Ants on News - Theme

Summary:

Xaraya Theme (ants_news)

This theme didn't actually get designed but more or less morphed from trying one idea to trying another to just keep plugging in more and more 'things' while at the same time hoping that it would look 'ok'. I haven't achieved the 'ok' look yet, but hopefully it is plausible and has some useful features for those who wish to delve into theme design.

Looking at how the theme turned out it's pleasing that it wasn't a total disaster.

Features?

1. Sticky Articles
   

   If you name an article as the same of the category it is placed in, whenever that category is displayed by category (not by going through Articles) then this 'sticky article' will be fully displayed. [ref: modules/articles/user-view.xt]

2. About Page
   

   About Page is a redirection to a specific Category, generally set to be 'About' where it lists the articles in that category. Combined with the above sticky articles, this can be very interesting. [ref: modules/base/user-main.xt]

3. Dynamic Left Column Images
   

   Modified the "Left Column" of this theme to 'detect' when viewing articles where an image has been published for use in the left column. It is hard-coded at the moment, but the image will be XXXXXXXXXXX_left.gif where XXXXXXXXXXX is the filename given to the category image. For example: if you have an image "xaraya.gif" for a topic, then the image for the left column will be "xaraya.gif_left.gif"
   [ref: includes/themes-default-main.xt]

4. Dynamic Banner Images
   

   The Banner Image is overlaid(?) with category-images from the current displayed article or a default image.
   [ref: includes/themes-default-banner.xt]

5. Theme List
   

   Dynamic Theme List allowing visitors to review themes used/testing with the site. The Dynamic list does a few other things, verifying whether the theme is a 'test' theme.
   [ref: includes/themes-default-themes.xt]

6. Page Layout dissected itno X sections to simplify modifications.
   

   A design decision to simplify 'debugging' between different special pages (e.g. different page/default.xt and page/base.xt) was to slice up the page layout into its major components.
   [ref: includes/themes-default-head.xt] contains material for the 'head' of the HTML document
   [ref: includes/themes-default-banner.xt] contains material for the 'banner' in a web page
   [ref: includes/themes-default-main.xt] contains material for the main content of a web page
   [ref: includes/themes-default-footer.xt] contains material for the web page 'footer'
   This has worked out well for when I want a different Home Page look, but don't wont to be concerned about forgetting/updating things in one file pages/default.xt but forgetting it in another pages/base.xt or pages/articles.xt.

7. CSS Only Drop-Down Menu (commented out at the moment)
   

   Include facilities for a non-javascript drop-down menu. [ref: includes/themes-default-head.xt && includes/themes-default-menu.xt ]

Special Blockgroups

The theme separates a Home Page (using the base module as the 1st page) from subsequent pages, including a few special pages.

1. Home Page:
   The [Home Page] is a special page rendered using pages/base.xt and uses the following special blockgroups to differentiate it's content layout from the rest of the site pages. The blockgroup names follow the pattern base( admin | left | center | right ):
   1. baseadmin: is for administration messages for the frontpage
   2. baseleft: is for menu options normally derived on the left column (in this theme it will be displayed as the topmost of menus on the right column.
   3. basecenter: is for items to be displayed in the center space of the Home Page
   4. baseright: is for menu options normally derived on the right column (in this theme it will be displayed as the lowermost of menus on the right column.
2. Callout:
   

   Article Callout is a special blockgroup that can be used to display "top-items" and similar information together with displaying articles.

Heritage

Bits and pieces of this theme are derived from the following sources (not listed in any particular order):

• Xaraya Classic from Xaraya.com A lot of the CSS is copied directly from this theme.
• X-Nucleus set of Themes from Tangant.com Key concepts/code include the AdminPanel Drop Down Menu and Admin shortcut to block administration.
• Various Themes converted created by John Cox of Wyome Key concepts/code include the semi-detached tabs (bottom of the page)
• xarfasttrack from AtHomeAndAbout

Download:

ants_news.zip