I'm not aware of any alternatives, but I think everyone would agree this facility would be invaluable! It would certainly make OpenACS more attractive (in more than one way).
I believe one of the main requirements for applying templates is to have a standard set of element style classes that are applied consistently throughout the system.
Other considerations might include:
- logic/presentation split - obviously it needs to be as separate as possible
- standard locations for resources such as CSS files, images, etc.
- modular, dynamic navigation elements such as navbars, paging navbars
A template might then consist of a master template file and an associated CSS file.
I seem to remember discussions about some of these issues, but I guess we aren't there yet!
Doing all of this
is a big job, but might be made easier if we had a set of styling standards documented. That way people writing packages have something to refer to.
Maybe I'll post up something from my work with the calendar (oh dear, that was rash :D)
<Raad>
