DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE]

DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE] Migration 6.2 Daemon 5/9/14 7:45 AM
RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE] Daniel M. Ingram 5/7/14 2:49 PM
RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE] Daniel M. Ingram 5/8/14 4:08 PM
RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE] Daniel M. Ingram 5/9/14 12:11 AM
RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE] Beoman Claudiu Dragon Emu Fire Golem 5/9/14 11:40 AM
RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE] Daniel M. Ingram 5/9/14 11:13 PM
RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE] John M. 5/9/14 11:31 PM
RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE] Daniel M. Ingram 5/10/14 3:18 AM
RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE] Max L 5/10/14 12:25 PM
RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE] John M. 5/10/14 1:12 PM
RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE] Daniel M. Ingram 5/10/14 7:53 PM
RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE] Daniel M. Ingram 5/10/14 11:27 PM
RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE] Daniel M. Ingram 5/11/14 4:52 AM
RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE] Derek 5/16/14 4:50 PM
RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE] Max L 5/16/14 5:21 PM
RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE] Derek 5/16/14 6:04 PM
RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE] Derek 6/7/14 7:18 AM
RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE] Daniel M. Ingram 5/17/14 2:31 AM
RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE] John M. 5/9/14 10:32 PM
RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE] John M. 5/12/14 9:19 PM
RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE] Daniel M. Ingram 5/13/14 4:10 AM
RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE] Max L 5/13/14 2:51 PM
RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE] John M. 5/13/14 3:28 PM
RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE] Max L 5/13/14 4:41 PM
RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE] John M. 5/14/14 4:19 PM
RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE] John M. 5/21/14 9:50 PM
RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE] Derek 5/22/14 12:26 AM
RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE] Daniel M. Ingram 5/22/14 12:35 AM
RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE] John M. 5/22/14 12:54 AM
RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE] John M. 6/11/14 11:26 AM
RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE] John M. 5/22/14 12:59 AM
RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE] Max L 5/22/14 8:29 PM
RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE] John M. 6/11/14 11:12 AM
RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE] Max L 6/13/14 2:19 AM
RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE] John M. 6/13/14 7:51 AM
RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE] Max L 7/1/14 1:16 PM
RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE] John M. 7/4/14 11:00 PM
RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE] Max L 7/5/14 12:33 AM
RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE] John M. 7/5/14 12:45 AM
RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE] Max L 7/5/14 11:46 PM
RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE] Tom O. 6/10/14 4:20 PM
RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE] John M. 6/11/14 11:14 AM
Migration 62 Daemon, modified 9 Years ago at 5/9/14 7:45 AM
Created 9 Years ago at 5/7/14 4:48 AM

DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE]

Posts: 66 Join Date: 5/7/14 Recent Posts
DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram]


Daniel M. Ingram - 2014-05-04 22:13:12 - DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available?

We are finally really close I need someone who can update the DhO theme for Liferay 6.2 and make sure it works with mobile devices, something that was not present in the current version 5.2.

If there is a designer out there who can tweak the theme just a bit to make it a bit more modern while keeping the basic DhO feel (such that people will recognize the place when they get there), but which will make it a bit more, well, something better, then I have a coder who has volunteered to implement the design they come up with.

The current theme could just be updated to work with 6.2, if someone just wants to do that, as that would do. However, I have this odd notion that there might be a way to make the theme just a bit more appealing and a bit more coherent.

Liferay uses CSS.

Let me know if you are interested.

