For those of you that are using non-official core2 styles

[aveleh]

Hey guys,

We have some really exciting changes coming up in the next few days. However, it's going to break the styles of some people who are using core2-based non-official layers. That means that those of you who liked being on the cutting edge and so fiddled with a style to make it work with core2 or made changes to the functions in a core2 style to make your own style, you may end up having problems using your style as expected, or even getting it to compile.

I know we've already changed the names of the module function twice, but we've done it again, this time in a way that makes it more flexible. I can promise that when you see the way that nova designed and afuna implemented the modules, you won't care that you need to make some more edits. The new module functionality is amazing. If you're not already using Negatives, switch to it and see the Modules in action.

Anyway, core2 is giant enough that we're wanting to remove the depreciated functions earlier rather than later, especially for things like the modules which are already confusing. So, if you're a non-official core2 style user, you probably need to:

1. Do a find and replace to replace print_module_group_one() with print_module_group( "one" ), and the same for two and/or three and/or four.


2. Do a find for any instances of print_linkbar and replace it with print_management_links for EntryLite (entries and comments), and with print_interaction_links for UserLite.


3. Do a find for any instances of print_entry_poster. This may say something like $p->print_entry_poster($e). It should now be $e->print_poster().


4. Do a find for lang_user_wrote. Think about replacing it with print_entry_poster.


5. Bookmark this post so you can yell at me for not properly making sure we documented our overhaul.

We're going to be making a series of posts in the next couple of days talking about the overhaul and porting process, and better explaining how what we've done isn't just renaming a few functions, and how this is going to be really awesome for everyone in the long run. This is, of course, just in preparation of getting some good official documentation aimed for users of all levels and interest.

In the meantime, I'm working afuna, av8rmike, dani_the_girl, draigwen, jadelennox, liv, nova, rich, and ysobel as hard as possible, so please don't hesitate to give them love.

Comments

[dani_the_girl]

Seriously, you guys, module code is HOT SEX! afuna should be given prizes or something.

Also, I haven't forgotten I promised to write a post about how to use them :)

[aveleh]

<3 I know. And that code is more important, so I'm not worried today! <3

[cimorene]

Just wanted to say I am really loving the improvements you've already made!

I've got the tags inline and the bullet style off on the metadata and the userinfo module buttons to display inline in my Negatives-based style, if it's possible for a humble amateur to be of some help.

[aveleh]

Yes, we definitely want more people helping out! I'll be posting a list of the "good baby dev bugs" in the next week or so.

[cheyinka]

If the style I'm using (one that I copied over from LJ and modified sufficiently that it worked with core2) defines print_linkbar itself, it'll continue to function, right? Neither print_management_links nor print_interaction_links seem to replicate what print_linkbar does...

[av8rmike]

No, the print_linkbar() function will be completely removed in an upcoming version of core2. There should be nothing that that function did that management_links or interaction_links don't, so what is it you think is missing?

[cheyinka]

But the style itself has a print_linkbar function...

Anyway, here's my problem. If I replace calls to $e->print_linkbar(); with $e->print_interaction_links();, instead of how it looks now (http://www.endersgame.net/~cheyan/screenshots/s2beforechange.png) I get this instead (http://www.endersgame.net/screenshots/s2afterchange.png).

[av8rmike]

Oh, Disjointed. So many tables, so hideous. Those functions now print the links as part of an unordered list, so you'll probably have to work up some kind of CSS solution to display them in-line. That's what we're doing with the official styles.

[aveleh]

You could also rename the function code block as well, so that you're overriding the correct function.

But, I definitely encourage you to see what is coming out in the next few days and into the future.

[baggyeyes]

I'll chop away at what I have, but - cool - more things to poke at in the customize place thingy!

Good thing you didn't have me in charge of naming things.

\o/ kudos to all!

:)

I've got a question - are you going to port Opal and Quite Lickable? I'll stop fiddling with layers and stick with Negatives until official launch if so.

