Extending/Restructuring of the "Theme-Engine"

Hi Devs,

I am developing a theme for ISPConfig 3.0.4.x (http://www.howtoforge.com/forums/showthread.php?t=57106) with a higher impact on the layout than "just" the files in "themes/theme-name/".

I would propose a "little" change of the "theming-engine" which would make the ISPC-frontend more flexible and the file-structure more logical.

move template files
from

ISPC_WEB_PATH./$module/templates/*​

to

ISPC_WEB_PATH./themes/theme_name/templates/$module/*​

ISPC_WEB_PATH./themes/tmpl_var name="theme"/templates/$module/*​

to not break all module files the class newTemplate must be changed to reflect the base-dir of
ISPC_WEB_PATH./themes/tmpl_var name="theme"/

What do you as experienced php-developers think about the complexity of this modification?

Would be great to not "hack" the template files of all modules for the new theme and by this breaking the default-theme.

 

First, that would require quote some work, so that change is a rather big one.

Second, if you want to modify a template, you have to do it once right now. With your proposal, you have to modify it for each theme.

I understand your point, but I'm not sure if this is a good idea.

 

I just thought a little bit more about the "problem".

In a module file e.g. dashboard/dashboard.php
$app->tpl->newTemplate("templates/dashboard.htm");
loads the template-file from dashboard/templates/dashboard.htm

public function newTemplate($tmplfile)
"just" needs to add "(ISPC_WEB_PATH.)../themes/.$_SESSION['s']['theme']./" to the $tmplfile-var.

-> themes/*theme-name*/templates/dashboard.htm

In this case templates must be moved to the theme-folder but no modifications to modules are necessary.

 

The files in *module*/templates/ are theme files which define structure by using fieldsets, divs, hr and other html tags.
For me all tags except for framing tags (like <li>) of data output should be considered theme. Especially <br> is totally killing themability -> not best practice.
The module provides vars for output in various formats used in the theme.

I hope you understand my critique the way it is intended. As constructive input. I am really interested in ISPC and just trying to help improve it.

Since I have not heard back from you after my mail to devAtISPC.de let me say that I would be happy to do the major work for this modification as long as someone else provides the mod for the php class(es).

Beside the modification I would like to smooth out the default theme. I found a lot of minor inconsistencies and errors in the template files while rebuilding them for my theme.

 

Till was so nice to implement a little hook (http://bugtracker.ispconfig.org/inde...s&task_id=2289) to be release with 3.0.5 making it unnecessary to overwrite any template files of modules by custom themes.

@Till:
Is it also working for dashlets?
I have another idea to make the themability one step better:
in the dashboard.php dashlets are assigned to one of 2 columns. How about scraping the columns and defining the position by css?
That would make it possible for custom modules to post dashlets to the dashboard without hacking the dashboard.php.

 

how about making the login module/page a lot more flexible by using themes/.$_SESSION['s']['theme']./templates/login.tpl.htm instead of main.tpl.htm for the login page?

 

That is not good. So it is really not easy changing the login.

Two remarks about your switch:

1. I would propose a code change:
   FROM:
   
   PHP:

   if(isset($_SESSION['s']['module']['name']) && isset($_SESSION['s']['theme'])) {
                if(is_file(ISPC_THEMES_PATH.'/'.$_SESSION['s']['theme'].'/'.$_SESSION['s']['module']['name'].'/templates/'.$filename)) {
                    return ISPC_THEMES_PATH.'/'.$_SESSION['s']['theme'].'/'.$_SESSION['s']['module']['name'].'/templates/'.$filename;
                }
            }
   TO:
   
   PHP:

   if(isset($_SESSION['s']['module']['name']) && isset($_SESSION['s']['theme'])) {
                if(is_file(ISPC_THEMES_PATH.'/'.$_SESSION['s']['theme'].'/templates/'.$_SESSION['s']['module']['name'].'/'.$filename)) {
                    return ISPC_THEMES_PATH.'/'.$_SESSION['s']['theme'].'/templates/'.$_SESSION['s']['module']['name'].'/'.$filename;
                }
            }
   That would save a few folders.
2. Dashlets do not work.

 

The code change just moves the alternate tmp files from
/themes/*theme-name*/*module-name*/templates/*.* to
/themes/*theme-name*/templates/*module-name*/*.*

I mean the switch is not replacing the tmp files in the module folder with the present alternative tmp files in the theme folder