Bundle Sandbox theme, and also set 'sandbox' as the default template for themes without a stylesheet

[JeremyVisser]

I propose that we bundle the ​Sandbox theme with WordPress.

Sandbox is a theme which is loaded with semantic CSS selectors, making it possible to write beautiful WordPress themes with only modifying CSS. In addition, it is already widgets-friendly, and is licensed under the GPL, making it perfectly compatible with WordPress in legal terms.

There is a great deal of support for the theme out on the ​wp-hackers list. Bundling Sandbox has come up a few times, with general support from all directions, but nothing has really happened.

In addition to bundling Sandbox, I propose, for style.css-only themes, that Sandbox is made the default template. (e.g. without having to specify /* Template: sandbox */)

The rationale for this is that Sandbox is much easier to theme with just CSS, and is much more useful than using the Kubrick template, which doesn't contain as many selectors.

[rob1n]

Let's drop Classic then, and replace that with Sandbox.

[DD32]

Just a thought:
Maybe it would be possible to enumerate all the *.css files from a themes folder, parse them, And then display a list of "Other Styles" alongside the theme?
ie. themes/classic/ has style.css (default) and my-style.css
my-style.css would contain "Theme Name: MY Classic theme", And that'd be offered as a alternate style?

Doing it that way would mean that other styles would have to be coded correctly so as to avoid clashing with eachothers images, But it would allow a single folder for a "Theme".

the other option would be to have a subfolder "Styles" and do it that way with all the themes in the subfolder.

This could be built directly into the theme if some hooks were present for the theme display page.. Perhaps it wouldnt even need hooks and could just be displayed on the Themes Option page.

D

[joefish]

+1 for adding Sandbox, for all the reasons mentioned in the ticket. This would be a nice addition to WordPress.

-1 for removing Classic. I know I'm in the minority on this, but I think there's room for all three themes.

[JeremyVisser]

-1 for removing Classic as well. It's a nice theme. Perhaps it could be ported to Sandbox? ;)

-1 on DD32's suggestion as well. It can be done like the following:

File: wp-content/classic-reloaded/style.css

/*
    Theme Name: Classic Reloaded
    Theme Author: Jeremy Visser
    Template: classic
*/

@import url('../classic/style.css');

body {
    background-color: #000;
    color: #f00;
}

}}}

[filosofo]

What makes Classic nice is its simplicity for those learning how to create a WordPress theme. Porting it to Sandbox would take away that advantage, as Sandbox (the last time I checked) has some complicated stylesheet switchers that can't be simply removed.

How about dumping the old Default, and instead making the default to be Sandbox's Default lookalike?

[JeremyVisser]

Replying to filosofo:

Sandbox (the last time I checked) has some complicated stylesheet switchers that can't be simply removed.

Are you referring to the Skins menu? They dumped that soon after version 0.6. It's not present in 0.9, and I presume the "way to do things" now is to use /* Template: sandbox */ which is really quite simple, as the styles simply show up as new ones under the themes menu.

[matt]

Let's bring in sandbox as a non-default theme and leave existing "classic" behaviour and markup.

[JeremyVisser]

Replying to matt:

Let's bring in sandbox as a non-default theme and leave existing "classic" behaviour and markup.

By that, I presume leaving /* Template: default */ as the default. I can live with that.

[foolswisdom]

Replying to matt:

Let's bring in sandbox as a non-default theme and leave existing "classic" behaviour and markup.

Please keep it out of wp-content ;-)

[JeremyVisser]

Replying to foolswisdom:

Please keep it out of wp-content ;-)

Good idea.

[Speedboxer]

Patch 4517-add-sandbox-theme.diff adds [The Sandbox Theme ​http://www.plaintxt.org/themes/sandbox/] to WordPress.

I think if this does go into WP, it might as well go into 2.3...

[JeremyVisser]

We've had enough feedback to show that it's definitely going in. Thanks, guys.

Matt (Speedboxer), any idea how to get Sandbox into wp-includes?

[Speedboxer]

Add Sandbox Theme and Add it to wp-includes/theme.php

[Speedboxer]

Replying to JeremyVisser:

We've had enough feedback to show that it's definitely going in. Thanks, guys.

