Gina CMS

Themes, Templates, Packages?

Thursday July 2, 2015

Welcome back after a 4 year hiatus Mr. Bert :)

So here we are, looking at Textpattern themes anew, with fresh eyes. Themes are slated to be introduced in the next Textpattern version, the details are still being ironed out.

Our progress so far has been to agree on a themes folder in the root, the internal folder structure of a theme, and the naming scheme for Pages, Forms and Styles. Using these new parameters, I created a theme from the Textpattern 4.5.7 default theme for testing purposes.

• h5bp-457 – default theme using new layout
• hcg_themes – plugin for importing/exporting new layout

Speak now or forever hold your peace

I know what a Theme is, but what are Templates and Packages?

• Template – a theme that includes plugins. A bit more involved to install, so it’s best to differentiate them from a simple theme that only contains HTML and CSS. A template would require more commitment from the designer as the bundled plugins may need updates when new versions of Textpattern are released.

• Package – this would be a full Textpattern install, with a custom theme, needed plugins, and appropriate configuration settings. An assembled and pre-configured package for specific purposes and/or markets.
  Note: Packages are not forks, think of meta-packages in Debian.

Now it’s time to start making some themes for the next version of Textpattern.

“Many of the truths that we cling to depend on our point of view.”
– Yoda

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Themes