templates for F3.1?

[p38]

Just installed fabrik 3.1 on J3.

I cant find any decent list templates that came with F3.0.8, ie bluesky etc etc.

The default bootstrap template is non to be desired.

Where can I get some decent templates?

Paul

 

[batonac]

I've been using Gantry and lovin' it: http://www.gantry-framework.org/

It makes the most sense to me to start with a bootstrap-based theme framework since these are feature-rich and developer-oriented. There's a nice list available here: http://www.projoomexperts.com/2013/03/best-free-and-responsive-template.html

 

[batonac]

Just to clarify, I use the Gantry Default template which is made to be customized to any style. I think it looks quite nice out of the box for most applications, so I haven't done a whole lot of tweaking. I'm not sure if all of the other template frameworks provide default template, but I assume they do. If you are looking for very specialized commercially available styles and themes, I'd suggest that you first find a framework that jives nicely with fabrik, then look for commercial templates that are based on that framework.

In this case, Gantry has filled all of those requirements for me: the default template is much nicer than anything bundled with Joomla, it works great with fabrik, customization is easy where needed, and there are many commercial templates available based on Gantry if I need them.

 

[p38]

thanks for this,

I am talking more specifically of fabrik's list and form templates, which are specific to fabrik.

Unless you have another way of showing decent lists and forms?

Does Gantry bypass the fabrik templates?

 

[batonac]

oops. In my enthusiasm for my framework find I totally misread the specifics of your question. sorry

 

[batonac]

To further expound on this, I'm not sure that Gantry *bypases* fabrik templates, but the default fabrik bootstrap theme looks alot different depending on which Joomla template is set as site default. When I change from T3 to Gantry, the colors, table headers, drop-down menus, etc are all altered. This is much different than making the same changes in J2.5/F3.0, where the fabrik theme is preserved between Joomla templates.

I'm not sure exactly what all effects this, but it seems that the boostrap framework defines certain theme elements that effect every bootstrap-compatible element in a page. I'm still a noob in understanding bootstrap, so correct me if I'm wrong... the responsive aspect is super awesome but I'm not totally familiar with how bootstrap controls colors, icons, typography, etc, site-wide. I know there are themes online specifically for the bootstrap framework, but I'm not sure if/how they can be integrated with Joomla/Fabrik...

 

[cheesegrits]

batonac - just for fun, I've loaded Gantry, and trying their standard default template. But all I get is the word Home in the top left of an otherwise blank page.

Any advise on getting a Gantry based template functioning? I'd like to be able to contribute to this thread, but need to get Gantry going first.

-- hugh

 

[batonac]

cheesegrits - Just curious, did you install the Gantry template and the required extensions? The zip I used is named gantry-4.1.12-bundle.zip, which contains everything needed for a single-step install. I believe the only reason to download the template alone is to develop it first on your local machine. BTW, I hope I didn't hijack Paul's original question with this gantry stuff. If you have any recommendations for themeing the fabrik layout without changing templates I'm sure that would be appreciated.

p38 - Building off of my assumption that all bootstrap elements in a site are controlled by bootstrap-specific theming in the chosen template, you should be able to style any & all fabrik elements by tweaking this css code, thereby eliminating a need for individual styles within fabrik (like bluesky, etc). Depending on how feature-full your Joomla template is, you may even be able to make all the changes you want without changing any code. Gantry does a pretty good job of this but there are probably other better options out there...

To set different templates for different fabrik lists/forms/etc, you can use Joomla page styles, if your selected template/framework allows them.

BTW, I've found a handy website that provides a way to tweak and customize boostrap styles on the fly. Styles from this generator could probably be integrated into any J3 template with minimal effort: http://www.stylebootstrap.info

EDIT: I just saw that F3.1 includes the 'dbjoinselect' and 'div' style, where I thought it only included bootstrap. I had stated that special layouts like 'div' would need reprogrammed. Removed that comment from my post.

 

[cheesegrits]

The dbjoinselect template is kind of special, that's used for a specific feature of the join element, when popping up a row selection window. So it's not a generic list template.

-- hugh

 

[cheesegrits]

Still not having any luck with Gantry. Got a couple of other Gantry base templates, I still get un-styled output. Like, this is RocketTheme's 'Afterburner' template.



-- hugh

 

[batonac]

Correct me if I'm wrong: Afterburner is a RocketTheme production, but not based on Gantry (pre-Gantry if I'm remembering correctly). I think your problem is wider than Gantry; there must be something else blocking the css or a conflicting js library? Is the chrome debugger giving any errors? Could you try on fresh Joomla install?

 

[cheesegrits]

You are probably right.

I guess I'll install the full package from Gantry, with the J! install, and then install Fabrik in to that.

-- hugh

 

[rob]

Just to confirm what batonac said, the idea with Joomla3 and bootstrap is that we delegate styling to the Joomla template. This enables consistent design across mutliple components, (so a <table> in fabrik looks like a <table> in com_wotzit.)

So installing a different Joomla template should also style the form/lists.

Personally I much prefer to work up from a blank template as it ends up being cleaner and easier for me to maintain. The advantage to using a template framework is that layouts/styles can often be changed from the template admin page without touching the markup but I've just found the overhead of that gets in the way of how I personally work

 

[p38]

Rob, I need some pointers here please. I just need a plain list and form style, including tabs in the form edit.

I come from a heavy j1.5/2.5 fabrik environment, moving into j3.0, and frankly dont look forward to having redo all templates for V3.1. I have invested too much time into j2.5 templates to redo everything.

I use Artisteer.com to design templates, so all look and feel is catered for. However the lists and forms style do not amount to much, actually a mess.

How can I port my existing j2.5 templates to j3.1

I have just won a large project, and my proposal was based purely and exclusive on fabrik and j3, so I just need a kickstart to get going.

Paul

 

[p38]

friendly bump

 

[rob]

Your Joomla 3 template must be based on top of or include Bootstrap. Really that's a requirement of using Joomla 3.x (and as a consequence of using Fabrik 3.1) You are asking for a load of trouble if your site is not bootstrapped.

At the very least Artisteer should be doing this, and if they aren't then I'd consider that a bug on their part if they are advertising templates for Joomla 3.x. So I would raise it first with them.

If you don't get anywhere there then you can edit your Joomla template to included the bootstrap css and js files, but this may alter the layout of the Aritsteer templates.

// Add JavaScript Frameworks
JHtml::_('bootstrap.framework');
 
// Load optional RTL Bootstrap CSS
JHtml::_('bootstrap.loadCss');

Note though that that I'm not sure that just that on its own will load up the icon set which our button's classes use/require.

including tabs in the form edit.

There's a 'bootstrap tabs' template which (once you have your template loading bootstrap) achieves this.

 

[p38]

Thanks Rob,

It seems like Artisteer is losing ground, customer complaints plenty, and they don't support bootstrap yet, plus, they have implemented forced online subscription, so if you are not online, you cannot design templates, altho teh software is windows based.

Hugh, I tried ExposeFramework http://www.themexpert.com/expose and it works right out the box, similar to Gantry.

Admin configuration is comprehensive.

fabrik 3.1 works perfectly with this, I think I will move from artisteer for Joomla3.

Paul

 

[rob]

sounds like a sensible plan

 

[cheesegrits]

Never did have any luck trying to get a full Gantry template going.

So I'm just doing all my testing against the default Bootstrap template in J!.

-- hugh