[wp-hackers] Page Templates vs Category Templates

[Haluk Karamete]

>>It strikes me that perhaps the question you are really asking is: why do
Theme developers bundle various Page templates, but don't likewise bundle
various Category templates?

Yes. Thanks for hitting it on the dot.

>> There are many reasons, but the most prominent
one is probably that a publicly released Theme isn't likely to know in
advance what categories will be used by any given user.

Well, semantically speaking I do not see a difference...
Obviously page layouts do not go thru that mental challenge. After
all, all they provide layout options
such as

SB SB C
SB C
C SB
large SB, medium SB, C
C, small SB, small SB

They obviously do not care or worry about what the end-user be doing
with those columns. So I can't really connect to your explanation of
"Theme isn't likely to know in advance what categories will be used by
any given user."





On Wed, Dec 1, 2010 at 7:35 PM, Chip Bennett <chip at chipbennett.net> wrote:
> On Wed, Dec 1, 2010 at 9:18 PM, Haluk Karamete <halukkaramete at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> I see your points. But I still do not get why have "that convenient
>> functionality" in one ( that is Add New Page UI ) but not in the other
>> ( that is Add New Category UI).
>>
>
> The analogous page to "Add Page" is not "Add Category", but rather "Add
> Post".
>
>>
>> You are saying "The template-file functionality is exactly the same
>> for Categories; the difference is only in the UI." I'm asking Why the
>> UIs are different...
>>
>
> I tried to give one explanation, dealing with the differences between Posts
> and Pages. They behave differently because *they are different*.
>
>>
>> You may ask who cares...  new comers may. me for sure. I'm sure most
>> users go thru this kind of cycle.
>>
>> step 1:  install WP
>> step 2: create a post ( which goes automatically into "uncategorized ")
>> step 3: create a category
>> step 4: create a few more and then get a sense of how this thing really
>> kicks...
>> and then soon after discover the wonderful world of themes...  which
>> show cases various page layouts..  ( but no category layouts! )
>>
>> soon you bring a few themes home, & you see, the page layouts, ( the
>> SideBar on the left, sidebar on the right stuff ) and you get to
>> choose them when you are creating pages, but the cats got no luck! As
>> a new comer, you definitely go thru this.
>>
>> Then you look back into your categories and wonder why on earth this
>> functionality why the lack of those various page layouts options DO
>> NOT EXIST for categories even though it is EQUALLY & EASILY achievable
>> by WP. And interestingly, cats are the 1st group where you need this
>> kind of flexibility, I think more than the pages...  Why should not I
>> have a no sidebar ( just content layout ) for some of my category
>> pages...  but you look at the themes world, majority provide a
>> no-sidebar layout only for the pages but cats are totally left alone.
>> I think this end-result may be trickling down from the out-of-the-box
>> WP UI which exposes Page layoutsbut not the cat layouts.
>>
>
> It strikes me that perhaps the question you are really asking is: why do
> Theme developers bundle various Page templates, but don't likewise bundle
> various Category templates? There are many reasons, but the most prominent
> one is probably that a publicly released Theme isn't likely to know in
> advance what categories will be used by any given user.
>
> One thing that *might* help will be Post Formats in 3.1. A Theme can use
> known Post Format types ("gallery", "aside", etc.), and then add Category
> templates using those same Post-Format type names - then instruct the Theme
> user to categorize the Post identically to the Post-Format type (e.g., to
> remove sidebars from "image" or "gallery" Posts).
>
>>
>> I'm sure Jane must have thought about this and decided the way it is
>> now. I'm only curious to understand the wisdom behind it.
>>
>> I amy be wrong, but it just appears to me that if the next version
>> were to expose this functionality, it would not only make it
>> convenient to the end user to select a category template from the drop
>> down but also encourage the theme designers to bundle their themes
>> with as many category layouts as the page layouts they provide.
>
>
> But how would you propose that? It would be totally unintuitive, unless you
> tied the Post-index layout template to the *Taxonomy*, rather than to
> individual *Posts*. (For example: to "expose" the UI on the Add Post page
> would require the user both to define the Category *and* to define the
> template. Further, a defined Post template would apply to the single Post
> view, but not the index (archive) view.)
>
> I just don't think it's as straight-forward as you're imagining, due to the
> inherent differences between Pages and Posts.
> _______________________________________________
> wp-hackers mailing list
> wp-hackers at lists.automattic.com
> http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers
>