Theming and Branding

Theming:
 * What we have: microformats heavily used on the site. Supposed to help designers because they don't need to learn new vocabularies.
 * need a standard file structure; but there are different names
 * files: display.css on top of that are the other themes (adds colours an images). Imports the base and then adds background colours, icons.
 * If you want to develop a theme you can create a new theme, import the base and change the colours (if the layout is close)
 * You can't change the HTML. You have to make a plugin for that. Intentional -- wanted to make theming easier.
 * Admins can quickly pick themes from a drop-down list (instead of having to edit the CSS files by hand)
 * the tpl folder controls what the site outputs generally, it is not specific HTML markup.
 * Need to have a walk-through: which variables can be used? documented examples of how to create a plugin to change the HTML/layout
 * want to be able to add site footer, sidebar with ads, etc. explain where the blocks are laid out.
 * need to have a theming plugin.
 * want to leave editing CSS files to the experts. make trivial updates easy.
 * use the account pages to update your layout using drag-and-drop. concern: feasibility. alternate: have placement locations and say where you want it to appear using drop-downs (not drag-and-drop).
 * use the WordPress model: most common implementation of CMSes therefore make it easy to learn statusnet theming using wordpress as the model
 * critical to have a master file which is the wrapper for how the page works and where the plugins get inserted.
 * need to explain between a theme and a plugin.
 * Create themes based on common vocabulary (microformats, RDFa?)
 * Document better
 * Theming plugin
 * Edit -> Drag and drop stuff -> Save
 * Import themes from WP
 * Integrating SN into your own site
 * Explain the difference between theme and plugin for designers. Where do I start? What are people expecting?
 * Perhaps a single template file that devs can copy/paste code into containers

Attending

 * @sthibault - Stéphane Thibault
 * @emmajanedotnet - Emma Jane Hogbin