Hiya Theme Developers!

With module development starting to go in the right direction, least we are now off the Bottom rung of the ladder and hopefully we will start climbing that long way to the top. I know that the modules we have started with are old versions, but the move to blue will help developers to understand the current core much better and hopefully this will help them create better modules for everyone, they how ever need theme developers help to create better looking interfaces than these older modules have.

So how can you help? We need you to be creative and explore new ways of presenting these older modules, there is no point in us developers giving the code the make over and still hashing out the same old looking module right? So while we are doing our bit to help improve the over all quality of modules, can we expect the same for you theme, template developers? So far we have one up on you and the ball is in your court, so? You game?

If you are, lets see what you go to offer!

Catz

To be honest, I saw this thread last month and was wondering how designers would react on this. As no one wants to react, I just want to give my piece of mind.
The current structure of designing a theme for XOOPS and it's common modules is easy, sure, but making all modules visually compatible to a theme is a war you can't win. A big step was introducing, the odd, even, outer classes. Alot of modules addapted this standard of displaying content, but was/is really limited. For instance, you don't want your forum to look like a news article or wiki entry.

Another limitation I experienced (design wise) is the lack of total freedom when you use XOOPS in combination with modules. I can't move content around at places where I want them to be. For instance: If I prepare a news article explaining about a new download I can't display the download in it's full glory next to the news article. The current XOOPS setup, as it is modular, is not flexible. Yeah I can use blocks, ofcourse, but they are often very limited, limited as in diplaying content.

Do I have a solution?
No, not really. I do can bring/discuss some experience I had with other cms/blog systems. I'm not going to help in developing module templates for module builders, as I see it a wast of time creating 20+ module tempates that potentially look wrong in 100+ theme designs. But maybe this post can bring a discussion to life.

So much for now,...

So, thanks to mamba showing me the link to this threat.

First we have to find a standart for css classes more than the odd, even, head and so on. I think it´s limited.

But it will be the best way when a module developer and a designer are working together on a module. At the moment, and sorry that I´m honest, 90% of all templates are ugly or unclearly.

And all templates have to become tabeless for faster loading and that XOOPS is able to get validated for W3C. At the moment there are a lot of pormlems if I´m not overwork XOOPS by myself to get a theme or template validated.

I´m up for it, i have time and I´m able to help to make better templates.

So module developer, send me an email

Quote:

You haven't seen mine! Interpretation is up to you.

What gives me more headaches at the moment are the xoopsform-elements. They are really outdated and should be moved to the next level.

Going back the DOM tree just to hide form elements could be easier.



It works, but this could be done easier.

@AxelF: as a talented theme designer this would be a task for you I guess. hinthint

Quote:
We are planning to move to Article as our main Knowledge Base. The current templates are not very pretty and therefore the module is not user friendly.

If you could take this module and make it a showcase of what could be done, it would be terrific!!!

And anybody else who could help with making this module a showcase of usability, please join the effort.

LOL frankblack, it´s true, I think I don´t know your templates

@ Mamba,

let me have a look for the Articels Module. But I´m a freind to have an own template for my site. And for Xoops.org we have to make a template what will work perfect together with the new design. Have a look to theme discussion, there is an exampßle in my news example.