Zotlabs|Hubzilla Development

Fri, 22 Apr 2022 06:51:02 +0000

Scott M. Stolz wrote the following post Fri, 22 Apr 2022 06:51:02 +0000

Schema in Custom Themes / Redbasic Derivative Starter Kit

Since I am working on some new themes, I thought I would create a starting point for creating new themes. I called it the Redbasic Derivative Starter Kit (or Redbasic Starter Kit for short). It just references Redbasic code, but there are instructions on how to modify it to create a new theme.

It is located here:
https://github.com/WisTex/CHG-Hubzilla-Themes/tree/main/view/theme/redbasic-starter-kit

The challenge that I am having is getting schemes to work. Everything else seems to work so far, but Hubzilla seems to totally ignore the schema directory. What am I missing?

themes hubzilla schema

Mario Vavti

Fri, 22 Apr 2022 06:52:55 +0000

The challenge that I am having is getting schemes to work. Everything else seems to work so far, but Hubzilla seems to totally ignore the schema directory. What am I missing?

If i remember correctly schemas are not supported in derivative themes.

Scott M. Stolz

Fri, 22 Apr 2022 07:05:18 +0000

If I remember correctly schemas are not supported in derivative themes.

That explains it. I wasn't sure if I was doing something wrong. Thanks for clarifying that.

Scott M. Stolz

Sun, 24 Apr 2022 22:20:19 +0000 last edited: Sun, 24 Apr 2022 22:23:18 +0000

What is weird is if you switch to Redbasic, modify the scheme and custom options, and then switch back to the the derivative theme, your derivative theme uses all of the variables set in Redbasic.

From a programming perspective, that is expected since it is a derivative theme, I suppose. I suppose it is a backdoor way of using schemes in derivative themes.

redbasic 'dark' schema

phani (Hubzilla)

Mon, 17 Dec 2018 04:04:59 +0000

problem

redbasic's dark schema has been neglected for a while, resulting in some text items and category badges becoming unreadable. categoies were simple to fix, but the [hl] tag (hightlighted text) is more tricky.

the BBcode editor inserts inline CSS for highlighted text:
<span style="background-color: yellow">...hightlighted text...</span>

temporary solution

this works fine for the non-dark schemas but isn't readable on dark background. the background color can't be changed via CSS rules so i had to change the text color of the highlighted text. this was only possible via a pseudo class that works so far but might lead to unwanted results, affecting other text between <span> tags.

the above fixes have been merged into both dev and master and are already active in the latest stable release, 3.8.7.

but at present there is another problem with the dark schema, some text being rendered in dark blue, for which i thought up a similar hack, which has not been accepted. that problem will solve itself after the upgrade to Hz 4.0, and for those who want to use dark now there is a hack you can apply, linked to in the wiki mentioned at the end.

proposed (better) solution

my idea is to change the BBcode editor to not insert inline styles but CSS classes to change the background color. then background and text color can easily be changed via simple CSS rules in dark and other schemas.

i've looked at include/bbcode.php and this could easily be done. additional CSS rules would have to be added to default and dark.css, which isn't a problem either. in the same way other HTML elements could be dealt with, when or if that becomes necessary.

before submitting a merge request for this i want to know what the developers think about this idea.

redbasic dark wiki

since i'm not always very attentive and not using all of hubzilla's features, it's quite possible that i won't notice some problems with the dark theme. i've published a wiki therefore where other users of that theme can tell me what's wrong, or what can be improved: RedbasicDarkWiki. all of my contacts should have write access to this wiki.

Themes Redbasic dark

show all 7 Comments

Harald Eilertsen

Mon, 17 Dec 2018 07:45:37 +0000

my idea is to change the BBcode editor to not insert inline styles but CSS classes to change the background color.

That's how it should have been done in the first place. Not one of the devs, but I vote yes!
Nice work!

phani (Hubzilla)

Mon, 17 Dec 2018 08:28:17 +0000

but at present there is another problem with the dark schema, some text being rendered in dark blue on dark background.

this actually is a side-effect of my 'fix' that has been adopted. HTML elements changed with the latest updates to master and now it isn't possible anymore to target the elements i need. going ahead to prepare a merge request, even w/o reply from those who have a say. let's see...

phani (Hubzilla)

Mon, 17 Dec 2018 16:16:54 +0000

submitted a merge request that changes 3 files:

include/bbcode.php: hl-tags don't generate a yellow background via inline style but a CSS class <span class="default-hightlight">. this class is defined in view/theme/redbasic/css/style.css.

this default style works for all themes incl 'dark' and does not need to be defined again.

kept the previous fix for category badge without changing the default color, as i did before.

i'm not very happy with how the 'dark' theme variant looks, but nobody ever accused me of artistic understanding, so after playing around with some alternative colors i left them alone.

this patch works for both, dev and master as it is and could be applied to both with the next minor upgrade.

would be great if somebody with better artistic sense could suggest better colors for headings, hightlights, etc., for the dark theme.

