"Skinning" Web Applications
I've been working lately on our new site, I thought I would post about "skinning". This is the method by which you can change the appearance of a web application. In most cases the web application will be something like a community forum application (such as phpBB), a blog application (such as WordPress) or an online store. Since implementing these applications into an existing site can really help with marketing and user-generated content, it's important to be able to make the application match the look and feel of your website. That should be an important consideration when choosing a web application, as well as how difficult the skinning is to do.
For example, WordPress uses what are called "themes", which are a set of template files that define the look of the blog. You can switch between themes and even download pre-built themes if you are not interested in creating your own. Creating a new theme is simply a matter of copying the default theme, renaming it, and then changing the theme files. These theme files are written in PHP, so any dynamic code can be incorporated, which makes this an easy yet flexible system to work with.
A popular forum application called "phpBB" has a similar system, only the different appearances are called "templates". However, phpBB uses a templating system called "Smarty Templates" which means that out-of-the-box you cannot use PHP in the template files, even though the forum is powered by PHP. The reason for this is that the templates are fed variables via the Smarty system, and the template file is not actually processed. Not to worry, there are mods that can be installed into phpBB that allow for easy template management, and also allow you to use PHP directly in the templates. However, the code for phpBB is such that creating a new template means editing a lot of files, since it is a complicated application. Even with the mod to allow PHP in templates, adjusting the appearance of a community forum requires quite a bit of work.
In the end, it's all worth it. Many of the shopping cart applications that I have seen or worked with have similar template systems for adjusting the appearance of the cart. Depending on the way the application is built creating a custom look and feel can range from pretty simple to incredibly difficult. Be sure to keep in mind your overall goals and design before choosing an application.
This post is filed under Developers' Corner and has the following keyword tags: wordpress, themes, phpBB.
