Geeklog Forums

I am building a theme for geeklog 1.3.8 for a client and there seem to be some deficiencies in geeklog which make some things impossible.

For example, I would like to have a text link for story topics but it seems topic icons are the only supported option. I was able to work around this by using the provided story id and topic text variables.

I also need to have all the story options ("read more", "post a comment", "edit") on the same line with separators and there is no way to accomplish this. If the separator is placed in the template and the option is not available you have extra separators and spaces. I had to hack lib-common.php to insert the separators there so that if the option is missing the separators are not printed either.

I assume some geeklog guru will mention that you can override this by inserting a function in functions.php, but not explain how that might be done. This assumption is based on reading through the few posts on this forum which mention that file and having spent a few hours trying to figure it out on my own. Feel free to prove me wrong.

I haven't downloaded a newer version of geeklog to examine the code but from reading the online documentation it doesn't sound like the ability to style the story options has been changed since 1.3.8.

I just thought I'd mention my troubles here so that other geeklog users might benefit if the theme options are ever improved.

i don't know about 1.3.8, but the article url is provided as a template variable in later versions... notice that you can click on the article title here at geeklog.net. the professional theme is making use of the provided article url variable, which is {article_url}.

again, with later versions of gl, the readmore, edit, and comment template variables are completely separate and available to be placed whereever you want. Again, I have no idea about 1.3.8.

hope that helps. try the docs for a list of changes to themes and templates and variables, etc.

Yes, I've checked the docs. Accessing the story options separately is not the issue. Theming them as a list (like the top menu list) is.

Since I am "the client" that is mentioned here, I can say that what tangent has done for me has done wonders for the look and feel of the theme. You can check out his handiwork here. I think that his solutions have proved to be a nice solution for me and cleaned up the interface nicely. He has done wonderful work with css / XML / HTML and such in other sites (check out other handiwork here for a non-geeklog sample) and it seems to have transferred well into geeklog at my site.

The concern that I have is that since he had to make some changes to certain geeklog files (not theme files, geeklog files) it will be hard to upgrade without re-doing the changes. If they are reasonable to be included in a maintenance release, I should have a report of the changes made in my hands in the near future.

Dirk et al., what do you think ?

Sean

I will confirm that 1.3.8 does not work for making story titles into links, I just tried! Although I have a few notes from a post by Dirk or someone of a possible fix, but I'm going to upgrade to 1.3.11, but if you want this possible route to do this to 1.3.8, tell me & I'll dig those notes out.

And I don't have a suggestion about making "theming the stories as a list", sorry, tangent.

Sphopkins, your thought of including the custom changes--if good ones--is of course appropriate, however I think development on 1.3.11 is about done & the developers are working on GL version 2. I suspect it'll be quite different & I don't know if your changes won't be addressed in the version--but the forum for GL 2 is the right place to bring those up.

Good luck, I hope you find a way to not upgrade & carry your changes forward, but that might be what you need to do.

---

Tom
www.southparkcity.com

Oh, tangent has fixed it for me so I do not need to find the fix. And if I do need to upgrade, i'll just get him to do the same changes..... it will cost me a couple of $ but that is well worth it.

If GL2 can use the changes, I will try and get the information to the developers. To be honest I have been immensely happy with GL (2 sites up and running, and many others not controlled by me that I know of) so I would love to contribute back. If GL2 works for me later - I will use it for sure.

Thanks

Why would you use 1.3.8 instead of 1.3.11? There are some security holes that are fixed since 1.3.8.

That was what was where I was when I started a revamp of my site

My concern is that I want the security changes while keeping the improved look of the site. I just wanted to contribute to the geeklog community by offering the improvements to the "themability" that was done on my behalf so it could be incorporated into a future maintenance release if needed.

I'm sure I will upgrade to 1.3.11.... that is not my concern. And I will have my changes added to my upgrade whether it is through official geeklog channels or through modifying the geeklog core.

This sounds like you don't expect any further 1.3.x releases. Development on 1.3.x will continue for a while. Also, while there is some overlapping, there are more or less 2 separate teams working on GL2 and 1.3.x.

bye, Dirk

If there is to be more development on the 1.3.x tree, can I send the changes / suggestions to you Dirk ?

Thanks.

Use our project site, please.

bye, Dirk

Will do.

Thanks.