Daniel
Dharma Overgound Underlord
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Daniel M Ingram, modified 9 Years ago at 5/7/14 2:49 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 5/7/14 2:49 PM

RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE]

Posts: 3268 Join Date: 4/20/09 Recent Posts
Bump.
Anyone had a vision of how the DhO could look that would still be recognizable as the DhO but wouldn't look quite so much like something that crawled out of a 1973-style wood-paneled basement?
Volunteers are welcome.
As I kinda can't stand the boring nature of this theme, if nobody comes forward I will simply hire a designer to design it, like probably tomorrow.
Max has offered to code it if someone can design it.
Thanks,
Daniel
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Daniel M Ingram, modified 9 Years ago at 5/8/14 4:08 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 5/8/14 4:08 PM

RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE]

Posts: 3268 Join Date: 4/20/09 Recent Posts
Expect Theme variability as we play with options.
Anyone know the CSS codes for the colors sea-mist, lilac and taupe?
Just kidding...
Daniel
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Daniel M Ingram, modified 9 Years ago at 5/9/14 12:11 AM
Created 9 Years ago at 5/9/14 12:11 AM

RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE]

Posts: 3268 Join Date: 4/20/09 Recent Posts
Still nobody? No web designers out there willing to help create a design that Max can turn into CSS?

I may just keep bumping this up until someone volunteers... there has to be someone out there in this tech-savvy and creative community that has thought about how much better this place could be if only the theme... something.

Daniel
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Beoman Claudiu Dragon Emu Fire Golem, modified 9 Years ago at 5/9/14 11:40 AM
Created 9 Years ago at 5/9/14 11:40 AM

RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE]

Posts: 2227 Join Date: 10/27/10 Recent Posts
Not for me, I am a tech guy not a designer! Just wanted to reply with something to not leave this thread so barren =).
John M, modified 9 Years ago at 5/9/14 10:32 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 5/9/14 10:29 PM

RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE]

Posts: 135 Join Date: 2/11/12 Recent Posts
Hey Daniel, I'd be happy to take a swing at it*. I've worked with front-end development for a number of years and am comfortable most anywhere on the production spectrum. If you only need design-centric spec sheets and supporting graphics, that's cool. If assistance with revising markup and producing associated styles is also needed, that's cool too. Consider me flexible on how the work load is divvied up.

Are any of the original graphics / logo / style sheets available anywhere for reference? It would be nice, as you've noted, to tie the old and new together to some degree. Maybe coming down a bit lighter on the custodian-corkboard-chic, though.

* the standard you-can't-please-everyone disclaimers apply

Edit: for anyone using StyleBot or similar extensions, here's a quick catch-all rule to help with the present theme's current readability issues:

.thread-body {
    color: #444;
    font-size: 15px;
    font-family: arial;
}
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Daniel M Ingram, modified 9 Years ago at 5/9/14 11:13 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 5/9/14 11:13 PM

RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE]

Posts: 3268 Join Date: 4/20/09 Recent Posts
Great!

Here's the blurb I sent my friend Judith who hasn't gotten back to me about this, so perhaps the job will fall to you.

"The new stock theme we are using until we get something better is totally generic and boring. The old theme (based on the free Liferay 5.1/5.2 theme Natural Essence (attached) and called Dharma Essence) was thrown together quickly by a coder and did have a certain Web 1.0 charm about it crossed with reminiscence of wood-paneled basements from the 1970's, but it is time for a change.

The heart of the site is the Discussion/Forum section, so optimizing the style for that is key.

What I want is something that is more simple, less clunky, more clean and inviting while still in some way conveying the basic playful military rebelliousness of the Dharma Overground (which started out as the Dharma Underground), and still need some version of the stencil logo (the font is called Top Secret, I have it somewhere), as people have come to expect it. Color scheme should be similar in some way but need not be the same. That it be very readable is of primary importance, as posts are often long.

Over the years numerous people both male and female have commented that the theme somehow wasn't female-friendly. I am not particularly sure it was really anyone-friendly, in all honesty, but that is beside the point. I hate to delve into any such broad categorizations, stereotypes, or similar realms of gross generalization, but perhaps they have some point. If there is truth to their theory, it is a deficiency I would love to have remedied.

Liferay now supports responsive themes that allow it to transform on mobile devices. It would be good to take advantage of this."

Max says he can code it, so that is good.

