Here are some thoughts and questions put forth while exploring theming and skinning Fluid and Sakai content. Sorry for the lengthy post. Any feedback is appreciated. Jacob
Summary --------------------------------- Springboards are collections of flexible code that provide a simple entry point into using Fluid components. They are meant to be easily dissected and reworked to fit most people's needs while keeping our components as DOM-agnostic as possible. Skins/themes provide an important dimension to robust and usable Springboards. A Skin should: --------------------------------- • be flexible (some hand-holding without being heavy-handed, no forced solutions, very little requirements, lightweight contract) • easily configurable (straightforward techniques, simple language, no "trickiness") • support dynamic re-skinning (proper dependencies, leverage the behaviour of CSS) • provide a good example for others to run with (no hacks, clean formatting, best practices, wide browser support, wide platform support(?) ) • play nice with other things around it (nice compromise between inheritance and individual overrides) Opportunities and Pitfalls --------------------------------- Relationship between skinning components and applications: we can't control the whole app's skins in some cases, but in others, like Sakai, we can establish a wider framework Scope and the role of a CSS framework Questions to Think About --------------------------------- * What do we need from a skinning system? * What are the problems and pain points in current skinning approaches? * How does a skin relate to reusable components and to specific applications? * How would existing CSS frameworks help us? * How can we extend our semantic reach? * How can we make skinning easier? * What great examples can we steal from? * Skinning and StyleAble
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