I have been looking at some of the sites built using Acquia Marina and noticed that the original colors flash first and then the modified colors show. I am assuming that this is due to the local CSS file overriding the original. Is there a way to make sure that the original CSS does not show if the local CSS is used?

Comments

lolmaus’s picture

lolmaus commented

I guess you can't get rid of originall css, because local.css only stores overrides. Your theme won't display properly without orginal css.

I think that if you encounter the problem of flashing colors, you should create a copy of the them and hack it. There's a video instruction about that in Acquia Marina handbook.

tdh’s picture

tdh commented

That was my first thought, but that would defeat the purpose of using the local CSS file in regards to future updating of the theme. Maybe if there was an option in the theme admin section to make the original colors white or something when the local CSS file is utilized, the impact of the original colors would not be significant.

jwolf’s picture

jwolf commented

@tdh - could you post a couple of the sites' URLs where you see this happening?

MGParisi’s picture

MGParisi commented

It sounds like its rendering everything with the system style, then re-rendering it with over-rides. I would love to see CSSTidy to be apart of the Optimize CSS process. This should recognize where over-rides occur and delete the first case.

There is a post about it here http://drupal.org/node/307548

That should fix most problems, speed up CSS downloads, and decrease the amount of time the browser uses to render the style. That is if we can get someone to program it... I am currently upgrading my site, which requires me to re-do the entire site. Hope this helps, and maybe we can get this built.

tdh’s picture

tdh commented

I don't have the URLs available as most of the ones I saw were through using google and searching for your footer message to see some sites, but the first one I noticed was from Steph's blog post about Spotting the free Acquia Marina Drupal theme in the wild. It is Intelligent Sustainable Energy site:

http://www.ise-oxford.com/

On the first load it shows the blue color in the mission statement section (Developing new sustainable energy technologies) and then changes to the modified grayish color.

Another site is Open Media Camp:

http://openmediacamp.org/

This site also experiences the same issue as ISE, with the section below the header. Starts off blue and then turns gray.

As I was looking for others, I noticed that this section even does this on stock Acquia Marina themes that haven't been modified. They go from a dark blue to a lighter blue. But maybe this section is the only one changing, as I can't find sites that do this with different tab colors, etc. This effect might not be due to the local CSS file, I will leave that to you to detemine.

Thanks,

Todd

MGParisi’s picture

MGParisi commented

I dont get either to display like you say. Please provide the following information: Browser and version number, Computer Type, Speed, Memory and OS System. What do you use as a connection to the Net... Dial UP?

These things may result in various changes in how things are displayed or how long it takes it to process the page's style.

tdh’s picture

tdh commented

Browser is Internet Explorer 7
Computer is self-built with Core2Duo processor clocked at 2.4Ghz
Memory is 4GB
OS is Windows Vista 64 bit
Internet Connection is 8MB cable

I am able to see this effect every time I press Ctrl + F5

tdh’s picture

tdh commented

OK, I just installed Firefox 3 on this computer and I cannot replicate this issue in Firefox 3, but I can replicate it every time in IE 7.

MGParisi’s picture

MGParisi commented

Well that does help... I will look at the style as soon as I get a chance...

jwolf’s picture

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

It looks to me that IE7 is loading some of the graphic files a bit slowly. This could be an issue w/ how the site developer optimized the graphics.
The stylesheets are indeed loading fine.