I am free until Monday most of the time, so let me know if you want to talk about this or whatever,

Daniel
John M, modified 9 Years ago at 5/9/14 11:31 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 5/9/14 11:31 PM

RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE]

Posts: 135 Join Date: 2/11/12 Recent Posts
Google has my back for both the font and the Liferay theme, so no problems where reference material is concerned. The direction you've provided is clear as well. I'll wait on marching orders for now.
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Daniel M Ingram, modified 9 Years ago at 5/10/14 3:18 AM
Created 9 Years ago at 5/10/14 3:18 AM

RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE]

Posts: 3268 Join Date: 4/20/09 Recent Posts
If you want to try to come up with a design, by all means, go for it, post a mockup of it here, and we can all take a look and see what we think. That would be really helpful.
Max L, modified 9 Years ago at 5/10/14 12:25 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 5/10/14 12:25 PM

RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE]

Posts: 19 Join Date: 5/4/14 Recent Posts
John, I'm happy to handle either the task of going from mockup PSD(s) to theme, or from CSS + assets to theme. Let's go with Daniel's suggestion and start with a mockup, and see how people are doing on available time at that point?
John M, modified 9 Years ago at 5/10/14 1:12 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 5/10/14 1:12 PM

RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE]

Posts: 135 Join Date: 2/11/12 Recent Posts
Sounds good. My time is somewhat limited this weekend but I should be able to get the ball rolling early into next week.
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Daniel M Ingram, modified 9 Years ago at 5/10/14 7:53 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 5/10/14 7:53 PM

RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE]

Posts: 3268 Join Date: 4/20/09 Recent Posts
Nice logo!

Thanks!
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Daniel M Ingram, modified 9 Years ago at 5/10/14 11:27 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 5/10/14 11:27 PM

RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE]

Posts: 3268 Join Date: 4/20/09 Recent Posts
Actually, I am beginning to like the font and some other aspects of this, but I now think would look a bit better are:

Make the font for posts a bit darker: it is a bit hard to read being so light.

Get rid of the flags if you can.

See if you can tighten up the top a bit: one is halfway down the page before one gets to the good stuff, so it would be cool to move the things up there a bit closer to each other.

Just my thoughts.

Thanks again for working on this.
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Daniel M Ingram, modified 9 Years ago at 5/11/14 4:52 AM
Created 9 Years ago at 5/11/14 4:52 AM

RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE]

Posts: 3268 Join Date: 4/20/09 Recent Posts
Nice tight top! Nice darker thread font! Yeah!

How are people liking the theme aspects of the place? I am actually liking it a lot. I think it is a lot cleaner. Anyone else have ideas?
John M, modified 9 Years ago at 5/12/14 9:19 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 5/12/14 9:14 PM

RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE]

Posts: 135 Join Date: 2/11/12 Recent Posts
Alright, I'm officially rolling on this. 

I've attached my first pass which is focused on tightening up the layout, fleshing out the visual hierarchy and (hopefully) addressing some usability issues. The mockup is of the main discussion display, as this is the most involved display and most of the changes are likely to trickle down. It's done in greyscale with no supporting imagery for now. In other words, it's super dull. Once we have the layout nailed down, I can begin to introduce the actual theme and presentation: supporting graphics, colour, font streamlining, etc.

A second version of the mockup includes some numbered markers for reference. Here are some quick thoughts re: the rationale behind some of these changes:

1) User menu. Essentially identical, but with the right alignment corrected to correspond with the forum margins.
2) Banner area. I've been pretty generous in allotting myself space to work with. Expect this to condense once we begin introducing the actual imagery.
3) Main site navigation. I wanted to beef this up a bit, not only to improve the visual hierarchy but to anchor the layout. Also, I'm using an "Active" state on the menu items as an indicator of current location. This would work to replace the giant <H1> currently in use (i.e. the large text that reads "Discussion Forum"), buying us some valuable real estate.
4) Search field. I noticed that the site search also pulls up forum results. As such, are both current fields needed? I've tucked a single search field into the main nav in the assumption that it is not. Let me know.
5) Second-tier nav. I'm playing with the idea of moving the current forum nav up into this area. This would help to condense things a bit vertically and also to consolidate them into related areas.
6) "Bread Crumb" navigation and thread title. Instead of a single "back" button that steps up the forum structure one click at a time. Not sure how doable this is, but it's a great deal more usable.
7) Thread-related functions. First, I've dumped the "View" buttons altogether. Here's my reasoning: the "tree" view is inherently broken, and collapsing the discussion tree (currently the little green arrow pointing right) in "combination" view essentially gives you "flat" view. So why not just default to combination view with an option to toggle the discussion tree? I've also replaced "Post New Thread" here with "Recent Posts," as this just made more sense to me and (I wager) is likely to see more use. These buttons will probably need to move a bit to accommodate longer thread titles.
8) Discussion tree display. I've moved the collapse button to the upper-right and given it what I feel to be a more appropriate icon. Also included table headers.
9) Post content. Not much to say here but I've included a note marker for related feedback.

