[themes] Theme generator

[Gunnar Langemark]

I have discussed theme engines like that before.
I posted because I thought that a little more control in the hands of 
the user would be good, but then was swept away by my own imagination. :-)

I think it would be wise to differentiate between at least two kinds of 
users:

A consultant with no real design skills, but with a need to do some 
"theme tweaking" in customers installation. Online theme editor would 
enable much easier consulting - online - at a 2000 miles distance.

An end user with a need/urge to "fiddle" with the design - more or less 
a "skinning" exercise - for the fun of it.

Those who would not be in the target group: Professional 
designer/consultant.
You have no need doing any more than providing a simple theme framework 
for them. They design in Photoshop, Illustrator, Fireworks, Dreamweaver 
etc. They do not change tools - even if what they come up with in the 
end could be achieved by a super theme.


I also think that the project must differentiate between at least two 
levels of sophistication:

"Skinning" - where what you change is colors, graphics and perhaps a 
little layout. This can be done almost entirely by css. So actually I 
think it should be a "css-module" in its own right. Selecting a color 
scheme etc. It could provide a "skinning block" and a "skin-mixer/roulette"
 if anybody else understand what I mean by that.
 
"Theming" - where you can do real layout. Having different kinds of 
content in different areas, and interactively more these areas in the 
interface (scale, drag, drop - square marking the relative position and 
size of a content area). This can be done in AJAX if there are any 
takers. I believe this is probably a phase two thing, as it is more 
sophisticated.

I envisioned a kind of "skin/theme-exchange". That could be a phase 
three. It would probably mean that you'd need some kind of XML scheme to 
support the exchange. It would be cool, but.... It could be the feature 
which would make Drupal explode as a blogging/personal home page 
platform. Some peole love to change their site design - and being able 
to automatically download and change theme - with no real effort/skills 
whatsoever, would probably prove very popular. It could also prove to be 
pure eye-candy, worthless sillyness.

Best
Gunnar
 
Khalid B wrote:
> Link to original discussion on super theme (or rather a proper theme
> customizer).
>
> http://lists.drupal.org/archives/themes/2006-01/msg00005.html
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> http://lists.drupal.org/mailman/listinfo/themes
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