ij_siteschemes
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aruberu [userpic]

Helloooo long since dead community!

I don't actually know if anyone is still reading/watching/interested or will even respond but I figured it's worth a gander.

I've been fiddling with making my own IJ sitescheme for the last day or so through modifying some of the current ones with Stylish to get a more modern aesthetic, and I have now what I'd call a sort of base prototype? As in, it works perfectly fine as-is, but there are still some areas that could do with improving aesthetics-wise to make it nicer.

The problem is, I've run up against the wall that is the limits of my knowledge of the site tags. (And bear with me here, because I'm self-taught when it comes to css so I'm not sure if that's what they're actually called.) I'm no stranger to tinkering with siteschemes using Stylish and in some cases doing a complete overhaul-- I used to do it on Dreamwidth and LJ years ago. But in both those cases I could easily find the documentation of what element was called what. But for IJ, as far as I can tell, there are a number of elements that aren't contained within the sitescheme css files. And the IJ documentation page is uh... nowhere to be found...?? It leads to a 404. That I can see, anyway. So basically I don't know how to find them, and I can't tweak something if I don't know the tag for it.

H...elp?

Branch [userpic]
Tweak alteration style sheets

For those who wish to use their user styles to alter the display of Tweak and Tweak Says:

Remove Tweak and Tweak Says
Add Tweak and Tweak Says
Have Only Tweak
Have Only Tweak Says

These should not require any additional @ descriptions, since the IDs of the divs are unique.

Branch [userpic]
Fontless and Tweakless

Updates: All font definitions have been stripped out of the style sheets, so what everyone is now seeing is their browser default. If people could spread it around the grapevine that anyone who is dissatisfied with how their IJ site font currently looks can change it by going into their browser settings, I'd appreciate that a lot.

Cool New Stuff: Squeaky had a great idea. Since we all know that some people love the Tweak logo and Tweak Says, while some people really don't, Squeaky has added my sheet that removes Tweak and Tweak Says as an alternate style to all the site schemes. This means that everyone using a browser that supports alternate styles can go to the View menu and select the "no tweak" style to get rid of those.

In addition, I've worked up some sheets to add Tweak, for those who want him in Monodramatic, and to display only Tweak or only Tweak Says. We'll see how those work out.

The following browsers support alternate styles:


* Firefox users can switch stylesheets using the View > Page Style menu.
* Opera users can switch stylesheets using the View > Style menu. In Opera 7.x, you can also click the little down arrow next to the User/Author Mode (fourth) button on the Address Bar. In Opera 8, the User/Author button has moved to the view bar which pops up/down from the address bar.
* SeaMonkey?, Mozilla, Netscape6+ and Epiphany (the default browser for the GNOME desktop on UNIX/Linux) users can switch stylesheets using the View > Use Style menu.
* Konqueror (the default browser for the KDE desktop on UNIX/Linux) users can switch stylesheets using the View > Use Stylesheet menu.
* Galeon (another popular GNOME browser on UNIX/Linux) users can switch stylesheets using the View > Styles menu.

Source: CSS-Discuss Wiki


The good people at this wiki also point to a page with a bookmarklet that may allow IE users to choose alternate styles: scroll down to the bottom. Safari and Camino users seem to be out of luck at this date.

Branch [userpic]
Going live

Okay, people, the new schemes are coming out of beta, and the black and white scheme (Monodramatic) is up! If you haven't already, remember to vote for the scheme you'd like to have as the default, over at [info]announcements.

Now that the default will be changing, it's time to start thinking about other layouts that we might want to make available. Since the html is finalized, everyone who wants to make their very own layout(s) can get started! I encourage people to post their style sheets to this comm, so others can make use of them.

Do remember that the one thing that can't be changed by style sheets are things like the comment bar colors--those are defined in the template code and generate in-line styles. So you may wish to specify a layout that has comment colors that will harmonize with the rest of your style (Monodramatic's are gray, for example). [info]snakeling will have news later on how this can, in fact, be done.

And if anyone wants to write up a quick beginners guide to using Stylish, that would probably be really helpful, too.

