SandridgeFarm@xxxxxxx wrote:
Most modifications are like that system manager who had a style
sheet viewable in a text area that RingMasters could update (Must
be in the archives somewhere).......
It's the discussion in December I mentioned. And that discussion
showed that the system owner wasn't aware of the possibility for a
ringmaster to make use of background images without any program
modifications. I'm not sure if that knowledge would have made the
system owner refrain from the style sheet mod, but the example
indicated a need to improve the docs IMO. (Actually, in v2.4 I added a
little note on the "Customize appearance" page to take care of just
_that_ detail.)
Most modifications are along those lines, little design stuff often
hard to find in the code, for example the Ringlink program has
around 600 span tags with no 'class' attribute, so say you want to
change the color or increase the size of that one word or phrase,
you then have to go on a 'span' hunt through the files, and say you
update 36 or 218 of these....?? Would you ever bother upgrading
after that???
But why on earth would you do that in order to change the color or
size of one word?? You should add a new class, or use inline style.
As we know webmasters are very fussy when it comes to design
issues, and are never happy with the default anything..... Maybe
what is needed is 'themes' like with Postnuke?
The *html.pm files serve just that purpose. Please feel free to call
them themes, or templates, or whatever. ;-)
I'm not saying that Ringlink cannot be improved as regards
modification possibilities. But, again, I believe that what's needed
at first hand is an improved documentation, a better dialogue between
the users and the developers, and an exchange of experiences between
system owners.
As regards the latter, this list would be an excellent forum. So would
"Tips & Ideas" articles at the Ringlink web site.
/ Gunnar