✭
    That would probably be the easiest route to take, ben, and I agree it would lessen the need to have a user change thier template in use. But there are those who may wish to totally turn things upside-down like myself (when I get around to it) to bring forth something different. Rewriting the templates to display something new can lessen the ammount of queries being run at once or add to them if you want to, say, display the categories page with the top 3-10 discussions per category or something similar. Just a thought though.
  • MinisweeperMinisweeper New
    I still think there'll be a 'couple' of very different and well supported themes and a cohort of styles designed to go with each. Best way.
  • gigingergiginger New
    Oooh, I forgot about this thread. Sorry to the person I didn't reply to.
    I read the reply and then went to do something and plain forgot. I do feel rude.
  • nick1prestanick1presta
    I'm glad this finally got working thanks to the other dedicated people. I've been so busy I have been reduced to posting on forums at 3:05am during my school break...
  • crazybatcrazybat
    Perhaps it would help to think of it in terms of what lech is saying, but with a bit of a twist. Let's look at this in terms of layers of the application.

    a) Functional layer - the layer responsible for all of the forum's functionality. DB queries, PHP, etc.

    b) Document layer - the layer responsible for the structured and semantic XHTML markup. h1, div, span, etc.

    c) Design layer - the CSSs that is dictating the aesthetics.

    I would hope that the document layer is something that should stay quite consistent in terms of the basic structure of the forum. (IE: #banner, #container, #content, #footer, etc)

    What would change though is the content within, based on what it is the user is doing. (IE: Show 10 posts versus 50 posts, post a message, change user preferences, etc.) This should determine the total amount of documents (or templates) that you would need for the application.

    So, in terms of what lech is saying about 'turning things upside down', I agree that the amount of queries should be run at a minimum, if possible. It makes for a leaner and meaner application.

    However, in terms of changing the look and feel of the forum, this should be like what ben has stated and be dictated by the change in the Design layer (CSS) and not in the Document layer (XHTML) for the same type of display of information.

    My $0.02 CAD
  • jsandersjsanders
    but that's only $0.017 US, and 0.009 GBP!
  • MinisweeperMinisweeper New
    crazybat, those 3 layers are exactly how the new themeing system works (to my knowledge, atleast). Themes contain both layer b and c. Layer b doesnt have to change - if not its just a style (layer c) which can be used with the appropriate theme. Course you could go along changing layer a if you really wanted...
This discussion has been closed.