Custom CSS; The formation of a Style and Using the Advanced Customization Area

[foxfirefey]

Class Notes

So, I really struggled on what I wanted to say for last week's class and this is pretty much all I came up with so far, and I'm not sure there's enough there to make a whole class out of anyway. If you have any questions about that topic, let me know--maybe I can fill it in some.

You can always look at the syllabus to see where we are. Our previous class was on Finding Resources. Next week, we will talk about Basic Core2 CSS Strategies.

Lesson Readings

Custom CSS

Alright, CSS folks, the Custom CSS area of the customization wizard is where you'll be working. You can read some details of the Custom CSS area here. One main restriction you'll run into: no @import statements.

It's pretty simple, but if you have questions, ask away.

Advanced Customization Area

Alright, S2 folks, your reading for the week is this Style System Overview. You should learn the following topics:

• What a layer is
• What the differences are between core, layout, theme, and wizard layers is
• How to create and manage layers
• How to use the layer editor to make changes to a layer
• How to use layers to make a new style
• Layerinfo settings

Exercises

Custom CSS folks: put some CSS into the Custom CSS area of a layout, if you've never done that. If you're going to be doing a CSS style from scratch, pick a base layout to build off of and see what it looks like with the default stylesheet turned off. That's what you'll have to work with! As an alternative, you can use the plain theme of Tabula Rasa--it's CSS is minimal and mainly aims at making the various columns mode and wizard options like fonts, images and colors work, and preventing a few display issues. The rest is up to you. It can be useful and easier to keep its stylesheet.

S2 folks:

• Make a new layout layer and put in the S2 Testbed Layout. If you don't have a paid account or don't want to use up a layer on your Dreamwidth account, remember that you can make a test account on my dev server. Use layerinfo settings to make the source viewable and the layer public.
• Comment and try to explain to us, in your own words/diagrams/however, what the core/layout/theme/wizard layers are for and the order they go in. If you can't do this, then ask questions about what confuses you!

Comments

[tyger]

Huh! That's kind of cool.

*ponders* Maybe I should see how much work getting the layout how I want it to go is? 'Cause I don't think it'll be super different to most layouts! But on the other hand I know I want to mess with the modules at least a bit - I'd really like a login one, which I know you could at least make work on LJ, 'cause I found some code to make one in a layout I made over there once. 'Cause I guess if that makes the code super hard to compile the first time I wouldn't want to ever do it again, so layout would probably be best. And then if I want to mess with it in a way CSS can't do later I still have a theme layer.

HMMMM.

But on the other hand I'm mostly fond of the banner up top/ sidebar/a few nav links under the banner trio, and that's been done kind of a lot, so.