Matt (Speedboxer), any idea how to get Sandbox into wp-includes?

Updated Patch 4517-add-sandbox-theme.diff Adds ​Sandbox 0.9.4 and Adds it as a Bundled theme in wp-includes/theme.php.

[scottwallick]

I was intending to do this myself in the near future, but I'm happier to see it suggested by another. Cheers, Jeremy.

I find /* Template: sandbox */ potentially valuable, especially considering there will (hopefully) be a respectable number of great designs available for the Sandbox after ​SDC concludes.

[matt]

Although I believe Sandbox is the most advanced markup I've seen on a theme, I still don't think it's enough to preclude all template editing. Just like any other theme, I think Sandbox should live in wp-content and we should expect people to edit it just like they do with kubrick or classic.

[foolswisdom]

I'll keep dreaming of a pure wp-content and custom css / overlay system ;-)

[markjaquith]

Well, if people modify the HTML, all those hot CSS themes aren't going to work. So hopefully that will be an incentive for them to leave it alone.

[JeremyVisser]

Replying to matt:

Although I believe Sandbox is the most advanced markup I've seen on a theme, I still don't think it's enough to preclude all template editing. Just like any other theme, I think Sandbox should live in wp-content and we should expect people to edit it just like they do with kubrick or classic.

...which is partly why I'd like it to be the 'default' template for themes, because, say, you could override footer.php if you wanted to adjust that, but have all the other templates get pulled from Sandbox.

[JeremyVisser]

Replying to JeremyVisser:

...which is partly why I'd like it to be the 'default' template for themes, because, say, you could override footer.php if you wanted to adjust that, but have all the other templates get pulled from Sandbox.

Oops, actually, I think it would work anyway. Disregard.

[matt]

Replying to markjaquith:

Well, if people modify the HTML, all those hot CSS themes aren't going to work. So hopefully that will be an incentive for them to leave it alone.

When I look at common modifications around doing things like Adsense, changing hardcoded text or formatting, words for comments, all of the "content" things that CSS isn't designed to touch, it rarely has an impact on the layout. In theory we could make all of the above configurable, but I think we'd be on the wrong end of 80/20 for the benefits.

[sunburntkamel]

if we can get this committed, it would be great. sandbox still needs support for 2.3 features (tags), and doing that in trac here means that standalone sandbox can still support 2.0 without a lot of conditional statements.

[JeremyVisser]

There has definitely been plenty of positive feedback on this. Looks like it's time to commit. Thanks, Matt (Speedboxer), for the patch!

[JeremyVisser]

​Sandbox 0.9.5 is out. Matt, could you cook us up another patch for the new version? Your current one is for 0.9.4.

[Speedboxer]

Add Sandbox 0.9.5 Theme and Add it to wp-includes/theme.php

[Speedboxer]

Patch 4517-add-sandbox-0.9.5-theme.diff adds ​Sandbox 0.9.5 and adds it as a packaged theme in wp-includes/theme.php.

[Speedboxer]

Replying to JeremyVisser:

​Sandbox 0.9.5 is out. Matt, could you cook us up another patch for the new version? Your current one is for 0.9.4.

No problem, I didn't notice a new version was out. Check out Patch 4517-add-sandbox-0.9.5-theme.diff. :D

[Speedboxer]

Bundle Sandbox 1.0 and add it to wp-includes/theme.php as a bundled them

[Speedboxer]

Patch 4517-bundle-sandbox-1.0.diff adds Sandbox 1.0 as a bundled theme. It's added in wp-includes/theme.php also.

[kalgriffen]

Include Sandbox 1.2 as a bundled theme and add it to wp-includes/theme.php. Note: the screenshot.png will have to be added manually.

[caesarsgrunt]

Is this going to happen? Will it get into 2.7? (I notice the milestone is now 2.9...)

[Speedboxer]

Bundle sandbox with svn:externals

[Speedboxer]

If we are going to bundle sandbox, we should do it with svn:externals. But, apparently, diffs don't include changes to that, so this latest patch is a fail (although when I look at it in Tortoise it shows, I must've done something wrong...).

[Denis-de-Bernardy]

Close as wontfix? I mean, honestly, there are much better themes out there. :-)

[ryan]

We have a new ticket about creating a new default.