The Joomla!^® User Experience Portal

The main trick of a blank, or perhaps a "Design Template" template, is not just that it has no styling (or just enough to make it work), but that it also has all the main styles ready to accept values.

So, you want clearly labelled style sheets with:

.item {
}
.item-page {
}

and so on - broken down into logical groups.

Then a big instruction that says "Once you have done all the styling, delete what you didn't use!"

Having everything ready to fill in the gaps is not just for newcomers, but speeds things up for experienced designers too. I have written loads of Joomla style sheets, and I can NEVER remember which is what!

Inspired wrote:


This is a great goal for the one joomla frontend template.

Custom files - these files you can edit in backend like index.php or template.css - should not be subject of the (Joomla) update and have to be coded almost empty.

Bloggerschmidt wrote:

I don't agree on this point because I believe that the markup we present should be capable of serving as a teaching tool, an example of best practice. There has to be enough there to guide new developers and allow them something to work with, adapt and learn from.

How many of us would have the understanding of template mechanics we do today without examples like Beez that we could learn from?

Inspired wrote:


I think, an example template should be installable during the installation of Joomla like example content. If I install a blank Joomla I wish a blank template. So, maybe two templates are the right way.

Inspired wrote:


I agree.

Thinking about templates as as marketing factor is also important.

This sort of comes back to something I was discussing elsewhere about installing whole site templates that contain plugins, components, modules, content, templates, forms, whatever.

So, when you start the Joomla install wizard you can choose:

Install clean developer version - 1 framework template ready to have stuff filled in, main css classes for Joomla framework plus good starter typography classes, though all blank, nothing else.

Install Starter Version - Much as is now with one or two usable basic templates, ready to go

Install Tutorial Version - As now with sample content and perhaps useful stuff in the back end to get you going. Heavily commented template, list of main CSS classes, walk throughs - anything that helps and is current to the version

Download and install Template Package - This one would be a third party developed template package with additional plugins and so on. Maybe free, maybe bought, but it is intentionally designed to be installed during the Joomla Installation process. Choosing this option would take you to an upload form to upload the package.

The point is, I suppose, it is better to create a system where a person can choose the flavour of Joomla they want to install, rather than run in circles trying to second guess thousands of different users.

This sounds like the Square One roadmap

Hello,
Speaking of Square One...

I really appreciate the cleanest possible start to my Joomla sites. I use Blank Joomla template (www.blankjoomlatemplate.com/) as my site template, for example.

I also use Seblod for all my Joomla development.

Square One seems like the next logical step -- clean up the core Joomla installation.

Does anyone have information about how Square One works with Seblod? I've tested it a bit, and it seems fine. But I'm wondering about long-term development.

Thanks,
Matthew