Zikula Community

• **unknown user**
  
  

  • Rank: Freshman
  • Registered: Mar 16, 2002
  • Last visit: Oct 21, 2009
  • Posts: 68

  Posted: Jul 24, 2004 - 09:49 PM

  Would it not be possible to include both Xanthia and AutoTheme in the Postnuke core? This way Postnuke would be more appealing to users of both systems and provide greater choice as regards themes and their design, if one particular system was not favoured by a user then they could disable it, but they would have that choice instead of having to download AutoTheme seperately.
  
  Thoughts anyone?
  
  Barry
  
  cmsMerchant
  Postnuke e-Commerce Solution/Membership Module
  http://www.cmsmerchant.com

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• markwest
  
  

  • Rank: Team Member
  • Registered: Mar 18, 2002
  • Last visit: Oct 21, 2009
  • Posts: 6606

  Posted: Jul 24, 2004 - 10:02 PM

  Barry,
  
  No I don't see that happening and here's why - For me it's important to remember that we're not just talking about Xanthia and not just about themes. We are talking about an enviroment that allows PN to be fully templated across the board. Modules, blocks and themes all templated using the same technology in an consistent fashion so that the techniques used in themes are using in modules and blocks.
  
  Xanthia is just one component of this overall picture - an important one but only one. This is why the XTE RC releases were packing as they where - it's the overall package that's important, not the individual components.
  
  In fact with XTE you have the power to move the templating language beyond even modules, blocks and themes into the content itself. I've released an example of this (an updated htmlpages) that allow smarty/XTE template logic and plugins within the content held in the database. I've waiting in the wings a transform hook (a la autolinks) that allows this same technique in any hook enabled module.
  
  While all of this may not seem aparent to everyone with .7x since you still have the modules codebase with the mix of PHP and HTML they've been for some time now .8x changes all of this. EVERY module is templated so users will see a major overlap and bluring of the borders between modules, themes and blocks. Given this it's important that there's a single focussed, consistent environment is provided to build and modify these templates.
  
  ANd while it wouldn't be technically difficult to include AutoTheme it's more about keeping a focus for the project. The PN team chose to go the XTE route so to ship AutoTheme at this point would raise questions over the strategic focus of the project.
  
  -Mark
  
  --
  Visit My homepage and Zikula themes.

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• **unknown user**
  
  

  • Rank: Freshman
  • Registered: Mar 16, 2002
  • Last visit: Oct 21, 2009
  • Posts: 68

  Posted: Jul 25, 2004 - 09:34 PM

  Thanks for the info Mark, all sounds much more complicated than it is... hopefully :) How will those changes effect existing modules that work with .7x ? Will there be compatiability issues?
  
  We already had to make some changes to our module to make it compatiable with PostNuke Phoenix 0.750-RC3 but I suppose we will have to cross the .8x bridge when we come to it.
  
  With regards,
  
  Barry & Serg
  
  cmsMerchant
  Postnuke e-Commerce Solution/Membership Module
  http://www.cmsmerchant.com
  
  

  markwest

  Barry,
  
  No I don't see that happening and here's why - For me it's important to remember that we're not just talking about Xanthia and not just about themes. We are talking about an enviroment that allows PN to be fully templated across the board. Modules, blocks and themes all templated using the same technology in an consistent fashion so that the techniques used in themes are using in modules and blocks.
  
  Xanthia is just one component of this overall picture - an important one but only one. This is why the XTE RC releases were packing as they where - it's the overall package that's important, not the individual components.
  
  In fact with XTE you have the power to move the templating language beyond even modules, blocks and themes into the content itself. I've released an example of this (an updated htmlpages) that allow smarty/XTE template logic and plugins within the content held in the database. I've waiting in the wings a transform hook (a la autolinks) that allows this same technique in any hook enabled module.
  
  While all of this may not seem aparent to everyone with .7x since you still have the modules codebase with the mix of PHP and HTML they've been for some time now .8x changes all of this. EVERY module is templated so users will see a major overlap and bluring of the borders between modules, themes and blocks. Given this it's important that there's a single focussed, consistent environment is provided to build and modify these templates.
  
  ANd while it wouldn't be technically difficult to include AutoTheme it's more about keeping a focus for the project. The PN team chose to go the XTE route so to ship AutoTheme at this point would raise questions over the strategic focus of the project.
  
  -Mark

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• markwest
  
  

  • Rank: Team Member
  • Registered: Mar 18, 2002
  • Last visit: Oct 21, 2009
  • Posts: 6606

  Posted: Jul 25, 2004 - 10:00 PM

  In general once your working with .750 you'll work with .8x since the main core changes got absorbed into this release. The main issues you'll have seen won't have related to the templating environment at all but to the significant effort to reduce the resource usage of PN and secure the enviroment.
  
