Posted by mjross on November 23, 2011 at 7:53pm
On the LVDUG sandbox web site, members are encouraged to contribute a custom theme. Even though I am not a designer, I created a simple Drupal 7 theme that the group can use for the web site if we so choose. The theme is currently available on my web site. I have no plans to try to submit it to Drupal.org and have it approved or hosted there. Thus, whomever would like to add the theme to the web site, please let me know when you have downloaded the tarball, so I can remove it from my web site. Thanks.
Comments
Zen
For anyone planning on making themes, I highly recommend using the Zen theme as a starting point. It was designed to be a base theme that is extended upon, and has great support for things like tabs, error messages, and all that other jazz that Drupal puts in there.
sweet! I just downloaded the
sweet! I just downloaded the theme and will be testing and deploying it shortly.
New theme is live!
Nice job mjross. Come take a look at the new theme: http://dug.lv
Problems?
@visual77: I've used Zen a couple times in the past as a starting point for theming, and found it generally emitted an excessive amount of markup. Other developers have found the same problem with Zen, and thus the starter theme Basic was created; it is a stripped-down version of Zen. This particular LVDUG theme is based on Bartik.
@z3cka: Thank you for your kind words. But when I visit the site now, it looks like there are errors on the site (even with a full refresh in both Firefox and Chrome), preventing the theme from being visible. I'm not sure what is causing the errors.
Interesting
Somehow, the theme got disabled. I guess that's what happens when you let amateurs administer your website. Just kidding, Casey. :^) See how it looks now.
I'll get Cramer to create an account and upload his updated logo.
Screenshot
It appears to still be broken.
When it's all sorted out, if I could take a screenshot of the site before anyone swaps out the logo, I'd appreciate it.
ha, very funny... strange
ha, very funny... strange that the theme was disabled. I would just clear the cache and the theme would come back... I will watch it closer over the next few days to see if it continues to have problems.
Errors
I wasn't kidding: On the 24th, I checked the site in Firefox and Chrome, with full refreshes of each one's cache, and still received those error messages seen earlier. Those appear to be gone now, thanks.
The Links block in the right sidebar would look better if nudged down a bit, to be level with the search block. I don't have access to the files on the server, so if someone would like to change line 61 of styles.css from...
.region-sidebar-first {...to...
.region-sidebar-first, .region-sidebar-second {...that would do the trick. Or use the upgraded version of the theme on my site. Thanks. Earlier I should have thought of the possible use of the second sidebar.
The navigation menu will become visible if put in the Featured region. It appears to be in the Header region now, obscured by the logo. That's what's causing the thin black line above the logo on the left.
Sorry, I should have been
Sorry, I should have been more specific... I was saying "haha, very funny" to Jason (oadaeh) for calling me an amateur. I should have been more clear.
As for the css change, I will make that change in code as soon as I can. If you can commit it to the github repo then all I would have to do is make a pull and it would be done.
Also, I made some changes to the cache settings to see if that fixes the problem of the theme getting disabled. I will keep an eye on it.
Git
Concerning the oadaeh reply, no problem.
By the GitHub repository, are you referring to my own GitHub account (I have one, but have yet to use it), or is there a group account? In either case, would this require jumping through all the hoops of the Drupal theme approval process, or does that involve the official d.o account? (I'm very new to Git.)
all i need is you github.com
all i need is you github.com username. then i can add you as an admin on the repo at: https://github.com/lvdug/dug.lv
then you would be able to push to the repo directly and ping me to make a pull to the live site. git has a large learning curve, but once you get it, is amazing what you can do.
GitHub username
It's "mjross". Thanks.
I should have guessed it
I should have guessed it :-)... you've been added. you can now push back to the repo directly.
Thanks
I'll try that just as soon as the theme is completed. You can expect at least a couple questions at that point as I stumble around and try to fathom the mysteries of Git. :-)
Not navigation
That thin black line is not the Navigation menu. It's the Main menu that is hard coded in templates/page.tpl.php from line 12 through line 27. Putting in in the Featured region does not fix the problem. The code has to be removed from the file, along with the code for the secondary menu running from lines 29 through 44.
That's correct
By "navigation menu" I was referring to the main navigation menu in use, which on this site is the Main menu. I should have been more specific. In the past, I've followed the common convention of referring to the main menu at the top of any site as the "navigation menu," but I should avoid that now, since the term "Navigation menu" has a specific meaning in D7.
As for the code that you mention, for the Main menu and the Secondary menu, I had left it there to minimize the changes to the code in the Bartik page.tpl.php, as the menus are not visible in the test site that I used. But just now I confirmed that they can be safely removed, and did so just now. That change does make the page.tpl.php code cleaner.
In the theme's README.txt, I mention that to put a horizontal menu at the top of the web site, we can add the menu block to the Featured region. You're right: that wouldn't solve the problem of the thin black line. But I assumed that the Main menu had been placed in the Header region. (I don't believe I have any admin account on the site, to check.) The Main menu should become visible if placed in the Featured region, if someone could try that. The thin black line will disappear as soon as I can add the new logo and make the completed theme available.
Thanks for your input.
Cron runs?
Casey, I'm guessing some automated thing is happening that either disables the theme or reverts the site to a previous state. It was disabled again, and re-enabling it fixed the site, but I'm guessing it will get disabled before too long.
very weird. i had fixed it
very weird. i had fixed it once by clearing the cache... but it was disabled again. I will continue to watch it to see what is going on.
Here's the latest
So I've tried everything I could think of in configuration on the server... I've set the theme back to Bartik until we have a better idea of what is causing this to happen.
Any other efforts are appreciated.
Me, too!
I'll see if I can get some time to download and install the theme also and see if I can find anything going on with it.
BTW, Cramer has a finished logo to upload.
New theme
Sounds good. I would be astonished if the theme does not work for you on a local instance of Drupal 7, because I developed it on a clean 7.9 instance. But please let me know if you see any problems.
Also, please don't forget, I'd like to take a screenshot of the group site before anyone replaces the current logo, and after the main menu has been moved into the Featured region. I don't believe I have privileges to do that.
Cramer's logo
Come to think of it, Cramer's logo is probably better than the one I slapped together, so if you'd like to email that me, I could add it to the theme and credit him in the README.txt file. That way, there's only one version of the theme (in GitHub, if that's where it ends up), and it has the better logo.
The latest
Okay so, Jason uploaded a few new themes to test to see if the site would blow up with those as well... the answer is YES! so we know that it is not mjross's theme that is causing the problem.
Our problem only happens when when the D7 auto cron runs. I found a report of poorman's cron module causing a similar issue on a D6 site. So, until we find the root of this issue, I am turning off the auto cron function and making a real crontab to run cron (which is actually the correct way to run cron).
Still a problem
It looks like the theme got disabled again. There was a cron run at 11:51 PM, and soon after that, a lot of errors indicative of the theme being disabled.
It looks like Poornan's Cron is still running hourly, as there are those irregular hourly messages stating that the cron run completed. As I happened to be checking it out near a potential run, I hung a round, and yep, it ran again, even though it was set to never.
I've set cron to run weekly. We'll see if it will at least stop running hourly. I haven't been able to find an issue on it, but I'll keep poking as I have time.
Still!!!
The auto cron is still running every hour. This calls for drastic action.
crazy... i don't get it.
I can't figure out why this is happening. Any idea on how to fix this?