Background
VIVO and Vitro use themes (which in turn use templates and css) to render information into HTML for presentation to users through web browsers.
Users of VIVO have expressed a strong interest in having a new theme that a) reflects current web design principles; b) is responsive, that is, the theme responds to the size of the display in a mature way, presenting results well on tablets and phones. This is sometimes referred to as "mobile first" design; c) emphasizes use cases in the UI design, and de-emphasizes lists of entities.
Symplectic has developed a new theme for VIVO that addresses these user concerns. Symplectic has made the new theme available as open source. In developing the theme, several issues were uncovered that will need to be addressed to provide the theme to the VIVO community.
Resources
- Code repository for Symplectic Bootstrap theme on github
- Presentation of Symplectic bootstrap theme at VIVO 2016 Conference in Denver
- Poster of Symplectic bootstrap theme at VIVO 2016 Conference in Denver
- Demo site for Symplectic Bootstrap theme
Deliverables
- Phase I
- A new, responsive theme for VIVO, based on the Symplectic VIVO theme.
- Enhancements to VIVO and Vitro to improve the relationship of the theme to the rest of the code. Themes should be capable of completely controlling the look and feel of the application. These enhancements may require changes to the existing VIVO and Vitro themes. No functional changes in those themes are expected as a result.
- Enhanced documentation regarding templates and themes for the purpose of customizing a theme or creating a new one.
- Enhancements to VIVO and Vitro to provide simple configuration of a theme for support of institutional colors, name, and logo.
- Phase II
- Re-evaluation of core technologies (Freemarker, Java, Solr)
Suggested schedule
Develop charter, assemble task force | 4 weeks | week of TBD |
Begin regular meetings | week of TBD | |
Develop action items, assign to team members | 2 weeks | by week of TBD |
Task force development work | 12 weeks | complete by TBD |
Revise deliverables, final review | 4 weeks | complete by TBD |
Members
Ralph O'Flinn - task force lead
Mike Conlon - facilitator
Simon Porter - member
Benjamin Gross - member
Looking for additional members and developers
Meeting Times
TBD (to restart in Feb 2018)
Communication Channels
Please join our new slack channel - contact Ralph O'Flinn for information
Updates from the task force will be available in VIVO Updates
- Child pages to this page will contain meeting notes