[av8rmike]

Opal is part of the LJ.com-only repository, so unless we seek & get permission from its creator, most likely not.

I hope we don't port Quite Lickable, because I think it's one of the uglier and hacked-up layouts on LJ. It's in the GPL, though, so that's not stopping us.

[turlough]

I know it's probably not likely since I don't think it's an open style, but I would love if Flexible Squares was imported. It's so flexible!

[aveleh]

One of the things we're doing with this overhaul is making sure that *all* of the styles will be flexible, and they're going to be standardized to each other. So, generally, you won't be picking a style because "oh, this one lets me put tags in the sidebar" (because they *all* will) or "oh, this one lets me choose whether or not to display icons on my Recent Entries page" (because they *all* will), but you'll be choosing one because you like the images that are included with it or because you like the colour scheme or because you like how the option to delete your comment is shown under your comment instead of on top of it.

This means that at the beginning, all the styles will be less flexible and have less options, because we had to rip a lot of this stuff out. But that's just so that when we're putting it back in, it's super easy to implement it in all of the styles, all the options will display in the exact same place in the customization wizard.

[turlough]

Yeah, I know that in the long run things will get easier it's just the thought of having to start from scratch with a new layout that is scaring me a bit, I've been using FS since before it was an official style :-)

[aveleh]

Aww :( Yeah, I get that. But even if/when we port styles, we change a lot of the CSS and the layout of the options. I'm trying to make it as painless as possible for you guys <3

[turlough]

I definitely need to sit down for a couple of days and don't do anything except read through everything you've changed about the style system. Right now I keep getting distracted by new shiny things all the time :-)

[av8rmike]

Yes, I expect that that is going to be one of our most frequent requests. FS is probably the most popular layout on LJ, but it's not in the GPL, and I don't know of any other plans regarding what we might do with it.

[turlough]

Yeah, especially people like me who's been using it since before it was an offical style :-) I've added so much functionality to it over the years that I'm kind of scared having to start from scratch with a new style.

[aveleh]

At some point I'm going to be posting a list of "here's the functionality that's on our radar" and asking for additional suggestions, so we can make sure that people are getting the functionality they crave.

And you won't even have to reprogram stuff to access it! You'll just get to call a function from core or set a property.

[turlough]

I'll be looking forward to that!

[baggyeyes]

Oh, crap. I forgot that about Opal. :(

And yeah, QL ain't pretty. Some of the layouts people have made for it are, though.

Quite lickable

[boji]

Another vote for porting (if that's the right term) Quite Lickable - as it was my style over on LJ and I'd like to get something close to it over here.

That said I basically changed all the colour codes to make a white background with a sidebar/links list and a background header which is what I'm going for predominantly. That and the ability to use Jazz font.

So, I'm waiting until more styles come on-line to see what I can modify close to what I had so that I can take advantage of all the brilliant wizards later.

[kevin]

ILU ABBY

ILU FU

The modules code is awesome <3

[aveleh]

It really really is. And ILU too, Kev, even though you never listen to me <3

Don't forget about Stacey! And soon you're going to swoon for the whole team!

[kevin]

I do listen to you! I just choose to ignore what you're saying >_>

ILU TOO STACEY SORRY

[zvi]

Is there a link to the standard functions that are going to be in the site styles in the wiki, with an indication as to whether they'll be available in Open Beta or not?

[aveleh]

We're working on getting some documentation together; I'll have a better idea on where we're at with that once we finish with this group of changes. One of the problems is that there are a lot of different groups that need to be documented at in different ways. That's also why we wanted to remove deprecated stuff right now, though; so that we're going into the last leg before Open Beta without people seeing it. (I say right now, but the patch isn't actually in yet.)

Sorry that I don't have a better answer :(

[rhialto]

I've taken a quick course and dived right into the S2 style system. On lj, they were on the one hand encouraging people away from S1 (deprecated, etc) but on the other hand you could not switch to S2 since that is for paid accounts only. So I didn't know anything about it at all.

