A few remarks regarding functionality and layout
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- Christopher Pennington
- Sr. Rocketeer
- Posts: 168
- Thanks: 0
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First let me say...I love Rocketthemes...period.
I have several template club memberships at other sites (who shall remain nameless) and RT is always the best of the best.
That being said...
It seems as though the themes are getting more and more complex. Much more difficult to manipulate and modify. Case in point...The new Replicant variation. It looks great however, the backend is a mess. Turning off the Variation chooser, for instance, collapses the entire top of the template. Suddenly, the "Fresh Approach to Design" doesn't look so fresh, as it's now overlapping everything below it. The list goes on and I won't bore anyone reading this with all of the tedious details.
Trying to find a module position in this thing is like trying to solve a murder mystery...the penultimate "whodunit". There is a dizzying array of badly named Modules and Positions for them, most of which seem to do nothing at all. And using the position preview? HA, might as well try to find Denmark on a map with your eyes closed. eg. oomguild.com/index.php?tp=1
RT's single greatest draw for me is seeing what new component or w/e has been integrated in a creative way. I can't begin to count the number of times I've discovered some new photo gallery component etc..etc.. that I had never heard of until it was implemented into an RT theme. The joy of waiting for the new release of an RT theme for me is in discovering something new and exciting...(a Community Builder/Virtuemart implementation with a 3D gallery viewer..etc) <<--How cool would that be?
Adding 25 new module positions to a theme does not blow my skirt up...In fact it usually irritates the hell out of me as I typically have to spend countless hours figuring why turning off or moving Module A effected Module B.
All in all, I think the guys at RT are beginning to overlook one of the basic rules of programming and design...K.I.S.S "Keep it simple stupid"
Perhaps I'm wrong and tons of module positions in a theme is just what the Joomla community is seeking...but as a production designer, I'm more interested in providing visually exciting and creative layouts in a short amount of time...not spending hours upon hours figuring out what to use in a particular module position because the layout demands something be there...etc.
I'm sure I'll be flamed for saying this but I just can't help but feel that the last few themes haven't delivered so much of a surprise as they have a workload... :-X
Nonetheless...Rockettheme is the best without question and I dig most everything you guys have done.
This all being IMHO of course. - www.onestopknoxville.com
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- JEM
- Preeminent Rocketeer
- Posts: 17917
- Thanks: 4
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Simple suggestion:
Never try to build your site off an install with the sample data.
It's crazy if not impossible; I could never figure out how a demo with so much data and customization has been put together.
Create two databases and two installs, one with the sample data, and one without.
Use the install with the sample data as a guide.
Build your site using the site with no sample data.
You'll have the complete demo site as a reference and when building your site, only what you put in it will be there organized in the way you wan in a way you can understand. - Thanks,
jim
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- Christopher Pennington
- Sr. Rocketeer
- Posts: 168
- Thanks: 0
- Typically, I approach it from the opposite direction.. I make a mental list of the things I like and don't like and try to remove the parts I don't like, which is usually very little
- www.onestopknoxville.com
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