Topic: Doesn't seem that to many people are into this any more.

[weather34]

Well I think it is impossible because there is infinite number of possible layouts. Infinite.

I know how Bootstrap works and you always have to specify how to split the segments based on all the widths and overall page layout, which is something you dont know.

I was thinking you could simply limit the choices for the less apt, and add the ability to actually code into the "middle". Example, I am in the process of porting Serendipity, clean-blog template. I can actually code in anything HTML, PHP right into the WYSIWYG screen. Works, kind of neat.  I have it also where I can add my custom navbar and footer. This is way over my head, and I'm hacking at it, but it works... Some one better then me, IE. You could build this. 

easy to hack at something prebuilt or put together by someone else , why not do something original. too easy to sit there and critique others work , lets face it meteotemplate or the other popular templates give you the opportunity to create something personal without designing from the ground up .

start talking about responsive designs no problem in a static text/blog environment, now start throwing dynamic elements into the equation that change every 5-60 seconds your on a new level altogether.

end of the day we can all hack away at something prebuilt to our liking . create something original is where you stand out and create a niche. weather templates are evolving nicely with current code trends it all takes time to implement and who knows in a years time what you will be using .

have a nice day happy hacking...brian

[Jáchym]

I dont think he meant it as a negative criticism, I appreciate his feedback and I also sort of do understand why at first sight it looks like MT should be easy to make responsive when you see the block structure.

The problem is that it is hard to explain unless he would install it himself to see how it works. Technically, using blocks is exactly how you make a fully responsive site. On wider screens you put the blocks next to each other and as the screen gets narrower, you start placing them on top of each other - this is how for example bootstrap works.

Thats all nice until you consider that in this case, you as a webmaster choose the number of columns, then there are also menu and multiple blocks, subblocks... header block, footer block, all this gives you lot of possibilities of how you can build your site, but if I was to make it fully responsive, I would again have to be the one who "takes control" and decides, ok, well this block will go here, this one here.... and thats exactly what I dont want to do. My goal was always to create a very customizable template, which however can be fully customized without knowing the code. It is not just the column number, it is also the column width the user can set and last but not least - it is also the blocks themselves. Each user has absolutely unique combination of blocks and they choose the column number and width which looks best for those particular blocks. It is not just rearranging them on the homepage, it is actually choosing them.

And I have also emphasized, that the code is obviously 100% open source which means there is absolutely nothing preventing you to simply take it and do whatever you want with it. And if you are familiar with PHP you could surely make YOUR webpage fully responsive even using Meteotemplate, its just that this is something I cannot build-in to it simply because you can do it to your site but not a generalized script that would work for all.

[weather34]

i was neither being negative pointing out a few positives that weather templates are evolving nicely and using fresh ideas if it continues that way then its all good for everyone.

also don't be afraid to try your own ideas and build upon them sometimes you find out you understand the code better than you may think and with trial and error comes good knowledge .

better options than bootstrap out there these days,think bootstrap lead the way for a while but a lot of smaller lightweight frameworks are available now just as flexible
a few examples found here https://codegeekz.com/bootstrap-alternatives/ Pure.css caught my attention recently.

however i would love to see the use of iframe/scraping etc used less this is where flexibility in design/responsiveness can break down.

please don't take it as a negative ..

happy hacking...

[Jáchym]

Yes, I completely agree with Brian, iframing is IMHO the absolute worst thing you can do and fortunately, you dont see it very often these days on other websites.

There are actually two fundamental problems with iframes:
1. the first one is pretty obvious - it never fits nicely into your page because it uses all the elements and design features of the other site, which also is not designed to be used in a small frame, but rather in a full web
2. the second one, one that people often overlook (or intentionally pretend they dont know about), is the copyright. You cant just simply take someone's page and put it on your page... it is very easy to do and can be done with practically any site, but you should also remember this and keep this in mind.

And as I said previously and Brian confirmed this, our sites are slightly unique in that it is a combination of many dynamic elements, graphs, often large tables, visualizations, maps.... all these are much harder to work with when you want them to look good on smaller screen because you dont have the possibility of randomly spliting them and putting them on the next line and that is what I also said in my previous post, some pages will simply never look good on a smaller screen. Either they will lack all the details, or you will include them but it will be so tiny on the screen that you wont be able to use it anyway.