[drupal-devel] [feature] Enable multiple block regions (not just "left" and "right" sidebars)

[Dries Buytaert]

On 22 Jul 2005, at 00:31, Boris Mann wrote:
> The very fact that we are talking about removing existing  
> functionality seems to suggest to me that this is being approached  
> wrong.

There is nothing wrong with (i) removing existing functionality when  
it makes sense to and (ii) there is nothing wrong with talking about  
removing existing functionality.  For many of us, it doesn't appear  
to make sense though.

> I say, have the theme define it's regions, and drive the block  
> admin page. Essentially, two modes of operation. If there is a  
> block.admin.php (or whatever) in the theme, use that. Otherwise,  
> fall back to defaults (which might just be left/right). Heck, I can  
> see options where I put complicated logic in a theme and/or block  
> admin section to allow users to control what blocks appear on their  
> user page.

That is what the patch does (see issue): a theme exports its regions  
to the block administration page.  Right now, all regions are  
aggregated into one block administration page and you can assign each  
block to one region accross all themes.  If a theme doesn't implement  
the selected region, the block goes to the theme's default region.   
This (i) results in confusion and (ii) has some limitations for multi- 
theme support.  The solution would be to clone the block  
administration for each theme, but that gets messy too.   
Alternatively, we could move the 'Location' settings from the main  
block administration page to the blocks' individual configuration  
pages, and provide one selection menu for each theme.  It's somewhat  
tedious to administer but it would solve most of the problems.

--
Dries Buytaert  ::  http://www.buytaert.net/