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This is an old revision of WikkaCSS made by BrianKoontz on 2008-01-28 00:14:02.

 

Wikka CSS Issues

Last edited by BrianKoontz:
Modified links pointing to docs server
Mon, 28 Jan 2008 00:14 UTC [diff]

Issues and discussion related to Wikka CSS stylesheets

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min-width and max-width
You should not use fixed width in .floatr and .floatl classes. Instead, I suggest the use of max-width and min-width :
.floatl {float: left; margin: 0.5%; padding: 0.5%; background: #EEE; min-width: 100px; max-width: 300px;}
.floatr {float: right; margin: 0.5%; padding: 0.5%; background: #EEE; min-width: 100px; max-width: 300px;}

Try with the code <<{{calendar}}<<
--DotMG
A Better Horizontal Menu

I find that the current Wikka horizontal menu allows very limited layout control.
A well formed CSS menu should IMO:

  1. be put in a dedicated <DIV id="menu"> so that it can be moved around the page and its layout freely modified. See as an example this wikka site: http://www.awug.net/HomePage
  1. be coded as an unordered list. See this tutorial

Your ideas?

-- DarTar

Just give the unordered list itself an id (which indicates which menu it is!), and it can be "moved around the page" as desired. No need to wrap it in a div just to do that (though a div may be useful for other purposes). I agree though that all menus should be marked up as unordered lists and styled with CSS.
-- JavaWoman


From the reference above: The menu has to be wrapped by a div that is used for styling background color, left margin/padding, etc. I've found no way to style the UL itself, because I can't clear the float inside it. Thus the height of the OL always equals zero.
I don't get this. Look at the menu at the top of the page: it is enclosed, together with the page's heading, in a div with class "header" (why not an id??? how many headers are there going to be on a page?) from which it inherits its background color; all you'd have to do is code the menu items as an unordered (not ordered) list instead of the current series of text, and then style it as a horizontal menu: it will still inherit the same background. No need for an extra div around the ul. --JavaWoman
Beside this detail, I think the only problem that remains to be addressed is the question of menu configuration. How are we to save the menu settings in Wikka configuration (currently saved as a wikka-formatted string)? A good solution might be to create a menu administration module (in form of an action with a dedicated SQL table) that allows the user to specify items that go in the menu and their order (and maybe switch on/off an optional secondary menu). This would allow more flexibility than the current systems offers (one wouldn't need to edit the configuration file) and solve the problem of how to save the menu settings. I'm taking a day off from my work, I'll see if I can cook up something
-- DarTar
It's obvious that editing a configuration file (especially since it contains an array, and not every user is familiar with PHP syntax) is a problem; but the solution here would IMO not be to create a special menu creation function, but simply allow a simple way to edit the configuration. I'm working on a generic solution for that with configuration stored in an ini file and an admin web interface to edit the contents of the ini file. I think a separate table just for a menu is probably overkill. --JavaWoman

This approach to menus may have implications for the CategorySystemOverhaul. If the menu structures are created from a SQL table, then the definition of the category system would need to addressed and in place before hand.
--JamesMcl
I must be extraordinarily dense today :) I'm not getting this either. A menu is simply a collection of links to pages or functionality - how or where would any category system come in with that? --JavaWoman

I was thinking about a menu system like Hiermenus. --JamesMcl

Thanks all for your quick feedback! I've cooked up a first version of a WikkaMenus module. Feel free to add your comments and modify the code.
@JW: you'll find on the page above my arguments why using menu table might be a better idea than editing the config file.
@James: actually, I was also thinking of menus as simple collections of links, but why not study a way to integrate multiple menus and categories, along the lines you were suggesting. To be continued...
-- DarTar


I have been trying to modify the style sheet without success. I cannot get the footer, commentsheader and smallprint areas to align as they should. They keep flowing below the menu. Could you offer any help, please.
The code for the layout that I'm trying to achieve is like below, any help would bew much appreciated.
An example header.php with the ordered list and id tag would also help.

