PortableApps.com Theme Format Discussion (and Classic Theme Download)

John,

Will this over write the current theme, should we make a backup ?

Tim

Hmm, I suspect this is pre-freestyle skins?

I would suggest having separate ini entries or separate ini files for each skin so a skin can be delivered completely and its easy to select and switch between themes without copying ini files, renaming or things like that. But I suspect that's the way it will be done eventually..

PATheme.ini
MYTheme.ini
Etc.

Maybe also think about backward compatibility for these skins with the upcoming ones..

If it's possible, I would suggest adding FontColorHover, and FontColorPressed to the buttons.

I assume that you will have an "Install New Theme" menu entry like the "Install New App" one. Maybe consider checking the theme directory for any new .patheme files and automatically install theme. We could then just download themes directly to the theme folder and not have to tell the platform to install it.

When you install through the "Install New Theme" dialog, it might be nice if when finished it asks "Apply This Theme Now?"

Will the platform be loading the themes from the .patheme files or will it extract each one as it is installed and then delete the .patheme files?

John T. Haller (#)
The following images are included:
background.png - The menu background
background_opaque.png - Background used on older operating systems that can't do transparent areas
button_*_hover.png - Used when the mouse is over the button
button_*_normal.png - Used for the button
button_*_pressed.png - Used when the mouse button is pressed down
etc...

The appbutton_hover.png and folderbutton_hover.png are alpha PNGs that allow what's underneath to show through. This is what gives us such a nice effect.

Then... button_*_hover.png, button_*_normal.png and button_*_pressed.png do not support alpha transparency? Only appbutton_hover.png and folderbutton_hover.png support transparency?

This means that we have to know where the button will be so we can copy the background, right?

Or do these support transparency too?

Beyond that I don't have much further questions.

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John T. Haller (#)
Also, please don't start posting themes in new topics yet. This is just to get discussion going. We'll have a dedicated forum for themes on the 2.0 release once the theme switcher is included.

And what happens to older threads that have older themes? Should these be moved to the new Theming Forum when this is created? Or should they be left in its own place? Adapted to the new forum by modifying slightly the title and move would be the best idea in my opinion.

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I actually have a nice idea

On my site I've made a very simple idea that needs no modules (unless for some extras below) and provides a clean system for installing themes.

I've basically made a new type of page called Projects and used taxonomy and URL alias to link it directly to /projects/PAMthemes. That page type allows attachments; and with the CreativeCommonsLite module I can add the theme's license directly to the page.

If we change this idea a little bit, it can be feasible here.

My idea is to make the forum for the themes to have a special taxonomy therm that would be set up with a few settings:
Basically it would have several fields (using CCK or Views module or whatever is best in this case) for:

• Theme Name,
• Theme Description,
• Preview (an url field),
• and Download (another url field).

Other fields could be made for things like changelogs, license and issues (or simply an "Other" field for all other things).

I know this isn't feasible in such dimensions site, but some ideas can be taken and modified to create a nicer system.

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(sorry, this is how my posts look when I am interested in something and I want to help, but have nothing to say )

as i have thought since the betas for 1.2, i believe that there should be something like a line in the config that dictates the type of theme.

for instance, full support for 1.1 style themes could be accieved by adding a line to the config (and some re-coding of the menu) to disable all of the extra images that are used in the newer 1.2/1.5 themes as well as allowing for the use of the older jpg and bmp formats.

i also think that this could be more general in the fact that it would not only be support for 1.1 themes and older but "Simple Style" themes such as the classic menu theme.

for now thogh i will experement a bit with the current format and see if i cant make up a non-intrusive, no code hack. i will also try to upgrade all of my themes to 1.5 standards.

any replies would be appreciated, especially from u JTH

I believe the .patheme format should have the ability to add custom icons that override the default icons. This would be much easier than manually changing the default icons just to get the effect of custom icons.

This, I believe, would cause the files to look something like this:

+ Example_File.patheme
  + Theme
    * appbutton_hover.png
    * background.png
    * background_opaque.png
    * button_close_hover.png
    * button_close_normal.png
    * button_close_pressed.png
    * button_eject_hover.png
    * button_eject_normal.png
    * button_eject_pressed.png
    * drive_space_slider.png
    * folderbutton_hover.png
    * gpl.txt
    * PATheme.ini
    * readme.txt
  + FolderIcons
    * documents.ico
    * explore.ico
    * music.ico
    * pictures.ico
    * portableapps.ico
    * videos.ico

I do understand that the format has been set; however, this feature will be appreciated by me, and I imagine many others.

Thank you all for reading my absurdly long post.