Creating a new Bluemarine-like generic theme

By Samat Jain on 28 Aug 2005 at 22:32 UTC

I'm sort of sick of Bluemarine, with the main technical issue is that it's not usng PHPTemplate, but using XTemplate instead (which I personally despise). There are other various things that bug me that I've written notes about on my homepage.

So, I'm developing a new one. It was based on the Bluemarine PHPTemplate version, with many fixes, and ideas from Drupal.org's current theme and the Friendselectric theme.

I'm currently using this theme and developing it on two sites:

I'd really like feedback on what I can improve.

Comments

where to get it...

Samat Jain commented 28 August 2005 at 22:34

Forgot to post a link to the theme itself so other people can try it out:

http://nabladesign.com/~xjjk/blueaquatic.tar.gz

For lack of a better name, I'm calling it "blueaquatic." It's still in heavy development, and I've not yet met all the requirements for it I've personally set.

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Tables --> CSS

stevensj2 commented 29 August 2005 at 00:58

I think what you're doing is a great idea. The bluebeach theme is excellent as a base to build new themes on.

When it was created for PHPTemplate, I think that was a huge step in the right direction.

While BlueBeach was moved to PHPTemplate, I don't know why it wasn't converted to a 100% CSS theme as well - that would've made it absolutely perfect.

I began working on a CSS version of bluebeach for PHPTemplate, but between work and school I couldn't.

Perhaps you could make the switch from tables to CSS while you're at it? I know it's a lot to ask, but it would definitely be one of the most important contributed themes if done.

Good work though! and good luck with what you're doing!

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Josh Stevens
Nautilus7 Design | Tibathon.com - Home of the National Tiburon Meet

CSS issues

Samat Jain commented 29 August 2005 at 02:38

For those who don't know what bluebeach is: it's the current theme on Drupal.org. I had to go look this up.

Just wondering, how is bluebeach not a 100% CSS theme? I don't see any use of tables/etc...

The reason I've avoided using CSS is because of forms in the main "content" area. What happens with floated and absolutely positioned DIV elements (bluebeach uses floats), these elements will be overlaid over other elements that don't get wrapped.

You can see this problem if you go to the Drupal website and just look around the issue tracker and associated search pages. The DIVs for the sidebar are laid OVER the form preventing you from using them. You can also see this in other themes (the one that comes to mind is the "leaf" them, it is ridiculous. I can post screenshots if anyone needs illustration.

I'm also not mentioning all the CSS bugs in Internet Explorer that would have to be dealt with.

Until I figure out a way to get around these problems I'm probably going to stick with tables for now.
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screenshot

Samat Jain commented 29 August 2005 at 04:09

So I don't seem crazy here's an example:

http://img398.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cssissue4kl.jpg

You can see in the screenshot, the filter form extends underneath the right sidebar, and those parts are not accessible. This isn't so much forms as it is any content that extends the width of the parent DIV but not wrap (mostly tables and forms). This is extremely annoying to me, and probably to many others.

This is a problem in all Drupal themes I've seen that use CSS. My CSS skills are not privy enough to know of a way around it.
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heh Get a 1600x1200 moni and

Hosting Geek commented 6 October 2005 at 12:42

heh Get a 1600x1200 moni and your problem is fixed :P

I have 2 1920x1200 monitors

Samat Jain commented 7 October 2005 at 08:16

I have 2 1920x1200 monitors actually. But, yeah, a good design is one that still looks good on machines that aren't the designer's own workstation...

BTW, the issue I am talking about AFAIK is fixed in the CSS version. At least it works in Firefox and Konqueror.

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umm

sepeck commented 29 August 2005 at 04:32

Blue Beach is the theme for drupal.org, it is not available for download. The original theme was Blue Marine and is the default active theme when downloaded. I think you are confusing the two.

-sp
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Drupal Best Practices Guide - My stuff Black Mountain

-Steven Peck
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Test site, always start with a test site.
_{Drupal Best Practices Guide}

I meant BlueMarine

stevensj2 commented 29 August 2005 at 11:50

Sorry for the confusion - I was talking about BlueMarine, not BlueBeach.

BlueMarine is a Tables-based theme.

-----------------
Josh Stevens
Nautilus7 Design | Tibathon.com - Home of the National Tiburon Meet

Nice!

signal9 commented 11 December 2005 at 15:58

I think it looks excellent--much more vivid and lively than BlueMarine.

I had hacked up a version of BlueMarine which used light text on dark greys and purples for my old 4.5 site, but I never updated it to work properly with 4.6. I basically started over again when I jumped to 4.6 recently, this time victimizing the excellent FriendsElectric for my starting point. The results are at http://sigspace.net, though I'm still tinkering with it.

I would love to see more 'generic' themes, and a wider variety of color options available. I don't like black on white. =)

[Edit: updated URL]

Theme renamed to sands

Samat Jain commented 20 September 2005 at 01:46

I've renamed my theme to "sands."

Most the changes are cosmetic--I've added many small little decorative images everywhere, such as nice-looking gradiented table rows, and the like.

I've got up-to-date versions of it running on my company website as well as a testbed website.

I tell myself I'm going to post screenshots and more information at my personal site. Please give me comments!

It's temporarily available for download while I wait for a CVS account.

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new version now converted to CSS

Samat Jain commented 5 October 2005 at 05:33

I've uploaded a new version.

New things:

CSS columns: after much pain, I figured out how to do CSS columns that work well with Drupal. Much thanks from inspiration from the FriendsElectric theme and Steven Witten's Drupal theme development presentation

I've now contributions CVS access, but haven't had the time to figure out how to use CVS again and creating a repository for my theme. I'd like my theme to be available along with the release of Drupal 4.7.
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What a nice theme

Steve Viscido commented 28 October 2005 at 15:41

Wow I have to say, I love this theme very much. I've already switched to it at one of my sites. It's very nicely done, with a clean look, pleasant to the eye, easy to read with good font size choices etc. It took me about two seconds to switch.

This is probably the best user-made theme I have seen so far. Well done.

Steven Viscido

Now on Drupal.org

Samat Jain commented 21 November 2005 at 01:12

I've now put my theme up on Drupal.org:

http://drupal.org/node/38271

The CVS version works right now with Drupal 4.6--I'll tag a 4.6 release if I don't find any obvious bugs. Regardless of that, as soon as a 4.7 RC is out I will be tagging a release for that. Hopefully this will become the next favorite 4.7 theme. = )
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