I've never seen a system so difficult to customize
I am a designer and have been trying for three days to make my layout look like the client's site.
Client's site design: www.wbninc.com/dev/
WA site: members.wbninc.com
The code is so completely convoluted and bloated, I still can't figure out why my page and contents (including my header image when I put it in there) are being resized smaller. I can't get rid of the insane padding around the page content.
Isn't there a way to start with practically nothing and build from there, instead of having to strip out tons of css?
Has anyone figured out how to put content under the header (the image I have on the design).
Thanks,
Tara
![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/43de0338553df8169c176063a85b6d72?size=40&default=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.uvcdn.com%2Fpkg%2Fadmin%2Ficons%2Fuser_70-6bcf9e08938533adb9bac95c3e487cb2a6d4a32f890ca6fdc82e3072e0ea0368.png)
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grovesk65 commented
Me either. It's really awful.
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Jan commented
This system frustrates me to no end. Now there maybe a way to customize, using theme overrides. But your code is not well commented!
I want to do two (what seem like simple things) and have spent two hours on this and still can't figure it out.
1) change E-mail to email in the login box
2) Move the word E-mail (or email)
Through CSS I have made some adjustments but the word E-Mail floats oddly above the login box.
I second the comments about digging around the layers of code-can't even see the code-it's so deep.
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eels commented
Creating new themes from scratch would be a huge improvement! Right now there is just so much digging through code to try and override a setting, etc.
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Matthieu commented
You can remove the DIVs using Theme Overrides.
Our themes are also being rewritten for the new template engine we are developing so they will become much easier to customize. Functional pages will also be more customizable with our new engine, as well as the ability to create your own themes from scratch.
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red behemoth commented
The issue is the mark up. It is terrible. Even using the overrides, you can't remove all the extraneous divs. There are so many nested empty divs that Firebug can't even render that deeply, which just makes the css by trial and error even worse. This is not a product designed to be themed. You can't even design the "functional" pages.
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anonymous_206.223.175.10 commented
The most barebone themes are:
Transparent
Transparent - Horizontal
Transparent - Hybrid
Basic Yellow/GreenArttext is not related to any theme, this is just an option you can add or remove as needed.
See: http://help.wildapricot.com/display/DOC/ArtText -
Nick Whitmoyer commented
[quote user="ScrltOTara"]
I understand maintaining functionality, however, there really needs to be a completely bare bones, empty css theme to start with for people who want to do it themselves from the ground up, as well as a list of the styles and what each one does. Trial and error sucks.
[/quote]
I second this completely! If there was a theme that utilized 960.gs or CSS Blueprint, I could imagine a lot happier web developers when dealing with integration of this product.
Can anyone answer what the most barebones theme would be?
Is there a theme doesn't have the "Art Text" in it?
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ScrltOTara commented
I did finally get my layout looking pretty good. You can see it at members.wbninc.com
I still neeed to tweak the content section - I was just working on getting the components to line up right.
I understand maintaining functionality, however, there really needs to be a completely bare bones, empty css theme to start with for people who want to do it themselves from the ground up, as well as a list of the styles and what each one does. Trial and error sucks.
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Matthieu commented
Hi Tara,
We are working to towards changing how the sites are customized, however it is difficult to for applications like ours to provide greater flexibility while retaining functionality.
Currently the site is built to be heavily customized using CSS and JavaScript - some examples of what can be done can be found here: http://forums.wildapricot.com/forums/308926-for-designers-and-developers/suggestions/8821324-please-share-your-wild-apricot-websites-with-cool
As for placing content under the menu, this can be done with JavaScript - I'm using a similar layout on my test site (http://aanpo.wildapricot.org ). The JavaScript I'm using to place content under the menu can be found here: http://help.wildapricot.com/display/DOC/Customization+notice