Theme Folders: gateway to easy backgrounds
The Styles Dash does not apply background styles
The Styles Dash lets you determine the style of nearly every graphical element on your webpage. Most of these styles are universal and immutable. For example, if you set the color of Styles Dash > Navbar Widget to red, then the navbar on every page will be read.
The situation is different with backgrounds. The Styles Dash lets you set various background elements, but does not apply them. To apply your dashboard settings, you must add the appropriate background trigger-option to the $blogExpOpt
of the prototype, category, or post you want to affect.
The Styles Dash lets you determine the following background styles:
- Webpage background color (set in Body Widget)
- Webpage background texture and image (set by the Theme Folder you have named in Styles Dash > Theme Folder Widget)
- Text Area background color—when using the CARD option (set in Styles Dash > PostBody Widget)
- Text Area opacity, border, and shadow—when using the CARD option (set in Styles Dash > PostBody Widget)
The styles you set in the Styles Dash are called the default background styles. None of them are applied unless you add the appropriate background trigger-option to the exporting note (or prototype). When a note’s $blogExpOpt
is empty, its webpage and Text Area backgrounds will be white.
Activating your Theme Folder defaults
To activate the default background settings, just choose the ones you want from a pop-up menu. For example, in Styles Dash > Body Widget you set the webpage background color. But this color will not appear on any webpage unless the exporting note includes BKG-COLOR in its $bpBkgOpt
.
The BoxPress background option system is similar to the export option system in that changes are applied by choosing from options in a pop-up menu. But it is also different in that it uses two kinds of option—(1) triggers that turn a feature on or off, and (2) overrides, which are contents that override the values set by the Styles Dash and current Theme Folder.
Every webpage has two background areas—the webpage background and the Main Text Area background:
- Webpage triggers—The triggers that apply the default webpage background styles are: BKG-COLOR, BKG-TEXTURE, or BKG-IMAGE.
- Text Area trigger—The trigger that applies the default Text Area background style is: CARD.
Overriding default styles with override attributes
What the triggers apply are the default background settings from the Styles Dash (and current Theme Folder). These are easily overridden. To override these, simply assigning a value to the appropriate override attribute:
Default | Override |
---|---|
Default webpage color | $bpBkgColor |
Default webpage texture | $bpBkgTexture |
Default webpage image | $bpBkgImage |
Default Text Area color | $bpBkgCardColor |
For example, if the default webpage background is #eee and I a note uses the BKG-COLOR trigger, its webpage background will be #eee (light gray). But if I set the color override attribute to #f00, the background will be #f00 (garish red).
Because every note has override attributes, every webpage can have its background set to an image, texture, or color other than the defaults set in the Styles Dash. These can be set per note, per prototype, and per website (in order of override). And by using the BKG-BEQUEATH option, they can be set per nuclear family (parent and children).
Overriding detault images and textures
You can add other image files to your Theme Folders alongside the five mandatory theme files—BannerImage.png, BannerTexture.png, BodyImage.png, BodyTexture.png, and FooterImage.png. These can then serve as thematizing backgrounds for different prototypes, categories, and even individual posts. To do so:
- Add some additional images to your current Theme Folder.
- Run the Keys•BKG stamp to see the key attributes for background options.
- Enter the name of your preferred image or texture file in
$bpBkgImage
and$bpBkgTexture
. Add a color in$bpBkgColor
. - Then activate your options using the drawdown for
$bpBkgOpt
.