themer module integration into firebug firefox extension

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skbohra's picture

themer module integrating into existing firebug firefox extension can put themer module out of JS and will give it a cool UI, it will help theme developers a lot.

Firebug helps in examining & editing webpages as a integrated part of Firefox, we can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page. it is a really very good extension much needed by every web developer,

as dldege suggested

in http://groups.drupal.org/node/9603

the themer module work is very similar to the "Inspect mode" of the Firebug FireFox add-on where you rollover an DOM item and get information in the variousl FireBug tabs, the themer module could be hooked directly into the FireBug add-on and a "drupal theme" tab could be added to the display options when doing an inspect. This would move the themer module UI out of the JS in the page and into FireBugs UI.

this integration will make theme development task quite easy.

Comments

This sounds AWESOME

webchick's picture

Not that I do much theming myself, but this sounds like it would be very useful, indeed.

Cross-posted to the themers group. Any thoughts, folks?

Yes please

gdd's picture

I can't speak to the scope or technical details of the project, but it looks like it would be fantastically useful to anyone just getting started theming (and right now that means me.) This is a great idea. +1

I got a +1 :)

skbohra's picture

firebug provides a very good UI with tabs for HTML, CSS, JS etc, in this integration a tab for drupal themer module will be added, when selected it will show up various functions, variables used in theme, very much similar to other tabs of HTML etc, all the functions available in firebug like editing, inspecting will be used, since themer module exixts already, it inspects the DOM and supplies related information which will be utilized in firebug, both the themer module and firebug gives a lot help in inspecting, thus their integration is really going to be a useful asset.

I am not seeing any

moshe weitzman's picture

I am not seeing any additional information or capability that will be added beyond what theme developer does today. Please elaborate. A Firebug UI is automatically excludes all browsers beside Firefox. The current UI has been tested and works in Firefox, IE, Safari, and Opera. I agree that Firebug is gods gift to web developers. That doesn't mean that everything should be integrated with it. I'm open to this proposal, if there is some benefit.

I have tried both firebug

skbohra's picture

I have tried both firebug and theme developer, and find that firebug just is too user friendly, the theme developer works fine but the representation of information it provides doesn't excite me as much as firebug does. As far as integration is concerned i think since its a 'gods gift to web developers' so its worth doing and is much easier to do. I take mozilla firefox more as developing platform then just a browse :) web developers are more shifting towards firefox

ok. i am hearing that there

moshe weitzman's picture

ok. i am hearing that there is no additional information and no additional capabilities proposed here. this proposal is for a different presentation on the same data. thats a fine project, just not one that gets me very excited.

i think you can get a good start on this today without any patches to themer. just look in the Drupal.settings object in the DOM (use fiirebug ;) and you will see all the data themer uses in its popup.

if it isn't usable - improve it

greggles's picture

find that firebug just is too user friendly, the theme developer works fine but the representation of information it provides doesn't excite me as much as firebug does

So, this seems like an argument to improve the layout of the theme developer box - not necessarily an argument to rewrite it into Firebug. Right?

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Themer integrated with

dldege's picture

Themer integrated with FireBug can be supplemental and themer can continue to provide an in page UI. I was thinking that it might work that themer could have 2 modes

  1. Current themer functionality
  2. No UI - theme information only and DOM element wrapping, etc. is included in the generated page.

The themebug plugin for FireBug would use themer in mode 2 and would use the same information the themer UI uses to display information in a "Theme" tab during an inspect operation in FireBug.

So, Moshe, is right, the information provided is the same just that its done in FireBug instead of the page. At the same time though you can switch tabs and get CSS, Layout, and other relevant information in the same interface.

As far as new and exciting things it might open up - well, I'm not sure off hand but I have to think with all the cool things FireBug can do that ideas will pop up.

Dan DeGeest
Software Developer
Somewhere or Another

Drupal Themer / Firebug integration

cpelham's picture

Theoretically, it would be convenient (and thus might save time) to have both in one interface. However, I would like to add that in my limited time working with each (since Moishe's great presentation at Drupalcon!), I actually find that Themer is easier for me to read and use than the panels and info that Firebug provides. Probably, I'll just need to spend more time in Firebug. But one of the reasons I don't is that I otherwise MUCH prefer working in Safari. And I often DON'T need to work on both php functions and css at the same time if i am just tweaking things, like I usually am, rather than setting up a new site or site area from scratch, which I only do on occasion. That's just my workload though.

I might prefer if the integration went the other direction. Could we expand Themer to provide css info? Then we'd have a browser-independent solution. Now that would be awesome!


Christopher Pelham
Director
CRS (Center for Remembering & Sharing)
http://www.crsny.org

CRS (Center for Remembering & Sharing) is an arts & healing center located just south of Union Square in Manhattan.

how it will be :)

skbohra's picture

with so much talk about themer v/s firebug, i propose something like providing a feature of saving changes done in CSS and theme function directly from firebug and providing a realtime preview, it is i think not there in firebug and looks like can be a great feature, getting something new, i am still thinking about how it will be implemented but seems like it can :)

patches?

catch's picture

If you mean generating patches to css and .tpl.php files from within firebug then that'd be very interesting. I can't see how a preview would work with .tpl.php files though.

yes you got my thoughts,

skbohra's picture

yes you got my thoughts, this sort of feature can make firebug integration worth, and much better than themer module,
looking forward for more reviews

I agree this would be pretty

tjholowaychuk's picture

I agree this would be pretty convinent but at the same time is it really necessary? it would take a fair but if work to convert to a firefox extension.. I would be interested in this as I had already previously started a Drupal specific firefox extension but I reallllllllllllllllllly do not have time :(

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the comment is not pretty

skbohra's picture

the comment is not pretty clear to me, is it supporting the cause or what?

Yes and no, it would be

tjholowaychuk's picture

Yes and no, it would be interesting, but it really misewell stay in devel.module as it would take quite a while to convert to a firefox extension

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I don't think it's a great

JurriaanRoelofs's picture

I don't think it's a great asset to me, because most of the time Im using webdeveloper toolbar instead of firebug, as webdev provides an area where I can write and save/load my stylesheets.


peach from All Drupal Themes!

Themer module is more valuable than a plug-in

Chris Charlton's picture

Even though I'm working on the extension Drupal Themer Kit Pro for Dreamweaver, I still think the Themer Module is more valuable (outside of any application) since it works in any browser on any platform. We can't really beat that.

If people want to work on software extensions to help use/do Drupal, then do it! Otherwise, spend time that benefits the lowest entry point of Drupal adopters, which hands down would be enhancing Drupal's Themer/Dev module(s).

Chris Charlton, Author & Drupal Community Leader, Enterprise Level Consultant

I teach you how to build Drupal Themes http://tinyurl.com/theme-drupal and provide add-on software at http://xtnd.us

tada

jpetso's picture

Yo, check out what's in today's issue of the "New modules" feed.
http://drupal.org/project/drupalforfirebug

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