Wondering about a UI to create subthemes [#1140520]

I recently ran into Omega and have been working with it in a development environment for a little bit. I really like it and am excited to try it in a production project.

As a longtime Zen user, I really enjoyed the ease of creating subthemes via the zenophile module. Since I would like to start moving my future development to the Omega theme I decided to rewrite the zenophile module for Omega. I have a decent (working) start on it.

I didn't include any of the drush command stuff that zenophile has since there is already a module for that for Omega.

My question is...would anyone else be interested in something like this or is someone already working on an idea like this? I wouldn't mind creating a project on d.o to share the module, but I don't want to clutter d.o with modules that no one else is interested in.

Just thought I would ask! Thanks!

Comment	File	Size	Author
#15	Create an Omega Subtheme from the UI in 7.x-3.0.png	44.47 KB	Argus
#8	omegaphile.zip	12.94 KB	bocaj
#5	omega-subtheme-creator.png	63.85 KB	bocaj

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Comments

Comment #1

himerus CreditAttribution: himerus commented 27 April 2011 at 21:51

There has been a module underway for quite some tim, and I've presented on it including wireframes on the concept. Omega UI is the name, and it IS being developed for the 3.x version of Omega. Including drag and drop support for regions and zones, regios and zones created on the fly, and a lot more.

Comment #2

himerus CreditAttribution: himerus commented 27 April 2011 at 21:53

And you can already create sub themes via drush with omega_tools. Been around and working with every version of omega.

Comment #3

bocaj CreditAttribution: bocaj commented 27 April 2011 at 22:26

Very cool! I saw the Omega UI module, but I didn't realize that that module will create subthemes. I thought it was only for configuring a subtheme after it has been created, good to know.

I know about the omega_tools module, I just don't do much with drush and prefer to have a UI that I can use directly on the website to create a theme(s) and setup some initial configuration settings.

Glad to hear that Omega UI will take care of the initial subtheme setup though. I'll be interested to see what functionality it has built into it. Also glad I asked before posting the module I created/modified...no need to have to modules that do the same thing on d.o

Comment #4

himerus CreditAttribution: himerus commented 27 April 2011 at 22:47

I may have spoke too soon, as I was replying/reading on my mobile.

So zenophile actually in essence gives a form to step through and then creates a subtheme? So much like the drush command omega has (drush omega-subtheme "cool theme" html5), but allows configuring a few steps on the fly before actually creating it?

Without me having to intstall zen/zenophile, any chance you could get a screenshot or two of the pages involved in creating the subtheme?

That "exact" feature hasn't been planned, but could fit well w/Omega UI....

Eventually, when Omega UI actually has a release and working version, the drush subtheme commands will likely be moving into that and phasing out Omega Tools. So this type of interaction (drush or visual subtheme creation) will fit in well in Omega UI.

Comment #5

bocaj CreditAttribution: bocaj commented 27 April 2011 at 22:55

File	Size
omega-subtheme-creator.png	63.85 KB

Here is a screenshot of what I've put together at this point.

Comment #6

himerus CreditAttribution: himerus commented 29 April 2011 at 13:30

@bocaj

That looks great... I'd definitely be willing to include that in Omega UI if you are interested in contributing.

Comment #7

fubhy CreditAttribution: fubhy commented 11 May 2011 at 16:58

Hello Bocaj,

I will start developing on the Omega Tools module today and would like you to join me on #drupal-omega if you find the time. I would love to take a peak at your code and see if we can implement it into Omega Tools.

Comment #8

bocaj CreditAttribution: bocaj commented 11 May 2011 at 18:04

File	Size
omegaphile.zip	12.94 KB

@fubhy
I'm not sure if I will be able to jump on IRC today or not, I will try. Either way, here is the modified Zenophile module I created for Omega (I called it Omegaphile, original I know :) ). Would be glad to help where I can. It's still a bit rough and probably needs a good code cleaning, but it functions nicely in the testing I've done.

Thanks for your hard work guys! I'm looking forward to moving past Drupal 6 and more into Drupal 7. Just not comfortable with the leap for our clients just yet, but will definitely be using the Omega theme once I make the jump!

Comment #9

fubhy CreditAttribution: fubhy commented 12 May 2011 at 10:52

Hey bocaj. Thanks for your reply! I checked out the code from Zenophile and your Omegaphile and decided that I will rewrite the entire thing with CTools Form Wizard plugin. I am planing quite a bunch of other new stuff that Zenophile / Omegaphile doesn't cover (including a grid generator, etc.) and therefore its problaby best to rewrite it completly. Thanks for bringing this up. This will be a huge improvement for Omega.

Comment #10

bocaj CreditAttribution: bocaj commented 12 May 2011 at 14:09

@fubhy Wow! Sounds cool! I look forward to trying it out. Are you planning on implementing an API so that other people can customize it to their needs? One of the things I like about Zenophile is that it has a simple API so that a custom module could be created to make subtheme setup even faster! I think an API would be awesome! Maybe that is taken care of in CTools Form Wizard...I'm not familiar with that at all.

Comment #11

fubhy CreditAttribution: fubhy commented 12 May 2011 at 16:35

You can use hook_form_alter on all of the wizard forms of course!

Comment #12

bocaj CreditAttribution: bocaj commented 12 May 2011 at 17:52

Yeah, that's good, and for simple things like setting default values to form elements that would be the way to go of course. But things like replacing text in files is handy, Zenophile, and thus Omegaphile, use RegEx patterns to replace text in an existing file, like css files and the .info file. This might not be as big of an issue in Omega though since there aren't 500 css files in the subtheme's folder like there is in Zen (okay, that was a bit of an exaggeration, but only a bit!). For setting up custom theme settings though, changing out the values in the subtheme's .info file would still be handy. Unless there is a different/better way to do that!

If you have looked at the difference between Zenophile and the Omegaphile module I created, there are a lot more options available in Omegaphile. Some of these options are due to the difference between Zen and Omega, but some of them, like adding custom css files, plus the ability to make the custom css files compatible with LESS CSS Preprocessor can obviously be used with Zen or Omega. I understand that not everyone uses LESS though so it might not make sense for it to be included in the Omega Tools module, but for people who do use LESS being able to create a custom module that would sit on top of Omega Tools to provide this functionality would be quite helpful.

Of course, there are numerous use cases for being able to extend Omega Tools, the LESS scenario is just an example of something that would not be obtainable through hook_form_alter.

Comment #13

fubhy CreditAttribution: fubhy commented 12 May 2011 at 18:01

I will be replacing file contents too and the user can create his CSS files on the wizard page as well. We will write the entire .info file with the wizard (from scratch) with all the regions, zones, CSS files, default settings that the user chooses. There will be alter hooks (provided by omega tools) to change those settings by custom modules but apart from that I don't really know what you mean?! There will be nothing that won't be uneditable of course. I am planning to do this much more versatile then Zenophile. I don't like how Zenophile works at all and I wont base my code on it. The Omega Tools subtheme creation wizard will do much more than just creating and copying files, it will let you generate grids, regions, zones, css files and default settings with a simple interface. The CTools form wizard plugin is going to be my tool of choice.

Comment #14

bocaj CreditAttribution: bocaj commented 12 May 2011 at 18:16

I'm interested to see what you develop! I would love to be one of the first ones to test it out!

I think once I use it then I will be able to explain myself better. Maybe the functionality will already be there and the connection is just not working in my head. Anyway, looking forward to it.

Any estimated date on a release of Omega Tools that will include this functionality?