Composr Heah to Head with one of the big boys

Composr V Woltlab

Ok, time to catch up with this topic, I'm having to skim read though .

Now this is where i tripped up with Composr, i managed to move the task bar to the top, and to fix its position using the browser developer tool. Great i thought, all i do is goto Admin and paste the code into the Global CSS sheet from the ACP panel…………….. Wrong

It messed the whole thing up! What worked in the browser, didnt work in the CSS sheet in the ACP. I assume this is because of the way styles are done with wizard, my gut feeling is there is a different way to do it.

Not sure what would have caused that, but maybe pasting too much.

Using the contextual CSS editor from Composr itself may be better. Then you know it's Composr directly taking the CSS you put in and feeding it through the theme pipeline, rather than the browser adjusting the CSS that it was provided with supplementary rules.

(Ah, reading on, I see you found it)

No reinstall, i cheated and copied the Global CSS from a blank install i had

There's a revision history when you edit a CSS file (or template, or comcode page) that you can restore past revisions or the original file from. It also shows changes made.

The code is British Army straight

Cool, thanks . I do try and keep everything very simple and streamlined. CSS can easily become spaghetti.

The other problem is a me problem, i can change many things, but changing the gradient colours via the CSS sheets just dosnt happen for me! Too much wizard code amongst it, makes it alien to work on.

Feel free to prune out the Tempcode stuff and just write raw CSS. It won't hurt. The Tempcode is just there for the Theme Wizard and to keep things more compact, it's strictly optional.

OCportal IMHO was awful, I can see why Composr has kept a similar look. But i do wonder if it puts people who have used OCportal off using it,  If your a OCportal user then dont hesitate to switch. They look the same, they feel slightly different, but they are completely different.

Unless you try both you wont understand what that means, but as an analogy, lets assume the two are cars, Composr feels hand made with love and care, OCportal felt like a kit car!

I appreciate the directness, it really does help me understand what we're doing wrong and right .

A symbol is missing: GETrad

I think you accidentally cut out some code there.
I see we have:
it might have accidentally changed to this by removing a few characters:
The missing comma is why it's trying to load a symbol that doesn't exist. Also the 'rad' colour doesn't exist, unless you defined the theme wizard equation for it further up the file.
Also looks like some other CSS went missing, hence the poorly styled page. Accidents happen when learning, just xexplaining.

As mentioned above you can just use pure CSS like:
The Tempcode is for the Theme Wizard mostly, you can be more direct as you don't have our unusually complicated engineering constraints/objectives to work within.

Chris does great code but let him do interior design work! I wonder if that pic is actually his table cloth??

lol. I'd guess it was randomly picked in the Setup Wizard. The Logo Wizard (when run directly) provides the full set of choices.

I am getting the hang of it now. Its like most Composr things, you can take the gloves off and dive in. I was being too gentle with it!

Actaully the bit i like the most when editing is the long list of CSS pages, then use the inbuilt editor.

The editor at the bottom of each page will be great for many people, I am completely aware that i think, and do differently to most people. So in general if one way dosnt fit me, then its normally a sign it will fit most other people.

Breaking the colours did me a favour, i had to concentrate more and as a result i have learned far quicker.

Yes sorry i am direct talking, i never intend to offend, but i do believe in telling it as i see it. OCportal i used for around a year, to be honest i hated it.
It coloured my opinion of using Composr, but in the end i decided to give it a try. I am glad we did, my team and I love it, we have a special set up in one school. This is my test school, 12 kids with a Dell pc as a server, the kids use Composr for all sorts of things and not just our course. Its not connected to the outside world, the class has its own pupil run computer club, i gave them admin rights and told them to have fun.

Two days in and they love it, the kids are 10 and 11 years old. They also know how to use the software way better than i do!!
I will be putting a copy of the instilation they have, on my server in a few weeks. it will be password protected directory because of data protection rules.

I will give you the password Chris, once they have used it for a few weeks. I think you will be surprised at what they are doing with it. Two days in and roughly 4 hours a day (breaks and a couple hours after school), no help from adults..........I am already impressed with what they have done, they have set up their computer club website with it.

You would think these kids are pro's, the most advanced kid has been using computers, and web designing for about 3 months. So they are not experienced users. But i do want you to see what NORMAL 'Kids' can achieve with the software.

Its one reason i hope you dont add too many more features and bloat it. Having seen what they can get it to do in two days...........

Also your page about what Composr isnt, will need updating soon, i feel you have vastly undersold it on that page, but lets give them a few weeks. Then take a look at the site.

 

That was great to read, thanks .

Also your page about what Composr isnt, will need updating soon, i feel you have vastly undersold it on that page, but lets give them a few weeks. Then take a look at the site.

"Undersell but over deliver". More of a project manager's technique than a marketing technique, but for a free product like Composr there's not necessarily a distinction so I think that page is really important. People reviewing Composr love it too, I've seen a few people reference our refreshing honesty.

quick update, i have had a chance to do a little more, not a huge amount but getting an idea where its going.

I need to start sorting the fonts and finishing the small details.
Not much has changed, mainly tiny tweaks like padding. This is for some more changes later, once i fnd out how to do a couple of things.