Forum OpenACS Q&A: "skins" or themes for OACS

Posted by edwin ho on 07/28/02 03:27 AM

Hi,

How would I modify the layout of an OACS site so that if I upgrade to
a new version of OACS, I won't loose all my modified pages?

I guess OACS can't be "skinned" or use "themes" to change the layout
right? Is this considered for the next version of OACS?

One thing that is good from phpnuke is that you can modify the layout
very easily. Just download a theme and install.

edwin

2: Response to "skins" or themes for OACS (response to 1)

Posted by Jun Yamog on 07/28/02 04:25 PM

Hi Edwin,

OACS 4.5 and above has templating system. Its a bit different from phpnuke since OpenACS is more catered toward developers and bigger sites.

I don't have experience on phpnuke but there is a good change that the templating system of OpenACS 4.5 is more powerful than PHP Nuke.

This templating system is used by the subsite template. Its also used on some other areas but I will use the subsite as an example. Each OpenACS site can have 1 or more subsites. That would mean each subsite can have a different look/theme. In one of our sites each client has a different subsite and look. So the OpenACS site has about more that a dozen themes in it.

I hope you get encouranged to try out OpenACS. If you are looking for a real powerful workhorse then OpenACS is one of them.

3: Response to "skins" or themes for OACS (response to 1)

Posted by Don Baccus on 07/28/02 07:44 PM

In more detail, edwin ...

Each subsite has a "master" template associated with it. By changing this you can change the look of all the pages associated with that subsite as Jun points out. You're restricted to

Things that can be handled by CSS style pages (each master can refer to or build its own style sheet)
"wrapper" stuff like the header at the top of the page, navigation panels on the side, footers on the bottom, or "newest news" panels, that kind of thing. All package content will then be put inside whatever wrapper HTML to specify in your template master.

In the current version of the toolkit packages have an unfortunate tendency to emit their own headers and context bars rather than set them up for the subsite master to fiddle with (or leave out, in some cases). Fixing this by massaging the package template structure is on my list of things to be fixed on 4.6 if we can find a volunteer to do it.

Even as things stand today, though, you have a lot of control over the look and feel of your site through the modification of subsite master templates (the main site is just another subsite that happens to be mounted at "/")

Install and play with the "skin" package. It demonstratess how you can change the look and feel between three simple (demo-quality) themes.

Also the new portal package, which will be in 4.6 but is not in 4.5, supports theming at the portlet level.

4: Response to "skins" or themes for OACS (response to 1)

Posted by edwin ho on 07/29/02 01:32 AM

great, thanks for the replies!

I just reviewing my pros and cons for going phpnuke or oacs, since I am not a programmer so I was afraid that changing the look-feel of oacs would involve a lot of going through the tcl code and I don't want to break anything while I am customizing the site.

One more question, After I have done my changes to some code or layout and there there is 4.6, how would I 'upgrade' to 4.6 while still preserving my layout and changes? Would I have to save the files that I have changed and then install a new oacs site then one by one, apply the changes again?

5: Response to "skins" or themes for OACS (response to 1)

Posted by edwin ho on 07/29/02 01:40 AM

one more question,

was there any consideration for a 'skin' or theme based system? where you can download a theme and apply it to the site? so there would be a central place for layouts and each site or subsite would look in that directory for the correct theme for its site?

I don't think oacs has this capability but maybe someone good to add into the roadmap, it'll make oacs easier to deploy for newbies.

6: Response to "skins" or themes for OACS (response to 1)

Posted by Jun Yamog on 07/29/02 04:57 AM

Hi Edwin,

The templates should be easy to copy over from 4.5 to 4.6.

That is a good suggestion Edwin. We should take note of that.

7: Response to "skins" or themes for OACS (response to 1)

Posted by edwin ho on 07/29/02 10:43 AM

thanks Jun,

I can't wait to start ...I am just waiting for some nics before I can rebuild my old pc.

but yeah, having a skin/theme system would allow graphic designers to easily modify the system to nicer look. right now, oacs looks too 'techy' or programmers oriented. but having an easy system like that might attract a lot of LAMP users and might introduce a lot of newbies in here...