Dolphin 7 templates system

yes indeed you are right but as aramis said in the forums

http://www.boonex.com/unity/forums/#topic/No-more-base-directory-will-be-nice-.htm

it would be a mistake to make css's for every single module.. the standard style of the template should be applied to the modules which don't have any custom style..

.css files are MADE to customize hundreds of pages on the same time, so it will be ilogical for each module to have it's own css file.. you're right.. but I have an idea..

IDEA: it will see more be nice if somehow (i don't have too much php knowledge) if you add let's say


.SOME-SPECIFIC-PREFIX_custom_module_name

{

...

}

"custom_module_name" will be identical with the module directory name, so if you add that entry in the general style sheet than that module will have the settings you set there.. so we have the possibility to edit each module alone without the need to modify any code outside the template folder.. adding styles dynamical when we add some new modules custom styled from the rest.. if you don't add any custom style to that module than a standard/general style of the template should be applied..

I have to say that Joomla does this very nicely. Now, I hate to be one to call out another CMS as an example ("Well, if you were just more like..." is not my intention). They have their drawbacks, and learning from their strengths is a good thing.

Every piece of Dolphin code, every module, every add-on should have two parts. The part that gets installed in the directory where it needs to be to function as a part of Dolphin, and the part that gets dropped into /templates/[active-template-directory]/module-name.css.

Even see more Joomla does not force these standards, causing a lot of cleaning up on CSS code whenever a new module is installed, either because of css files being spread all over or because of inline (throws up a bit in the back of my throat) styling added into the code itself, rather than a standalone CSS sheet. *cries*

To make it two-part like this as a standard would allow some pretty amazing things, design-wise, and be amazing for Dolphin, IMHO.

Very good suggestion. It is worth to discuss it.

Both implementations 1) like you offered and 2) current dolphin 7 implementation have some pros and cons.

Your suggestion is good for template maintainer only. It is not easy to develop templates in this case but only maintain it.

During template development process designer do not know which modules are installed and can not include css, images etc files for modules.

Maintain is a little bit easier, because path among templates directories see more are shorter:
/templates/tmpl_uni/modules/vendor/some_name/css/some.css
vs
/modules/vendor/some_name/templates/tmpl_uni/css/some.css
But you still have to go to different directories to change different css and other files.

But it will make modules development, installation, uninstallation, support, upgrade and so on more complex and difficult. Site owner will have more work too - remove, upload files to different directories every time a little module is installed/removed.

Another thing - main templates files, like header/footer, design boxes and many more standard design elements are still in common template directory, and in 95% cases you do not need to go to far module template directory. Before Dolphin 7 all these html code were located in raw php files and nobody changed it, now it is separated and places into different directory, it is more convenient than before IMHO.

As the summary, this choice will allow easier module development, installation, uninstallations and upgrade procedures. Also I am sure that you as a site maintainer will benefit from it too, as you have many modules and only one template.

Yep, I like the idea since I really like to design layouts :-)

This new templating system really makes it pretty dificult for me to design new better templates... still haven't figured out how to override the html files!
Work must be done on the new Dolphin till every little presentation bit resides inside a single (if applicable) template file!

Jomsocial has a mod installer that does all the work for you maybe dolphin should look into this......