[Pmwiki-users] Call for Template Simplicity

Patrick R. Michaud pmichaud
Wed Feb 11 07:04:10 CST 2004


On Wed, Feb 11, 2004 at 11:39:09AM -0800, Steven Leite wrote:
>    There's  no  doubt about it, any Admin that is installing PmWiki (even
>    for the first time) will follow these steps before anything else:
>    1)  Get it installed and working
>    2)  Customize it!
>    I  think  we  can  improve  on  Step  2  by not shipping PmWiki with a
>    css-based template (by default).

I'm very interested in hearing more opinions on this point.  Although
we can certainly stick with PmWiki's traditional layout, I've been
migrating PmWiki to a css-based version for a number of reasons--

- Marketing: I think that PmWiki looks more attractive to potential
  users if the main PmWiki site looks more like a standard web site
  and less like a traditional wiki.  The current default layout on
  pmichaud.com is about to change, you can see the new default by 
  going to http://www.pmichaud.com/wiki/PmWiki/PmWiki?skin=pmwiki.

- Admin expectations:  It's nice if the shipped version of PmWiki looks
  very similar to what the admin has just seen on the PmWiki web site.

- Popular Demand:  Two of the most popular recipes in the Cookbook are
  the FlexLayout and WebMenu recipes (especially WebMenu), so I'm 
  thinking it's more convenient if they come "pre-installed" and 
  with a default configuration.

- Review of existing site practices:  In reviewing the existing 
  PmWikiUsers list, sites seem to fall in three categories:
    1. Sites with little customization (basically just changing the logo)
    2. Sites using a css-based FlexLayout/WebMenu
    3. Sites that are heavily customized
  Admins in category #2 will be pleased that the default is already 
  css-based.  Admins in category #3 aren't really affected by the 
  default PmWiki settings, however, my experience thus far is that
  the new layout makes it much easier to achieve many of the 
  effects that these admins are looking for.  That just leaves category
  #1--folks who've done little customization.  I figure that most of
  these admins would appreciate a more advanced layout but didn't want
  to do a lot of customization to get there.  Of course, it's possible
  that these admins prefer a simple layout, in which case it's *very*
  easy in the new layout scheme to turn off the CSS (essentially one
  just does $PageSkin='none'; in local.php).

The question really comes down to  "What do we want a (new) admin's initial
impression and experience of PmWiki to be?"  I can see good arguments
in favor of starting with a simple layout and the admin gains experience/
familiarity by customizing it to a more complex one.  But I also
see value in providing an initial "Wow!" experience, as the admin 
installs the software and thinks "Wow, everything is already set up, 
I only need to change the logo and colors and I'm ready to go!".

>From a technical perspective, either of these approaches (or others I
haven't thought of) are pretty easy to achieve, so I'm just looking for
the approach that provides the best impression of PmWiki to new admins.

This is an excellent topic and I really would appreciate any
comments or opinions others might suggest.

Pm



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