Pligg Template

As you may have noticed over the last few days our blog here at Pligg Template has been decidedly quiet, and for good reason we have been working hard all weekend to put the finishing touches to our brand new Pligg Template Framework. The new framework structure will become the standard for all template we release and allows us the ability to have some very cool features within our templates.

The main inspiration for Pligg Template and our main goal was to bring premium quality templates to pligg owners, our new template framework is the first major step towards achieving that goal.

So what is the framework and what features does it allow us to provide with our pligg templates?.

A framework is basically a bare-bones structure of a template that includes all the needed core code and css for your template to function. A framework also allows us to keep a set standard for all our templates along with making updates and changes much easier, basically if pligg release a new core version that requires template changes we can have our templates updated and released with the new changes in under an hour. This ultimately means that anyone who is using one of our templates can upgrade their pligg site faster which is crucial especially if it’s a security upgrade.

Now onto the features which in our opinion is the most exciting part of the new framework for users.

Template Options Page

One of the features our new framework allows for is a Template Options page much like the theme options pages found in wordpress themes. Coming from a wordpress background this is a feature we really wanted to have as soon as possible as it makes changing template features even for a novice very easy.

What we didn’t want was users having to digg into pligg’s template files as is the normal procedure to change certain features like colour schemes, twitter usernames, advertising banners etc. Each template will come wih it’s own specific options that are built in, some template will have more than others but it should allows us to do some really exciting stuff in the future.

With the templates options page “which is reachable from your pligg administration panel” you can now change all of these setting easily from right within your pligg administration section.

Below is a little more information on how colour schemes work with our framework which we think is a fantastic addition for users and developers alike.

StyleSelection

All our new templates will come in a range of colour schemes, with our framework the templates colour schemes are completely separate from the core framework files. Inside your templates main folder there is a new folder called styles where all the colour scheme template files are held.

For users to change your colour scheme you simply goto the new template options page and select which colour you would like from a dropdown menu.

For developers our framework automatically detects what css files are present within the templates styles folder and outputs them into your template options page for easy selection to change the colour scheme of your site.

The fact our framework checks the folder for css stylesheets makes creating new colour schemes for your template the easiest it’s ever been. You simply create your new colour scheme and upload it to the styles folder. The framework will then automatically add’s your new colour scheme for selection within your pligg template options page. cool huh?

In the future we will be updating the framework to allow us even more versatility features wise and also allow our template users more flexibility and ease of use.

Screenshot

As you can see from above our new framework is an exciting development within the Pligg Community and hopefully will bring those features that many pligg templates have been lacking in the past. Our new upcoming template titled PliggDZine will be the first template to be built upon the new framework, we will also be back-porting PliggTube and adding some more colour schemes soon. Do let us know your thoughts on the framework and especially the new style options as feedback is always welcomed and considered.