I've noticed that a couple of the themes in the list here have some glaring errors... broken forum images (paths wrong), misaligned sections, broken css links...

fiblack3d and the mp3 theme are the worst... minor stuff on a few of the others (forum images in the header on the orange theme for example).

Just FYI...

fiblack3d looks fine in FireFox. try switching.

Um... and how would this fix the reported bugs? lol

Since between 60 and 80 percent of everyone everywhere use IE, it's probably not a good idea if anyone brushes off IE-specific issues...

Edit: You're right though... fiblack3d looks just fine in FF - ima have to look at that source code and see what's causing that... I assumed it was a bad path to the css file, but that can't be the case if it's working on another browser.

it's something i've been meaning to fix. akamu ported that theme but i tried to fix it because it wasn't showing up in FF correctly either. I don't know if I broke the IE compatibility or if it was like that before. I've meant to get back around to it just been too busy. As always; i still have a very full agenda so i don't think i'll be getting to it anytime soon. If you want to take a look into it please do and please realize it's a free theme like everything else here.

The MP3Tunes theme hasn't been converted to templates so shouldn't really be in the system.

The dragonfly theme is quite deliberately designed for FF, with some concessions to make it useable in IE, but not perfect. The cpg_orange theme is in a similar category.

Having said that, all site themes may also not be up to date with latest CVS.

djdevon3 - I'll look at the fiblack3d theme when I get a chance and see if I can find/fix the problem - When I do find a fix, I'll send you a link to updated zip so it can hopefully get passed around.

It's madness to have themes that aren't cross-browser compatible for a CMS with so much potential - a new user that isn't technically savvy sees a broken theme and assumes that dragonfly is to blame... they run elsewhere instead of becoming a part of this community, all because of a little markup bug.

I formed a team to take care of these issues and even whent to great personal expense in time and money. Since being involved in this project from the very begining. Seems that that certain individuals do not want there to be free default themes but rather for you to work with a few designers that charge for them. My resistance to that got me summarily dismissed from the team after having donated over 2 years to the project.

I downloaded the fiblack3d theme and installed it on a test account - same thing... totally broken in IE. I checked the source from the browser and the stylesheet path ended in /style_ie.css... there's no such file. I changed the stylesheet path in header.html to 'style.css' instead of the '{CSS_FILE}' var and that fixed it. Not sure where it's getting 'style_ie.css' from when viewing in IE?

If one of the admins here will confirm interest, I will go through all the themes that this site uses and post a changelog with a link to updated theme zips.

Also, can someone tell me where the '{CSS_FILE} is generated and what its proper use is? A quick search got me nowhere and I want to try to follow conventions for fixing the themes if possible...

fiblack3d is just missing the style_ie.css file - copy and rename ie.css from cpgnuke theme.

{CSS_FILE} is not real hard to find if you work with themes - theme.php

Phoenix,

I'm asking about the logic of using it - what's the advantage of separating the css based on browser? Will mozilla take a dive if you include the scrollbar styles (the only thing in the ie.css file) in its css or will it just ignore it? If it will just ignore it, why not just have a single 'style.css' - I'm asking so I make sure I don't miss the intentions of the dev team - if there is a good reason for separation, I'm all for it. If not, then isn't it advisable to combine everything for ease of updates and useablility?

I believe the reason it is there is to allow users to add IE specific css style settings, for example the coloring of scrollbars. While this may not necessarily cause problems in other browsers, it allows themers to make IE specific changes/fixes. I think the general idea of the ie.css file is to import the regular style.css and then overwrite/add any styles it needs to for IE to display as intended - rather than a complete copy of style.css with additions.

As Phoenix pointed out, the CSS_FILE key is assigned in the theme.php of the theme you are working in. It should not be required if your theme does not use an IE specific style settings.

@Memphis - Biggles covered it rather succinctly

We're mindful of the alternate "html" hack in CSS - it's a matter of choice and separate styles is the choice here.

Phoenix wrote:

@Memphis - Biggles covered it rather succinctly

As he seems to so often do ...

Thanks you both for the info - though I think the separation of the css files may be confusing to entry-level people trying to alter their copy of a theme, I do agree that it's a good idea in concept.

I'll now go to my FAQ page and shamelessly plagiarize biggles' response.

Memphis wrote:

It's madness to have themes that aren't cross-browser compatible for a CMS with so much potential - a new user that isn't technically savvy sees a broken theme and assumes that dragonfly is to blame... they run elsewhere instead of becoming a part of this community, all because of a little markup bug.

I think this is absolutely right. When themes are found that don't work correctly in all browsers, they shouldeither be corrected or shunted to a section such as 'Themes that work only in FF'. Users should not have to find out for themselves that themes don't work or search for reviews or bug reports in the forums.

Quality control of what is presented to users, especially new users, is as important as quality control in the program itself.

I don't have a problem with partially successful themes (or modules) being available (and am grateful for the work that has been put into them) - but their partial success needs to be flagged up so that people know what they are getting & failures do not reflect on Dragonfly as a whole.

Dormouse, in time you may find out that's it not just themes IMHO Dragonflycms deserves to be subtitled: "whenever we can expose a bad browser or OS, we will!" (Even if all your visitors use it)

It normally takes a ton of forumposts and bugreports to get new code to be rewritten in order to work with IE as well.

It would seem that the devs just love to point out that IE is one of a kind. At first this really annoyed me, but now I'm trying to look at the bright side: they got me to try Firefox.
Though I'm really not sure my visitors appreciated the way pages looked in their browser, though. (I used the dragonfly theme in the beginning)

Recently a css file was updated in cvs. In the process 6-digit colourcodes were changed to 3-digit colourcodes. I don't feel like testing but I do wonder what it will look like in IE.

EDIT: please don't get me wrong: I love this CMS and I love the devs for creating it and sharing it along with a great communitysite. Thanks all!