@Mario Vavti

phani (Hubzilla)

Mon, 17 Dec 2018 16:19:08 +0000 last edited: Mon, 17 Dec 2018 16:37:02 +0000

PS: you can take a look at
https://hub.phanisvara.com/channel/phani

to see what it looks like.

phani (Hubzilla)

Wed, 19 Dec 2018 16:14:10 +0000 last edited: Wed, 19 Dec 2018 16:17:04 +0000

the wiki i linked to in the post will disappear, together with my present identity / channel. i have been running in a few circles yesterday, messing up & rescuing my hub, but as a result i lost federation with Diaspora*. so i'm going to start over once again but won't recreate that wiki.

my changes to the redbasic 'dark' theme have been merged into dev, and they could be cherry-picked for the next point release of master. but i'm getting the impression that i'm the only one using 'dark,' so why bother?

Giacomino

Wed, 19 Dec 2018 16:24:58 +0000

people use dark theme yes... but with HZ (not osada and zap) I can modify a little the page/theme , and is what I did.

phani (Hubzilla)

Wed, 19 Dec 2018 16:39:21 +0000

yes, i'm only talking about hubzilla here. i have an instance of osada too, but only to watch what's happening.

i tried modifying the default redbasic theme with those advanced theme controls too, but didn't like very much what i came up with. the included 'dark' schema looks better and all i did was creating a couple of fixes for page elements that weren't readable anymore.

your hub runs on dev too, so once the latest changes are pulled, you can try the improved dark theme. don't know how quickly new commits are pulled into zotum.net though.

Bluebasic Scheme for Redbasic & New Theme Forum

BOET

Thu, 01 Nov 2018 15:49:36 +0000 last edited: Sat, 03 Nov 2018 08:33:21 +0000

Good day !Hubzilla Development !HUBZ!LLA Themes

I'm cross-posting this, because I want to inspire, because I'm looking for feedback and because I could also use some help! Attached you will find a zip-archive with all files I used to hack me a scheme for the #Redbasic Hubzilla scheme, which is shipped as the default with current installations of the software.

bluebasic_scheme_0.1.zip

If you extract the files in their original structure from the archive into the base directory of your #Hubzilla hub, you will get a new scheme in your Redmatrix

Display Options
on your channel. As the scheme is based on Redmatrix - ALL theme options of Redmatrix are used (theme colours!)

- It changes your home-channel into a facebonk-like profile page (as in the picture above), something I found in the "Suckerberg" theme by @Sean Tilley and liked a lot.

- It comes with a new logo-usermenu, which is also inspired by Sean's work. The color of the logo is set by the background of your navigation bar (the top-bar) - so it adjusts nicely. It serves as a button as well, as it always take you back to your network stream. Something I like a lot, when I use Hubzilla on my mobile.

If you want to change the "HUBZ!LLA" label, you have to hack the

userlogomenu.tpl
in the

tpl
sub-directory of your Redmatrix theme.

In an earlier version of the logo, I wanted to display the site-name automatically, but I couldn't figure how to extract that from the database. But then - many hub-names are rather long, which would destroy the logo, so I sticked with "HUBZ!LLA".

- The scheme does display embedded videos in a 100% width with a styled new "play" button. That's another major visual change it has. NOTE: This is done with a hacked version of the Zotlabs Module

Oembed.php

And that is also the piece I would need help with! Because this file would potentially be in conflict when a new release is pulled from the git - I just delete it, when

util/udall
throws an error at me and copy it over after the update. (That's NOT sustainable, but how I did it... and it worked

) I just couldn't figure out how to do it on the theme level - if that would be possible at all? Anyway - a generic theme css, which would be located in another directory would do this job equally well - but anyway, the Zotlabs module would need to be changed - or moved into the theme.

- And then there are multiple small changes all over the place, which are all done just by fiddlin' around with the CSS styling of it... For most you would have to compare the red/bluematrix side by side... but all in all, too me, they make a significant difference.

I will, most likely pack it into a theme of it's own. To me, this was just a proof of concept. I hope, I've been able to explain, how I did it... Be aware: This is experimental!

I also just created the !HUBZ!LLA Themes forum where I would like to direct my theming related posts in the future - just to avoid to fill up the other important forums to much. So, please, feel invited to join me there!

Schemes Themes Bluebasic Redbasic Hubzilla

show all 11 Comments

Thu, 01 Nov 2018 16:06:29 +0000

This is AWESOME! Great work! Thank you so much for beginning to clear the brush that had gathered over the path and make it clearer for others to follow and also for helping to showcase the flexibility of Hubzilla!