Let me know where I've been too liberal with the machete, have introduced changes that will be difficult to implement, or have simply lost the plot altogether. I'll take that feedback and do another pass with those revisions in mind. I've got some neat ideas for the theme itself, I think, and am anxious to get on to the fun stuff!
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Daniel M Ingram, modified 9 Years ago at 5/13/14 4:10 AM
Created 9 Years ago at 5/13/14 4:10 AM

RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE]

Posts: 3268 Join Date: 4/20/09 Recent Posts
Nice! I like it a lot, particularly the mush demons...

Anyone else have thoughts?
Max L, modified 9 Years ago at 5/13/14 2:51 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 5/13/14 2:51 PM

RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE]

Posts: 19 Join Date: 5/4/14 Recent Posts
John, thanks for this great work. All of these points seem like worthwhile improvements. I actually experimented with dropping the second (lower) search box this weekend, for the same reason John expressed, but I left it in because the search results pages are different depending on which box you use, and the site search results page is kind of a cluster. So maybe some people are accustomed to or expecting the simpler forum search, I dunno.

 John, have you looked into whether these changes are actually supported in the liferay theme system? I admit that I haven't looked into it too deeply so I can't speak to this matter yet.
John M, modified 9 Years ago at 5/13/14 3:28 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 5/13/14 3:27 PM

RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE]

Posts: 135 Join Date: 2/11/12 Recent Posts
Max L:
 John, have you looked into whether these changes are actually supported in the liferay theme system? I admit that I haven't looked into it too deeply so I can't speak to this matter yet.


To be entirely honest I was hoping you might know! Is there someone else involved with the transition to 6.2 that might be able to shed some light on the matter?

My gut says that we'll necessarily be stepping outside of what the theme system can support. A number of these changes can be accomplished simply through the CSS, but ideally speaking we'd be able to work directly with the scripts that generate the markup itself. If it turns out that we're limited to CSS-only solutions, I can do another pass on the mockup with those limitation in mind.

The site-wide search is kind of a hot mess isn't it? I imagine that'll need attention at some point as well.
Max L, modified 9 Years ago at 5/13/14 4:41 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 5/13/14 4:41 PM

RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE]

Posts: 19 Join Date: 5/4/14 Recent Posts
I started to poke around the theming system during lunch today. From what I can gather, it seems that we can pretty much do whatever we want when it comes to modifying the layout-- the themes can include templates that get evaluated, via some templating DSL that I'm not familiar with, to generate the page markup. Moving stuff around or removing elements should be a relative piece of cake. More complex additions, like the breadcrumb header, would likely be way easier to implement if we can find existing themes that include that feature.

My feeling right now is that we should try to do as much as possible via pure CSS. Anything that requires modifying the templates will come with a much larger time investment. 
John M, modified 9 Years ago at 5/14/14 4:19 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 5/14/14 4:19 PM

RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE]

Posts: 135 Join Date: 2/11/12 Recent Posts
Awesome, thanks for looking into this. I'll move ahead with developing the theme itself and limit it to changes that I reckon are CSS-only, or require very few markup changes (adding a class or container element here and there).

