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element-web/docs/skinning thoughts.md

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== Skinning refactor ==

matrix-react-sdk

  • base images
  • base CSS
  • all the components needed to build a workable app (including the top layer)

Element: the Element skin

  • Element-specific classes (e.g. login header/footer)
  • Element-specific themes
    • light
    • dark

i.e. the only things which should go into Element are bits which apply vector-specific skinning specifically "Stuff that any other brand would not want to use. (e.g. Element logos, links, T&Cs)"

  • Questions:
    • Electron app? (should probably be a separate repo in its own right? but might as well go here for now)
    • index.html & index.js? (should be in matrix-react-sdk, given the SDK is useless without them?)

ideally matrix-react-sdk itself should ship with a default skin which actually works built in.

status skin (can go in the same app for now)

  • has status theme
    • which inherits from Element light theme
    • how do we share graphics between skins?
      • shove them into react-sdk, or...
      • guess we do ../../vector/img
      • this means keeping the skin name in the images (unless /img is a shortcut to the right skin's images)

out of scope:

  • making the components more independent, so they can be used in isolation.
  • that said, the bits which should probably be used by being embeded into a different app:
    • login/reg
    • RoomView + RoomSettings
    • MessageComposer
    • RoomList
    • MemberList
    • MemberInfo
    • Voip UI
    • UserSettings
  • sharing different js-sdks between the different isolated modules

other changes:

  • how do we handle i18n?
    • each skin should really be its own i18n project. As long as all the commonality stuff is in matrix-react-sdk this shouldn't be too bad.
  • ability to associate components with a given skin
    • skins/vector/src <-- components
    • skins/vector/css
    • skins/vector/img
    • skins/vector/fonts
  • gather together themes (per skin) into a single place too
    • skins/vector/themes/foo/css
    • skins/vector/themes/foo/img
    • skins/vector/themes/foo/fonts
  • ideally riot-web would contain almost nothing but skins/vector directory.
  • ability to entirely replace CSS rather than override it for a given theme
    • e.g. if we replace Login.js with StatusLogin.js, then we should similarly be able to replace _Login.scss with _StatusLogin.scss.

random thoughts;

  • should we be able to change the entire skin at runtime (more like wordpress) - to the extent of replacing entire components?
    • might pose security issues if a theme can be swapped out to replace MatrixChat or other fundamental functionality at runtime
  • if so, perhaps skins & themes should converge...

Immediate plan for Status:

  • Implement it as a theme for the Element skin
  • Ideally move skins to a sensible level (possibly even including src?)