customising splash

customising splash

by Nikos Mattheos -
Number of replies: 5

I have just upgraded to moodle 2 and chose to work with the theme Splash.

I noticed that the guest user who accesses the page for the first time (not logged in) can still move blocks between the dock and the main site and also chose colors.

I would like to "lock" the layout, so visitors would not be able to move back and forth items to the dock.

- Also how can I change the colors of the page packground? (not the photos)
- How can I elimnate the far right column so that I extend the middle column more?

many thanks for any ideas/ hints!

regards

Nikos

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In reply to Nikos Mattheos

Re: customising splash

by Richard Oelmann -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers

Hi Nikos,

I don't think you can lock the blocks so that they can't be moved to the dock - they are designed so that a user can dock or show them as they wish. There have been some discussions about forcing the blocks starting position (docked/undocked) check out the links below

http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=170448

http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=146060

Also I think the colour option in splash is there in the theme and the only way to stop users from choosing a different colour would be to remove that option from the display (possibly a conditional statement allowing it for users you want to leave it with but hiding it from others?)

As for the page background - it depends if you mean the background of the content itself, or of the wider whole page.

The background of the whole page is part of the image that gives the coloured bands at the top of the page - it is actually a 6000px high narrow image repeated across the screen, so to change that you would have to alter the image itself. For the content, firebug shows the rule below. You could locate that rule (it is in sl.css - line 354) and either change it there (or rather if you are making changes to a core theme, in your cloned copy of splash!) or you could add that rule and modify it in the custom css part of the splash theme settings page

#page-content {
    background: none repeat scroll 0 0 #FFFFFF;
    margin-top: 10px;
}
Eliminating the right hand column permanently is much more difficult to do as that would alter the main layout of the page and may need some recalculating of the layout css. However, you may be able to work around that by editing the available regions for each page layout type in the config.php so that they layouts do not call for side-post (right hand column) in most cases e.g.
    'standard' => array(
        'file' => 'general.php',
        'regions' => array('side-pre', 'side-post'),
        'defaultregion' => 'side-postpre'
    ),
Or, you could edit the blocks themselves to all appear on the left in each block's settings.
Not having any content in the right hand column (side-post) should then allow the middle column to fill the space. However, you may find that the page layout css could need some work if this is to be the case permanently for your site.
HTH as a starting point at least smile
Richard
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In reply to Richard Oelmann

Re: customising splash

by Nikos Mattheos -

Dear Richard,

 

many thanks for your very elaborate response! I will get down to experimenting a bit with all this!

I recently discovered that I can change the dimentions of the logo box, using the

#logobox {  /* holder background for logo*/

But changes I made were ony valid for the red theme. How do I extend this to all colours?

once again,many thanks

Nikos

 

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In reply to Nikos Mattheos

Re: customising splash

by Richard Oelmann -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers

hi Nikos,

That's because the red theme is the default colour and is set in the sl.css file. The other colour options then overwrite this with their settings depending on which is selected. Those settings include the logobox (green.css example below - its on about line46) so you would need to make the same changes for each of the colour themes in its own css file (or make the changes in the customcss box of the theme)

.splash-green #logobox{  /* holder background for logo*/
    height: 185px;
    width: 252px;
    margin: auto;
    text-align: center;
    background: url([[pix:theme|lbgv2green]]) no-repeat;
    float: left;
}

I think this is because the logobox is actually an image which includes a part of the colour bands on either edge so that the entire image has space for a small shadow effect around it as well. Changing the width is probably fine then as the image will just stretch to fit, but if you were to change the height it would probably stretch the coloured bands out of alignment with the main background bands

 

Richard

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In reply to Nikos Mattheos

Re: customising splash

by Mary Evans -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers

Hi Nikos,

I know this is a little late in this discussion...but if you are working on the Splash theme it makes good sense to make a copy of this theme first rather than work on the original. This way you can add Splash as a 'parent theme', thus making for less work when it comes to styling your 'custom splash theme'.

You will find Development: Themes 2.0 is a good starting place.

HTH

Mary

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In reply to Mary Evans

Re: customising splash

by Nikos Mattheos -

Thank you very much for your response! I think I'm beginning to get the grip of the theme and the structure of the files!

There is a box right under the header in the middle column, where one can add acrivities or resources. The activities I add are coming in a vertical column, however there is a lot of space horizontaly in this box, as it comes on top of the main (wide) column. Do you have any idea where I could interfere to make the list of activities in a horizontal line rather than vertical?

many thanks

Nikos

 

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