[RFC] Include barebone template with every release

[ecwpa]

To be honest I'm not too familiar with template inheritance, if I mantain a few templates and a new version of phpBB is released, how that helps me to update my templates?

As far as I know, every time a new release is published I have to download the full package of phpBB, then check which files were updated inside ProSilver or doing the manual search and replace method, which takes a lot of time.

[tbackoff]

To be honest I'm not too familiar with template inheritance, if I mantain a few templates and a new version of phpBB is released, how that helps me to update my templates?

https://blog.phpbb.com/2008/07/31/templ ... ot-easier/

[Un1matr1x]

As far as I know, every time a new release is published I have to download the full package of phpBB, then check which files were updated inside ProSilver ...

That's way to much ... https://www.phpbb.com/downloads/?from=submenu

[ CODE CHANGES ]
The code changes package contains language and style changes that have taken place since previous releases of phpBB. It does not include changes made to other files. You may find this helpful if you are updating a style or language pack.

TO DOWNLOAD THIS PACKAGE, YOU MUST FIRST SELECT YOUR CURRENT PHPBB VERSION.

If you can't use template inheritance for some reasons

[Oleg]

I like the idea of a barebones template as a foundation for style authors to build something other than prosilver with different colors/whitespace.

With that, I have no idea what a "barebones template" is supposed to look like. Any examples from other projects?

[ecwpa]

Like this?. That was more or less what I was looking for but it was abandoned in 2010.

Here's a screenshot:

[EXreaction]

To me, that looks like prosilver with some CSS for structure, but no color CSS.

[Arty]

It is a good idea, but not for current phpBB.

Barebones style would be awesome if we had:
- Only 1 main style, so barebones style could be main parent style and every other style would inherit from it.
- Style inheritance would apply to all style components, including CSS and images. Unfortunately it applies only to templates and JavaScript files.

I think this should be implemented for phpBB 4.

[ecwpa]

To me, that looks like prosilver with some CSS for structure, but no color CSS.

That's because it was abandoned. The "final" barebone template wouldn't look nice at all because it shouldn't have any structure.

It is a good idea, but not for current phpBB.

Barebones style would be awesome if we had:
- Only 1 main style, so barebones style could be main parent style and every other style would inherit from it.
- Style inheritance would apply to all style components, including CSS and images. Unfortunately it applies only to templates and JavaScript files.

I think this should be implemented for phpBB 4.

Yeah, I'd love too see that in phpBB4.

But I still think it would be great to have a blank template to start working without worring if there's a new release a week later, and then you have to go through all Prosilver subfolder taking out files you don't use again, it should also be a template that doesn't have references to images at all, just text.

[hanakin]

Not really sure as to weather or not this is beneficial or not. I agree we need a new theme one from scratch that is actually thought out from a moden persecutive. If this is done right then a barbone really is not all that useful. If your going to make a new theme it might as well be a brand new one.

To better clarify for everyone else what i think ecwpa is referring.

Currently with PHPBB the styles are broken up in files based on what they style with random classes and selectors thrown all over the place with no real thought behind them. This leads to countless redundancy and overuse of css and classes in the markup.

For example when I work on a web application or site I have essentially 4-5 different files (not exact since I use Less but thats the gist)

1. Reset - normalize the way browsers render everything
2. Base - simple html selector global styling for content IE: a,p,h1,small etc....
3. Layout - structure of the site. This is where the grid elements reside
4. Modules - every part of a web site can be broken down into individual elements , these share common styling so we create a module to address these to allow for less code and easier maintenance
5. Utilites - additional styles for added benefits

a final theme such as prosilver would include all of these. As well as use them in the HTML template files.

For a barbone you would only have the first two possibly the third but it would not be utilized fully and the HTML would only include those classes from the these files that were absolutely necessary.

This would keep the template files extremely clean and easier to manage. IE: Their would be no classes for the sake of describing a block of HTML such as forumlist or topiclist included.

The rendered result would look slight better than serving no CSS. There would be no structure other than type

Pro:
This would allow actual talented front-end designers to make new themes rather than repurpose one as the css is solely in their hands ad so is the design.

Con:
This would require an entire new theme from scratch to be effective and you might as well just complete it fully at that point.

It is a good idea, but not for current phpBB.

Barebones style would be awesome if we had:
- Only 1 main style, so barebones style could be main parent style and every other style would inherit from it.
- Style inheritance would apply to all style components, including CSS and images. Unfortunately it applies only to templates and JavaScript files.

I think this should be implemented for phpBB 4.

Agree will be a lot easier and better with PHPBB4
However their is nothing stoping anyone from tackling this and getting it released as a custom style. I only say that as someone who has started a custom project because I dont personally fell like waiting for 4 lol