I've never seen a system so difficult to customize

• 08-18-2010, 4:32 PM

  19315

  ScrltOTara Joined about 1 year ago Posts 17

  I've never seen a system so difficult to customize Reply Quote I am a designer and have been trying for three days to make my layout look like the client's site.  Client's site design: www.wbninc.com/dev/ WA site: members.wbninc.com  The code is so completely convoluted and bloated, I still can't figure out why my page and contents (including my header image when I put it in there) are being resized smaller.  I can't get rid of the insane padding around the page content.  Isn't there a way to start with practically nothing and build from there, instead of having to strip out tons of css? Has anyone figured out how to put content under the header (the image I have on the design). Thanks, Tara

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• 08-19-2010, 11:47 AM

  19320 in reply to 19315

  Poetic Apricot Joined about 3 years ago Toronto, Canada Posts 317

  Re: I've never seen a system so difficult to customize Reply Quote Hi Tara, We are working to towards changing how the sites are customized, however it is difficult to for applications like ours to provide greater flexibility while retaining functionality. Currently the site is built to be heavily customized using CSS and JavaScript - some examples of what can be done can be found here: http://community.wildapricot.com/thread/16334.aspx As for placing content under the menu, this can be done with JavaScript - I'm using a similar layout on my test site (http://aanpo.wildapricot.org). The JavaScript I'm using to place content under the menu can be found here: http://help.wildapricot.com/display/DOC/Adding+a+Static+Navigation+bar+to+Each+Page Matthieu (Ex-Apricot) Please contact support directly for assistance on any of my posts as I will no longer be checking these forums: support@wildapricot.com

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• 08-24-2010, 2:12 PM

  19367 in reply to 19320

  ScrltOTara Joined about 1 year ago Posts 17

  Re: I've never seen a system so difficult to customize Reply Quote I did finally get my layout looking pretty good.  You can see it at members.wbninc.com  I still neeed to tweak the content section - I was just working on getting the components to line up right.   I understand maintaining functionality, however, there really needs to be a completely bare bones, empty css theme to start with for people who want to do it themselves from the ground up, as well as a list of the styles and what each one does.  Trial and error sucks.

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• 11-18-2010, 5:45 PM

  20584 in reply to 19367

  Nick Whitmoyer Joined about 1 year ago Posts 1

  Re: I've never seen a system so difficult to customize Reply Quote ScrltOTara: I understand maintaining functionality, however, there really needs to be a completely bare bones, empty css theme to start with for people who want to do it themselves from the ground up, as well as a list of the styles and what each one does.  Trial and error sucks.    I second this completely! If there was a theme that utilized 960.gs or CSS Blueprint, I could imagine a lot happier web developers when dealing with integration of this product. Can anyone answer what the most barebones theme would be? Is there a theme doesn't have the "Art Text" in it?

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• 11-22-2010, 11:23 AM

  20613 in reply to 20584

  Denys Joined about 4 years ago Toronto Posts 1,457	Re: I've never seen a system so difficult to customize Reply Quote The most barebone themes are: Transparent Transparent - Horizontal Transparent - Hybrid Basic Yellow/Green Arttext is not related to any theme, this is just an option you can add or remove as needed. See: http://help.wildapricot.com/display/DOC/ArtText Denys Zlobin Helpful Apricot http://www.wildapricot.com
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• 10-26-2011, 11:24 AM

  23925 in reply to 20613

  red behemoth Joined about 8 months ago Posts 1

  Re: I've never seen a system so difficult to customize Reply Quote The issue is the mark up. It is terrible. Even using the overrides, you can't remove all the extraneous divs. There are so many nested empty divs that Firebug can't even render that deeply, which just makes the css by trial and error even worse.  This is not a product designed to be themed. You can't even design the "functional" pages.

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• 10-26-2011, 12:00 PM

  23927 in reply to 23925

  Poetic Apricot Joined about 3 years ago Toronto, Canada Posts 317

  Re: I've never seen a system so difficult to customize Reply Quote You can remove the DIVs using Theme Overrides. Our themes are also being rewritten for the new template engine we are developing so they will become much easier to customize. Functional pages will also be more customizable  with our new engine, as well as the ability to create your own themes from scratch.   Matthieu (Ex-Apricot) Please contact support directly for assistance on any of my posts as I will no longer be checking these forums: support@wildapricot.com

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• 10-31-2011, 4:08 PM

  23974 in reply to 23927

  eels Joined about 7 months ago Posts 6	Re: I've never seen a system so difficult to customize Reply Quote Creating new themes from scratch would be a huge improvement!  Right now there is just so much digging through code to try and override a setting, etc.
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• 11-14-2011, 2:14 PM

  24123 in reply to 23927

  JanSm Joined about 1 year ago Virginia Posts 36

  Re: I've never seen a system so difficult to customize Reply Quote This system frustrates me to no end. Now there maybe a way to customize, using theme overrides. But your code is not well commented!   I want to do two (what seem like simple things) and have spent two hours on this and still can't figure it out.  1) change E-mail to email in the login box 2) Move the word E-mail (or email)   Through CSS I have made some adjustments but the word E-Mail floats oddly above the login box.    I second the comments about digging around the layers of code-can't even see the code-it's so deep.         Jan

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