By jb605 on

I am trying to print, say the user information box, into a line of text with links associated. So, a plain line layout version of the box would be it, right? But I am not sure what should I edit to create something similar to the box.

Any suggestion would be greatly appreicated!

Thank you.

Comments

torgeirb’s picture

torgeirb commented

Do a search in user.module for

class=\"user-information-block\">

This should give you an idea of how the user info block is assembled.

jb605’s picture

jb605 commented

Thanks for your suggestion. I will study that and probably end up define my own list or something like that, because I need some layout other than the box/block default.

I think the idea of separating content and layout is really important. Right now, Drupal core php code enforces the theme designer to use either block or box etc, though you can customize it a little bit, but that really does not solve the problem. The problem lies in the fact that the Drupal core code is controling the layout by defining block etc. It really should just output the information, be it a single word, sentence, an array, etc.

I know this is a lot of change and takes long time. But can any Drupal developers comment on this? Is there any plan (even if it is a remote future) about this?

Thank you.

ax’s picture

ax commented

just some references:

[ Of Drupal, Movable Type, templates and themes | http://drupal.org/node/view/1229 ]
[ Creating themes with non-programmers in mind | http://drupal.org/node/view/871 ]
[ boxes vs nodes, & where are they called? | http://drupal.org/node/view/929#1283 ], incl. links to gerhards implementation for arbitrary block placement.

you'll find more searching the site and the mailing list ( http://lists.drupal.org/search/?ul=http%3A%2F%2Flists.drupal.org%2Fpiper... , http://drupal.kollm.org/mharc/html/drupal-devel/ )

jb605’s picture

jb605 commented

I have read through these discussions. Looks like it has been discussed a lot, but never there is a implementation.

It is really frustating to design a theme while you don't have full control over how the information can be displayed.

I think the core Drupal code really should considering give all control on layout (like box, block, inline html formatting etc) to the theme, the core Drupal should really pass information to the theme, instead of trying to stipulate how the information will be displayed. All the box, block layout should really go to the theme.

ax’s picture

ax commented

now we just need someone who implements that ;)

jb605’s picture

jb605 commented

I have already had a matrix layout, currently I use it to display all taxonomy and terms, because I can not afford to list a 10 screens long blocks as the taxonomy_dhtml renders on my site. I pass an array and number of columns to the theme (currently, only marvin), and print it out as matrix. The content of each matrix cell is preformatted though, because I am just doing it for my site. I am not sure if anybody would be interested in this.

I am also going to implement the plain text layout for links, and a list item style for all node view layout.

jb605’s picture

jb605 commented

Yes, I have read most of that. I can implement it myself if I don't see it anywhere else.

Is there any plan this is going to be considered in the Drupal core?

Thanks.