""<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-W3CDTD HTML 4.0 TransitionalEN">
<HTML lang=en><HEAD><TITLE>Two columns with color - Final layout</TITLE>
<META http-equiv=content-type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<STYLE type=text/css media=screen>

hr {
margin-left: auto;
margin-right: auto;
margin-top: 1.25em;
margin-bottom: 1.25em;
width: 100%;
height: 4px;
background-color: #6BB300;
}

body,html {
scrollbar-face-color: #6BB300;
scrollbar-shadow-color: #E6FFBF;
scrollbar-highlight-color: #E6FFBF;
scrollbar-3dlight-color: #E6FFBF;
scrollbar-darkshadow-color: #E6FFBF;
scrollbar-track-color: #E6FFBF;
scrollbar-arrow-color: #000033;
}

.highlight {
scrollbar-face-color: #6BB300;
scrollbar-shadow-color: #E6FFBF;
scrollbar-highlight-color: #E6FFBF;
scrollbar-3dlight-color: #E6FFBF;
scrollbar-darkshadow-color: #E6FFBF;
scrollbar-track-color: #E6FFBF;
scrollbar-arrow-color: #000033;
}

BODY { PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 0px; COLOR: #000; PADDING-TOP: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ddd
}
#container { BORDER-RIGHT: #333 1px solid; BORDER-TOP: #333 1px solid; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: url(images/background.jpg); MARGIN: 1em 5%; BORDER-LEFT: #333 1px solid; BORDER-BOTTOM: #333 1px solid; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat-y; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #fff
}
#banner { BORDER-BOTTOM: #333 1px solid; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #6BB300
}
#banner H1 { PADDING-RIGHT: 0.5em; PADDING-LEFT: 0.5em; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0.5em; MARGIN: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0.5em
}
div#sitenav {float: left; width: 145px; margin-top: 0;
font-size: 14px; background-color: white;
border-right: 1px solid black;
border-bottom: 1px solid black;}
div#sitenav a {display: block; padding: 4px 8px; margin: 0;
text-decoration: none; text-align: right;
border-top: 1px solid gray; background: #E6FFBF}
div#sitenav a:hover {background: #6BB300;}
div#sitenav a:hover {color: black;}
div#sitenav a {color: #6BB300; text-align: left;}
div#sitenav h4 {background: rgb(33%,33%,33%); color: white;
text-align: center; margin: 0; padding: 0.25em 0 0.125em 0;}

#nav { FLOAT: left; MARGIN-LEFT: 10px; WIDTH: 145px; PADDING-TOP: 1em
#nav a {display: block; padding: 4px 8px; margin: 0;
text-decoration: none; text-align: right;
border-top: 1px solid gray;}
#nav a:hover {background: #FB9;}
#nav h4 {background: rgb(33%,33%,33%); color: white;
text-align: center; margin: 0; padding: 0.25em 0 0.125em 0;}
}
#nav P { MARGIN-TOP: 0px
}
#content { MARGIN: 0px 2em 0px 200px; PADDING-TOP: 1em
}
#content H2 { MARGIN-TOP: 0px
}
#footer { CLEAR: both; PADDING-RIGHT: 1em; BORDER-TOP: #333 1px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 1em; PADDING-BOTTOM: 1em; PADDING-TOP: 1em; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #E6FFBF; TEXT-ALIGN: right
}
#footer2 { CLEAR: both; PADDING-RIGHT: 1em; BORDER-TOP: #333 1px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 1em; PADDING-BOTTOM: 1em; PADDING-TOP: 1em; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #CCFF80; TEXT-ALIGN: right
}
#footer3 { CLEAR: both; PADDING-RIGHT: 1em; BORDER-TOP: #333 1px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 1em; PADDING-BOTTOM: 1em; PADDING-TOP: 1em; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #99FF00; TEXT-ALIGN: right
}
</STYLE>