For the meantime, do you have access to this fellow: 

http://www.dharmaoverground.org/pixelpress-theme/css/main.css

I think this is the style sheet responsible for the abysmal font rendering on the post-reply input field. If so, I believe adding adding the following will smarten it up:

body.html-editor {
    font-family: Arial;
    font-size: 15px;
}
Derek, modified 9 Years ago at 5/16/14 4:50 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 5/16/14 4:49 PM

RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE]

Posts: 326 Join Date: 7/21/10 Recent Posts
I see that the h1.site-title is set to use font-family:TopSecret, but that font isn't installed on most computers. As a result it renders in the default font on my PC. A font named Stencil, on the other hand, has been included with Windows for years.
Max L, modified 9 Years ago at 5/16/14 5:21 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 5/16/14 5:21 PM

RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE]

Posts: 19 Join Date: 5/4/14 Recent Posts
John-- Sadly, I cannot edit the CSS directly to make those changes, without rolling up an entirely new theme. I have been appending additional CSS rules (via a feature in the control panel) to make temporary fixes so the site is usable, but unfortunately these additional rules are not included in the iframe that the editor uses. 

Derek-- The site header that you refer to is just a temporary measure until we get a real theme implemented. It should be rendered in the proper font on modern browsers. Notably, Internet Explorer versions earlier than 9.0 will not use the custom font.
Derek, modified 9 Years ago at 5/16/14 6:04 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 5/16/14 6:04 PM

RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE]

Posts: 326 Join Date: 7/21/10 Recent Posts
Ah, yes, it displays as intended when I view the site on my newer computer.
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Daniel M Ingram, modified 9 Years ago at 5/17/14 2:31 AM
Created 9 Years ago at 5/17/14 2:31 AM

RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE]

Posts: 3268 Join Date: 4/20/09 Recent Posts
the old dho used a picture of the font instead of the font itself, I believe
that works on them all
d
John M, modified 9 Years ago at 5/21/14 9:50 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 5/21/14 9:50 PM

RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE]

Posts: 135 Join Date: 2/11/12 Recent Posts
Alright, round two. Apologies for the slow turnaround -- I have to admit to a certain amount of foot draggin'.

As far the colour scheme, some work needs to be done here to keep it from feeling so oppressively monochrome, but hopefully you can get a sense of the earth-tone direction, a la Classic DhO. We can certainly try other directions if you'd like to try something more divergent.

For the banner, I'm aiming at something of that playful military theme while still keeping things light and -- pretentious design rationale incoming -- using the evolving forms of camouflage into birds in flight to perhaps suggest something about the notion of freedom through discipline. Hopefully, all without coming across as We Put Birds on Things. Some finessing is definitely needed here as well, but I'm hoping for some feedback on the overall direction prior to fine-tuning.

I think most of the layout tweaks are reflected in the revised layout as well. Let me know how things are feeling. All input welcome.
Derek, modified 9 Years ago at 5/22/14 12:26 AM
Created 9 Years ago at 5/22/14 12:26 AM

RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE]

Posts: 326 Join Date: 7/21/10 Recent Posts
That's a neat idea, the camo morphing into flying birds.

The only thing I can suggest is using a splash of that turquoise color somewhere in the top part of the design. Otherwise the color scheme is split into monochrome earth at the top, then monochrome turquoise in the bottom. I'd prefer a little intermingling/alternation.
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Daniel M Ingram, modified 9 Years ago at 5/22/14 12:35 AM
Created 9 Years ago at 5/22/14 12:35 AM

RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE]

Posts: 3268 Join Date: 4/20/09 Recent Posts
Nice ideas. Thanks for working on this.
Beats what we have now. I would add the article "the" onto the logo.
John M, modified 9 Years ago at 5/22/14 12:59 AM
Created 9 Years ago at 5/22/14 12:53 AM

RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE]

Posts: 135 Join Date: 2/11/12 Recent Posts
Derek Cameron:
That's a neat idea, the camo morphing into flying birds.

The only thing I can suggest is using a splash of that turquoise color somewhere in the top part of the design. Otherwise the color scheme is split into monochrome earth at the top, then monochrome turquoise in the bottom. I'd prefer a little intermingling/alternation.

