Hi Rob,
I use in the current version of the
Slide Show 4 skin the contact.htt and about.htt templates of the base skin, but because
your proposed templates have a nice user interface to fill the contents, I am going to use your templates.
I have a number of questions about your templates:
1. In the first attempt to use your contact.htt templates I got a complaint the properties of my skin did not contain the statement fullSiteSupport=true. Nobody told me to add such a statement and it is not indicated in the
documentation I could find. The Base skin templates are correct working without that statement, so my question is: Who is using that fullSiteSupport variable?
FullSiteSupport is a skin property, it is listed in the Java API but is easiest to find in jAlbum with Tools, Skin Developer, Edit skin properties
I have added it to the skin properties documentation
http://jalbum.net/help/en/Organization_of_a_skin
2. If I use your contact.htt template, I must apparently add an image contact.png, but that is not indicated in the user interface as you do in the about.htt template. Why do you not add the same construction in contact.htt?
About and Contact are modified versions of Turtle's templates, the contact.png I used is from Turtle's skin. Sorry, I should have stated that, but you can use any image you want, just add it to the res folder.
3. I like to extend the contact,htt with the URL of a company website. You have of course already the jAlbum site URL included, but most commercial users will like to add another website. So I have to figure out how to do that. I see that you use images from ShareIcons. Where does that come from? Where is it stored? Is there an icon available for a company website? Or do you like to extend your contact.htt with a field for the URL of the company website?
Those icons are from the jAlbum application, I'm on my iPad and can't remember the exact location, skins or resources. You can modify the template to add another (url) field if you want, but since the site visitor is already on the site is it worth adding a link there?
4. Just for your information: I guess I have the same problem as the Notable skin: my resources are not always in the res sub-directory but it is possible to store the resources in a central directory for all albums on a site indicated in a variable rootresPath.
I actually have all of my resources in the normal 'res' folder, but I move the folders contents to the parent folder's res directory when using a common resource folder. That meant having my own 'resPath' variable.
5. You assume in all your templates that there is a CSS selector #pageContent. That selector is not yet available in my skin, but still it works. I wonder whether it is wise to use the same id for all template files, may be that will lead to conflicts. Why don't you use as default Laza's #contact-page for the contact page, #about-page for the about page, #sitemap-page for the sitemap page etc.? I even wonder whether it according CSS rules it should not be a class instead of an id.
All of the templates have a single div using #pageContent, unless the user enters an id or custom CSS in the template interface. The CSS file containing the #pageContent selector attributes is generated by the template and saved to a file using the template's name. For example the About template creates a file called 'about_style.css' in the 'res' folder.
If the user wants to use a specific I'd, say '#content-page', then they can enter that. As there is no standard I tried to cover all conditions, skin specific, template specific and user generated CSS.
As there is only one div on each template using that selector an id is valid.
6. I did not implement the use TemplateHeader checkbox and I did not change anything in page-header.inc file and still it works, So what is the advantage of the construction you propose?
Not using the TemplateHeader should not stop it working, it allows the link to the CSS files to be placed in the 'header' section of the page, rather than in the body section.
The advantages, maybe none! It is intended to try to make templates work with any skin that supports templates and to prevent the UI from showing if the user switches to a skin that does not support templates.
It would be better if the templates could be prevented from running with skins that are not site aware, but I can't code for that. How well they work in other skins will depend on the user and the skin designer. If the skin designer documents the id selector they code specifically for a template, then the user can enter that I'd in the template. Otherwise the user uses it as is and hopes for the best, or they examine the skin code and/or write their own CSS. That is why I listed a set of id selectors for different skins that I have tried the templates with.
7. I have also an About_album.htt page, which is almost equal to the About.htt page, only is the image larger. Soto get it working, I had to remove the line
ai = ai.scaleToFit(new Dimension(320,320));
Why is did statement required, if the user defines the image width in the 2nd field?
As above, it was based on Turtle, Laza presumably coded the size for aesthetic reasons, if left to the user I supose someone could use a really big image!
Anyhow thanks for sharing your templates!
You are welcome, I hope some of it is useful and that the above helps.