(Also, yes, I know the font size still has issues. Am figuring we'll have to strip out the font-family definition and just go with browser defaults, because nothing else is both nicely legible and consistent across browsers. Curses.)

Tags:
Black 'n' White First Draft

Hi guys.

I finished the first draft of the black and white edit.

The CSS file is here if you want to take a look.

Before and after screengrabs.

I've tested it on sidebar & dropdown... I don't think I've forgotten anything, but if I have, please give me a holler. Also, any feedback or comments or anything would be good, as it's just a first draft... maybe less grey, more contrast, or anything else that comes to mind.

Bye for now.

Branch [userpic]
Not dead

Just wanted to update everyone watching: the site schemes are still cooking, and there should be a poll soon for which variation the new site default should be.

The excellent [info]brawlyball is working on the black-and-white scheme, also, so that will hopefully come about soon.

If anyone has any unaddressed bugs lingering, please let us know. Likewise, if you spot any lingering LJ-blue in the schemes, after the recent code update, let me know that too! I think I chased down all of it, but confirmation is always good.

Tags:
Update

Hey. Just dropping a note to let you guys know what's up. Things have been a little hectic around here, but I've got a weekend off to work on the IE stuff.

I've tested the dropdown menu schemes... not very many problems, mostly dimensional stuff and those tabs acting up in 5.01 and 5.5., 6.0 is pretty much behaving itself except for a few issues with extra whitespace. I'll work on them this weekend and see what I can do.

P.S. - IE 5.01 doesn't display any of the Google ads. Is this a known issue, or is it just acting up?

ETA: The tiny comment font thing from the comments: Ok, so I was looking in the CSS and found that the comment fonts are tiny due to this rule:
#IJ-smallfont .talk-comment { font-size: 80%; }

I changed it to 100% and it looked ok in Firefox, so if Branch or someone can change the stylesheet, that should take care of it.

Current Mood: cheerful
Old Internet Explorer Stuff

Cut for length )

Current Mood: cheerful
Branch [userpic]
State of the Schemes

So, work is going forward on debugging and refining the site schemes. The compliant browsers should all be fixed now, so if you have IE7, any Mozilla, Safari or Opera and are still seeing layout bugs, please let me know.

The good [info]brawlyball has volunteered to work on backward compatibility for IE and is prodding at the more arcane bugs on that end.

There are small-font options in the works, but that requires some template code changes and will therefore probably have to wait until Squeaky has dealt with getting a new server and has a moment to breathe.

Once the css is finalized I can bring out the black-and-white scheme which will be the one most useful for putting skins on top of. I'm hoping to have three options for that, a dropdown, a sidebar, and a horizontal dropdown (a la the old XColibur scheme).

On that note, I would like, at some point, to have a graphic interface on the site by which users could either a) cut and paste a premade style sheet or b) select colors that would generate a style sheet to individually customize the site scheme. This is a bit of a pipe dream, but I still dream it. So if anyone is or knows of someone who has programming experience in Perl and database driven applications and might be willing to donate some time and skill to the project, I'd love to hear it.

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Squeaky [userpic]
Volunteers Needed

Please comment here if you would like to volunteer with working on the site schemes. Right now we need someone familiar with CSS in older versions of Internet Explorer.

Branch [userpic]
Still debugging, but hope is in view; call for volunteers

Okay, everyone, the next major update in the code will be sometime this weekend, and hopefully that will fix a few lingering bugs in the up-to-date browsers.

The next big step is to try to get these suckers working in IE5 and 6. Fortunately, [info]sherlock has pointed out a wonderful bit of code that will let us direct bits of css toward specific browsers and OS without relying on hacks or quirks.

So I am now calling for any volunteers who are familiar with the kind of css the older IE versions need, since I am really not. If anyone can come up with any code, any code at all, to make the new html work in IE 5 or 6, we can take that code and crank it into the style sheets without disturbing the layout in up-to-date browsers.

Is that brilliant or what?

So if you are or know anyone who is good with css for IE, please consider pitching in on this. Please spread the word if you can.

