IMPORTANT: Gantry 4 Feature Requests
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- Andy Miller
- Preeminent Rocketeer
- Posts: 9919
- Thanks: 96
- Web Kahuna
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Hey guys, I am going to write a blog post and explain our plans for our next version of Gantry but in short, we've had a slight change in our roadmap.
Originally we had intended that Gantry 4 would be a huge revamp of our current framework. This was never intended to be backwards compatible with Gantry 3 as we planned on changing many of the underlying mechanisms for configuration and features. We also had plans to radically change how you configured modules and features in relation to menu items and other mechanisms (categories, dates, etc). Another major part of this redesign would of been the inclusion of responsive capabilities into the framework as this is a very hot topic at the moment.
This was quite an audacious undertaking and we have decided that there are some things that we just don't want to wait for. We have found that we can quite easily provide underlying responsive capabilities in the current 3.X version of Gantry to enable us to create a very powerful and flexible responsive template. We are working on this now and will release it as next month's RocketTheme Joomla club template. As the development of this has progressed we have decided that we want to move this capability back into Gantry along with some other high level features and release this as a fully backward-compatible Gantry 4 release.
Please note, this does not mean that simply installing Gantry 4 in your existing 960 grid configured templates will automatically make them responsive. There will be lots of CSS fixes and content tweaks required as designing responsive templates is a much more complex and time consuming proposition compared to a fixed grid template.
What this means then, is that we plan on releasing Gantry 4 in a much shorter time frame than we had originally planned. Also this means that our bigger plans will be pushed into Gantry 5 that will be released next year and will not be backwards compatible with previous versions.
We have a high level list of requirements for Gantry 4, but by necessity this is a fluid list and may change:
- New responsive frontend Gantry template
- Refreshed backend administration UI
- Minor administration performance optimizations
- LESS for base CSS with PHP-based compilation into CSS. We will provide various options including ever-page load, manual, and also change-based recompilation for maximum flexibility during development to production lifecycles
- General merge of Joomla and WordPress codebases
- Many frontend performance optimizations related to class loading, caches implementations, and rendering
What we need from you the users, is thoughts on SMALL but important features or issues that we could address in this release. Please note, we want this to be a timely release, so don't ask for full WYSIWYG UI with drag and drop capabilities
That's just not going to happen in this release. We want to ensure we can make this fully backwards compatible and get the maximum benefits for the minimum development effort.
So please respond to this post with your thoughts and ideas. We will review your requests and see if any of them are suitable for this Gantry 4 release, or maybe are more suitable for Gantry 5.
This is your chance to make a difference!
Cheers,
Andy Miller
Team RocketTheme authors of Gantry Framework
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- Who?
- Preeminent Rocketeer
- Posts: 25562
- Thanks: 613
- Joomla freelancer
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It would be really great if you could build some kind of "Menu less" feature back in the framework because we (mods on this forum) see more and more frustrations from members who are trying and failing to understand how to remove modules from articles that doesn't have itemid (not linked to any menu in the Joomla)
Just my 2 cents
- Check my services at: Mihha-Vision
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- Scott B.
- Elite Rocketeer
- Posts: 600
- Thanks: 2
- Web Developer, UI Developer
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How about an expanded copyright option?
Example:
Copyright: [x] Enabled [ ] Disabled
Copyright Custom Text: _______________
Copyright Year: ____ - [PHP]
Ouput:
If, copyright custom year entered:
© Acme LLC, 1998-2012
Else,
© Acme LLC, 2012
Allows the most current year to always be displayed.
- ٩(•̮̮̃•̃)۶
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- JulianWolf
- Rocketeer
- Posts: 73
- Thanks: 0
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Hi everybody,
as I am no coder, it is difficult to me to realize, what "miner" and what "major" tasks are. But after using Rockettheme for a long time now I certainly can point out some things, that I nearly never use because I simply don´t understand them. Too complex, to weired, to complicated. Maybe this gives you some suggestions.
The definitevly most important point for me is the typography. I always get mad, when I try to write an article and get everything mixed up.
When I try to write something, I got tons of tags (div, font, span, p, ...), that I don´t get done. There are three or four different div-tags, that open. Some of them are called "clean" or something like that. Others have names that I don´t understand. And I never really understand what they are for, which ones I can delete.
This is getting full of problems when I start to insert pictures. Float? Description-text? Border? No Idea ... and always terrible complex. Finally I mostly copy a demo-article, that looks like what I like to have, into Dreamweaver and copy&paste most tags, trying to keep the structure. Also for pictures: To insert a picture, I mostly copy&paste a picture from a demo-article.
Partly the typograpy-explanations help out. This one for example is very nice:
demo.rockettheme.com/joomla25/fresco/features/typography
However, there are still some things missing. For example, nowhere in the whole template I find any information about how to place images. To compare this explanation with another one:
templates.joomlart.com/ja_community_plus/typography.html
This template from Joomlart is the template that I use on my main page. One of the reasons for choosing that one was ... the ressources for the typograpy. I guess the demo-article about the typography was the place where I have spent the most time on, because I look into it nearly daily, to copy&paste the stuff that I need. And here, images are also in, as lots of other stuff.
However, to get the point. I know that it´s not easy to get a usability into that stuff. But having more informations about all the tags and all the predefined css-stuff and so on would be very, very usefull for me and users of my level.
However, for future, maybe there can be thought about another solution. Have you ever thought about creating an own editor? Getting an editor done, so it perfectly matches to the RT-Themes could really be a big shot.