The new forum is also a great idea. Cross-posting into the other forums (Support / Development) should happen where appropriate. But having specific areas where people interested in different aspects of Hubzilla can go to only talk about that aspect (Theme development, Addon Development, etc.) is a logical next step and important to show others that there is activity in these specific areas - not just in the "core".

Because "stuff happens" and hubs sometimes go offline (for maintenance, because of outage or errors, or whatever) and to show off a little bit of the robustness of Hubzilla as a whole, if you're interested in cloning the new forum someplace, drop me a note and we can set up a clone on Zot.Social if you'd like.

Thanks again for contributing to the ongoing success of of the project!

poVoq

Thu, 01 Nov 2018 16:20:29 +0000

Yeah this looks like a really high quality theme. If possible please make a pull request to the official theme repository so that this can be easily maintained for future versions.

BOET

Thu, 01 Nov 2018 16:32:12 +0000 last edited: Thu, 01 Nov 2018 17:44:32 +0000

Thanks @poVoq & @M. Dent, your feedback means the world to me, since this is just a first attempt of getting my feet wet on a theme for #Hubzilla. But this is still far from being a "Theme"! It's really just a proof of concept, a scheme which only started with the styling of videos and then just went beyond that in the last couple of month. I just liked it enough to have my coming-out to the public now - I am running it on my channel(s) quite a while already.

Seriously: Before this would be ready enough, to be a Theme, I really need to find my way around through the hooks and whistles of the whole thing in a much better (& safer) way. I feel pretty safe on Wordpress now, but that took me twelve years. #Hubzilla is a whole different beast.

But, again: THANKS a lot! It's really appreciated!

Thu, 01 Nov 2018 16:48:36 +0000

I'm personally convinced that Wordpress Devs of all kinds (themes, addons, etc.) would be a great fit if they wanted to extend themselves into a different platform. WP is a pretty "tight" space as I can tell.

I will say I'm very impressed and I really, really, really like it! I will definitely be trying it out over the next day or two. I don't know what your long term plans are, but you might consider setting up a repository on Framagit or someplace like that so others can offer suggestions and tweaks. If your goal is to commercialize it, maybe not. But if it's going to be an overall "contribution" it may be a way to go.

BOET

Thu, 01 Nov 2018 17:06:07 +0000

Oh @M. Dent, I'm NOT a dev of anything. I only happen to do this to learn. And I do have a job which leaves me enough room - in certain periods of time - that allows me to do that. So that's also my (exclusive) sponsor. For sure, I'd never commercialize anything in this space. Especially here, @Sean Tilley did much of the heavy lifting which I inhaled and adjusted. It's all just bits and pieces from open sources.

But once I'll be retiring in +/-14 years - if that is still going to be the legal age of retirement in Germany - and #Hubzilla is still around.Then I will probably establish a LTD company and defeat the Zuckerbergs et al in this world by mass deployments of Hubs in the cloud.

So, you also have to hang in here for another while!

I really need to get my head around framagit... Do you happen to have a good "HowTo" instruction to connect my (K)Ubuntu PC to that platform? I can use the console, but only if I find the right commands to copy&paste... That's already a distinction from a "dev"... and not one I would be proud of! Maybe that would even be worth to open a new thread?

Thu, 01 Nov 2018 17:15:03 +0000

You've contributed to making Hubzilla better.... You're a dev! Congrats! Buy yourself a beer ... and get back to work doing awesome stuff! ;)

git is the software package that interacts with Framagit. It takes a bit to comprehend in order to do advanced stuff, but the basics are pretty simple. If you use Hubzilla, you already use it.

This is a decent starting point: https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Getting-Started-Git-Basics

BOET

Thu, 01 Nov 2018 19:32:42 +0000

Thanks for the link to the git documentation! @M. Dent! After a first browsing, I believe that it will be of great help! I'll give it a try over the weekend!

poVoq

Fri, 02 Nov 2018 07:05:58 +0000

@BOET

You could also just use an code editor with build in git support. ATOM or Visual Studio Code (open source as well) come to mind as popular choices.

phanisvara das

Fri, 02 Nov 2018 07:29:53 +0000

in my experience it's better to get one's head around how things work before having an editor or such do all the work. specially with Git, which is an essential part of many if not most development processes, no matter what language they use. Git does seem a bit confusing in the beginning, but the book @M. Dent mentioned above helps a lot. with specific questions or problems i find that google (or your search engine of choice) sometimes finds references that explain things better for whatever confused state of mind i'm' in at the time.

Harald Eilertsen

Fri, 02 Nov 2018 10:54:24 +0000

Also The Git Parable is a very good (and quite non-technical) introduction to the concepts that underpin git. It seems a lot less magic after understanding this, and the concepts feel a lot more intuitive.