</HEAD>
<BODY>
<DIV id=container>
<DIV id=banner>
<H1>Site name</H1></DIV>
<DIV id=sitenav>
<P><b><a href="http://www.jamesmcl.co.uk/wikka/wikka.php?wakka=HomePage">Home Page</a></b>
<b><a href="http://www.jamesmcl.co.uk/wikka/wikka.php?wakka=">Home Page</a></b>
<b><a href="http://www.jamesmcl.co.uk/wikka/wikka.php?wakka=">Home Page</a></b>
<b><a href="http://www.jamesmcl.co.uk/wikka/wikka.php?wakka=">Home Page</a></b>
<b><a href="http://www.jamesmcl.co.uk/wikka/wikka.php?wakka=">Home Page</a></b>
<b><a href="http://www.jamesmcl.co.uk/wikka/wikka.php?wakka=">Home Page</a></b>
<b><a href="http://www.jamesmcl.co.uk/wikka/wikka.php?wakka=">Home Page</a></b>
<b><a href="http://www.jamesmcl.co.uk/wikka/wikka.php?wakka=">Home Page</a></b>
<b><a href="http://www.jamesmcl.co.uk/wikka/wikka.php?wakka=">Home Page</a></b>
<b><a href="http://www.jamesmcl.co.uk/wikka/wikka.php?wakka=">Home Page</a></b>
<b><a href="http://www.jamesmcl.co.uk/wikka/wikka.php?wakka=">Home Page</a></b>
<b><a href="http://www.jamesmcl.co.uk/wikka/wikka.php?wakka=">Home Page</a></b>
<b><a href="http://www.jamesmcl.co.uk/wikka/wikka.php?wakka=">Home Page</a></b>
</P></DIV>
<DIV id=content>
<H2>Page heading </H2>
<P>Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis <a href="www.aol.com">Home Page</a> nostrud exerci tation ullamcorper suscipit
lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis autem vel eum iriure
dolor in hendrerit in vulputate velit esse molestie consequat, vel illum dolore
eu feugiat nulla facilisis at vero eros et accumsan et iusto odio dignissim qui
blandit praesent luptatum zzril delenit augue duis dolore te feugait nulla
facilisi. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam
nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.
<form>
<textarea class="highlight" rows=3 cols=45>
in hendrerit in
vulputate velit esse
molestie consequat
, vel illum dolore
eu feugiat nulla
facilisis at vero eros
et accumsan et iusto odio dign
issim qui
blandit praesent luptatum zzril delenit augue duis
</textarea>
</form></P>
<P>Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis <a href="www.aol.com">Home Page</a> nostrud exerci tation ullamcorper suscipit
lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis autem vel eum iriure
dolor in hendrerit in vulputate velit esse molestie consequat, vel illum dolore <br><hr>
eu feugiat nulla facilisis at vero eros et accumsan et iusto odio dignissim qui
blandit praesent luptatum zzril delenit augue duis dolore te feugait nulla
facilisi. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam
nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.
</P>
<P class=nextbutton><A href="javascript:history.back()">< Back to
tutorial</A> </P></DIV>
<DIV id=footer>Footer stuff here </DIV>
<DIV id=footer2>Footer stuff here </DIV>
<DIV id=footer2>Footer stuff here </DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>


--JamesMcl


Better code rendering
I found that bits of code sometimes are rendered hard to understand, with both loss of original indents and line wrapping. The cause is 1) inheritance of the body's "justify" text alignment, and 2) the fact that lines are allowed to wrap (overflow: auto; doesn't prevent this).

My suggested solution is the following change for the code class in wikka.css:
.code {
    color: black;
    background: #ffffee;
    border: 1px solid #888;
    font: 11px "Bitstream Vera Sans Mono","Courier New", monospace;
    width: 95%;
    margin:auto;
    padding: 3px;
    text-align: left;     /* override justify on body */
    overflow: auto;       /* allow scroll bar in case of long lines - goes together with white-space: nowrap! */
    white-space: nowrap;  /* prevent line wrapping */
}

(BTW, a formatter for css would be nice ;-)) - See GeSHi! which several other Wikis are already using...)
-- JavaWoman

