Life Type 2.0 - Templates?

[Nomad]

Just checked out the svn of the LT 2.0 branch - yeah I know it still needs some work and things don't fully work yet but well impatience as they say (plus I'm a nosy git lol)...

Overall I got to say I like the changes - theres a good continuity in the styling but with the renaming of the navigation bar in the Administrative area making things a bit simpler to follow. Addition of icons in certain areas again will simplify things for some folk, so good developments I think

Only one thing I did notice, (up to now - only had a brief look so far), is the 'Templates' part. In Settings/Templates/New Blog Template

Use this form to upload a new template set, which will only be available to your blog. If it is not possible to upload a template package using this form, upload the template set manually and place it in <b>%s</b>, which is the folder where your blog templates are stored and click the "<b>Scan templates</b>" button. LifeType will scan the folder and will automatically add any new template it can find

Now - I'm assuming here that this addition under settings (which I see as previously being the 'Control Center'?) is so users can add there own templates.

However if you run a multi blog system like some people do, then an ordinary user cannot ftp upload a template to there blog folder id - i.e. blog27

So this would be a bit misleading for them. All they would have the ability to do, if allowed, is to upload the template to the system. The Administrator or Administrators could do it as long as they all had ftp access. Obviously the main Admin would have the ftp access to do that but an ordinary user wouldn't.

just something I noticed so thought I'd pass it on - or maybe you have a way to address this? Not sure how like as I know I won't give ftp access to just any user for obvious reasons...

btw - the errors I'm getting seem to be with the loader

Code: Select all

Warning: include(C:\wamp\www\lifetype/class/object/smartloader.class.php) [function.include]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in C:\wamp\www\lifetype\class\object\loader.class.php on line 7

Warning: include() [function.include]: Failed opening 'C:\wamp\www\lifetype/class/object/smartloader.class.php' for inclusion (include_path='.;C:\php5\pear') in C:\wamp\www\lifetype\class\object\loader.class.php on line 7

I'm using wamp on a windows xp pro machine ....


All in all though - me likes when do we get it? lol

[Nomad]

bumps this - so whats the issue in regards to the templates?

[phunkphorce]

Just checked out the svn of the LT 2.0 branch - yeah I know it still needs some work and things don't fully work yet but well impatience as they say (plus I'm a nosy git lol)...

Overall I got to say I like the changes - theres a good continuity in the styling but with the renaming of the navigation bar in the Administrative area making things a bit simpler to follow. Addition of icons in certain areas again will simplify things for some folk, so good developments I think

Only one thing I did notice, (up to now - only had a brief look so far), is the 'Templates' part. In Settings/Templates/New Blog Template

Use this form to upload a new template set, which will only be available to your blog. If it is not possible to upload a template package using this form, upload the template set manually and place it in <b>%s</b>, which is the folder where your blog templates are stored and click the "<b>Scan templates</b>" button. LifeType will scan the folder and will automatically add any new template it can find

Now - I'm assuming here that this addition under settings (which I see as previously being the 'Control Center'?) is so users can add there own templates.

However if you run a multi blog system like some people do, then an ordinary user cannot ftp upload a template to there blog folder id - i.e. blog27

So this would be a bit misleading for them. All they would have the ability to do, if allowed, is to upload the template to the system. The Administrator or Administrators could do it as long as they all had ftp access. Obviously the main Admin would have the ftp access to do that but an ordinary user wouldn't.

just something I noticed so thought I'd pass it on - or maybe you have a way to address this? Not sure how like as I know I won't give ftp access to just any user for obvious reasons...

But this is not a new feature in LT 2.0, it's always worked like this. Either users are allowed to upload templates, or then they have to FTP them to their folder and click the "scan templates folder" button. In that respect, LT 2.0 has made things neither better nor worse.

btw - the errors I'm getting seem to be with the loader

Code: Select all

Warning: include(C:\wamp\www\lifetype/class/object/smartloader.class.php) [function.include]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in C:\wamp\www\lifetype\class\object\loader.class.php on line 7

Warning: include() [function.include]: Failed opening 'C:\wamp\www\lifetype/class/object/smartloader.class.php' for inclusion (include_path='.;C:\php5\pear') in C:\wamp\www\lifetype\class\object\loader.class.php on line 7

I'm using wamp on a windows xp pro machine ....


All in all though - me likes when do we get it? lol

I recently checked out my code from svn and I didn't get that error. Did you really check out 'trunk'? What if you delete the current version and check it out again? I know smartloader.class.php was there for a while but it was removed a while ago, perhaps the svn client got confused.

