I think the key thing to do is to provide a consistent and well documented set of template variables that do not change within any given version. This is a pretty common practice for many CMS and other templatable systems. That way, we always know what parts we have to work with.<br>
<br>This would greatly increase the flexibility of Koha, as multiple templates (including local ones) could be developed and maintained by consulting only a single, slowly changing resource (the template API documentation). We should also keep an eye here towards backwards-compatibility, so template maintainers have more time to adapt their work.<br>
<br>Out of the box, I think Koha should support a single template. Any other templates that other entities wish to maintain are just fine, but I think the release team shouldn't have to split their attention between multiple templates.<br>
<br>My $0.02, adjusted for their recent market value.<br><br><br>-Ian<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Apr 8, 2013 at 11:45 AM, Galen Charlton <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:gmc@esilibrary.com" target="_blank">gmc@esilibrary.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">Hi,<br>
<br>
At present we distribute two OPAC themes with Koha, "prog" and CCSR.<br>
I like both of them, though it is nice having a mobile theme in the<br>
shape of CCSR.<br>
<br>
That said: in my view having two stock themes is going to present us<br>
with a long-term maintenance problem, even nightmare. Any template<br>
change to one *must* be applied to the other. Inevitably, one theme<br>
(most likely prog) will fall off the radar of most Koha developers.<br>
Also inevitably, functionality differences will creep in between the<br>
two themes. Furthermore the prog theme will continue to have users<br>
who will justifiably complain if a stock theme becomes a second-class<br>
citizen.<br>
<br>
How do I know this will happen? The Evergreen community went through<br>
a similar experience with its old-style OPAC, which at one point had a<br>
stock theme and a visually more modern theme called Craftsman. Since<br>
the underlying templates were duplicated, a point came where Craftsman<br>
accrued functionality gaps, but still had its adherents who preferred<br>
how it looked.<br>
<br>
I would like to avoid that risk.<br>
<br>
Consequently, I think the next version of Koha should unify the<br>
templates of the prog and CCSR themes. If we decide to continue<br>
offering both appearances as stock options, the visual and layout<br>
differences between the two should be managed strictly through the use<br>
of CSS. One way to do that would be to offer stylesheets that can be<br>
managed via the opaccolorstylesheet sysprefs. We could also decide to<br>
add support for skins (which would be a named set of stylesheets) or<br>
perhaps redefine OPAC themes to be just named sets of stylesheets, not<br>
separate sets of templates.<br>
<br>
Thoughts?<br>
<br>
Regards,<br>
<br>
Galen<br>
--<br>
Galen Charlton<br>
Manager of Implementation<br>
Equinox Software, Inc. / The Open Source Experts<br>
email: <a href="mailto:gmc@esilibrary.com">gmc@esilibrary.com</a><br>
direct: <a href="tel:%2B1%20770-709-5581" value="+17707095581">+1 770-709-5581</a><br>
cell: <a href="tel:%2B1%20404-984-4366" value="+14049844366">+1 404-984-4366</a><br>
skype: gmcharlt<br>
web: <a href="http://www.esilibrary.com/" target="_blank">http://www.esilibrary.com/</a><br>
Supporting Koha and Evergreen: <a href="http://koha-community.org" target="_blank">http://koha-community.org</a> &<br>
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</blockquote></div><br>