I will be back on Monday, after I've gotten my paper grading done. *salutes*

Branch [userpic]
Problems with IE6; help needed in testing

Okay, it looks like IE6 is throwing a real fit about the new layouts. See the very helpful screenshots in this comment.

I've given IJ-sitepage-body a width, so it should have layout and IJ-sitepage-nav should accept absolute positioning within it; apparently the problem is something more arcane.

If anyone has a copy of IE6 in easy reach and wants to poke at the problem, I'd hugely appreciate the help. The only copy I can get to is remote and I can't connect to anything /else/ while using it, which makes testing changes a bit of a trial.

Any ideas are welcome!

ETA: Height of the header is part of it; this... is going to be a pain. I might actually need to add a clearing div to the html code. More news as I can catch it.

ETA2: Triumph! Maybe. I think I've gotten it to play nicely with older IE, but if anyone has a copy of IE5 or 6 hanging around and could give it a test-drive once the code is live, that would be very helpful.

Tags:
Branch [userpic]
Debugging in process

Okay, a workaround has been made in the new scheme style sheets that should fix the gap-at-top problem; if everyone could go and see if it has, that would be good. Also, if you find the sidebar menu running off the bottom of the page, please tell me.

The dialogue boxes and "save" button accent boxes should be in place, but are still glitchy; will be working on that. Of course, if anyone recalls off the top of their heads whether margin:auto works in IE and FF, or how to make it, I'd love to hear.

PM page should no longer have a scroll bar in FF, and I'm still working on turning the Portal headers black.

If there are any other layout bugs coming up, let me know where and what. Suggestions for fixes are always welcome too.


ETA: Okay, the accent boxes are becoming a serious sticking point. It's possible I will have to go back to tables with these. *growls with annoyance*


ETA2: Still working on the bug in FF2 that produces scrollbars in the sidebar layout. Also still trying to override some stubborn css in the customize area. I think the rest of it is good to go, though. Let me know if anyone finds more bugs or things that are hard to read or anything like that!

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Squeaky [userpic]
New Schemes on the main server

Since there are so many code problems on the testing servers. I have decided to move the new site scheme testing here to the live server. I am not going to publicly announce a beta test until the schemes are a bit better tested. But you can go ahead and start testing immediately.

Please let us know of any CSS changes that you see that need to be made to the dramatic.css or the worksafe.css files.

Squeaky [userpic]
New Schemes on the testing server

Hey all. I have the new siteschemes ready for testing and debugging on the development server. You can go to http://ij.squeak.net/manage/siteopts.bml and check them out. That site is running the latest version of the site code which is very buggy so I don't need bug reports.

Right now the new schemes introduce two problems that I am aware of. the /customize/ page is broken and the /manage/profile/ page is broken. Its the ad skyscraper on the left that is causing the problem.

If you can come up with a fix for that it would be great. So go ahead and start testing.

Edit: I fixed the problem with the ads on /customize/ and /manage/ by removing the tall ad strip from those pages. But I am still having an issue with /manage/ as the content is below the menu instead of next to it.

Edit #2: I added another scheme Dramatic (sidebar) and renamed Dramatic to Dramatic (dropdown). Personally Dramatic (Sidebar) is my favorite so far.

Branch [userpic]
Requesting screencaps

The FAQs are coming along. I'd like to include screencaps for as many of the "this is where your user styles are" instructions as possible, and I find I need some help with that.

In particular, since the chrome folder of Firefox is such a pain to find, I'd like to have screencaps of Explorer windows showing how to navigate to chrome. Like this, only starting from a C drive instead of the odd filepath my H drive takes. *disgruntled* If the computers at work weren't arranged for mobile desktops, I'd be able to do at least one of these myself. Oh well.

If I could get screencaps for the following filepaths:

In 95/98 C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\xxxxxxxx.default\chrome\
(95, not 93. ^_^; Thanks, nostariel; must remember not to write while falling asleep!)

In XP/2000 navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\[User Name]\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\xxxxxxxx.default\chrome\

In Vista navigate to C:\users\[User Name]\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\xxxxxxxx.default\chrome\

I have the screencaps for Mac, both Firefox and Safari, covered myself.