So basically I managed to hack into the core 2 style the two things I wanted: the yellow/red colour scheme, and the European style time/date (I find am/pm extremely confusing (I much prefer 21:38 over 9:38 pm)), and also the silly putting the day and the year next to each other and the month somewhere else (April 15 2009) is rather strange to my eyes.

So I managed to make date/time formats for that.

I don't know if/how other people can look at my styles, but it is i18nc layer #3594 named "Rhialto's date/time changes".

Maybe that, or something like it, can be supplied to people who also prefer European date formats.

[aveleh]

Ooh, thanks. I love seeing people interested. Do note that you'll still be limited with the amount of diving into S2 layouts that you can do here, too: you will need to have a paid account to edit any layers. But, we're working on making the wizard as awesome as possible, so that people won't feel like they're losing out. This also includes making it easy for people to edit the way that dates/times display and the way that colours display *without* needing a paid account.

[rhialto]

Ah good. Since that is basically what I want now, I think I'll be happy with that. Maybe I'll want more later, who knows :-) If you make the documentation available even to people who can't edit layers, they can see what they are missing out on and possibly will decide to get a paid account. (That is always better than to pay for something unseen and hoping it will be good enough)

[av8rmike]

You don't need a Paid account to use S2 on LJ. Maybe at the very beginning, but it hasn't been that way for years, if ever.

[foxfirefey]

I wonder if what the poster meant was that on LJ, tinkering with the S2 styles system in the way they're describing is only available to paid users? You can use an S2 style on LJ, but you can't modify the S2 code.

[samantilles]

When you mention its going to break S2 core non-official styles, is that also include if the core is inherently unchanged from Zesty? (I more or less only modified the CSS to Zesty rather than mess with the core coding)

Second question, is there a way for us to preserve the coding to the current modifications when you upgrade or does it just get lost unless we save it to an .rtf or alike?

[aveleh]

I'm sorry for taking so long to respond to your comment.

In general, if you copy and paste a layer, make some changes, and then recompile it, then yes, when we make wide-sweeping changes like that one, you'd probably get caught up in them. Sorry again for that inconvenience.

Your layer wouldn't be deleted when we do that (which we don't plan on doing anymore with code), it just may not work anymore. But if all you did is edit the CSS in the wizard, you'd be okay.

In general, you can access your layers on the Your Layers page. But it's never a bad idea to have another backup of anything you write.

[bunnyhero]

apologies for the newbie comment... i was playing with the modules, and while it's neat, a lot of the modules don't look very good (almost "broken"-looking) when put into certain locations (at least using the negatives style). for example, when i put the "basic journal info" into my header, it looks huge and unbalanced. when i put the calendar links (in table mode) into the sidebar, the calendar appeared to have a large left margin or something that pushed it away from the centre block and stretched the sidebar horizontally. this is using firefox 3.0.8 on mac os x 10.5.6.

if i have missed some context somewhere, i apologize :)

[aveleh]

No, you didn't miss anything. We're still working on fixing up the CSS so that they look good wherever they are. I know that's frustrating, and I apologize for the transitional confusion. We mostly wanted to get the code rolled out quickly so that people could see its potential :)

[ex_lily871]

Hi! I've experienced that I'm terrible with perl and all that, but I'm ok with CSS and I've been wanting to do a CSS breakdown of Negatives for a while now, since that's completely Core2 based and here to stay, right? I'm just wondering - are there still going to be a lot of changes and would it be better to wait 'till things are done a bit more, or is it pretty much stable right now?

Thank you so much for everything!

[aveleh]

I am so sorry that I took so long to respond!

We're still going to make a number of changes to Negatives, as soon as we stabilize core2. (We have a few more important patches coming, and then hopefully after that it will just be about adding new functionality and features.)

We would definitely love some more people doing documentation. If you're still interested, do you mind emailing or IMing me so we can chat and I can point you at a good place to start based on your interests? Or at the least, I can send you the email that went out to my list of volunteers. My contact information is on my profile. (But be warned that I'm almost always logged in to IM programs, but not always at the computer.)