Kit Compliance for theme regions and the Open App Standard

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seanberto's picture

Just installed OpenPublic for the first time to review its implementation of the OpenApps standard. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but technically speaking, the fact that it's using an Omega-based theme precludes Kit compliance, as Omega doesn't use Kit-compliant theme regions.

I'm guessing that a lot of folks a lot more informed than me have already noticed this. What's the current thinking on theme regions and block placement for Features/Apps? What's folks' thinking about the use of the Delta module in Features/Apps?

Cheers,
Sean

Comments

I wrote the regions module to

btopro's picture

I wrote the regions module to allow for cross theme / kit compliance. This way you can have a feature that implements regions and defines its own region as part of the experience. Kit compliant themes is a good thing but regions can help account for things that might not make sense in a theme like overlays. Elms implements three regions with its distribution to remain cross theme compliant and its features should be cross system compliant too as a result.

http://drupal.org/project/regions

Interesting...

seanberto's picture

How would this work with a more complex theme, such as Omega? Moreover, how would it work with the Delta module? Just curious.

I'm not sure but I don't

btopro's picture

Links were dead; Regions module is still alive to help make this happen. D6 and D7 versions have been used in production.

Kit Compliance outdated for Drupal themes...

himerus's picture

According to the latest version of Kit (at least what is posted on D.O) http://drupal.org/project/kit is completely outdated, and imho wrong.

Example:

2. Regions
----------
In order to ensure interoperability with kitf-compliant features, a theme should
implement the following regions:

- content: The main page content region.
- left: The lefthand sidebar.
- right: The righthand sidebar.

Region names like left and right make us front end "experts" very sad inside... just because a region is named something doesn't mean that should truly imply it's positioning.

Notice that even Drupal core now names the "main" regions content, sidebar_first, and sidebar_second... this is the approach Omega adopted for ALL the region groups.

left and right assumes that those are on the left and right of something, and that is a HORRIBLE oversight. So relying on Kit compliance 100% at this point (until that spec is updated with current standards) is a bit of a moot point.

I took a look at the Kit "spec" when it was originally released, and thought it was a great idea, however, since it hasn't been updated in 2 years, I think either A.) someone needs to come along and update it, or there should be a new and relevant standard to adhere to for features/themes. I don't think there's much of a point in discussing something that far outdated.

And if I'm missing something, and there is a new version that I haven't seen... if so, please let me know!

agreed; spirit is correct,

btopro's picture

agreed; spirit is correct, language is dated. It has a new maintainer and the discussion is starting back up again as how best to proceed. Adding these points to this discussion could help push it that direction -- http://drupal.org/node/1456518

Most of the people I know involved are developers first (me included) so it would be very beneficial to have theme developer opinions tossed in there, especially around region naming convention.