Unlike some other distros, in Open Outreach we don't ship with a custom theme. Yes, we developed Granada for use in the distro, but the aim is that sites based on Open Outreach should be relatively independent of any particular theme or even base theme. Open Outreach aims to be fully usable with any theme that supports a minimal set of regions, rather than being highly reliant on a particular base theme or a theme customized for the distribution. However, the particular themes we ship with should be compatible with responsive design and should allow features to be designed in responsive ways.

Currently Open Outreach ships with two Fusion-based themes. Fusion was selected with priority on ease of configuration offered through Skinr or Fusion accelerator. However, Fusion doesn't seem any longer the strongest match. Few if any other D7 distros are using Fusion. As for sub-themes, we haven't done much with Granada since initially posting it and Mix and Match is apparently unmaintained.

Key selection criteria for a new base theme include:

  • is responsive
  • ideally, HTML5 ready
  • well maintained
  • highly configurable
  • has multiple suitable subthemes available

Criteria for subthemes:

  • Fits easily with some of the fixed configuration assumptions. E.g. the highlighted slideshow.
  • Recolourable with numerous colour palette options preconfigured.

We have the option of either switching to a new base theme or adding one in addition to Fusion.

Options to consider:

AdaptiveTheme appears to be the strongest candidate. It has several great subthemes and excellent configurability. To this end, we have drafted a new AdaptiveTheme subtheme, Outreach, beginning by cloning and converting the existing Skeleton theme.

See also #1789376: Produce new branch of Granada based on AdaptiveTheme.

Comments

nedjo’s picture

Title: Introduce Adaptive theme based themes » Consider introducing new base theme and subthemes for Open Outreach
nedjo’s picture

There's a release candidate for adaptive theme 3.x and work is underway on upgrading Pixture reloaded and Sky. We can consider adding these after they stablize for the 3.x branch.

nedjo’s picture

Issue summary: View changes

Provide more detail.

nedjo’s picture

Title: Consider introducing new base theme and subthemes for Open Outreach » Introduce new base theme and subthemes for Open Outreach

I'm working on Outreach as an AdaptiveTheme subtheme for Open Outreach. With that in place we could make the switch. Ideally we'd also complete #1789376: Produce new branch of Granada based on AdaptiveTheme.

nedjo’s picture

Status: Active » Fixed

Finally got this work done.

New default theme is the Outreach theme produced for Open Outreach. Also added Sky as well as Adaptivetheme. Also added Superfish, which is supported by both Sky and Adaptivetheme.

For now we've left fusion, mix_and_match, and granada. Plan is to remove fusion and mix_and_match and upgrade granada to use adaptivetheme. But we'll leave them in place for now for legacy sites.

Status: Fixed » Closed (fixed)

Automatically closed -- issue fixed for 2 weeks with no activity.

Anonymous’s picture

Issue summary: View changes

Merge in updates from #1372086.