Hi Chris I like what you say about simple & elegant. The hard part is defining what those mean. To my mind, the theme that best fits these goals is Ocadia (from OptionalThemesForRoller referenced below). Interestingly, it says that it was originally developed for Wordpress and ported to Roller.
If I were to try to define what elements make it appear elegant, I would say that the muted colors and gradient fills that give it quiet, understated beauty. I also liked the rounded boxes on the right side. To many of the other themes seem to be shouting for my attention, or, like you say, are busy and noisy as the front page of a newspaper. I haven't had the pleasure of using IDEA from IntelliJ but I have only heard good things about it. I generally have been using Eclipse and NetBeans. Eclipse for general programming and NetBeans for Swing programming. They are quite good but utilitarian and not elegant. So do you have a Wordpress theme that you prefer? Or a few recommendations for me to look at to see what blogs you feel implement the simple & elegant appearance? Nelson -----Original Message----- From: Christopher Dodunski [mailto:chrisfromsquir...@christopher.net.nz] Sent: Thursday, September 23, 2010 4:10 PM To: user@roller.apache.org Subject: RE: Seeking clean, attractive Roller 4.0 theme Hi Nelson, Good question! I wrote "clean and attractive" implying simplicity and elegance - the hallmark of any good user interface. Many webpages have clearly had a lot of effort poured into them, but too often the end result is as busy as the front page of a newspaper. Neither simple nor elegant. Incidentally, my preferred Java IDE is also based on a simple yet elegant user interface: IntelliJ IDEA. I've been using Roller for around a week, and think it is wonderful. But, in my opinion, the four bundled themes don't cut the mustard. What can we do to help fix this situation. Decide on a great wordpress theme, and replicate it with a distinctive 'roller' twist perhaps? Regards, Chris Dodunski. > I am curious if there consensus on what makes a good theme. Is it > strictly the attractiveness of the theme? Or how clean and uncluttered > the page templates are that implement the theme? Maintainability or > modifiability? > > My own opinion is I could live with something that is less attractive > if the theme is easy to modify and maintain (easy to find the style > statements that control an element's appearance). I can add as much > prettiness as I want, but only if I can find where the controls are. > > What do the rest of you think makes a clean and attractive theme? > > Nelson > > -----Original Message----- > From: Dave [mailto:snoopd...@gmail.com] > Sent: Thursday, September 23, 2010 2:17 PM > To: user@roller.apache.org > Subject: Re: Seeking clean, attractive Roller 4.0 theme > > That is definitely one of the drawbacks of Roller: very few good themes. > RollerThemes.com addressed that problem to some extent, but now it is > gone. On the bright side, Velocity is fairly easy to learn and its not > that hard to "port" themes from Wordpress and other places. > > Hope that helps... > > - Dave > > Template authors guide: > > ftp://www.ibiblio.org/pub/mirrors/apache/roller/roller-4/v4.0.1/docs/r > oller-template-guide.pdf > > > > On Mon, Sep 20, 2010 at 12:58 AM, Christopher Dodunski > <chrisfromsquir...@christopher.net.nz> wrote: >> Hi, >> >> I chose Roller over Wordpress due to the fact that I am a Java >> developer, and I always like to support open-source projects - >> especially Apache ones. So far I'm impressed with the administration >> interface and documentation. But the packaged themes didn't appeal, >> and so I downloaded those from >> http://wiki.java.net/bin/view/Javanet/OptionalThemesForRoller. >> But many of these also don't appeal and/or don't work (e.g. state >> comments are closed when they are not). >> >> Is there another source of Roller themes out there? Does anyone have >> an attractive, clean and elegant theme they would like to share? I >> don't really have the time to learn Velocity (nor do I have the flair >> for visual design). Your help/guidance would be much appreciated. >> >> Thanks & regards, >> >> Chris. >> >> >>> The current release of Roller, 4.0.1, cannot do that. >>> >>> The upcoming Roller 5 will support multiple domains, but has rather >>> simple-minded support, there are some limitations and will only work >>> well if you have a handful of blogs and don't mind adding a line to >>> the config file for each. >>> >>> If you're interested in helping us work the kinks out of it, then >>> please test the Roller 5 release candidate (RC2) and let us know how >>> it goes. I can tell you know to configure multi-domain support as I >>> use it on my blog. >>> >>> Roller 5 RC2 announcement: >>> http://markmail.org/message/yrlfct6t6xn5rsic >>> >>> - Dave >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> On Sun, Sep 19, 2010 at 1:10 AM, Christopher Dodunski >>> <chrisfromsquir...@christopher.net.nz> wrote: >>>> Hi, >>>> >>>> I would like to use Roller on my web server. I read that Roller >>>> supports multiple blogs. My web server hosts several domains. I >>>> would like to know whether I need to install Roller anew for each >>>> domain. >>>> >>>> To use the following domains as examples: >>>> >>>> http://www.domain1.com >>>> http://www.domain2.com >>>> http://www.domain3.com >>>> >>>> Each is to have its own independent blog page, like so: >>>> >>>> http://blog.domain1.com >>>> http://blog.domain2.com >>>> http://blog.domain3.com >>>> >>>> Can this be accomplished with a single installation of Roller? Or >>>> do I need to install Roller for each domain? >>>> >>>> Thanks & regards, >>>> >>>> Chris. >>>> >>>> >>> >> >> >> >