[Nomad]

But this is not a new feature in LT 2.0, it's always worked like this. Either users are allowed to upload templates, or then they have to FTP them to their folder and click the "scan templates folder" button. In that respect, LT 2.0 has made things neither better nor worse.

hmm yes I just had a look - it's not a part of the system I use regularly so I hadn't noticed it before from a users point of view.

As I said though, an ordinary user would not be able to use FTP to upload a template set as they would not have access unless server Admin manually set access to that specific folder something I doubt any Admin would do - I know I wouldn't so really that part is of no value to the user and could be edited out of the locales file which is where it resides.

That leaves them with only the ability to upload a template set via the system upload function which is all they really would have anyway. Obviously the owner of the blog system or System Administrator would have ftp access or if it is only a single user system but in a multi user environment then FTP would not be an option....

On the subject of templates - I've been working on a way to minimise the actual amount of template files in a given template set - it's utilising the 'Default' template folder i.e. when a template-name.template file cannot be found - it is looked for within the default folder. By doing this - I think I can reduce the amount of files within any given template set to no more than 4, Maybe even only 3! Those being header.template, main.template and footer.template and the style.css for that template.

All the other template files would reside as I say in the default folder. To do this somehow I would need to make sure that all the required template files are gathered first and then the styling is applied from the 'name of template' css. This means that the css for each template set becomes the key to the styling of each template. One of the difficulties I see in this is with the use of 3 column templates but I think I know a way to overcome that though it would mean the addition of a second 'panel.template' sourced say via the main or footer.template.

It also means that the css values would be standardised, meaning that though values such as background image/color width/heights etc could be changed the actual id or class name would need to remain the same irrespective of the template. This means the only files that could be directly changed for styling is the 3 or 4 mentioned above..

i.e. say for example post.template the content div would need to use the value #content in the css for any styling to take effect from the 'name-of-template/templates/css otherwise the system will fall back on the default css which would also reside in the default template folder.

The standard header/two column could easily be styled simply by using just one panel.template for the navigation bar. As I say I'm still working on the idea and as I'm really busy with real world work at the moment the project has been put on a bit of a hold but hopefully over the winter I'll get more time. Soon as I have a working version - I'll post on it in the template development forum.

btw - the errors I'm getting seem to be with the loader

Code: Select all

Warning: include(C:\wamp\www\lifetype/class/object/smartloader.class.php) [function.include]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in C:\wamp\www\lifetype\class\object\loader.class.php on line 7

Warning: include() [function.include]: Failed opening 'C:\wamp\www\lifetype/class/object/smartloader.class.php' for inclusion (include_path='.;C:\php5\pear') in C:\wamp\www\lifetype\class\object\loader.class.php on line 7

I'm using wamp on a windows xp pro machine ....


All in all though - me likes when do we get it? lol

I recently checked out my code from svn and I didn't get that error. Did you really check out 'trunk'? What if you delete the current version and check it out again? I know smartloader.class.php was there for a while but it was removed a while ago, perhaps the svn client got confused.[/quote]

Pretty sure it was the trunk I got - I'll check the latest svn out later in the week or during the month as I say I'm kinda busy right now these days - soon as I get time I'll have another look....

[Nomad]

Ah! I've found it! Or the idea I was harping on about...

ok have a look at this -> http://psyc.horm.org/

This is a template generator. It's what i was thinking of. With this a user could easily customise there template in there control panel and obviously when it's viewed normally we just see the template...

I have no idea of how to implement something like this but this is exactly what I was thinking of or was trying to describe..

As far as I can see that is exactly what Lifetype needs to take it above the rest! (Not that it isn't already).

I think with the current template system, the ability to add custom templates for advanced users and that as a third option for novice users - i.e. giving the third option would be the Cherry on top of the cake so to speak for Lifetype...


what you think guys?


edit: I have a friend who is a wizard with this kind of stuff php etc - I've asked him to look at it - maybe as a plugin type of setup..

Will keep ye posted on it. I really do think this is the way to go....
p.s. sorry I haven't been around - been so busy with life at the moment

[ogd39]

+1
this would be a very interesting tool!

[Nomad]

+1
this would be a very interesting tool!

Well (with help from a mate of mine) hopefully we'll have a plugin by the end of this month (jan 2008) fingers crossed

[cactusman]

I wanted to create a new message to ask if it was possible to create a template editor like this one. This is the kind of stuff we can find in Blogger and some other blog plateform.
I created a lot of templates but many users still want their own design and most of them doesn't know anything about programming.

Would be absolutely great to have this kind of thing !