doc/refactoring-the-css-with-uiprops.rst
author Aurelien Campeas <aurelien.campeas@logilab.fr>
Tue, 07 Dec 2010 12:18:20 +0100
brancholdstable
changeset 7078 bad26a22fe29
parent 5492 da983679fab5
child 10121 23af005426bf
permissions -rw-r--r--
[test] New Handling of database for test. This patch adds a new TestDataBaseHandler class. TestDataBaseHandler are in charge of Setup, backup, restore, connection, repository caching and cleanup for database used during the test. TestDataBaseHandler reuse code and logic previously found in cubicweb.devtools functions and devtools.testlib.CubicwebTC. TestDataBaseHandler is an abstract class and must be subclassed to implement functionalities specific to each driver. TestDataBaseHandler can store and restore various database setups. devtools.testlib.CubicwebTC gains a test_db_id class attribute to specify that its TestCase uses a specific database that should be cached. The pre_setup_database class method is used to setup the database that will be cached. The setup_database method is kept uncached. The same TestDataBaseHandler are reused for every test using the same config object. TestDataBaseHandler try to reuse Repository objects as much as possible. All cubicweb test have been updated.

=========================================
Refactoring the CSSs with UI properties
=========================================

Overview
=========

Managing styles progressively became difficult in CubicWeb. The
introduction of uiprops is an attempt to fix this problem.

The goal is to make it possible to use variables in our CSSs.

These variables are defined or computed in the uiprops.py python file
and inserted in the CSS using the Python string interpolation syntax.

A quick example, put in ``uiprops.py``::

  defaultBgColor = '#eee'

and in your css::

  body { background-color: %(defaultBgColor)s; }


The good practices are:

- define a variable in uiprops to avoid repetitions in the CSS
  (colors, borders, fonts, etc.)

- define a variable in uiprops when you need to compute values
  (compute a color palette, etc.)

The algorithm implemented in CubicWeb is the following:

- read uiprops file while walk up the chain of cube dependencies: if
  cube myblog depends on cube comment, the variables defined in myblog
  will have precedence over the ones in comment

- replace the %(varname)s in all the CSSs of all the cubes

Keep in mind that the browser will then interpret the CSSs and apply
the standard cascading mechanism.

FAQ
====

- How do I keep the old style?

  Put ``STYLESHEET = [data('cubicweb.old.css')]`` in your uiprops.py
  file and think about something else.

- What are the changes in cubicweb.css?

  Version 3.9.0 of cubicweb changed the following in the default html
  markup and css:

  ===============  ==================================
   old              new
  ===============  ==================================
   .navcol          #navColumnLeft, #navColumnRight
   #contentcol      #contentColumn
   .footer          #footer
   .logo	    #logo
   .simpleMessage   .loginMessage
   .appMsg	    (styles are removed from css)
   .searchMessage   (styles are removed from css)
  ===============  ==================================

  Introduction of the new cubicweb.reset.css based on Eric Meyer's
  reset css.

  Lots of margin, padding, etc.