Zeever Progress Updates

[stpaultim]

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Using this as a kind of blog to think out loud about decisions I'm making for this project and sharing information.

[stpaultim]

Jun 7th, 2024

I've been building out features/functionality and sample content - that I would like this theme to support. One of my big concerns is how to organize and label the various parts. Anyone following my Zulip posts will have some idea of the kinds of questions, I'm asking.

There are several different "types" of things that I am creating to work together for this project.

1) Recipes - currently, I'm trying to keep these as something that could be installed and enabled and then disabled, without loosing any of the configuration or content that they created. In conversations with @hosef, we've discussed the fact that this might be an artificial and unnecessary constraint.

2) Content Recipes - these are submodules or sub-recipes that simply add content to a recipe. Putting these in their own submodules to allow people to decide whether or not to use them. Give people more flexibility in working with the recipes.

3) Recipe Packages or Packages - My original intent would be that these "packages" would bundle together different recipes (as dependencies), that they may require certain modules, and that they might actually have some custom code. My idea was, that these "packages" would break things when disabled. They are more like modules than config recipes.

Again, we if drop the idea that recipes can be disabled without loss or breakage, then we could just call these items something like "Recipe Packages". I recognize that the word "packages" on it's own is problematic, in that it already means something else in our lingo.

4) A theme - This is the theme that will support everything else. In theory, one would get everything by installing one Recipe Package and one Theme. All the individual recipes would be simply be required.

I'm spending time thinking about how to organize things and what to call them, in recognition of the fact that I may be setting a precident for future projects.

Input on these items is welcome.

Current workplan looks like this:

1) Finish a Portfolio recipes and same content. This may be the last remaining piece of functionality needed, before we start looking at the theme.

2) Fine tune our "Ditigial Agency" package (recipe package), to see what can be done with it to better organize and present the features and content for theming.

3) Start working on the actual Zeever theme, with the advantage of having a features and content in place to theme.

[stpaultim]

Jun 8th, 2024

I'm very excited, because I just finished my third recipe to provide the content and functionality that we will be supporting with the Zeever theme. I've created a "Services" recipe, a "Portfolio Project" recipe, and a "Digital Agency" recipes that bundles the previous two recipes together with a few other reciples (Testimonials and FAQ).

To see progress:

1) Spin up a Demo Site on Backdropcms.org 2) Using the Project Browsers, find and install the "Digital Agency" module. This modules is a recipe that depends upon a number of other recipes. 3) Enable all the recipes, EXCEPT the sample content recipes. 4) After the main recipes are enabled, go back and enable all of the sample content recipes.

[stpaultim]

Jun 9, 2024

Today, I wanted to add a Contact Us page with a Webform to the Digital Services Recipe Package. Since, webforms are not stored in config, it required php in the hook_install function. I planned to put this in the ice box for later, but started tinkering and ended up with another new recipe. https://backdropcms.org/project/contact_us_webform_recipe

At this point, I'm still trying to adhere to the principle that recipes simply install config and features and can be turned off later.

I made this new Contact Form Recipe part of the Digital Agency Recipe Package. https://backdropcms.org/project/digital_agency

I also moved some blocks around to better match our model site from the Zeever theme. This is the current front page of a fresh Backdrop CMS site, after installing the Digital Agency Recipe Package and associated dependencies.

I also changed the default layout to use Boxton layout template.

The current plan is to continue tinkering with the layouts and content to get them as close to the sample site as possible, before we start with the actual theme.

https://gutenverse.com/demo?name=zeever

[stpaultim]

June 10, 2024

Today I did a little work on the hero block for the front page. This Digital Agency recipe package is now really starting to look like the Zeever theme. But, so far, we haven't even started work on the theme.

We're continuing to put all the content and functionality in place that the theme will be expected to support.

I also change the package in the .info files for all of the sample content sub-modules. I thinks it's helpful to have the content sub-modules sorted out from the other recipes when listed on the modules page.

I very much am looking for feedback and input on how I'm naming projects, structure of recipes, and the quality of the sample content. Also, very interested in how what to use as a base for the Zeever theme, when I'm ready to get started. Should I use Basis or Bootstrap as a parent theme or just fork one of them?

