Template repository suggestion

[pszilard]

   The WB template collection just keeps on getting better and better!
   Unfortunately the mechanism for choosing them is becoming a major overhead for me, however.
   If there is a better way for selecting templates, than the Templates LIST then please tell me! At the moment, I have to manually download each individual ZIP file and as a 2nd step also download the screen grab, so that I can eyeball and then choose which to use. This is taking hours, and as new templates are added, the task of finding out what is new or changed, escalates exponentially! Aargh!
   I would love if some of the following could be introduced:

1) Ability to load a template straight into my WB site, without needing to first download the ZIP file to my PC and then ftp it to my site. Why can't I just pick a template right from inside my management screen from my site and have it pull the zip file directly?

2) Have a live gallery with standard size thumbnails, and then clicking on either the image or a caption would load that to my web site.

3) Have a subscription whereby any updates or additions are automatically notified to me with a download link

4) Provide a GET ALL facility, whereby with a single click, I can get ALL current templates downloaded. For many people, including me, it would be more time efficient to download the entire set, whenever it is time to set up a new site, then to trawl through the list.

5) Ditto for a GET ALL SCREEN SHOTS

6) Also, how about including the screen shot inside every template zip file as standard, using a standard name.

7) Perhaps setup a Flickr account for WB Templates and leverage the facilities there for presenting the screen shots.

   What do you guys think? Any of this already in place, and I just don't know about them, or if not do people think that some of these ideas would make life easier for the WB community?
   Dear developers and contributors, - how about implementing some or all(?) of these??
   Finally thanks to all who make WB such a great platform 

[ruebenwurzel]

Hello,

The WB template collection just keeps on getting better and better!
   Unfortunately the mechanism for choosing them is becoming a major overhead for me, however.
   If there is a better way for selecting templates, than the Templates LIST then please tell me! At the moment, I have to manually download each individual ZIP file and as a 2nd step also download the screen grab, so that I can eyeball and then choose which to use. This is taking hours, and as new templates are added, the task of finding out what is new or changed, escalates exponentially! Aargh!

That i don't understand. For to preview the templates you don't need to download and install it. Nor the template neither the screensshot. On our template showcase you can switch the design to every template wich brings you to a example site with the mosed used styles.

1) Ability to load a template straight into my WB site, without needing to first download the ZIP file to my PC and then ftp it to my site. Why can't I just pick a template right from inside my management screen from my site and have it pull the zip file directly?

Also this i cannot understand too. You don't need to ftp templates. To install templates simply download the zip file and install this zip file via the WB backend. For WB 2.x Series we don't plan a option wich makes it possible to pickup a template directly in WB backen from our addons page. Maybe this will be integrated in WB 3.x versions.

2) Have a live gallery with standard size thumbnails, and then clicking on either the image or a caption would load that to my web site.

As told above. Akind of Live gallery did we have on our addons page. Simply clicking on the template switches the page design to this template. So after you have found the template you wanna have to install this are only two clicks. a) download the zip file,  b)install the zip file. So this is not really complicated and very very easy.

3) Have a subscription whereby any updates or additions are automatically notified to me with a download link

The Template showcase on our addons Site is sortable. The normasl sorting is alphabetical. But you can also choose last modified wich brings you the newest templates to the top of the list. So with the addons page as it is right now it is simply one mouse click to get the newest templates on the top of the list. To add a rss function think we will do when we rework the addons page.

4) Provide a GET ALL facility, whereby with a single click, I can get ALL current templates downloaded. For many people, including me, it would be more time efficient to download the entire set, whenever it is time to set up a new site, then to trawl through the list.

If this is realisable aoutomatically, wich means that we not have to make manuallay a new zip package with all templates everytime when we change or add a template, we should discuss such an option. But i don't see a really sence of this as i dont't think that there are many users outthere (except you) wich wanna download and install hundreds of templates. Most users look for about 10 templates wich are from interest for their pages.

5) Ditto for a GET ALL SCREEN SHOTS

6) Also, how about including the screen shot inside every template zip file as standard, using a standard name.

For download see above. For including screenshot. This is already done. Every Template should already have a screenshot in his zip file. If not it will be in common future.

7) Perhaps setup a Flickr account for WB Templates and leverage the facilities there for presenting the screen shots.

This is no option. We will show our templates only on our servers and not on other servers. And we have a working showcase with all what is needed. thumbnail preview, switching page to current template for page preview, download option. I'm according that the page layout is not really the best, but this is known and believe it or not we are working on a better version.

how about implementing some or all(?) of these??

So you see that a lot of your wishes are already implemented. Maybe you still needs to activate javascript in your browser to see this 

Matthias

[pszilard]

Hi Matthias, and thanks for the reply.

1) Ok, I shouldn't have said "ftp", but you still need to download the zip file then switch to the site's backend and install, then go to Settings, then select the new template and then Save. A lot of clicks for one change.

2) I knew about the mouse-over of the icon for a preview, but hadn't tried the click on the name. Thanks for the info.

3) I also didn't realize that the column headings are sortable. (I am a dummy!)

4) The underlying principle of my thinking is that I would like to be able to show someone, my laptop with the choice of templates, when I am not connected (preferably), and let them pick the look that they like. That's also, why I like the idea of a table of largish thumbnails so that many can be seen on a scrollable page, at once, rather than seeing, one, then another one, then another, etc. I have ADSL2+ and don't worry about downloading an entire CD ISO, or even DVD, so a hundred templates is really no problems, but maybe other have different circumstances or wishes. I respect that.

5) See previous para.

Ok. Thanks again for taking the time to answer, and I learned a couple of points too.

I am a big fan of WB and am delighted to see more and more templates being shared by the authors.