10 January 2012, 11:22

I added a few fixes to this, added page copying, export to HTML (not to LEAP2A yet), and theme switching. Dynamic column adding and removing is still on the todo list.

I have uploaded the code changes to date to mikekelly-mahara on the gitorious site.
The code is not directly installable from there, as I haven't put in the necessary code to update the database structure. I have documented changes to the db in the mahara-layouts-ducumentation file however.

Any feedback from core developers as to how to take this forward would be very welcome.

Best wishes,

Mike

10 January 2012, 14:15

Amazing.

I like the diversity of layout you offer. This is still not a layout with complete freedom, which will imply to rewrite lot of code into Mahara core I presume, but this is already fantastic.

Do you think this could be add to 1.5 or is it too soon?

Bravo again

-dajan

12 January 2012, 11:38

Hi Dajan,

Thanks for the comments. I think most of the hard work has been done with this feature, though there are still some things to tidy up and finish off.

Regarding integration into core, though, I have no idea.

Mike

14 January 2012, 16:34

This would be excellent if it was within 1.5's core? Imagine how more appealing to students this will be where they have easy functionality of creating their structured portfolio web pages.... Nice one Mike

Ali.

31 January 2012, 11:42

This ‘custom layouts’ version of Mahara is now available for testing. You should be able to install it from the version posted here:

https://gitorious.org/~mfkelly/mahara/mikekelly-mahara/trees/layouts_master

Updates from existing installations of Mahara are not yet supported – only clean installations.

In this version I’ve added IE6 support, LEAP2A export and import, HTML export, page copying, more consistent drag and drop when page editing, and support for the dynamic adding and removing of columns (switchable in the ‘Settings’ page).

Any feedback or bug reports welcome! The demo mentioned above has been updated too.

Mike

08 April 2012, 5:44

Hi Mike,

I just stumbled upon this thread and I have to say that these layout templates seem like a great idea! Has this been taken forward lately? If (or when) it's possible to apply these schemes to an existing site, I'd be happy to beta test it on our live site.

Regards,

Patrick

08 April 2012, 17:42

Hello Patrick,

Just dowload the file from the git as stated in a previous post and install the new template in the theme folder of your installation (under 1.4 or 1.5). And have a try.

Regards,

-dajan

09 April 2012, 3:28

Hello there. I am a bit unclear about something regarding custom layouts, which I would like to add to one of my Mahara sites: I read that  (quote) Updates from existing installations of Mahara are not yet supported – only clean installations.

I have a Mahara 1.4 that I am using  and I would like to add custom layouts to it. Can I do that? I am not sure what the above quote means, when it says only clean installations. Does it mean you can't add it to an existing installation of Mahara. Or am I misunderstanding ?

11 April 2012, 3:16

Hi Mary,

The files I have linked to are a complete installation of Mahara, rather than a plugin or add-on. That's because I had to make numerous changes to core files in Mahara to get this feature working. So you can't easily add custom layouts to an existing site. While it is technically possible, though a bit tricky, I wouldn't recommend it in any case, as the version I uploaded is for testing. I wouldn't use it for a production site just yet. If the flexible layouts feature is added to Mahara version 1.6, there may be changes as it goes through review.

Anyway it's really useful to hear from people who are interested in having this feature. The greater the interest the more likely it is to be included in a future version of Mahara.

Best wishes,

Mike

12 April 2012, 7:50

Hi Mike. Thanks for the clarification - I understand now!