RC2 for Templates DayLight and NightLight are Available for TNG 13 and 14

[Bill Herndon]

DayLight and NightLight two entirely new templates built on the framework I created to support NearDawn2 and NearDark2 are now available for TNG 13.  These are "preview" releases (rc1) that I'm hoping will generate some discussion and suggestions for improvements.

The features are the same as for NearDark2 and NearDawn2 and include:

• Contemporary style with larger, more legible fonts, easily modified features and content sections, and removal of the problematic pull-down menus in favor of a footer section containing site links.
• Basic localization for Czech (CS), Danish (DA), Dutch (NL), English (EN), French (FR), German (DE), Italian (IT), Norwegian (NO), Polish (PL), Portuguese (PT), Spanish (ES), and Swedish (SV) is complete.  (Many thanks to Jan Bos for his Dutch localization strings!)  Full translation for Spanish has been included as an example.
• Mobile-ready
• An abbreviated site menu that behaves as I intend with [Home] [Search] [Logout/Edit - Login] being permanent elements--[Print] and [Bookmark] remain optional and are selected in TNG options. 
• Footer features which used for copyright statements, "Contact Us" and information statement sections, and can be managed entirely within mod parameters.
• Feature sections are now fully populated from the TNG database.
• Template parameter switches that control the visibility of items in the Navigation menu:  'Mother's Family', 'Father's Family', 'Maternal Ancestors', 'Paternal Ancestors'.
• A built-in system and demonstration for creating additional pages that have the look and feel of the homepage.  (I use this for my Terms of Service page on Lindell-Herndon Genealogy.)

Below are previews of the home page and an individual page for DayLight (click for larger images):

  

... and for NightLight:

  

Installation instructions are available from the TNG Wiki as are the download links.  Versions for TNG 14 will be available from the TNG Wiki in the next day or two.  Please feel free to post comments and suggestions for improvements to this thread.  I am continuing to work on these as I get them ready for an official release.

Bill Herndon

Lindell-Herndon Genealogy

[edglimited]

It's a different route to what is currently available on TNG. As my Site is purely private and reserach biased, I'm not sure there is enough tabs to work with, that would allow anyone in my circle to fully complete a research task, for any family member, Ancestor or Descendent.

I like what you have done and it might be a good Template for anyone new to TNG, so they can learn from and then perhaps, advance to more complex Templates later on..

Like yourself, I have also reworked the getperson page, so it's more palatable to the user. The Parents section now resides to the right of the Individual section, and the Family section has now been moved up, where the Parents section was. My Home page is not really relevant, as all the important bits are inside and not on view to seagulls.

At the moment, it's all sandbox and wip, next steps are colours and shades.

Cheers Drew..

[Bill Herndon]

4 hours ago, edglimited said:

It's a different route to what is currently available on TNG. As my Site is purely private and reserach biased, I'm not sure there is enough tabs to work with, that would allow anyone in my circle to fully complete a research task, for any family member, Ancestor or Descendent.

Thanks for the comments Drew.  You're correct that I've departed from TNG's standard practice of cramming links in menus.  Over the years I've gone further and further away from the compact style of the old TNG templates.  All four of the templates I currently support are heavily influenced by contemporary design conventions used by Wordpress for their simpler templates.

That said, can you expand on what you meant by, "...not sure there is enough tabs to work with"?  You can't see them in the preview images, but DayLight and NightLight have feature sections below that can be used for highlighting research projects, histories, or other family facts and events.  Perhaps I'll do some additional screen captures to grab those and the footer sections.

k/r

Bill Herndon

[edglimited]

20 hours ago, Bill Herndon said:

That said, can you expand on what you meant by, "...not sure there is enough tabs to work with"?

Hi Bill, ignore that "part" in my comment. I realised after I read your reply, that Iv'e been so use to working with my own modded Templates and Getperson page, I completely forgot what a standard TNG Template etc, looked like.. Hope that correction makes sense.

I am keen to see the feature sections and footer sections etc, to get an overall feel for the layout. If you like, I can upload, a sample reworked getperson file, currently being designed. Not yet fully functional, but does work. Still in "Alpha Mode".

[Bill Herndon]

The TNG 14 compatible versions of the DayLight and NightLight templates have been posted to the TNG Wiki.

I'm continuing to work on the CSS for the ancestor/descendant charts and for the administration screens (both for TNG 13 and 14), but comments and suggestions are very welcome.  Expect an second release candidate in about a week.

Bill Herndon

Lindell-Herndon Genealogy

 

 

[Michael T. Jones]

I have been taking a quick look at DayLight - very cool!

I did notice that the "dropdown" triangle to expand collapsed items is white on the almost white background so it's hard to find (although I'm not sure at the moment if the triangle is a feature of other mods or not).

[Bill Herndon]

Michael... Thanks for the feedback.  Glad you like the template!  There are a number of UI artifacts from old TNG templates that need to be updated to show properly.  I've only gotten to a few like the mobile menu squares and the search button on the homepage.  I'll add this to the list and get it taken care of before RC2.

k/r

Bill Herndon

Lindell-Herndon Genealogy

[Bill Herndon]

A number of Community members have asked for some screenshots of the homepage features and footer sections for DayLight and NightLight .  Here are the captures:

    

Bill Herndon

Lindell-Herndon Genealogy.

 

[Bill Herndon]

On 7/7/2023 at 10:52 AM, Michael T. Jones said:

I did notice that the "dropdown" triangle to expand collapsed items is white on the almost white background so it's hard to find (although I'm not sure at the moment if the triangle is a feature of other mods or not).

@Michael T. Jones Do you happen to remember which TNG setting controls the default behavior for the collapsed items?  I can't seem to find it.  On my live site items are collapsed by default.  In my test environments, the items are all expanded, and I can't see the 'toggle' arrow that you'd referred to in your comment.

Thanks

Bill Herndon

[Ken Roy]

Bill,

Collapsible events are controlled by the settings in Admin > Event / Attribute Types (TNG 14) where you set Collapse Event to Yes / No when you edit the custom event 

TNG default triangle is white.  I provided blue ones in the \templates\template20\repl_imgs

[Bill Herndon]

10 minutes ago, Ken Roy said:

Collapsible events are controlled by the settings in Admin > Event / Attribute Types (TNG 14) where you set Collapse Event to Yes / No when you edit the custom event 

Thanks Ken!  I never thought to look under 'Events'.  I kept reviewing the settings in Admin > Setup ... over and over. 

k/r

Bill Herndon

[Ken Roy]

In the case of standard events (birth and death for example) you need to install Jeff Robison's Collapsible Standard Events mod that I now support.

[Bill Herndon]

Release Candidate 2 for Templates DayLight and NightLight are available for TNG 13 and 14.  Links are below or you can download the packages from the TNG Wiki.

• DayLight (for TNG 13)
• NightLight (for TNG 13)
• DayLight (for TNG 14)
• NightLight (for TNG 14)

I've corrected a number of issues, but there's still some CSS work to do, especially with the admin interfaces.  Hopefully the next release will be official.

Bill Herndon

Lindell-Herndon Genealogy