Thanks for the excellent tip above. Code formatting is looking much better..... -- JsnX
Sorry for this late reaction. Am I the only one who found the wrapped lines much easier to read? With the new .code class, if I want to read the end of long lines in long block of codes with no line wrap I have to:
  1. scroll down until I find the horizontal scrollbar,
  1. scroll right to the end of the block,
  1. scroll up to the line,
  1. read it,
  1. rescroll down to the horizontal bar,
  1. rescroll left,
  1. rescroll up to the line and continue reading,
which means 7 operations per line. I found the old version much more intuitive (to me this was one of the biggest layout improvements between wakka and wikka) and I confess I really hate horizontal bars --DarTar
Heh, I generally hate horizontal scroll bars - but I hate wrapped lines of code even more! Just comment out the white-space: nowrap; rule and you should have your wrapped lines back. Do we need a vote? --JavaWoman
If you need the original version of the code, without wrapped-lines, you just need to switch to the editable version of the page ;-p To me, the "show" method should enable an all-at-once glance to the code, not a cut&paste version, hence I'd vote for wrapped lines as a default -- DarTar
I agree with both of you. Neither way is ideal. However I'd rather deal with the scrolling inconvenience than scan through a bunch of wrapped lines of code. *shrug* Vote: nowrap. - JsnX
Any other votes?
There is no way for something like a user-option (beeing unable to decide :-) NilsLindenberg
Possible, although in a roundabout way since our stylesheets are static, not generated. But it might be possible to generate a class on the code tag depending on user preference, and then tie CSS styling to that class (as opposed to styling without that class, i.e., the class would be the exception to the default). Such a user option would then need to be stored in the user table (a new column). So yes, possible (technically, at least) - but personally I think it's a bit overkill. :) --JavaWoman
I agree with JW and democratically acknowledge the vote of the majority - but I gonna write some private lines of code to make dartarmagically vanish any nowrap attribute while I'm logged in :) -- DarTar
Phew! You had me worried there with your 'Giving up' edit note. Glad to learn you're only planning a bit of underhanded "dartarmagic" (any kind of magic being fitting for "Wikka", of course!). --JavaWoman
I would be extremely sad if DarTar gave up. DarTar, this is your home now -- no need to ever go away to some other wiki land. Stay forever. :) Anyway.... the real reason I'm writing: how about we revisit JW's idea of having user-specific CSS? I really like this idea. Many months ago I explored this idea in Wikka's defunct sister project, WikkaRTE. Double-click on the homepage, and notice the input box for page level CSS. How about we add a box to UserSettings that allows each user to enter their own CSS that could override the Wikka stylesheets? I'm sure that DarTar is not the only one who would like to customize a certain aspect of the stylesheet. -- JsnX
Well, of course any decent, standards-compliant browser already provides the user with a way to supply their own user stylesheet instead of whatever a website provides.
Oh, wait. Not everyone has a decent browser or even access to one. :( But with DarTar's WikkaSkinSelector and WikkaSkinEditor and a few extensions, we're already there, I think:
      • provide a number of basic but sufficiently different skins to choose from
      • write-protect these
      • create a "user styles" directory
      • allow anyone to use the WikkaSkinEditor to edit an existing skin and "save as" a different skin to be stored in the "user styles" directory (not overwriting anyone else's skin)
      • allow people to edit their own skins (needs some mechanism to record who "owns" what; and one person can own multiple skins)
      • store the current selection for skin in the session (not a separate cookie) and allow storing a "permanent" preference in the user profile (extra DB column)
      • really nice skins can be added to the "standard" set
How's that sound? I do like the possibility of having people select or build their own stylesheets very much, since it can enhance accessibility! --JavaWoman
Sounds like a great idea. And - don't worry - It will take you much more than a nowrap line to make me leave :-p --DarTar

Geshi is now hooked into Wikka. Go to SyntaxHighlighter for further discussion about it. -- JsnX



Alternate stylesheets

I really appreciate alternate stylesheets (classical one, more elaborated, aso). To allow them to be configured in WikkaWiki, you could just add :

* In wikka.config.php this line (for exampe just after "stylesheet" => "wikka.css", ) :

  "alternates_stylesheets" => array("wikka1.css" => 'Wikka 1', 
									"wikka2.css" => 'Wikka 2', 
									"wikka3.css" => 'Wikka 3'),


* in header.php this two lines just after the last link and before the "style" box :

<?php
  // Alternate links
  foreach ($this->GetConfigValue("alternates_stylesheets") as $alternate_css => $alternate_name)
  {
	echo '<link rel="alternate stylesheet" type="text/css" href="' . $css_path . $alternate_css . '" media="screen" title="' . $alternate_name . '" />';
  }
?>


(I've too added a $css_path variable,
$css_path = 'css/';
)
I don't thing that various "media=print" CSS would be really usefull.
Of course you need a browser like Firefox / Mozilla to easily switch them, otherwise you have to take care of the stylesheets' switch directly in your pages [ see http://www.openweb.eu.org/ for example ].

--SergiO


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