SimpleStyleDev

• Where are we?
  Current Tikiwiki style templates and CSS files are overcomplicated. Mostly they do use tables for layout and so many unnecessary different classes and IDs. It isn't very easy to maintain, modify or understand, sometimes a theme displays wrong, disallows an user to change font size in his/her browser or the page structure is designed against usability and accessibility.
• Where do we want to be?
  We want to create simple, easy understandable style with minimum of required IDs and classes in XHTML Strict compliant template layout with simple CSS file. Still we would like to produce pleasant look and feel, which will be compatible with most available modern browsers (Mozilla 1+/Netscape7+, MSIE 5+, Opera 7+, Konqueror 3+, Safari, ...) and still browseable with CSS switched off using some CLI or "stone age" browsers.
• Who is working on what? (Priorities/goals/majors issues/roles)
  • luci
    • Priorities:
      • one simple CSS file
      • perfect code
    • Goals:
      • pure CSS and valid XHTML 1.0 Strict based layout which can be used as a model for other themes and maybe even replace the default *.tpl files for future Tikiwiki releases
    • Role: developer - project coordinator

• enhance CSS for forums
• Identify problematic code in style.css & Simple Style templates
• Full XHTML compliance
• and more ...

• Define width of center column (for lack of a better word)
• CSS for modules
• CSS for titlebars in wiki pages
• CSS for tables and fancy tables
• CSS for calendar
• CSS to fix appearance of input fields

Who is interested/participating on working here generally? (Link your UserPage)

• luci
• sylvie
• rlpowell
• musus <- ? (since he's active in community nomore)
• beerlounge.de

link yourself here

• Bugs
  • some input fields and textareas overflows into right column (fixed)
  • MSIE 6.0 displays bottom scrollbar, but the content fits in viewport well (unconfirmed)
  • MSIE 5.0 displays huge textarea width in Shoutbox module which causes to display it on the right side out of the viewport
  • add more
• RFEs
  • none yet
• tech support
  • irc.freenode.net, #tikiwiki

We (well, actually me, luci 😉) decided to use the technique of "source ordered floats" by Big John for the best compatibility and flexibility of Simple style!

Similar purpose and/or pretty well structured and coded styles in Tiki are:

• StylesMatrix and 'Notheme' style series (read more about it)

All other styles than Simple have got their own bugs:

• Styles not working on MSIE6 - tiki1.7 : StylesAkwa, StylesGeo, StylesMatrix, StylesMatrixlight, StylesMose, StylesNotheme, StylesNotheme.II, StylesNotheme.III
• tiki 1.7.1.1: All styles except moreneat, neat, olive, and Subsilver ( StylesMoreneat , StylesNeat , StylesOlive , StylesSubsilver ) have obvious display problems on IE 5.2 and Safari (OS X.2). The most prevalent problem is that boxes that should be below text overlap the bottom of lines. This bug shows in screenshots from other OSs as well.

The Simple style files can be found in:

1. Templates: templates/styles/simple/*
2. CSS file: styles/simple.css
3. Graphics: styles/simple/*

Pure CSS layout techniques:

• http://glish.com/css/ : 3 columns example manages 3 columns with no table.
• http://www.alistapart.com/stories/practicalcss/ proposes to use the float attribute.
• The Layout Reservoir : Flanking Menus - 3 columns layout
• Another great resource: Position Is Everything
• Ultimate list of pure CSS layouts: http://css-discuss.incutio.com/?page=ThreeColumnLayouts
• CSS Positioning (particularly floating): http://www.brainjar.com/css/positioning/default3.asp