Updating template files is a pain. Access may be limited and it cannot be controlled by role. Move the templates into the Drupal content system.

There are precedents. Some themes move colours into compiled files. If all the theme files were handled the same way, the templates could be somewhere else easier to access and the final version would be put into the file system or APC by Drupal.

Cell, http://drupal.org/sandbox/peter/1509964, is an example of making template access easier. The approach is used outside of Drupal for a wide variety of templates. Several unpublished and bespoke Drupal modules use Cell to move templates out of code and files into content you can administer easily.

Cell plus something like Workbench would be perfect for sites with thousands of blogs, or product categories, and a need to modify themes for each variation.

Drupal 8 is moving toward a compiled theme system. This is a chance to move the input to the compile out of the file system into Drupal nodes and into the hands of your editors.

Comments

jacine’s picture

jacine
she/her
Location New York
commented
Version: 7.x-dev » 8.x-dev

Wrong version.

chx’s picture

chx commented
Status: Active » Closed (won't fix)

I am surprised jacine only changed the version and didnt scream her lungs off in protest. I would say editing files in a browser is a major pita. While I am not fixing this I want to point out that likely the source will be using stream wrappers, there is already a patch for theme:// and friends. I can see a contrib module providing a database-wrapper.