I wanted to point out a few things that I've learned during the first wave
of the OOTB theming project, as I'm seeing some trends. In some cases, I may
be completely off base, but I'd love to throw these out for feedback.

1) We need a readme for all of our themes that give guidelines on the kinds
of things that should be included (how to install, contact information,
prerequisites, browsers it was tested against, licensing, etc.). There's
apparently one for WordPress that we could pretty easily Plone-ify with some
input. This would be included as part of the paster template.

2) We need an instruction set on plone.org that advocates best practices.
We're collecting this information now.

3) In inspecting a lot of the themes going past, I'm noticing that there are
css and theming-related files turning up in both a skins directory and the
browser directory. Personally, I don't see the value of having theming stuff
inside the browser directory, and we're ending up with a lot of empty, junky
stylesheets. It feels like mixing apples and oranges, and I'd like to see
the theming stuff wind up only in the skins folder. This would mean a change
to the paster template.

4) In addition to #3, I realized that the plone stylesheets are pulled in
very nebulously by buildout, and the only way to gain access to these
stylesheets is by referencing an old non-buildout installation of the site.
This is especially problematic for new themers who won't have the historical
knowledge of what stylesheets are available to them. I'd like to either a)
alter the paster theme recipe so that those themes are pulled into each and
every theme, or b) provide a resource to make those available to themers.

5) I'm not very satisfied with the current solution the paster template uses
to override public.css or base.css (nor do I like the fact that it overrides
these in the first place). It needs to be optional, and more cleanly
handled. I'd like to see better instructions on how to override plone css
files (ie, via the stylesheets.xml file). There's too much magic in it right
now and empty stylesheets feel like clutter.

6) I'd like any generated css files to support dtml out of the box.

7) I'd like there to be a theming champion for the long haul who can review
themes for correctness, much like we want editors for various sections of
the Documentation area. A theme submission process would be necessary, but I
don't want to see things get backlogged, so this could be optional.

8) I'd like to see sitemap styling pulled out into its own stylesheet.
Either that, or clean up the base plone.css so it's not so unattractive out
of the box.

9) Favicon addition would be something neat that could be added via the new
CSS Manager product, perhaps?

10) @@manage-viewlets window desperately needs to be enhanced so that for
complex themes, it's easy to see the pieces and parts you're dealing with.
With a complex theme, items often run over each other and it's hard to read
/ move items. On a super-wish-list, it would be nice to use this area to
actually create / manage viewlets, but that's a product amongst itself.

Many more ideas coming, I just had to get these out of my head. Thoughts on
these? 

Thanks,

- Veda


------------------------
Veda Williams
Project Manager/Skinner
ONE/Northwest

New tools and strategies for engaging people in protecting the environment

veda@...
http://www.onenw.org
Skype ID: vedawms
Phone: 206.286-1235 x24
Fax: 206.260.2737

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