  To summarise those changes
  
  1) Removal of global extraction code from the top of pnAPI.php - this extracted every GET/POST/COOKIE/ENV/SESSION variable to a global. Simply a resource hog, bad practice and a potential security risk. It never should have been added in the first place.
  
  This had an impact on modules that assumed variables existing in the global scope (e.g. the database connection) rather than obtaining them in the correct fasion - pnDBGetConn for the DB conneciton or pnVarCleanFromInput.
  
  2) Use of the reference model for the database connection and tables array. Again a substantial reduction in resource usage is obtained by creating a reference to these rather than a copy - as is the case with all releases prior .750.
  
  We've had a fairly long release candidate in part to give developers the time to absorb these changes. It's my firm belief that, while it has created some short term pain (e.g. pnphpbb not working out of the box etc.), in the long term we've created a more stable, secure and structured environment. We've also ensured that the quality of coding in PN modules across the board is of a higher quality.
  
  The only change you'll likely need for .8x is if your module accesses a table from a currently 'core' module directly. In .8x we don't have a huge, bloated pntables file at the root. As with all API compliant modules the tables are merged from the modules pntables file on demand. This will require the use of a pnModDBInfoLoad command if going out to another module - but more of this closer to the time.....
  
  -Mark
  
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  Visit My homepage and Zikula themes.

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• **unknown user**
  
  

  • Rank: Freshman
  • Registered: Mar 16, 2002
  • Last visit: Oct 21, 2009
  • Posts: 68

  Posted: Jul 30, 2004 - 08:31 PM

  Hello Mark,
  
  Many thanks, I'm sure we will have no problems adapting to the changes in .8x and yes, it would be nice to see the engine run a bit more faster but I guess there's only so much that can be done in that area due to the number and frequency of calls being made to the MySQL DB, how busy the servers are, server configuration etc.
  
  All the best,
  
  Barry
  
  cmsMerchant
  Postnuke e-Commerce Solution/Membership Module
  (Now PostNuke Phoenix 0.750-RC3 compatiable too.)
  http://www.cmsmerchant.com

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• **unknown user**
  
  

  • Rank: Registered User
  • Registered: Mar 16, 2002
  • Last visit: Oct 21, 2009
  • Posts: 28

  Posted: Aug 09, 2004 - 11:33 PM

  I'm about to create a theme for my website (I've used the default until now) but I'm confused about Xanthia v AutoTheme. What are the features and differences? Which is most popular? Which has the most active development? I assumed Xanthia as its part of the core but AT also seems very popular. I'm confused...

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• HalbrookTech
  
  

  • Rank: Developer
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  • Posts: 6859

  Posted: Aug 10, 2004 - 04:55 AM

  Xanthia is Smarty (pnRender) Based, AutoTheme isn't.
  Most Popular at the moment is AutoTheme, as it's a more mature product at this point and has been around longer, it was the first widely used theme system for PostNuke that didn't require the use of the old PHP files.
  Most active Development, probably about equal, and with Xanthia being managed in the PostNuke CVS, you can update to what they've been doing easily (Tho that's not generally a wise idea on a production server).
  
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• **unknown user**
  
  

  • Rank: Helper
  • Registered: Mar 16, 2002
  • Last visit: Oct 21, 2009
  • Posts: 822

  Posted: Aug 11, 2004 - 09:41 AM

  Is there a RC4 planned prior to .75 GA?
  
  TIA

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• Simon
  
  

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  Posted: Aug 11, 2004 - 09:31 PM

  I believe (but Mark may have to verify this), that once the remaining issues in the current RC3 of .750 have been removed there will be an RC4 release, updating both .750 and Xanthia.
  
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• markwest
  
  

  • Rank: Team Member
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  Posted: Aug 11, 2004 - 09:49 PM

  Actually no there won't be a .750 RC4 - it will be straight to a full release build once the couple of last remaining issues are resolved. There are two outstanding big issues preventing a release build at the moment.
  
  -Mark
  
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  Visit My homepage and Zikula themes.

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• larsneo
  
  

  • Rank: Software Foundation
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  Posted: Aug 11, 2004 - 11:10 PM

  sorry to say but i just found a third one during code auditing
  
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• markwest
  
  

  • Rank: Team Member
  • Registered: Mar 18, 2002
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  Posted: Aug 11, 2004 - 11:19 PM

  larsneo

  sorry to say but i just found a third one during code auditing

  
  
  As I said to Sebastian at the weekend 'you found it - you fix it' ;)
  
  -Mark
  
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  Visit My homepage and Zikula themes.

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