I'm definitely interested in helping with this. Once we get our updated internal environment deployed, I plan to turn some attention to the customization problem. Specifically, because of our rather strict intranet UI guidelines, we actually want to be able to lock down full template customizations and instead give users the ability to essentially drag and drop widgets onto their sidebar or to make relatively minor changes to their blog page headers / entry listings. What is of particular importance to us, due to a variety of security concerns, is the ability to restrict the catalog of available widgets that can be placed on the sidebar.
Another thought: as part of the "about" page... we are very interested in finding a way of allowing Roller to integrate well with external "profile" services (e.g. an LDAP directory) such that extended information about a blog owner or contributor can be pulled in server-side from a remote source other than just the roller_users table. As an example, in Lotus Connections, we have a profiles component that is used as the primary repository of user info that would fit very naturally into an "About" page. I'll go back and review all of the 4.0 proposals. - James Allen Gilliland wrote: > > > James M Snell wrote: >> While I definitely agree that there needs to be an easier way of >> customizing templates (I've got a couple of thousand users who would >> *strongly* agree that there needs to be an easier way of customizing >> templates) I'd be wary of addressing it piece by piece. I (and I >> believe my users) would be much happier if the total customization >> experience was addressed all at once). > > I would love to do it all at once and I am actually trying to do that to > the best of my abilities with these proposals for 4.0. Basically all of > the things I am aiming for are features to help improve the usability > aspect of weblog customization *and* i had actually started grouping all > of my proposals under that banner ... > > http://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/ROLLER/Proposal+Easier+Weblog+Design+Customization > > > I have 2 more proposals which I plan to add to that ... > > 1. The proposal for making an icon and "about" section standard > attributes of a weblog. This was already discussed as being part of 3.2 > but I've deferred it and plan to do it together with the other proposals > I listed. > > 2. A proposal for doing widgets, similar to what other blog systems > have. This is the really big piece and the one that users will most > likely get the most mileage out of. > > All together that would make 5 proposals all pretty much centered on > making the blog customization process easier. Ideally, once all these > features are designed and the proposals are agreed upon I could get some > level of help from other folks who are interested in these things to > make sure we can get them done in time for 4.0. It's quite a bit of > work for 1 person to do and if I have to fly solo then that would be the > reason why we wouldn't introduce all these things at the same time. > > -- Allen > > >> >> - James >> >> >> Allen Gilliland wrote: >>> new 4.0 proposal to provide stylesheet overrides for weblogs ... >>> >>> http://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/ROLLER/Proposal+Stylesheet+Overrides+for+Weblogs >>> >>> >>> >>> basically a way to allow weblogs to do stylesheet customizations without >>> having to customize their theme and hack the templates, and instead >>> provides a way to simple define a stylesheet page which overrides the >>> default styles for the theme. >>> >>> please review and send your comments. >>> >>> -- Allen >>> >
