@Sb:

Apropos adapting Favorites to support multiple arbitrary selection sets...

I suppose by providing a much smaller graphic selection button (in effect a checkbox or radio button), two or more of these could co-exist. However, you're still left with the problem of 'printAddToFavorites()' in the various theme page files. It seems to me this suggests an opportunity for a slightly more general 'Selections' plugin, which supports both Favorites, and (as in my case) the concept of a 'static-dynamic-album'. Obviously, that's a subjective issue, and a good example of why the open-source paradigm is so valuable.

Apropos my original question:

Quote:...what else do I need to do in order to create a parallel customized 'MyZenpage' plugin/theme combination?
I was really just trying to ascertain whether I was doing something wrong as far as cloning Zenpage, or, more to the point, was it practical to do so -- fully expecting that the answer would probably be 'no' -- and not wanting to spend any more time on it.

Instead, the answer I got was 'why would you want to do that?', leading to this discussion of 'plugin theory'. I should have been clearer in wording my question. I have no desire to take on the task of maintaining customizations of Zenp core functionality.

Thanks for taking the time to explain these various issues.

"Why would you want to do that?" actually implies "no, it is not really practictal"...;-)

Regarding the button. I don't remember how it is styled currently (theme or plugin) but via CSS you certainly can make it smaller by hiding the text and replacing by a background image as an icon for example.
Or some jQuery magic to get a radio button maybe.

@Ac: "Why would you want to do that...implies no it's not practical."

I don't want to beat a dead horse here, but the best answer would have been: no we don't have a rigorous set of standards for plugin developers concerning name references and dependency issues. (And) No, modifying zenpage would, in effect, require you to modify zp-core.

It's not a big deal. You and Sb obviously manage the supported plugins so they interoperate successfully, and I have no problem with that. I guess I was just trying to make the point that setting standards that prevent third-party add-ons from conflicting with one another are actually helpful to everyone involved, and don't restrict anyone's freedom.

I'm uncomfortable commenting on this, because it sounds like I'm being critical of what is in my view, one of the best open-source cms' I've ever seen:

-- well conceived object model and coding standards
-- simple, easy to understand file system design
-- clear definition of core vs. customizable folders & files
-- excellent reference manual
-- excellent user-guides
-- a well organized and well managed user forum
-- excellent support by committed knowledgeable developers

Other than Ubuntu, I can't think of any other package I've seen that is so well done in all these key areas. But one of the major deficiencies I see over and over again in the numerous CMS I've tested (which is also critical to the success of any oss package), is failure to define a strict set of rules for packaging third-party content for installation and updating.

I don't see this hampering Zenp in any major way so far, but then I wasn't able to find many third party add-ons either (although maybe I wasn't looking in the right place). The one I actually found and tried to install (the Shopping Cart plugin) installed, but when I tried to enable it, the system hung. I will have to write an installer for my system regardless, so maybe at that point I can contribute something useful to the project.

Thanks again to you and Sb for taking the time to respond on this stuff. I truly do try to answer my own questions, and not impose on your time. I see no major issues going forward, and am enjoying the rapid progress I'm making thanks to this very well conceived codebase and outstanding docs.

Ac, I don't know if this would be of any interest to you, but in modifying the sidebar menu to get a little more useable width (after shrinking it to get more room in 'content-left', I did a side-by-side comparison between Firefox v18, and IE v8:

http://vh1b.mmax.com/index.php?album=vh1b_top&image=radius_no_radius.jpg

It appears that IE v8 doesn't support a negative margin setting, but in all other respects, the resulting display wasn't too bad. (That said, anyone who's still using a browser that doesn't support the border-radius property deserves what they don't get!)

(Note:this is just a test site with some fun photos, not the main project site.)

Quote:- excellent reference manual

• excellent user-guides
  Thanks for that especially since some people see this different!

Regarding the IE bug. I cannot access the test site. But IE8 is not really current and all IEs below 9 are well known to have serious display issues I personally are tired to care about...;-)

Since I am a Mac user I don't do any tests on IE at all besides some screenshot service tests but with all other proper browsers (I think the theme is that way for some years now and scheduled to be redesigned for 1.4.5 anway)..;-) sbillard however uses Windows. But we generally test with the latest versions possible.

As you surely know there are always some display differences with all browsers. As they say "it's not a bug, it's a feature" we have to live with I fear.

It takes a few hours over a period of a few days to learn your way around the Zenp docs, guides and forum. I now have a set of bookmarks that get me to 'key resource zones', and from there, I can usually find whatever I need. (But the primary reason it all works is the committed attention of the development team.)

By far the worst documentation & technical support infrastructure I ever used was the so-called 'Knowledge Base' from Microsoft. You could spend hours poring over useless links that matched a key word in your search, and even then, if you found the thing you were looking for, no guaranteed that it was a) accurate, or b) up to date.

It was only after Google came along that a developer had a reasonable means of determining whether something we did was in error, or was it an undocumented 'feature' of Windows. Thankfully, now that we have Virtual computing, we are no longer forced to play in Microsoft's sandbox.