Magento

Any updates on the documentation you teased us with back in early October?:

http://www.magentocommerce.com/blog/comments/magento-behind-the-scenes-design-documentation/

We are waiting for the template structure to be 100% finalized (and it should be real soon). Once its done and released, documentation will follow.

It will be detailed and include a number of screencasts

Damn, that was quick. 

Thanks Roy.

anytime

I was just wondering if the template structure has been finalized yet?  Also, could you please provide a status update on the design documentation?

Thanks

you will know when its ready. it’s not like it’s in magentos interest to keep it a secret locked up somewhere. constantly asking “is it ready yet? is it ready yet?” does not speed anything along.

We hope the template structure will be final in the next release and the documentation will be released then.

Thank you for the update Roy.  Your team is doing some great work and I appreciate it.

Design Documentation is now online at http://www.magentocommerce.com/design_guide/

Hi there…
I’ve read the designer’s guide and stuff..specially the intro in layouts..but the thing is that the examples featured there are not for the version I have ( 0.7.14800 , current? ) ...I don’t have any of the xml files you mention there...
I try making changes applying the same logic with catalog.xml and page.xml but couldn’t get to it…
I’m kind of stuck....I find all screencasts , the webinar and some of the examples really useful...but I’m still on the dark with a lot of things…
Seems to me like (on templating) the skin issue has been explained really good...but the application part (layout specially) needs more documentation..as is deeper into Magento’s behaviour than just css…

Make sure you review this as well:

http://www.magentocommerce.com/blog/comments/designing-for-magento-webinar-recording-now-available/

Roy ,
thanks for the support and the quick response....
I did saw the webinar it was useful for some things...but still having lot’s of trouble getting it right.
for example..on the exercise shown on the webinar, why am I editing the checkout.xml to move the minicart sidebox, when I am looking at a product page ? Doesn’t the checkout.xml be the layout for when I’m actually on the checkout page?

@Pablo Lopez: checkout.xml defines all layout updates that are introduced by Mage_Checkout module.

Inside this file you have handles which describe the pages changes will be made.

So for example, <default> handle will change all pages, <checkout_onepage_index> will change checkout page only.

Thanks a lot for the time and patience, really !  You guys are doing a great job trying to get people to understand how Magento works.
Hopefully I ‘ll end up getting it straight sometime

Hello Pablo-

This is a very good question!

When the application loads a store page, it first gathers ALL the layout updates contained within the <default> handle of each individual layout files.
In order to see where the <default> handle area is, open up catalog.xml and search for ‘<default>’. Now open up checkout.xml and search for <default>’. Now open up customer.xml and search for ‘<default>’...Now open up other layout files and search for ‘<default>’ - You will notice that most layout files come with an area that is designated by the <default> handle. What Magento does, is it first grabs and loads the <default> layout updates from ALL the layout files (catalog.xml, checkout.xml and customer.xml...etc) in the order assigned in the Core. Then, it grabs the layout updates that apply each page you’re in. The reason I went into the checkout.xml in order to move the mini-cart(My Cart) from the right to the left column, is because the mini-cart is introduced through Checkout module (meaning it is introduced using the <default> handle in checkout.xml).

Hi Ohminu,
i’m going a bit crazy here.....I try doing the simple example presented on the webinar, but didn’t give me any changes…
I’m changing this code

on the <default> handler of my checkout.xml file.
But I when I reload the page after saving, the minicart is still on the right side.  I don’t know what I am doing wrong here…
Sorry if this post is a bit off the initial thread....