Creating Page Templates ======================= A page template for use with Comanche requires two files - a PHP template and a CSS file. Page templates will need to be installed by the system administrator of your site. First choose a name. Here we'll create a template and call it "demo". You will need to create the files "view/php/demo.php" and "view/css/demo.css" to hold the PHP template and CSS respectively. To get a better idea of this process, let's look at an existing template - the "default" template. This is used by default throughout the application. view/php/default.php ==================== <!DOCTYPE html > <html> <head> <title><?php if(x($page,'title')) echo $page['title'] ?></title> <script>var baseurl="<?php echo $a->get_baseurl() ?>";</script> <?php if(x($page,'htmlhead')) echo $page['htmlhead'] ?> </head> <body> <?php if(x($page,'nav')) echo $page['nav']; ?> <aside id="region_1"><?php if(x($page,'aside')) echo $page['aside']; ?></aside> <section id="region_2"><?php if(x($page,'content')) echo $page['content']; ?> <div id="page-footer"></div> <div id="pause"></div> </section> <aside id="region_3"><?php if(x($page,'right_aside')) echo $page['right_aside']; ?></aside> <footer><?php if(x($page,'footer')) echo $page['footer']; ?></footer> </body> </html> Here's is the corresponding CSS file view/php/default.css ==================== aside#region_1 { display: block; width: 210px; position: absolute; top: 65px; left: 0; margin-left: 10px; } aside input[type='text'] { width: 174px; } section { position: absolute; top: 65px; left: 250px; display: block; right: 15px; padding-bottom: 350px; } Some things you may notice when looking at these definitions: * We have not specified any CSS for the "nav", "right_aside", or "footer" regions. In this template "nav" and "footer" will be the full page width and we will let the size and placement of these elements be controlled by the theme. "right_aside" is not currently used. * There are elements on the page such as "page-footer" and "pause" for which there is no apparent content. This content will come from Javascript elements. * Our default template uses absolute positioning. Modern web design often uses "float" div containers so that scrollbars aren't typically needed when viewing on small-screen devices. To design a new template, it is best to start with an existing template, and modify it as desired. That is what we will do here. The way that Comanche provides content inside a specific region is by using a region tag. [region=aside][widget=profile][/widget][/region] This example will place a "profile" widget in the "aside" region. But what it actually does is place the HTML for the widget into a code variable **$page['aside']**. Our default page template defines a region on the page (the CSS positions this as an absolute sidebar) and then inserts the contents of $page['aside'] (if it exists). So if you wanted to create a template with a region named "foo", you would provide a place for it on the page, then include the contents of $page['foo'] wherever you wanted to use it, and then using Comanche, you could specify [region=foo][widget=profile][/widget][/region] and this would place a profile widget into the "foo" region you created. Use the CSS file to position the region on the page where desired and optionally control its size. [To be continued]