Initiative: Theme development should not be necessary to use Backdrop CMS

[cellear]

Copied from: https://forum.backdropcms.org/forum/official-initiative-theme-development-should-not-be-necessary-use-backdrop-cms

Goal: People should be able to use backdrop without needing to know how to create or modify a theme.

Problem we're trying to solve:
Many potential users of Backdrop are not themselves skilled visual designers, and don’t have access to (or the resources to afford) a suitable designer. We should offer site builders the capability to create usable sites even if they lack either the technical ability to edit the HTML, PHP, CSS, JavaScript, and media elements that comprise most themes, or the design skills necessary to select visually-pleasing options. Or both! Backdrop is a content management system, we shouldn't require our users to bring to the table anything besides the content they are looking to manage.

Proposed MVP:
Find or construct three or four ready-to-go themes, and either include them with the basic download, or make them a one-click install.

In order to be usable by the most inexperienced user, the themes should be:

• Usable out of the box, without requiring any customization, programming, or configuration.
• Fully tested and debugged, so that the can be expected to work for a common set of defined use cases
• Limited in number, so that anybody needed to support Backdrop will know how many ready-to-go themes are available and what they are
• Fully documented, so that users know what to expect without having to explore the themes themselves.

References:

• Wordpress's "Twenty-Something" themes.
• Wordpress.com's new-site wizard
• Wix.com's new-site wizard
• CSS Zen Garden
• Themeforest
• Drupal.org's occasional ready-to-go themes
• Drupal 8's Out-of-the-box initiative
• Drupal distributions like Commerce Toolkit and Open Atrium

Here is a strawman task list:

• Figure out what attributes/things/properties differ between themes.
• Find examples of existing themes across all platforms that exhibit different attributes
• Look for low-hanging fruit. Existing Backdrop themes? D7 themes? Wordpress Themes? HTML or other environments?
• Of the non-low-hanging fruit, which conversions seem to be plausible?
• What mechanisms do we want to provide to demo themes? Sample content? Suggested layouts? Tugboat?
• How do we test the themes?
• Maintenance. Once the MPV is released, how do we keep it from getting stale? How do we maintain the themes, add to them, retire them?
• How do we want to package and "market" the results?

---

Related links:

• The original forum post (also linked to at the top of this post): https://forum.backdropcms.org/forum/official-initiative-ready-wear-theme-development-should-not-be-necessary-use-backdrop-cms
• Pantheon sandbox: https://dev-backdrop-r2w.pantheonsite.io/
• Zulip threads:
  • A "Ready-to-Wear Initiative" thread in the "Backdrop" stream: https://backdrop.zulipchat.com/#narrow/stream/218635-Backdrop/topic/Ready-to-Wear.20Initiative/near/199928574
  • A "R2W Meeting - 7/29/2020" thread in the "Backdrop" stream: https://backdrop.zulipchat.com/#narrow/stream/218635-Backdrop/topic/R2W.20Meeting.20-.207.2F29.2F2020/near/205367319
• Google docs/spreadsheets:
  • Ready-To-Wear Re-merge the CMI branch #2 agenda - July 29th, 2020 (was there a Import the Sources #1?): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Z5HzQmXaaH9jKclxGtT_MWexQ6Vll6QV1vjxIZBeh2o/edit
  • Tim's Backdrop CMS Themes spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15Cmp7jRsA_rpNXYPKsE1fNRGwjlu-m7rlKzIoirRJJI/edit?pli=1#gid=0
• GitHub repos/issues:
  • The repository for a Backdrop demo site: https://github.com/backdrop-ops/demo
  • Style Guide contrib module: https://github.com/backdrop-contrib/styleguide (from [DX] Add Styleguide module in core. #3240)

[cellear]

I desperately want a shorter way to refer to this than "Initiative: Theme development should not be necessary to use Backdrop CMS"

Something like...

• Initiative 01
• No-Theme
• Ready-to-go
• Ready-to-wear
• OI Import the Sources #1
• Site-builder ready
• no code needed

[docwilmot]

I think what this is about is just have more good themes in Backdrop contrib right? How about a title that says just that? The original post title and the suggestions above obscure that purpose to me. Lets just say "Better contrib themes", or "Contrib theme quality improvement initiative" or such.

[olafgrabienski]

I think what this is about is just have more good themes in Backdrop contrib right? How about a title that says just that?

Good idea, sounds good to me (apart from "in contrib", could also be core). From https://forum.backdropcms.org/forum/official-initiative-theme-development-should-not-be-necessary-use-backdrop-cms:

For an initial MVP, I propose that we find or construct three or four ready-to-go themes, and either include them with the basic download, or make them a one-click install.

[oadaeh]

Based on my understanding of this initiative, I think @docwilmot's comment is more correct than the stated goal.

Goal: People should be able to use backdrop without needing to know how to create or modify a theme.

Technically, that is possible now. One can install Backdrop and use Basis, along with the ability to do some minor customizations in the UI, and go about their day without needing to know anything about themeing.

However, I think doc's suggested alternatives are too broad and do not lend themselves to a SMART goal.

I have wanted to help with this initiative, but I have been waiting until I felt it was fleshed out and there were some clearly defined tasks to achieve the stated goal. I'm not sure if it has been fleshed out enough yet or not, but I think I can still help a little by using the Proposed MVP as a basis for activity:

Find or construct three or four ready-to-go themes, and either include them with the basic download, or make them a one-click install.

Along with the 4 bullet points on what a theme should be to be considered for this.

@stpaultim created a spreadsheet some time ago with a list of the available themes at that time with some details and information about each theme:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15Cmp7jRsA_rpNXYPKsE1fNRGwjlu-m7rlKzIoirRJJI/edit?pli=1#gid=0

I'm going to update it and add some additional R2W-related data so that what is there could be used in consideration for this initiative.

[oadaeh]

Something I think would be good to help with selecting and installing relevant themes is to add some attribute to all themes that indicates their type or primary purpose, i.e., a base theme to build other themes from, an admin theme, etc., and maybe also a filter on that attribute. That way, people could easily hide options that are inappropriate for what they are looking for.

This issue might be necessary for that idea to come to fruition: backdrop-ops/backdropcms.org#487

[stpaultim]

Find or construct three or four ready-to-go themes, and either include them with the basic download, or make them a one-click install.

This is the currently stated MVP goal. It seems to me that we already have an easy way of installing themes through the UI of a Backdrop site. We also have a number of good contrib themes. What we don't have is any standard or criteria for telling whether or not a specific theme is "Ready to Wear."

At one point, our goal was to create a demo site with demo content that could be used to both TEST and SHOWCASE approved themes.

To that end, we created a special issue queue for this demo site: https://github.com/backdrop-ops/demo/issues
and have a demo site to experiment with: http://ready2wear.simplo.site/

It seems to me, that the next step is configuring the demo site with the kind of content and layouts that we want to test and approve a theme.

• META: Create sample content for new DEMO site backdrop-ops/demo#2
• Decide on topic and content model for demo site backdrop-ops/demo#3

[ghost]

What's the status of this initiative?

[cellear]

well, I recently released a site for which I didn’t technically create a custom theme — though I did inject a good chunk of custom CSS into it, so I’m not sure if that counts.

https://dreamspeak.com/

[ghost]

So do we close this issue as complete now? It's been another 12 months with no further discussion...