Different Exercises in Futility
So, I have this website that I started putting together (and had hoped to have had launched by now) a while back. A few weeks ago, I upgraded it to the latest version of the software package I was using.
And upgrading it broke a few things, mostly in the design area, which I had spent an amount of time customizing. As I was busy with other projects, I just set it aside.
Yesterday, I decided to jump back on that site. I spent some time going through the new CSS and making my changes where the software package had added new stuff.
Today, I uploaded my new css file, only to discover it didn’t make one bit of difference.
The problem is that this particular software package has a funny way of implementing themes. I’m sure a number of you are familiar with WordPress and its themes and plugins, right? This particular software package does things differently. Instead of considering themes as themes, it considers them plugins.
Okay, so far. And, by structuring your plugin properly, you don’t modify any of the base css files of the software package. It’s just that whatever you put in your plugin will override the base css files, thus allowing your customizations to display rather than the default settings.
Make sense so far?
So, you just modify your theme-plugin and, whenever you upgrade, you needn’t worry about changing all those base css files. Make sense? Sounds like a good idea, right?
Well, except for the fact that part of the software package includes its own plugins that add certain features. And, some of those plugins have their own css files.
And, that’s where you run into problems. You see, being a plugin, it overrides your custom settings in your plugin. And that means that apparently the only way to customize the site is to change any css settings in each of the other plugins.
Which means, when you upgrade, you’ll need to go through all those core plugins and change things again, so far as I can see.
Which is stupid.
Which is why I am frustrated.
And which is why I’m thinking about tossing the whole thing and trying to come up with a new idea for this particular website.
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