Links Template “Stuff”

Danielle,
When you say you want to change the display of the outfit, you are talking about more than one thing.
You can use PHP to select or ignore or order things a certain way, but then there is also the use of CSS to style the PHP output. So, I guess I have a question for you…just what exactly do you mean by changing how the output is displayed? That will help people give you specific answers.
HTH.
Craig.

Sorry Craig. It’s been a long night. Been working on the new layout non-stop since about 7 pm last night. No sleep, just a lot of Mountain Dew.
For starters, I need to be able to insert tags to format the outputted text, using my existing CSS. Then there’s that darn bulleted link text that WordPress thinks needs to be outputted with the actual links.
One thing I liked about b2 (and it’s been retained in WordPress as far as I can tell) is that the template tags, at least for the posts, were/are *very* flexible. I can use just about any combination of post/content tags to format the output just about every possible way I could dream of. Unfortunately, as nice as the new links manager feature would be to have, it’s nowhere near as flexible. At least not that I’ve figured out yet.
If I have to start editing additional files to format the output for the links, I might as well just skip the idea, because I won’t be able to change the appearance between different pages.

Grrr…. FYI: (and this is something that most people miss) QUOTE: “WordPress is a state-of-the-art semantic personal publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability. ” — from the home page.
The key here is “semantic” – meaning that a headline is marked up as a headline. A paragraph is marked as a paragraph. A list is marked up as a list. Since the link list is just that, a list marking it up as an unordered list is the correct way to mark it up. I’ll admit, I saw it too as a limitation, BUT, with CSS, you can make that markup look anyway you want. The recent style competition is a perfect example how the same markup can look remarkedly different.
You’re right in that you are kinda locked into using what WP “spits” out at you, and I struggle every time I work with the template (I want an object oriented version) but I have learned a lot about CSS and what it can do.
Don’t give up on WP!
TG

In WordPress, flexibility is obtained through styling the content with CSS, not through changing the XHTML output.

Well, after a little more experimentation I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m going to have to stick with b2, because WordPress simply doesn’t permit (at least not easily) changing what I consider to be very important aspects of what it outputs.
Here’s my current b2-based website: https://attemptfailure.com/index.php
Here’s my work in progress WordPress-based site: https://attemptfailure/v21/index.php
None of the links on that page work… I haven’t even gotten close to getting that far. Two items that stand out as lacking aesthetics: the font and pitch of the archives list, which unlike b2 I can’t change from within the b2archives.php include. That would have been a thirty second fix with b2 to make it match the rest of the text. There’s also the “Featured Links” area on the top-right column. It, like the archives list, looks so out of place it’s not funny.
I can edit the WordPress CSS, but that doesn’t solve the problem of multiple styles for different pages, which is key here since it’s actually a community blog with each user having their own version of the template. Nor does it solve the problem of fixed text output, such as the bulleted links section title text.
So perhaps it’s the state-of-the-art in semantic personal publishing. I’ll give you that… it’s based on b2 after all, and b2 is the only blogging package that I’ve ever liked enough to actually use. But when one says a key feature is aesthetics, I’ll have to disagree, because the templating system, with the exception of the post/content tags carried over from b2, is severely lacking in flexibility.
What am I missing here? Or am I?
Danielle
https://attemptfailure.com

Well, the intended use isn’t for a communal effort such as LJ (BTW: that second link took me to something that looked like a profile??) However, it shouldn’t take long to create a CSS to get it to look the way you want. And w/o changing any code. For multiple users to have a different view of the site, there are a couple of CSS Style Switcher hacks available. But as I re-read your post, it sounds like you’ve got multiple posters, where each psoter would have a different template for their posts.
Ah, there it is… that second link should have been: https://www.attemptfailure.com/v21/
Ok, yes, the featured links looks outta whack…. but a little CSS can clean that up. Same with the archives links.
TG
PS: If you want to visit my site – TechGnome’s World and have a go at some of the different styles, see if there is something that gets the links close to what you want.

Ah, thanks for the response. And had I read through your response entirely before freaking out over how someone’s profile at livejournal ended up linked to my URL I wouldn’t have sat in abject wonder for as long as I did. <sigh> It’s been a long day and it ain’t over yet…
I know that a single install of b2 or WordPress wasn’t originally meant to be used by several different people, each with their own templates, but given the flexibility of the post/content tags in b2, it’s quite doable, with nothing more complicated than an extra the_author() tag on important links. I could certainly install multiple copies of WordPress to get around the problem of different CSS layouts for each template, but that would take the fun and (possibly) originality out making the package do something it wasn’t meant to without using or writing any hacks.
For now, I think I’m going to have to stick with b2, simply because it provides the minimal amount of fuss for getting this thing up and running. It lacks the links manager added to WordPress, of course, but I’m willing to sacrifice that in trade for CSS flexibility. My goal is to provide a single CSS layout for each person that they can change as they want, and that’s simply not going to be possible with WordPress.
Perhaps in the future, if the developer(s) of WordPress add in similar flexibilty for the links template tags, I’d definitely be willing to give WordPress another looksee. Until then, it just doesn’t offer enough new features to be worth the new frustrations.
I appreciate everyone’s willingness to try and help. It’s nice to find a script package that has such a loyal and helpful following!
Danielle
https://attemptfailure.com