Responsive Themes Boilerplate

[sfoster]

Hello All,

Just wondered if if it was possible for Frog to share with us (schools) a boilerplate for the responsive themes so that schools can create their own from the templates.

Also, I do recall some time ago being promised that we would be able to create, validate and upload our own themes onto the platform directly.  At present we are still using the old standalone theme checker and having to sent themes over to Frog to be installed onto the platform for us - Has this piece of work been shelved?  

Is anyone still activity creating / designing themes?  There was a huge buzz a couple of years ago but it seems to have all but disappeared....

Simon

Edited July 3, 2017 by sfoster

[Graham Quince]

Hi @Chris.Smith

Actually, we've bypassed FrogCode.  The new theme building tutorial uses a special theme and the HTML widget:

https://www.frogcommunity.com/theme 

[Graham Quince]

Hi Simon

The Themes tutorial was updated with a responsive theme:

https://frog.frogcommunity.com/themebuilding 

Graham

[sfoster]

Hi Graham,

I can't see what has been updated apart from the title?  The Design Guide is the same and there is no Boilerplate template for responsive themes?

Simon

 

 

[Graham Quince]

I see what you mean. However the theme itself is mobile responsive when it's uploaded to FrogLearn.

I think what we're seeing here is a clash between the old theme builder and more up-to-date scripts for mobile responsiveness.   I'm starting to think what we need is a method for running a theme .ejs script inside Frog.

@Chris.Smith - if i upload the contents of a theme to a FrogCode app, would I be able to preview it?  i feel like it would still be missing elements.

[Graham Quince]

Just been talking to the design guys here.  I'm wondering if a better option for creating themes would be to use a blank theme on a site with the HTML widget.  We could provide the boilerplate code and you'd be able to edit the CSS to get the theme looking the way you want it, then using something like Notepad++, you could do a find-and-replace on the class name and zip the theme up with any images and contact the service desk.

In theory, this would give you a better editing experience.  I'll try it out when i'm free and let you know.

[sfoster]

@sclough - Any thoughts on this?  Perhaps give it a try....

[sclough]

It's worth trying. We'd need some boilerplate code first.

I just started created a new site with the blank theme but we'd need the default theme CSS to get started properly.

[Graham Quince]

I've put in a request for a theme for this, but the guys are quite busy at the moment, so it might take a couple of weeks.

In the meantime, Basic Theme - Navigation Only is a pretty empty theme.

The primary class is .ui-theme-basicnavigation

So, if you download the example theme and run a find-and-replace on the theme class, then paste the CSS elements into an HTML widget on a site with this theme, you should be able to see changes live.  

This theme isn't ideal as it doesn't have the title and description, but this is just for proof of concept.

[sclough]

@Graham Quince I was having a look at the Blank Theme - Navigation Only yesterday, and it does have a title, it's just set to display: none; and visibility: hidden.

Would it be possible to get the base CSS for this theme? Then I could start designing a new theme from this blank template.

 

 

[sclough]

@Graham Quince Please ignore that last message. I can get the styling from the console.

[Chris.Smith]

On 03/07/2017 at 15:31, sfoster said:

Hello All,

Just wondered if if it was possible for Frog to share with us (schools) a boilerplate for the responsive themes so that schools can create their own from the templates.

Also, I do recall some time ago being promised that we would be able to create, validate and upload our own themes onto the platform directly.  At present we are still using the old standalone theme checker and having to sent themes over to Frog to be installed onto the platform for us - Has this piece of work been shelved?  

Is anyone still activity creating / designing themes?  There was a huge buzz a couple of years ago but it seems to have all but disappeared....

Simon

 

On 04/07/2017 at 09:57, Graham Quince said:

I see what you mean. However the theme itself is mobile responsive when it's uploaded to FrogLearn.

I think what we're seeing here is a clash between the old theme builder and more up-to-date scripts for mobile responsiveness.   I'm starting to think what we need is a method for running a theme .ejs script inside Frog.

@Chris.Smith - if i upload the contents of a theme to a FrogCode app, would I be able to preview it?  i feel like it would still be missing elements.

@sfoster - The work hasn't been shelved... I still intend to add the ability for you to develop themes inside of FrogCode and add them to the system yourself; however there is more demand for other features than for themes. That being said, the people who want other things will probably also want themes as well. If it's not already on the ideas portal please create the idea and get as many people as you can up-vote it. The more noise there is, the more it is likely to get to the top of the page.

@Graham Quince - It won't work. Also can you co-ordinate with @sfoster with regards to the Ideas portal.

 

~ Chris