Roll your own Joomla Templates

I am developing a web-site for a business. A really simple web presence with some Content Management. I am yet to fully convince the Business Owner that a CMS will be so beneficial to customers, but I am already using Joomla for the site, so we have one in place. I used the DocMan extension for Mambo/Joomla to cover document content and access control for the published documents. After some initial headaches with that, I sorted the issues out (to be blogged some other time I suppose) and started looking around the net for free templates. I was after a quick implementation they liked.

After much searching I found the siteground templates on offer for free. You could customise them all you wanted, but you had to leave their copyright and “add” info on the page.

I needed to customise the graphics to include customer information in the header anyway, so I started modifying the logo. Next up was the layout. It was missing some of the joomla inline modules in needed.

Whilst doing this, I noticed that all their templates are just mega tables. Very ugly coding in a standards based world. I am guessing they would not meet XHTML or CSS standards, OK so I checked. The CSS was all good, but the HTML was not Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional.

What should one do? Write your own template. This is my current goal. I will offer it up for grabs once done.

If anyone has tips on an entirely CSS based joomla theme (aiming at visual design, light on bandwidth) then I would appreciate them.

Statement of intent (aka Information overload)

Evo Terra aptly describes what all information connected people have gone through. You know how it feels when you just can’t catch up on your podcasts, or RSS feeds? Evo is going through this right now and is about to get out his “CyberMachete”. I have even removed Slice of Scifi from my podcasts when information overloaded, but it always seems to return.

read more | digg story

Espresso

Espresso

Originally uploaded by lantrix.

Came across this coffee bar in Adelaide recently, called Un Caffé Bar. Besides me liking the taste of illy coffee, it was a simple layout designed for only one thing. Coffee. They have a few bars in Adelaide. I think melbourne could do with some of these as well.

Upgrade complete

The Wordpress upgrade went painlessly, and now I am all up to date and back online. V2.1.3 works fab, and all the plugins were compatible.

Clearcase vs CVS

I recently starting using Clearcase for versioning, at work. I come from a CVS background, so initially found it to be cumbersome. For example, here is how i added a file to the repository:

CVS method:

# Change to your already checked out working folder
cd /your/working/dir
# list folder contents, will see checked out working files
ls -l
# List status of all the files, (optionally, update if needed)
cvs -qn up
# copy in new file to commit
cp ~/yourfile.sh .
# add file to repository
cvs add yourfile.sh
# commit changes, and make add permanent
cvs commit -m "commit message"

Clearcase method:

# Change to your pre-defined clearcase VOB top level folder (will be empty)
cd /your/working/dir
# set your view
cleartool setview [viewname]
# list folder contents, will see working files through "this view"
ls -l
# List status of all the files
cleartool ls -l
# Make current folder checked out for modifications, -nc means no comment
cleartool co -nc .
# copy in new file to commit
cp ~/yourfile.sh
# make new file a new element, and check it in (just like cvs add)
ct mkelem -ci yourfile.sh -c "commit message"
# check in current folder, as modifications are done, -nc means no comment
cleartool ci -nc .
# end your view. your folder is now empty
cleartool endview [viewname]
# release your license (if needed)
clearlicense -release

See? CVS is simpler. But you have to work with what you have. I can see the benefit of Clearcase in a complex development environment. Expect to hear more from me on this tool from IBM.