[pmwiki-users] Problems with the embedded CSS in pmwiki.php

[marc]

Patrick R. Michaud said...
> On Mon, Oct 30, 2006 at 12:20:51PM -0000, marc wrote:
> > Hans said...
> > > Sunday, October 29, 2006, 6:21:22 PM, marc wrote:
> > > [...]
> > > The skin designer would add an extra line in the template
> > > to facilitate loading of this pmwiki-core.css file.
> > 
> > I suspect that this CSS file would be loaded by default - so as not to 
> > break the default install [where it would be loaded in any case, in your 
> > scenario] and not to break any existing skins. 
> 
> Having the CSS file "loaded by default" doesn't at all resolve the
> original issue that started this thread.  The only ways that a 
> pmwiki-core.css file can achieve the desired semantics (admin
> overrides skin overrides core) is by one of the following:
> 
>   - All templates explicitly load pmwiki-core.css at an appropriate location.
> 
>   - The skin has a skin.php file that manipulates $HTMLHeaderFmt.
> 
>   - We define an "automatically loaded skin.css" rule that adds
>     a link to a per-skin css file between the pmwiki core CSS and
>     any site-specific (local) CSS files.
> 
> Currently PmWiki goes with the second option.

I understand #1 and #2, and why #1 is undesirable as things stand.  I'm
clearly missing something with understanding #3. I thought that since
existing skins already include <!--HTMLHeader-->, then this could be
used to trigger the generation of the <link rel='stylesheet' for
pmwiki-core.css - in other words, a replacement for the embedded PmWiki
core styles.

Wouldn't something like this work (I know it doesn't, as is, but I'm
sure you see where I'm going):

    if ($var == 'HTMLHeader' || $var == 'XMLHeader') 
      $TmplFmt[$ps][] = "<link rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' 
href='$PubDirUrl/css/pmwiki-core.css' />"; 
      $TmplFmt[$ps][] = &$HTMLHeaderFmt;  

> > > We could move towards a standard pmwiki-core.css file already now,  by
> > > pmwiki providing one in pub/css/
> > 
> > This is possible now, but Patrick is the oracle on the repercussions 
> > that pass over us mortals ;-)
> 
> The problem is that transitioning the universe of existing PmWiki
> installations and skins to exclusively use a standard pmwiki-core.css 
> file is likely to be a hassle at this point, and I'm not sure it's
> worth the hassle.  Even if we provide pmwiki-core.css, skins will 
> *still* have to use something to manipulate $HTMLHeaderFmt and/or 
> $HTMLStylesFmt, so I'm not sure we're saving anything.  (Either that
> or we do some deep magic in analyzing skin templates to decide that
> the core styles are already being included by the template.)

No problem, thanks for looking into it Patrick. I can work around it for
now without branching the core, thankfully, since it is clearly not a
requirement for many others. Automatically generating pmwiki-core.css is
easy enough, so that it can be updated between PmWiki releases, and I
can null the embedded styles in skin.php with:

  global $HTMLStylesFmt;
  $HTMLStylesFmt['pmwiki']	= '';
  $HTMLStylesFmt['diff']		= '';
  $HTMLStylesFmt['simuledit'] = '';
  $HTMLStylesFmt['markup']	= '';
  $HTMLStylesFmt['urlapprove']= '';
  $HTMLStylesFmt['vardoc']	= '';
  $HTMLStylesFmt['wikistyles']= '';

And for now skin.tmpl can contain:

    <link rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' href='$PubDirUrl/css/pmwiki-
core.css' />
    <!--HTMLHeader-->
  </head>

since no-one else is involved, and avoids hacking skins.php. Although I 
have a feeling that the temptation to finish the job is too strong :-)

Thanks again. It's a testament to your design that we can flex PmWiki to
this extent. It's really quite remarkable.

-- 
Best,
Marc