While the Fluid Baseline Grid looks like nice as a concept and you make it looks like it is very easy to make a theme from such grid. I do like and admire how you got along with one page.tpl.php and template.php there should be sidebars as regions as they are quite usual for any site.

Even, if this is intended to be base theme, still any override of regions will be done in page.tpl.php so it is better to give better head start and I think it is too complicated to make them autofold, disappear if there is nothing in them.

Some theme settings would be nice too, for instance, width that is fluid (full width) or semi-fluid (in percentage) or fixed (in some units), position of sidebars, their width, perhaps web fonts selection or sets for usual groups... just a suggestion.

Comments

sk33lz’s picture

Assigned: Unassigned » sk33lz
Status: Active » Postponed

The 1.x branch of the FBG theme was made as a proof of concept of getting the FBG framework setup as a Drupal theme. It was meant to be a base theme that had very little markup and was very easy to modify to your liking. The page.tpl.php should be fairly easy to edit to add sidebars to your custom 1.x FBG theme based on the instructions on how the FBG columns work.

I will be focusing on creating a more robust base theme in the 2.x branch that is less a copy of FBG's example html and instead a useful implementation of FBG as a Drupal theme. I appreciate your suggestions and I will definitely be including sidebars, other regions, and possibly additional theme settings in the 2.x branch.

MacMladen’s picture

I've made some language mistakes but I see that some messages have been passed ;)

I wanted to say that I always like when someone tries to make more semantic, typographically correct theme and FBG is good foundation for that.

Base themes are good things, and as much as many of them have followers, one thing is missed all the time: sensible defaults. For some people it is a deal breaker, for others like me it is lack of sensible defaults that defers me as I like things set up the right way as much as possible, having me override only those that my design requires.

Even when someone does multilayer separation like Arctica -> Tundra -> TouchPro or Om (and I occasionally check all existing and new themes) I haven't seen some combination that will make that layering better than average (usually tied to some internal practices of author).

Base theme should be the engine driving base that is small, fast and solid foundation without much bells and whistles, next layer should be concept engine that gives some structural and aesthetic foundation that third layer, our subtheme will build upon. So on one base theme, author should build subtheme that builds upon and gives sensible defaults even to those that will stay just at that, so they need everything, from color module integration with many UI elements that can be colored to regions and even widgets as sliders, hardcoded for simplicity or bundled as features or even tutorials in documentation (how to build it with views, etc).

The question for responsiveness (or not), media queries, fluid (or fixed), sidebar placement and other usual features should be balanced between those two layers according to author preference and concept.

I'm just calling for sensible defaults that make theme usable from start and adaptable as user is able to do it.

sk33lz’s picture

Status: Postponed » Fixed

Sidebars have been added to the 2.x branch, along with Main Menu support in the theme layer. You can also drop a menu block in the Header or Footer block regions and get an inline menu with some additional CSS I threw in for 2.1.

Cheers :)

sk33lz’s picture

Status: Fixed » Closed (fixed)