Yes, I'd like to finesse the colour for sure. I'll probably try a couple iterations from this basic framework. Thanks for the input.
John M, modified 9 Years ago at 5/22/14 12:54 AM
Created 9 Years ago at 5/22/14 12:54 AM

RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE]

Posts: 135 Join Date: 2/11/12 Recent Posts
Daniel M. Ingram:
Nice ideas. Thanks for working on this.
Beats what we have now. I would add the article "the" onto the logo.


Can do, we certainly have plenty of room.
Max L, modified 9 Years ago at 5/22/14 8:29 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 5/22/14 8:29 PM

RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE]

Posts: 19 Join Date: 5/4/14 Recent Posts
Looking good, John. I'm still down to lend a hand either writing the CSS or just rolling up a theme with CSS you provide. Just let us know when you're all set on your end.
Derek, modified 9 Years ago at 6/7/14 7:18 AM
Created 9 Years ago at 6/7/14 7:18 AM

RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE]

Posts: 326 Join Date: 7/21/10 Recent Posts
Max L:
It should be rendered in the proper font on modern browsers. Notably, Internet Explorer versions earlier than 9.0 will not use the custom font.


It doesn't work on Firefox either. This is Firefox 24.5, which is quite modern. It doesn't allow cross-site fonts. Here is the error message I get;

[06:05:51.289] downloadable font: download failed (font-family: "TopSecret" style:normal weight:normal stretch:normal src index:0): bad URI or cross-site access not allowed
source: http://caltranz.com/topsecret.woff
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Tom O, modified 9 Years ago at 6/10/14 4:20 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 6/10/14 4:20 PM

RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE]

Posts: 124 Join Date: 7/19/09 Recent Posts
Do we know if there is a way to distinguish read from unread posts? It would be nice if the theme made it easier to find new stuff.

And now, as I write this...how about increasing the default font size on the editor text area?
John M, modified 9 Years ago at 6/11/14 11:12 AM
Created 9 Years ago at 6/11/14 11:07 AM

RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE]

Posts: 135 Join Date: 2/11/12 Recent Posts
Max L:
Looking good, John. I'm still down to lend a hand either writing the CSS or just rolling up a theme with CSS you provide. Just let us know when you're all set on your end.


Since you have direct access and have better familiarity with Liferay, I think it would be best for you to roll out the first pass. I can come in after the fact and suggest some tweaks to the CSS and provide revised graphics where required. Let's just push ahead with the colours as presented in the mock-up for now.

I've attached the logo file and background image for the banner area. My current thinking is to center the image (might require a containing element -- I haven't checked the current markup) and use CSS for the background gradient. I'm sure the graphic will need massaging after the fact, but seeing it in situ will be helpful.

Maybe something like this for the gradient, so we have a presentable fallback for non-compliant browsers:


#banner {
   background-color: #79765b;
   background-image:
      linear-gradient(
         to right,
         #555636, #b4b0a0
      );
}
John M, modified 9 Years ago at 6/11/14 11:14 AM
Created 9 Years ago at 6/11/14 11:14 AM

RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE]

Posts: 135 Join Date: 2/11/12 Recent Posts
As a stopgap for the current font-size issue, try pressing the "source" button when creating a post.
John M, modified 9 Years ago at 6/11/14 11:26 AM
Created 9 Years ago at 6/11/14 11:26 AM

RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE]

Posts: 135 Join Date: 2/11/12 Recent Posts
I don't know if the logo will ever see use outside of the DhO proper, but here's the finalized artwork (vector and high-res PNG) so you'll have them on hand, just in case.
Max L, modified 9 Years ago at 6/13/14 2:19 AM
Created 9 Years ago at 6/13/14 2:19 AM

RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE]

Posts: 19 Join Date: 5/4/14 Recent Posts
Alright, I started working on theme packaging. The Liferay toolchain to build themes is just ridiculously complex and seemingly not worth the trouble for what we're trying to accomplish (famous last words?), so I wrote a simple build script to repackage the theme we're currently using, with our additions.

