Any chance of an addon to help create/customise simple themes?
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I think I am in a similar position to 'golfmogul' at the moment (https://www.concrete5.org/community/forums/themes/how-to-create-a-theme-from-fireworks-doc-wo-htmlcss-skills/). I wanted to create a website, thought how hard can it be, and decided to give it a go myself. I tried the big 3 CMS's but ran into problems everywhere I turned with all of them. I then found C5 and was surprised how easily I could create the content I wanted. However, I started getting frustrated when I couldn't adjust the theme to what I had in mind. I tried some of the shelf themes but always ended up with a slightly awkward looking page.
Perhaps it is simple to convert HTML into a C5 theme, though, I think only in the same way its easy to write a novel in German once you can read the language by cutting and pasting from other stories. I think the creators of C5 did a great job making it easy to add content to a page. I would love to hear from somebody who knows something about that sort of thing and hear how hard they think it would be to create an add on for this. Or will creating themes always be the realm of the designer?
Perhaps it is simple to convert HTML into a C5 theme, though, I think only in the same way its easy to write a novel in German once you can read the language by cutting and pasting from other stories. I think the creators of C5 did a great job making it easy to add content to a page. I would love to hear from somebody who knows something about that sort of thing and hear how hard they think it would be to create an add on for this. Or will creating themes always be the realm of the designer?
Thanks JBX that was exactly the answer I was looking for, I think what you say about ending up with bad code is a good point. Although, how does the code generated by C5's current content editing system stack up? From what I understand C5's system generates html and php code. If it does do this as well as it seems, is there any reason why a CSS editor of similar nature couldn't be just as effective?
Such an addon probably could be created and I'm sure it would be gratefully received by many people. Like, for example, the layout and design options in C5. I know WordPress has tools that allow you to edit a lot of stuff and C5 already has point and click editing of some css attributes for the theme, assuming they are enabled in the themes code.
However - I don't like the idea. You may say I'm biased, as I make a living partly out of building themes for clients. That isn't the whole story though. The Web is littered with badly built, badly coded websites, put together by people who don't fully understand what they are doing. Point and Click interfaces can never produce code of the same quality that a skilled programmer can. They just provide a means for people who haven't taken the time to learn the art to undercut professional developers on price and fool their clients into thinking that they are getting just as good a website. And then when that website falls flat on its face in half the browsers, the problems get blamed on C5, which give the CMS a bad name and makes it harder for me to make a living.
Wow! That really did sound like a rant. I apologise :)
On the positive side - good HTML skills and CSS skills are not difficult to learn. Read the right book or ask the right person and you will be hand coding simple sites within a week. The flexibility you will then have to customize your theme just the way you want will be far greater than you could ever get from a point and click.
HTML and in particular, CSS, really aren't scary languages. Give 'em a go...
Jon