Branch [userpic]
To Do and more calls for volunteers

All right, the materials have been sent off to Squeaky to be encoded as a template, and the next thing up will be beta-testing.

Next up on my design list are: plain text version and gray-and-orange version for those who want the new menus but like the current colors. After that, I think, are the rainbow versions that [info]blasphemy_blue came up with.

At this point, there are also a number of infrastructure things that need to be done, and I'd love help with these.

Some FAQs need to be written, to help users customize their site schemes. One of these needs to include directions on how to find/use browser styles in as many different browsers as we can possibly manage. Any volunteers for this would be much appreciated.

As I have never used Stylish, I'd also appreciate it if someone who has could write up something about using that to manipulate a layout.

One of the things I'd like to have available somewhere, perhaps on this asylum, is a collection of ready-made styles and of little style-parts to do things like change the color of the menus and what side of the screen things are on. Most of this will have to wait until the code is finalized, but if people could be thinking about it and maybe jotting down things to contribute, that would be great. Once we have a finalized code, membership will be opened up so anyone can add their design work.

My own rate of progress is about to slow down as I have to start writing lectures again instead of only working on design; I expect that's true for a lot of other people too. But I'm hoping we can still make steady progress.

Branch [userpic]
Worksafe colorscheme up

Okay, the neutral-colors version of the scheme is up. Everyone go take a look and tell me what you think; especially let me know if anything seems to be hard to read or not working or any such. (Ignore the .html files, they're obsolete, and click on the .shtml)

If no one has any more bug reports, I think I'm about ready to package all this up and pass it over to Squeaky for coding, and then we'll go live for beta testing!

One thing: does anyone have, or think they can produce, a good version of Tweak as a transparent gif? Alas, there are still enough IE5 users that a png transparency won't do. Shame, they're much better quality. My various efforts in Photoshop have run aground on the basic fact that gifs binary little buggers. My best version so far is still a bit rough at the edge.

Tags:
Branch [userpic]
Update: css all found, I hope

All right, I think I have found all the pages with their own style sheets, and transferred them into the primary sheet so developers of new schemes will have it all in one place. I have altered a few classes in the style sheet, so there are no conflicting names, and added a clearing element to the footer.

I have also packaged up the header/menu and the footer as includes, for ease of further editing, and there are some new test pages up. Note that these are .shtml files.

Home, sidebar version
Home, dropdown version

The next batch are pretty much all the heavily styled pages. All of the below are in sidebar configuration, and some of them are just as squashed up, on a small screen, as I was afraid they'd be. I see no good way around it, given that all this content has to fit in somehow, and at the moment it's stuck in tables. I guess we can see what the beta-testers think, and then, if necessary, re-arrange some of the content to be more vertical and less horizontal.

Portal
Update (the configuration of this page seems to vary, for reasons I am not wholly clear on)
Edit Profile
Customize: Basics
Account Levels
Support Request Board


The next step is tire-kicking, and, for me, starting on the neutral-colors version while I wait to see whether anyone has more recommendations/bug-finds for this.

Branch [userpic]
Call for help

Okay, folks, here's where I get bogged down in page-specific css and beg for help.

The header/menu/footer is going well and getting debugged thanks to Snakeling's help. But I'm finding that a lot of the site pages have their own little style sheets attached. So I need to look at every single site page to check it for styles, copy the styles and revise them where needed.

Can I get some help looking at pages and copying?

If a few more people could go through the Manage Account pages and Support Area pages, and look at the source code to see if there are any style sheets or in-page styles attached, and make a copy of any that appear, that would really, really help. The sheets default.css and tweak.css do not need to be copied, those are for the old header.

Heck, if you know of anyone who might take a handful of pages to look at, please mention it to them!

I'm going through the Portal and Customize pages, and the various log-in/log-out and posting pages, but this will go a ton faster if I can get a little help checking the less heavily styled areas.

Thanks guys! Comment to this entry about any pages you take to look at so no one doubles up.

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