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Designing theme for Elkarte Started by Jason · · Read 10064 times 0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic. previous topic - next topic

Designing theme for Elkarte

Designing theme for Elkarte seems to be slow and many haven't designed any new theme till now.

Is it tough? , i feel it is very tough & understanding the structure takes so long for me, or people are not interested in designing themes?

I wanted to contribute to Elkarte with few re-designed theme of my own. But man so many lines and references, i feel like fainting  ;D

Re: Designing theme for Elkarte

Reply #1 –

It is not. Just doesn't feel that there is a real need for it for now.

I'd prefer to create theme that simplify things and also change the original views of ElkArte but just doesn't have a feel to do it for now.

Re: Designing theme for Elkarte

Reply #2 –

Unfortunately, the amount of CSS is not something trivial for sure.
The general goal is to simplify the structure, but as usual it takes quite a bit of time (and knowledge, so for example I wouldn't dare to touch heavily the theme by myself LOL).
The "good thing" is that the changes over the years have made things a bit easier to deal with (or so I'm told since I do not try to change the theme since a while... LOL).
I would suggest you to give a try with something simple at the beginning to start understand where things are (for example create a variant with a different color scheme and/or different icons), then you can start looking more in depth into the rest.
Bugs creator.
Features destroyer.
Template killer.

Re: Designing theme for Elkarte

Reply #4 –

That shouldn't be that difficult.

Re: Designing theme for Elkarte

Reply #5 –

If you want to change your theme significantly then it will be overwhelming to deal with the amount of css and IMHO less-than-ideal use of one-style-per-item that exists in the default theme. This is a theme that seem to be meant for being the main theme - not a theme to build other themes upon.

If you only seek to change colors and perhaps some of the main layout, then index.template and index.css should be enough.

Quote from: emanuele – The general goal is to simplify the structure, but as usual it takes quite a bit of time (and knowledge, so for example I wouldn't dare to touch heavily the theme by myself LOL).

Its not impossible..but the way its done its actually easier to rip everything out and start completely fresh. The amount of time to figure out all the thought-ways and tweaks for every single section of the forum takes more time than simply rewrite(and incidentally simplify where it can be simplified) the templates and css. I think by having such a simple(ish) default theme, its easier to make new ones too. Even adding a third party theme language will be easier then.

I guess the question is if anyone is willing to do it. :) I have started an attempt on it, but takes time for sure. Many of the templates have pre-written content within $context, which needs to be un-tangled again. Some of javascript is also dependant on these things, and while not impossible to correct in the theme, should be placed/done in such a way that theme makers can easily see whats going on withut having to hunt down stuff inside Sources(which I have had to do a few times).

Note that while I am being a bit negative here :) Elkarte is still way ahead of SMF in terms of almost everything. I just think the theme system needs to be a bit simplified/common'ized(templates that is)..just to be more versatile for those that wants to change the look to suit their website..or for themers to be able to show off what it can do/look like. 

Re: Designing theme for Elkarte

Reply #6 –

Yep.
The thing that more jumped to my attention regarding the simplification is the reduction of the number of "templates" by reusing them around (e.g. instead of re-write every time the post code, of the topics code, etc. have just one template that deals with that), and the first step I identified for this was to start providing a consistent $context for all the similarly-looking pages.
Probably opposite from yours, but start from the opposites it could be a way to meet in the middle. :P
Bugs creator.
Features destroyer.
Template killer.

Re: Designing theme for Elkarte

Reply #7 –

No, its all good :) Having similar values in $context means easier to make common templates so that will be/is most welcome.

Re: Designing theme for Elkarte

Reply #8 –

Hmmm .. Elkarte on a 5 inch phone looks not so good  :(
Many are stubborn in relation to the path, a few in relation to the target.
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Re: Designing theme for Elkarte

Reply #10 –

Quote from: tino –
Quote from: Feline – Hmmm .. Elkarte on a 5 inch phone looks not so good  :( 
 It looks better than Portamx  :P
 
 Sure ? :thinking:
Many are stubborn in relation to the path, a few in relation to the target.
Visit our new Forum Project on https://www.portamx.com
 

Re: Designing theme for Elkarte

Reply #12 –

TBH..the designs I've seen already for SMF/Elkarte/etc. - even those I created myself :P - are not very inspiring, nor really "feel good" on mobiles.

This is a page that lists some ideas for it, and something I would go for in a responsive theme:

https://medium.com/@soulless/top-8-mobile-navigation-menu-design-for-your-inspiration-8a2d925bffc0