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Consummo Themes

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I’ve changed my mind a bit regarding the themes. I was originally going to have the themes set up similarly to other forum software, with a bit more functionality. Today, while working on another website, I came up with another idea. The new idea is similar, but a lot different as well. Other forums separate it like this…

  • /cf-themes/[theme-name]/[theme-files]

Consummo will be set up similar to this…

  • /cf-templates/[template-files]
  • /cf-themes/[theme-name]/images/[image-files]
  • /cf-themes/[theme-name]/css/[css-files]
  • /cf-themes/[theme-name]/media/[media-files] e.g. Flash

How is this better?

I’m applying OOP practices to every aspect of this application. Rather than having a hundred template files for each theme (as Consummo will likely have following normal theme separation), it will have a few hundred for the entire application (with thousands of structure possibilities). Then, changing a theme will be similar to adding/removing widgets from a sidebar in WordPress.

As most themes have the same basic structure, there is no need to restate this structure in every theme. Why not have a single template to start out from?

<!DOCTYPE html>
<head>
 {head-meta} <!-- Meta Tags -->
 <title>{head-title}</title> <!-- Browser Title (e.g. Page Title &raquo; Site Name -->
 {head-css} <!-- CSS Includes -->
 {head-script} <!-- Script Includes -->
 {head} <!-- Other Head information -->
</head>
<body>
 {body} <!-- All content to be shown -->
</body>
</html>

This would be the HTML5 base template. Regardless of what theme is using it, it wouldn’t need to change this at all. Then, all elements would be inserted as the theme requested.

How would this be handled?

The moderators/administrators could change themes in Consummo’s control panel. Each layer of the forum would be configurable. For example, you could choose to show each person’s avatar in the forum, or just the thread starter’s. You could also choose to change the order (depending on the template file being used of course). Although it may use a little more resources than the normal template system, this will save the designer/programmer from doing hours and hours of coding. They can just go into the control panel and make the requested changes. And it will be so easy, even the site owner can do it! (with no knowledge of html, css, or php)

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This entry was posted on Friday, September 26th, 2008 at 7:53 pm and is filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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