I mean: Inserting pictures wysiwyg but matching to the RT-Template-Framework, so I can automatically add a descriptional text in the editor and stuff like that.
I try to explain it a little more:
You guys are the coders, and I am a customer/user. So I don´t want to have any need to get into the code. In fact, I don´t know coding. Even html-tags are difficult for me, but understanding the whole structure of nested dif-tags is just too much for me.
The best you could do for me is making that part easier. In a way, that I can design a complete article without the need to get into the code.
Big thing? Definitely. I also don´t expect it, I have no clue if it is possilbe to get something like that done. But on the other hand: Getting such a system offered to me would really open my wallet to pay a lot for it. So just think it over: As you work on the whole framework, maybe you can somehow face the editor-problems from another point of view, and finally publish something, that really makes life much easier for millions of users.
All the best, Julian!
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- JulianWolf
- Rocketeer
- Posts: 73
- Thanks: 0
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Ah, and one more thing:
There are some components out there, that I always have massive problems on finding matching templates.
- JomSocial
- Kunena
- SobiPro
- Virtuemart
Here a hightlight:
It´s not only that I get mad in searching for templates, Jomsocial doesnt work correctly with one of your newest templates: Fresco.
I posted it in your forum, no answer. I posted it on Jomsocial. No answer. It´s the usuall problem for customers: Everybody says, it´s the others fault. So the design for 3rd-party-components is a really big topic for me.
As all four are very common and often used components, why not integrating them a little more? When you publish a complete template, there are only some little things that you can adjust for that components and it is a major benefit for your customer.
Think about easy things:
Button-Set for Kunena, matching colours in Jomsocial, stuff like that. When you are already doing a complete new template, it should not be too much work, to integrate that parts. I personally would be very, very willing to pay some more money, in exchange to know that all those extensions are integrated in all of your templates.
However ... this thread is about gantry 3.x, so it´s not really the right topic. But as I said: I am not a coder. I have no Idea if this can partly be solved on the framework-level. That´s why I posted it.
All the best, Julian!
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- Yves.
- Newbie
- Posts: 9
- Thanks: 0
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Hello all,
I would like the new version of Gantry offers real options width settings templates
For me the lack of flexibility in the width is a hindrance to creativity layouts and overall style.
Now change the width quickly becomes a major headache for an amateur
I would find this new version independent adjustment of the width of the template and also a separate adjustment for the width of the modules
A "myWidth" column by column in a way
I am not a professional and I can not say if this solution is feasible
I hope;)
As Julianwolf I also expect to have good compatibility with Kunena and JomSocial and I especially ease of use which requires a minimum order by entering code line
I think you are on the right road when I see tools like RokSprocket
Good luck for the future
PS: Excuse me for my bad english
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- Henning
- Preeminent Rocketeer
- Posts: 29362
- Thanks: 954
- Volunteer
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- drop the source ordering-idea (push-pull classes) in the mainbody.
Why not just use the 6 column concept for that area too?
At the end each try to to trick out google will do bad .. even if source ordering wont do that now it might potentially harm search results in the future.
- not sure if this is better: the xml for features could be moved to the feature folder itself (instead of template-optionsxml.
Would be easier to add/remove features.
- less-integration
- a js driven "same-height"-thing to equalize the height of columns in a row (or other areas).
- device-condition to toggle module-positions on/off {server-side?}
to disable the rendering of mod-positions in mobile designs for example?
- keep the selectivizr plugin
- add modernizer?
- responsive designs: ability to enable/disable breakpoints
- responsive designs: Bootstrap-concept for mobile-menus.
- matchmedia in js ... mediaqueries/events for js
- html/body hight fix ... right now body is as high as the content is ... but should fill the viewport.
- ability to load css specific based on device-width
- option to give mod-positions priority so they stay on top when the mod positions stack on each other in a mobile view.
- option to order modules and features ...
- easy way to use gantry-syntax in component overrides ... (like com-content)
just to add some ideas
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- Neil Robertson
- Sr. Rocketeer
- Posts: 114
- Thanks: 3
- Web Developer
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Hi,
Gantry is so flexible, I can do nearly anything with it. The only real restriction is the 960 pixel fixed width.
It would be good to have a fluid option and/or be able to specify a width. The grid system with 12 or 16 columns could still work with columns one twelfth or one sixteenth of the total width.
I'm looking forward to seeing the results.
Neil. - Webilicious
Web Design and Development Services
https://www.webilicious.com.au
https://iconifier.net
https://webhostingdownunder.com.au
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- Ali Samii
- Elite Rocketeer
- Posts: 629
- Thanks: 2
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Hi:
I wanted to suggest that the next version of the Gantry framework have built-in functionality allowing opt-in/opt-out for Cookies according to the so called "EU Cookie Law".
The Gavern Framework from Gavick has implemented exactly what I mean www.gavick.com/documentation/joomla-temp...omla-1-6/cookie-law/
The Cookie law, officially the "EU Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications" came into effect on 26 May, 2012 and affects anyone whose web sites place cookies on the users computers (essentially, all web sites) and whose audience is in the European Union.
Although there are a number of extensions available on the JED ( extensions.joomla.org/extensions/site-management/cookie-control ), having the functionality integrated into the framework would be ideal. Some of the plugins seem to cause conflicts with Gantry, others seem to not work well. All in all, they are not well implemented. -
The following users have thanked you: Christiaan Hofland
- Thank you.
Ali Samii
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- Birger Kvam
- Sr. Rocketeer
- Posts: 116
- Thanks: 0
- Web developer/designer
- Option to turn less compiler off would be nice
- www.birgweb.com
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