Patrick Malley

What you've done is a vast improvement that will both help me do my work and bring us some very different themes that I'm excited to get to work on. I'm satisfied for the short term.

Thanks again, Tim.

Actually, what are you asking for?

I was asking for control over what happens in {MAIN CONTENT GOES HERE| without really thinking about what I was asking! The current system does provide theme developers the freedom to:

1.) Alter the layout of the page (sideblock regions can go anywhere in layout.php).

2.) Add custom divs and classes around the main content (which was once the middle column) and the sideblocks and their regions.

3.) Create separate templates for different types of pages (forms, popups, etc.).

But you have not implemented a complete templating system to control the main content at all. Is this something you still plan to do, or are you going to stop here?

I ask because the benefit of a templating system that allowed theme developers to pull out pages (say the quiz-view page) would give guys like Urs and me the opportunity to mess with the existing layouts on a per-client basis. For example, if I have a client who wants to change something in the main content of the quiz-view page, I can do it without hacking the core code.

I know multiple arguments for such a system have already been made, but let me just clear my mind of these three:

1.) Theme developers should ideally be able to meet the needs of their clients. There are several times when I have to tell my clients that something is not possible because I don't have access to it in the theme folder. It is a limitation of the software to have have to tell someone that something is not possible without sacrificing .....

2.) Urs is a really creative guy and has an eye for what works with design. I'd love for him to have a realistic opportunity to change the templates for his clients and reintroduce the strong elements that he realizes back into the Moodle core.

3.) One of the reasons there are so many developers for Wordpress is because of its flexibility and dedication to design. I know that Moodle is more complex than Wordpress as a system, but I can't help but think that more flexibility would bring in more competent designers.

Perhaps I shouldn't have listed these since I know the argument has already occurred, but they were on the tip of my tongue so why not. It might also be the case that you're still planning to implement this system, and I've just missed something. So, I guess some clarification on this would be nice.

Hello Tim,

I apologize for not providing feedback sooner. I am a the end of three grad classes I regretfully took on this summer, so I came back from my vacation with quite a bit of work to do. Luckily, they finish this week so I'll be able to devote more time to this.

Overall, this accomplishes all of my goals outlined here back in February. The use of layout.php with the ability to put blocks where you'd like works well for my purpose.

I wonder, though, if the flexibility you offer could be extended to other pages down the road. Can we designate layout-quiz.php now or our options limited to the one's you've listed? If they are limited, could this list be theoretically expanded in the future?

I will focus my energy on MDL-19757 over the next few weeks. If I have questions as I go I'll let you know.

Thanks a million for the incredible work you've done on this. It really is a remarkable change.

My recommendation is to ask yourself whether or not you want to continue supporting IE6 - if you do, then don't use transparent PNGs. If you don't care, which more people shouldn't, then use them without a fix.

Something a bit more constructive, I suppose, is to use styles_ie6.css to call up alternative background images (or no background images at all) to present the ie6 user with something appealing, albeit less nice. There have been thoughts like this rolling around the design community for the past few months. Here is Zeldman's take on the idea.

Sorry Dawn,

To keep the Moodle.org site unique, the theme here is not made publicly available. You can, however, download the Anomaly theme, which was designed with requests such as this in mind.

http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?d=26&rid=2085