As of tonight I have it packaging properly, and I was able to get the server to install it. There was a possible issue so I switched back to the previous theme, but it's progress.

If anyone wants to follow along, the project is here:

https://github.com/lansing/dho-theme
John M, modified 9 Years ago at 6/13/14 7:51 AM
Created 9 Years ago at 6/13/14 7:51 AM

RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE]

Posts: 135 Join Date: 2/11/12 Recent Posts
Awesome, thanks for navigating this territory. Looking over the github is reminding me why I've never been fond of CMS platforms.
Max L, modified 9 Years ago at 7/1/14 1:16 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 7/1/14 1:01 PM

RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE]

Posts: 19 Join Date: 5/4/14 Recent Posts
Here's a status report on this project.

I've been putting in some time here and there in an attempt to implement John's latest design in CSS. To create a usable development environment, I used Chrome to save an archive of a page from the site, and pointed it to the theme project's custom CSS file, and I'm viewing the page locally in a browser while modifying the CSS. 

Progress has been a bit slow and uneven. The reason is that I'm really not skilled at CSS and web stuff in general-- I'm a backend/data engineer at my day job. I'll keep plugging away at it, but it's going to be inefficient and could take a while. If any legit web developers would like to lend a hand, this would be a great phase of the project to contribute to. Once the static mockup is looking good, I can handle getting everything packaged and deployed as a theme.

One constraint I'm trying to stay within is to do all of the styling via CSS and not via template changes. The reason is because, due to the nature of the thing, there is no way to test a template modification without deploying the theme to a live server. Liferay, being an enterprise application, uses approximately 16 gigs of memory, and I don't have a spare server with 16 gigs sitting around. For reasons of risk mitigation, I'd prefer not to test template changes on the production dho server, so that leaves a pure-CSS approach as the best path forward from my perspective.

So, once again, the project is at https://github.com/lansing/dho-theme/ . The static page I've been working from is at static/stuff_vs_practice.html in the repo. The css file I've been modifying is at theme/css/dho.css. I'll try and document all of this soon in the project readme. If anyone would like to contribute but is unfamiliar with git, shoot me a line and I'll be happy to help you get set up.

-M


Screenshot of the work in progress:

John M, modified 9 Years ago at 7/4/14 11:00 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 7/4/14 11:00 PM

RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE]

Posts: 135 Join Date: 2/11/12 Recent Posts
Nice work Max, looks like we might be ready to pass the baton. I think I can work on it from my end using the same method you've used. Can you let me know which CSS file(s) to point it toward?

I'll see how far I can push it with no markup revisions. We'll see if the current concept can be taken to completion and maybe try something else design-wise if not.
Max L, modified 9 Years ago at 7/5/14 12:33 AM
Created 9 Years ago at 7/5/14 12:33 AM

RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE]

Posts: 19 Join Date: 5/4/14 Recent Posts
John, if you can find the time/energy to work on the CSS at this point, that would be wonderful and much appreciated. There's a little blurb referencing the relevant files in the README for the git project. If you need additional clarification, I'm always available via email-- my address is on my github profile. Otherwise, go ahead and fork the project and shoot me a pull request when you're happy. -M
John M, modified 9 Years ago at 7/5/14 12:45 AM
Created 9 Years ago at 7/5/14 12:45 AM

RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE]

Posts: 135 Join Date: 2/11/12 Recent Posts
Right on. I'm not overly familiar with the github stuff but I imagine a bit of poking around will clear things up. I'll be in touch if I hit any brick walls.
Max L, modified 9 Years ago at 7/5/14 11:46 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 7/5/14 11:46 PM

RE: DhO Theme Upgrade Volunteer available? [Daniel M. Ingram] [MIGRATE]

Posts: 19 Join Date: 5/4/14 Recent Posts
John,

If you would prefer to just download the zip file from the github page, do your thing, and email it to me when you're done, that would be fine. Version control is nice to have, but at this point I care more about seeing this thing get done. -M

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