Forum OpenACS Q&A: 2 DotLRN Designs (feeback appreciated)

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1: 2 DotLRN Designs (feeback appreciated)
Posted by Nima Mazloumi on 12/23/03 02:58 PM
Dear friends,

I would like to present you two slightly different designs for dotLRN we have created. The designs are almost finished. I would really appreciate your thoughts and ideas. If there is interest we could contribute them to OpenACS/dotLRN.

They use CSS v2 and are optimized for the following browser types

  • IE >=5
  • Netscape >=6
  • Safari >= 1
  • Opera >= 7.11
  • Gecko/Mozilla/K-Meleon recent versions

Greetings,
Nima
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2: Re: 2 DotLRN Designs (feeback appreciated) (response to 1)
Posted by Don Baccus on 12/23/03 08:10 PM
Nice...

I think it would be good if we could modify the dotlrn master template to reference linked .css files rather then generate everything inline.  We could supply a variety of themes then that folks could choose from by setting a parameter.

It would also make it easier to customize the look and feel of  a .LRN installation.

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3: Re: 2 DotLRN Designs (feeback appreciated) (response to 2)
Posted by Tilmann Singer on 12/23/03 09:55 PM
I like the first one better, it looks cleaner.

You might want to include a context bar though - or is it still not part of dotLRN even in 2.0?

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4: Re: 2 DotLRN Designs (feeback appreciated) (response to 1)
Posted by Nima Mazloumi on 12/24/03 03:32 PM
Hi Don:

Exactly this is done here. Every element of the master-template and even the portlet design is defined as CSS classes that are loaded. This was very important since our new gatekeeper module allows the usage a master-template where the external content is placed in. Also the portlets can have content that used external css files.

Thus defining unique css classes for dotLRN gives a much better control on the one hand and as you said a better support for customizing.

The designs you are both two instances of these css templates.

Hi Tilmann, I have to check that with the context bar. Which do you mean?

Greetings,
Nima

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5: Re: 2 DotLRN Designs (feeback appreciated) (response to 1)
Posted by Tilmann Singer on 12/25/03 12:43 AM
I mean the context bar that is part of stock OpenACS - not sure if dotLRN makes use of it yet (it should though in my opinion, since certain pages are very inconvenient to navigate if they haven't got it). For example while posting this I see this context bar at the top of the page:

Your Workspace > OpenACS Home > Forums  > OpenACS Q&A  2 DotLRN Designs (feeback appreciated) >  Post a Reply

It's also called breadcrumb navigation.

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6: Re: 2 DotLRN Designs (feeback appreciated) (response to 1)
Posted by Malte Sussdorff on 12/25/03 12:25 PM
I like the light blue version as well and I'm not sure how breadcrum navigation will work with the portal system. I would not even be sure what to display as context-bar on the first page.

Tilmann, could you give an example of what you would add (and where) as breadcrums. Without checking, I'd say each module provides a context bar on it's own, once you leave the portal system. But I might be wrong...