[dokuwiki] Embrace the new default template
- From: Anika Henke <anika@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: dokuwiki@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 05 Feb 2012 18:42:38 +0000
Hi all,
Finally, our new default template is finished! \o/
Logged-in users can see it from today on on dokuwiki.org (users who are
not logged in will still see the old one). Please report any issues to
http://bugs.dokuwiki.org/index.php?do=newtask&project=1&product_category=16
It's not in the core repository yet, but will be soon.
I'd like to tell you a bit about the history of this template to make
clear how much of an effort it actually was:
We've been unhappy with the current default template for a very long
time now and had plans to write a new one ever since. I don't remember
exactly when was the first time we talked about it, but I remember at
least when Andi added tpl_include_page() (which was on 05 June 2009)
that that was already meant for the new template and by that time the
idea was already "old". Andi remembered that he did the
tpl_actiondropdown() also for the idea of making the new default
template more mobile friendly and that was even further back (17 August
2008).
I actually started to prepare the template back in 2009 (not quite sure
when exactly, might even have been 2008?). But as we were lacking
designers and professional design ideas, I went ahead and released it
"without a design" as the starter template
[http://www.dokuwiki.org/template:starter] in November 2010, planning to
use it as the base for the default template whenever we'd have a design.
And that plan succeeded, the new template is indeed based on the starter
template.
Then we implemented Esther Brunner's first try of a new design at the
Hackfest in Zurich in September 2010
[https://github.com/splitbrain/dokuwiki-template-dokuwiki]. I personally
didn't like that design much, but Andi liked it. At least we solved a
few "positioning problems" and had a few important discussions. But none
of us had any time and energy to move it forward and it lay idle for a
long time.
In July 2011 I asked my then-colleague Clarence Lee if he might be
interested in designing it. Luckily, he was! :)
He had already helped me with the starter template (mainly
typography-related things, but he also had the idea to move the user
tools above the wiki title). So, he already had an idea of what that
task was about, although he hadn't used DokuWiki himself.
The first iteration
[https://github.com/MrClow/dokuwiki-template-2011/commit/1c2583d6e97f3220db6eb34b0cd5243369b5d41b]
was already okay, but we all (including Clarence) thought it's lacking
something. ("We all" = Andi, Clarence, me, Håkan Sandell and Michael
Hamann.) Then the second (and final) iteration came along with which
Clarence was really happy and the rest of us were a bit reserved at
first. It's a bit weird how we all needed to warm up to the new design,
but the more we looked at it, the more we liked it. So, in case you
don't like it at first, please give it a week or so, and most likely
your perception of it will change.
The main point is: The current design is the very first design that we
are all really happy with! :)
One interesting problem we faced was that designing apparently doesn't
really work like coding in an OpenSource environment. Apart from not
having a designated decision maker (our team of 4 was still too big for
consistent decisions, therefore it often turned out to be "design by
committee"), not being at the same place when discussing things also
made things more complicated. Parts of that are probably some
misunderstandings, e.g. Clarence was really worried because he thought
we didn't like the design. He even was quite surprised when I talked to
him and told him that we were all really happy, because in the IRC chats
that didn't come through. (I guess it's the human nature of first
jumping to the little negative things, instead of praising first or at
all. And it's also the fact that he didn't know our personalities and
therefore couldn't judge how we meant certain things. So, there's a
little reminder to communicate more and more verbosely and to be aware
that others usually cannot read minds.)
A great read regarding that subject in general is the discussion on:
https://forrst.com/posts/Designers_how_do_we_get_you_guys_to_contribute-gVn
This is also our first try to finally optimize DokuWiki for mobile
devices. (It was about time, really!) But please be aware that this is
just the first step and we are planning to change a lot more during the
next weeks. And we haven't had a look at any improvements for mobile
*editing* yet (only for viewing the pages).
So, big thanks to Clarence for designing a template that works in
several scenarios and looks great and professional, thanks to Andi for
leading the decision making process and later on designing some smaller
parts, thanks to Håkan and Michitux for testing and feedback, and the
biggest thanks go to myself for doing all the hard work. ;-)
Enjoy the new template and don't forget to report any issues you encounter.
Cheers,
Anika
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