THIS IS A TEST INSTANCE. ALL YOUR CHANGES WILL BE LOST!!!!
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Proposal:
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Stylesheet
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Overrides
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for
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Weblogs
Status | accepted and in progress |
Target Release | 4.0 |
Original Authors | Allen Gilliland |
Abstract
This is a proposal to define a standard way to integrate stylesheet customizations for weblogs, particularly weblogs using a non-custom theme.
This issue has been discussed before and there was a proposal a while back to accomplish this same task by supporting theme properties. There was a reasonable amount of discussion about theme properies approach and ultimately the idea was not agreed upon. While this proposal does not offer all of the same features of theme properties it does offer a significant portion of them, namely the ability to do custom css styling without having to hack the original template files.
The basic idea here is to be more simplistic in our approach to weblog styling overrides than the theme properties and simply define a standard way for weblogs to plug in a custom stylesheet. This approach would be very similar to the way WordPress allows users to do stylesheet customizations to change the way their blogs are formatted.
Requirements
- provide a way for custom weblog stylesheets to be defined that allow for the manipulation of weblog styling without forcing users to "customize" their theme and edit its templates.
Issues
Issues to be considered
Design
First we would need to add a way to track the custom stylesheet at the weblog level and define a custom stylesheet via theme metadata. So we start by adding one new column to the website table for "customstylesheet" which simply maintains the path under the weblog's custom pages to use as the custom stylesheet. Upgrading installations would have this property set to NULL meaning that there is no custom stylesheet defined. Then in the theme xml metadata file we would add support for one new element ...
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|*Status*|Proposal under development| |*Target Release*|4.0| |*Original Authors*|Allen Gilliland| h2. Abstract This is a proposal to define a standard way to integrate stylesheet customizations for weblogs, particularly weblogs using a non-custom theme. This issue has been discussed before and there was a proposal a while back to accomplish this same task by supporting theme properties. There was a reasonable amount of discussion about theme properies approach and ultimately the idea was not agreed upon. While this proposal does not offer all of the same features of theme properties it does offer a significant portion of them, namely the ability to do custom css styling without having to hack the original template files. The basic idea here is to be more simplistic in our approach to weblog styling overrides than the theme properties and simply define a standard way for weblogs to plug in a custom stylesheet. This approach would be very similar to the way WordPress allows users to stylesheet customizations to change the way their blogs are formatted. h2. Requirements * provide a way for custom weblog stylesheets to be defined to manipulate weblog styling without forcing users to "customize" their theme and edit its templates. h2. Issues Issues to be considered h2. Design First we would need to add a way to track the custom stylesheet at the weblog level and define a custom stylesheet via theme metadata. So we start by adding one new column to the website table for "customstylesheet" which simply maintains the path under the weblog's custom pages to use as the custom stylesheet. Upgrading installations would have this property set to NULL meaning that there is no custom stylesheet defined. Then in the theme xml metadata file we would add support for one new element ... {noformat} <custom-stylesheet path="mytheme-custom.css" /> {noformat} |
These
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would
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be
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the
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only
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changes
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required
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to
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the
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data
...
model
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to
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support
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the
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custom
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stylesheets.
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In
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the
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application
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business
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logic
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we
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would
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be
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adding
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a
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new
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method
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to
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the
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WebsiteData
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pojo
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to
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access
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the
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custom
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stylesheet
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path,
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getCustomStylesheet().
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This
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provides
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an
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easy
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and
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consistent
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way
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for
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all
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templates
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to
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access
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the
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custom
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stylesheet
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for
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a
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weblog,
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simply
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via
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$model.weblog.customStylesheet
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in
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velocity.
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Since
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this
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method
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needs
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to
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be
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theme
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sensitive
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it
...
would
...
be
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designed
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such
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that
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if
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a
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weblog
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is
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using
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a
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shared
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theme
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then
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the
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value
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would
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come
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from
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the
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Theme,
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meaning
...
what's
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defined
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in
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the
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metadata
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file,
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and
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if
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the
...
weblog
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is
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using
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a
...
custom
...
theme
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then
...
the
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value
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comes
...
from
...
the
...
database.
...
The
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value
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for
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the
...
database
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property
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only
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changes
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when
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a
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weblog
...
owner
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changes
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their
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theme
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selection.
...
- For
...
- example,
...
- a
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- weblog
...
- starts
...
- with
...
- the
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- basic
...
- theme
...
- and
...
- we'll
...
- say
...
- that
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- the
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- custom
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- stylesheet
...
- defined
...
- for
...
- that
...
- theme
...
- is
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- basic-custom.css.
...
- The
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- weblog
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- owner
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- then
...
- decides
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- to
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- customize
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- that
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- theme
...
- and
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- at
...
- that
...
- point
...
- the
...
- property
...
- is
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- copied
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- into
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- the
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- database
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- since
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- that
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- weblog
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- no
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- longer
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- references
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- the
...
- theme
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- anymore.
...
- This
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- can
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- happen
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- as
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- many
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- times
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- as
...
- necessary
...
- and
...
- ensures
...
- that
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- the
...
- property
...
- in
...
- the
...
- database
...
- is
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- always
...
- either
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- NULL,
...
- meaning
...
- no
...
- custom
...
- stylesheet
...
- option
...
- was
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- chosen,
...
- or
...
- it
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- is
...
- the
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- value
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- of
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- the
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- custom
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- stylesheet
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- path
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- from
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- the
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- last
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- theme
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- the
...
- weblog
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- customized.
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To
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plug
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the
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custom
...
stylesheet
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into
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theme
...
templates
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only
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requires
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that
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the
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template
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author
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add
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this
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one
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line
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into
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the
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appropriate
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location
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of
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the
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html
...
head
...
section
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...
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{{{ <link rel="stylesheet" href="$url.page($model.weblog.customStylesheet)" type="text/css" /> }}} All of the actual interface for editing the custom stylesheet would simply be the existing templates editing UI and the custom stylesheet would be treated and stored just like any other weblog template. When a user decides to customize the styling of their theme we would simply automate the process of creating the custom stylesheet template and then allow theme to edit it however they wish. Links to guide the user in doing the stylesheet customization will be provided on the theme selection page. h2. Comments Comments ... |
When a user decides to create a custom stylesheet override for their weblog all they are really doing is creating a custom page, so the editing process is the same as editing any other template. The custom stylesheet operates just like all other custom pages and would be accessible via <weblog>/page/<custom-stylesheet> and it is this url which is being inserted into the weblog templates as detailed above. When a user decides to customize the styling of their theme we would simply automate the process of creating the custom stylesheet template and then allow them to edit it however they wish. Links to guide the user in doing the stylesheet customization will be provided on the theme selection page.
Comments
Comments ...