[Plone-UI] [Plone-developers] Should we integrate ACE into p.a.theming?

Jon Stahl jonstahl at gmail.com
Tue Sep 6 22:07:17 UTC 2011


On Tue, Sep 6, 2011 at 10:03 PM, Martin Aspeli <optilude+lists at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> On 6 September 2011 23:00, Jon Stahl <jonstahl at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> On Tue, Sep 6, 2011 at 8:53 PM, Martin Aspeli <optilude+lists at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> >
>> >
>> > On 6 September 2011 21:40, Jon Stahl <jonstahl at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >>
>> >> On Tue, Sep 6, 2011 at 9:25 AM, Martin Aspeli
>> >> <optilude+lists at gmail.com>
>> >> wrote:
>> >> > Hi,
>> >> >
>> >> > On 6 September 2011 04:36, Jon Stahl <jonstahl at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >> >> 3) I was surprised to not be able to edit existing third-party
>> >> >> themes
>> >> >> I'd loaded into my test site.  I'd think that tweaking an existing
>> >> >> canned theme would be one of the most-requested use-cases for this
>> >> >> capability.
>> >> >
>> >> > You should able to edit anything that's in the ZODB (but not on the
>> >> > filesystem). Can you give me a reproducible test case?
>> >>
>> >> I used buildout to install several of the recent Plone 4.1 Diazo
>> >> themes from http://plone.org/products.  The themes loaded up just fine
>> >> and I can activate them.
>> >
>> > In this case they're on the filesystem (or more likely, in eggs).
>> > If you'd just uploaded zip files into the control panel, you could've
>> > edited
>> > them.
>> >
>>
>> As I suspected. But, I see this as problematic, since I think many new
>> users will approach this with the first use-case of wanting to tweak
>> an existing canned theme with their logo + other small changes, not
>> start from scratch and/or upload a Zip (which they'd get from where?).
>
> I actually think more people will install themes as zip files than fiddle
> with buildout and eggs. If you're not a developer, running buildout is
> scary. At least that's the basis of the thinking behind the zip file
> resource format.

OK, I see your (and David's) point... and agree that it makes sense.
I guess I was thinking too old-skool. ;-)   So, we need to start
educating Diazo theme builders that packaging themes as Zips rather
than as eggs is now "new best practice."


>>  Is editing stuff on the filesystem straight-out impossible?  (Perhaps
>> copying it into the ZODB first?)
>
> If the theme is in a filesystem resource directory, it's not too hard.
> If the theme is in an egg, it's impossible (or at least a really bad idea).
> I think a better approach might be a "create a copy" button and let you edit
> that.

The above notwithstanding, I do think this "create a copy" approach is
a good idea.  (I agree that trying to directly edit egg-based code is
a bad idea.)  I can imagine a pretty common case for, say, a
university hosting setup, might be: make a buildout with 10 canned
"base" themes, then let site admins copy-and-customize those themes
TTW.

:jon


More information about the UI mailing list