Theme development with C5
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Hey all,
I've been enjoying tinkering with C5 over the last few months and finally decided to use it for a clients new site after the designers created the UI..... and then it all came unstuck :-(
So it seems when developing a theme I shouldn't use the idea of a starting with a 'base theme' or creating 'child themes'. I've confirmed this by looking thru past forums.https://www.concrete5.org/community/forums/themes/creating-child-the...
I purchase a few themes that were tagged under the filter of 'framework' and tried to customise the CSS.
I've finally found the "Customise CSS" gear icon under the following path
Page Settings > Design > Theme Customise ... scroll down past all customisations , click on the Customise CSS gear icon. Type some CSS in. Click save to close window, then click Save Changes to review it all works.
Seriously, this has to be the most convoluted process ever for responsive theme development.
So purchasing a theme thru Community store as a starter theme or framework seems not the way to go because if I start messing around with their base files I would void licensing and the ability to get support, which I totally understand.
So I tried to look into using overrides and found the following developer noteshttp://documentation.concrete5.org/tutorials/override-almost-any-co...
This however seems to be more about providing additional functionality that overrides C5's core files.
A further search for theme development revealed the following
http://www.concrete5tutorials.com/theme-tutorials/concrete5-sandbox...
and
http://legacy-documentation.concrete5.org/tutorials/making-a-theme-...
So is the Concrete way to create my landing page HTML / CSS, then build a the theme in C5 by adding the necessary PHP tags and continue to add functionality either programmatically or by downloading Add Ons.
Maybe I've got this all wrong so any pointers would be of great benefit as I feel I'm made some incorrect assumptions.
Thanks again!
I've been enjoying tinkering with C5 over the last few months and finally decided to use it for a clients new site after the designers created the UI..... and then it all came unstuck :-(
So it seems when developing a theme I shouldn't use the idea of a starting with a 'base theme' or creating 'child themes'. I've confirmed this by looking thru past forums.https://www.concrete5.org/community/forums/themes/creating-child-the...
I purchase a few themes that were tagged under the filter of 'framework' and tried to customise the CSS.
I've finally found the "Customise CSS" gear icon under the following path
Page Settings > Design > Theme Customise ... scroll down past all customisations , click on the Customise CSS gear icon. Type some CSS in. Click save to close window, then click Save Changes to review it all works.
Seriously, this has to be the most convoluted process ever for responsive theme development.
So purchasing a theme thru Community store as a starter theme or framework seems not the way to go because if I start messing around with their base files I would void licensing and the ability to get support, which I totally understand.
So I tried to look into using overrides and found the following developer noteshttp://documentation.concrete5.org/tutorials/override-almost-any-co...
This however seems to be more about providing additional functionality that overrides C5's core files.
A further search for theme development revealed the following
http://www.concrete5tutorials.com/theme-tutorials/concrete5-sandbox...
and
http://legacy-documentation.concrete5.org/tutorials/making-a-theme-...
So is the Concrete way to create my landing page HTML / CSS, then build a the theme in C5 by adding the necessary PHP tags and continue to add functionality either programmatically or by downloading Add Ons.
Maybe I've got this all wrong so any pointers would be of great benefit as I feel I'm made some incorrect assumptions.
Thanks again!
Hey thanks Gondwana,
Yes your right and I guess thats what I meant as well with regards to the landing page.
The home page tends to be what the client wants to see first. So creating the css layout from the wireframes tends to be where I start first.
I guess what I'm struggling with is how we integrate C5 into our teams workflow? Its pretty rare that a site design from my designers will match a theme in the C5 marketplace. So how do other developers approach this?
Are best practices to follow the process outlined in the link you provided?http://documentation.concrete5.org/developers/designing-for-concret...
Yes your right and I guess thats what I meant as well with regards to the landing page.
The home page tends to be what the client wants to see first. So creating the css layout from the wireframes tends to be where I start first.
I guess what I'm struggling with is how we integrate C5 into our teams workflow? Its pretty rare that a site design from my designers will match a theme in the C5 marketplace. So how do other developers approach this?
Are best practices to follow the process outlined in the link you provided?http://documentation.concrete5.org/developers/designing-for-concret...
I should bow out at this stage because I don't have all that much practical experience with c5, especially in the context of team development. I'm still playing with my first theme.
One thing you'll want to watch is that many designers still think in terms of paper, whereas c5 (rightly) emphasises responsiveness (typically via grids). Ergo, making a c5 theme that exactly matches a static design at a particular form factor, while initially easier, could be a trap. I prefer to start by thinking in more abstract terms: what elements might you want where? ...and, most importantly, in what circumstances?
One thing you'll want to watch is that many designers still think in terms of paper, whereas c5 (rightly) emphasises responsiveness (typically via grids). Ergo, making a c5 theme that exactly matches a static design at a particular form factor, while initially easier, could be a trap. I prefer to start by thinking in more abstract terms: what elements might you want where? ...and, most importantly, in what circumstances?
No worries, I appreciate you took the time to post.
With development I would use either Zen or AdaptimeTheme as starter theme for Drupal sites depending on features requested.
Later with the popularity of Wordpress and clients requesting this as their chosen CMS a few sites were developed using the Genesis framework but I tired of that development environment pretty quickly.
Funny enough it was that video in the link you posted that I stumbled upon and thought C5 could be something we could use.
With development I would use either Zen or AdaptimeTheme as starter theme for Drupal sites depending on features requested.
Later with the popularity of Wordpress and clients requesting this as their chosen CMS a few sites were developed using the Genesis framework but I tired of that development environment pretty quickly.
Funny enough it was that video in the link you posted that I stumbled upon and thought C5 could be something we could use.
We've tried using something like Supermint3 to start, and it has the capability for css overrides now without breaking theme updates.
Not perfect but works for now.
Not perfect but works for now.
http://documentation.concrete5.org/developers/designing-for-concret...
...and subsequent pages.
It seems to me that a theme (in the first instance) is basically a layout of areas into which blocks will be subsequently placed. As such, the theme itself is devoid of content.
I fear that, if you start with a nearly complete landing page, you'll have a lot of content in it. This may distract you when concreting.