[wishes] mod administrator

[Piwaille]

snap for less being long...send my explaination here :

http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=79104.msg528535#msg528535

It would' be great if every mod could be installed on each theme I offer for my customers
It would be great if, when I install a new theme (I'm waiting for the P theme which is very very nice) It is patched with all the mods I've already installed.

How I see the job :

* a new branch to be put before the <file name="$themedir/XXX.php"> statement
it could be a <all_theme_loop>
it makes a loop where $themedir will be replaced with every theme installed on the forum
if there is no loop, the themedir could be initialized with the value it has now (i mean .../Themes/default )

* when the install encounter the loop.... it execute with every value of every theme so every theme can be moded (all the

(hardest)
* every package installed could be referenced into the database instead of read on the server's dir
Doing so, the package installer could remember the order of installation (usefull when a package require an other one)
* when installing a new theme, the installer could read every package allready installed (I mean every modification file) looking for the <all_theme_loop> statement
If found, the installer has to apply the modifications for the new theme ... so it is moded as soon as installed

I know, it's some extra work to do... may be you already have it on your roadmap ?
I was so disappointed and it misses so little for SMF being THE ultimate forum...

right now, I can't help developping ... I just can give you my idea
so it's my contribution for now

[Sheepy]

The proposal is the same as requesting all theme to use same code and changes perhaps only CSS info.  This is understandably impossible.

SMF is not Zen Garden.  Even if it is, there's no guarentee that theme creators are that skillful in CSS, and you ultimately lost flexibility.  Even Zend Garden looks mostly the same after a while.


The team has looked at this issue before, and will keep looking into it, but so far there's little progress so don't expect any good solution soon, if ever.

If you ask me, the only way this can be improved is by rewriting the whole template system with "modabiliy" in mind with an astonishing degree of abstraction and thus at dear cost of performance.  And this will surely invalidate all themes and mods and whether the improvement is worth the change is questionable at best.

[Piwaille]

The proposal is the same as requesting all theme to use same code and changes perhaps only CSS info.

I don't think so....
I do understand It will be quite difficult, I've seen it will be un usable for certain mod on certain themes...
that's why if the <all_theme_loop> is not stated, it should only apply on the default (which is already an error as I said because which one is the default ?).

When I want to make french translation fo one mod... I want to applys to every themedir/languages/XX.french.php
such a loop would be nice

When I want to put something like a XiTi counter, I'm just looking for the </body> in every theme
I do realize, it could be hard job for little (at least not universal) interest...
but I'm conviced it could worth de value.

[Deaks]

you can use modes on all the themes well most you just have to customise the theme to fit these, most times the user can simply do this as most are coded similar as alot of themes are based of eiher the default or babylon (speaking as though people are using RC2) and even YabbSE for smf theme.

The  problem comes when themes are coded from scratch and even though have similar properties to the above they are diferent.

So when someone installs a mod and it involves changing the theme in itself the mod could prob change the look of the theme by iunserting the data in the wrong place.

(I hope this makes sense to you)

Edit  Its also a waste of time for people like myself who make themes to add the required coding etc as everybody uses different mods and to accomodate for the amount of mods out there, would put people releasing themes off.

[Coar]

one of the things i did in the mod i built (thanks to the devs and mod devs for some coding pointers) was to use the $themes_dir variable ($themes_dir/babylon and $themes_dir/classic) in conjunction with the error="skip" flag so that it would apply the mod to the prepackaged themes if they still had them, and it would skip it if they didnt.

my line of code looks something like this:

Koodi [Valitse] Laajenna

<file name="$themes_dir/babylon/Display.template.php" error="skip">

based on those two pieces of coding, i dont know why it would be any trouble to copy-paste the change to the default theme and apply it to the other two themes by default, should those files exist

i DO understand, however, that making changes to non-default themes would be significantly harder, and would requre a custom build, which is fine. I also understand that most mod builders dont want to invest the time to make custom builds, which is also fine.