Here is now the Digital Agency recipe looks today:

[izmeez]

Okay. I got lost because this issue is under Zeever, the theme which is yet to be and why it has no code. The functionality is in https://github.com/backdrop-contrib/digital_agency. Where these details belong. Now, i got it i'll take a look. Thanks.

[izmeez]

This may seem odd. I'm going to link to https://github.com/backdrop-contrib/digital_agency/issues/1 so this issue shows as mentioned on the other issue.

[stpaultim]

June 13, 2024

Today, we had our weekly discussion about Zeever progress in a breakout room during Office Hours. Sorry to @izmeez and Tim, who tried to participate but experienced audio problems.

Also, thanks to @izmeez for the comments and feedback in the issue queues. Having other people comment on the work or show up for office hours does motivate me and keep me working on this project. Thanks @yorkshire-pudding for all the feedback during Office Hours today.

Based upon some feedback from @izmeez, I went ahead and created some new sample images for the Testimonials recipe and added some CSS to the Digital Agency Recipe Package to make the images a bit smaller. See attached screenshot. https://github.com/backdrop-contrib/zeever/issues/21

I also resolved problems with some sample content modules not loading properly. https://github.com/backdrop-contrib/zeever/issues/13

I tried using CSS injector and CSS Editor modules to see if I could use them to get CSS changes into config, but no luck. CSS Injector seems to store the CSS in the database, so it doesn't really solve my problems.

I am considering a simple "Recipe Refinements" module that includes CSS files that improve the appearance of recipes. Recipes could submit CSS PR's and one single module could include CSS improvements for many recipes. For now, I sticking with the idea of a Recipe Package (Digital Agency) that includes the CSS for this project.

[stpaultim]

June 20, 2024

It's been almost a week since my last update. I encourage folks to spin up a demo site and install the Digital Agency recipe to see progress and provide feedback. I think it's going pretty well.

Thanks to @hosef, @docwilmot, @yorkshire-pudding, and @argiepiano who all provided assistance today.

3 main accomplishments:

1) We figured out how to find the uuid for blocks on a layout, allowing us to easily change the config and hide the label for the Footer block.

2) We added a second block to the Portfolio Projects recipes so that the original recipe can include a front page block without the "View All" link, which doesn't look so good without CSS. The Digital Agency Recipe Package replaces the front page block with one that has a "View All" link.

3) We started to add sample content for the "Latest news" block on the front page.

All these changes are in the latest Beta releases for all included recipes.

[klonos]

Thanks for working on this @stpaultim 🙏🏼 ...I've installed in a demo sandbox, and things went pretty smoothly 👍🏼

...a couple of typos:

• Gettings Started (extra s in Gettings)
• The xyz module has create sample content on your site. ... (missing d in has create). This is a copy/paste typo in the messages for Service Sample Content, FAQ Sample Content, and Portfolio Projects Sample Content.

[stpaultim]

June 26, 2024

It's been a few days since my last update. A lot of the easy stuff is done and some of the changes I want to make now are a bit more difficult.

The "About" block on the front page of Zeever has been troubling me a bit, in terms of the best way to handle it. I decided to experiment with a custom module that provides a block that is just right for this use case. This took me down some rabbit holes, including getting side tracked with some PR's to improve the "Examples" module.

This issue has some screenshots of work being done on this ABOUT block: https://github.com/backdrop-contrib/zeever/issues/6

My module is about 95% working, but needs testing and some of the sloppy code needs to be cleaned up. I'll be looking for some help with that during office hours later today.

I'm also having problems installing the blocks created by my new module using recipes. I'll also be looking for help with that.

BUT, if I could get my blocks to install properly, this is how the front page of Zeever would be looking today.

[stpaultim]

June 27, 2024

Today we had long conversations during office hours about Zeever Theme, Digital Agency Recipe Package, and the new Image Grid Block module. @hosef helped me solve the issue that was blocking me yesterday and we made some small UI improvements to the Image Grid Block module.

I also fixed a bug I found in the front page hero AND added a "Let's Get Started" button on the front page, this button links to the Contact Us page.

[stpaultim]

June 29, 2024

I've been making a bunch of adjustments to the content and default appearance of the Digital Agency Recipe Package. Including adding some layout overrides to allow for wider region background colors.

I'm getting close to freezing new features and focusing on tweaking the content and details to make it work better with existing contrib themes.