ProcessWire Weekly #368

Latest core updates: ProcessWire 3.0.179

This week in the processwire.com blog Ryan covers ProcessWire 3.0.179, which includes support for customizing the admin theme by modifying a LESS file and recompiling the theme. Added via a pull request from Bernhard Baumrock, this feature is pretty easy to use, and works automatically behind the scenes:

Previously this was something that might only be considered by serious admin theme module developers. But now, anyone can do it just by adding an admin.less file to their /site/templates/ directory. ProcessWire sees the .less file and then recompiles it all automatically!

— Ryan

Another new feature added by Bernhard's PR is a new style for AdminThemeUikit called Rock. You can see in the screenshots below how this style differs from the default style, Reno. Active admin theme style can be selected via the $config->AdminThemeUikit array, so both styles remain at your disposal — though if you're looking for customizability, the Rock style will likely be your best bet.

One more thing we'd like to mention is that this update also improves the structure of the Uikit admin theme, as well as makes it much easier to compile the styles for it. As Ryan writes in his blog post, this will allow us to regularly update the Uikit version used in the admin theme, bringing in any improvements, fixes, etc. from there into the admin.

For a detailed walk-through on customizing the admin theme, be sure to check out the weekly blog post from Ryan. And big thanks to Bernhard for working on this amazing update for the admin theme — awesome stuff!

New module: Less parser

Less parser is a new module developed by Bernhard Baumrock and Ryan Cramer mainly for the needs of our new core version, which uses this module behind the scenes to compile the custom admin LESS stylesheet.

The Less parser module is essentially a lightweight wrapper for Wikimedia LESS parser. The module has a simple API for compiling LESS into CSS, and optionally adding some extra rules at the same time:

$less = $modules->get('Less');
$less->setOption('compress', true);
$less->addStr('@color: #4D926F; h2 { color: @color; }');
$less->addFile('/path/to/file1.less');
$less->addFile('/path/to/file2.less', '/url/to/images/');
$less->saveCss('/path/to/file.min.css');

It's also possible to access the Wikimedia LESS parser directly:

$parser = $less->parser();
$parser->parseFile('/path/to/file.less');
$css = $parser->getCss();

Be sure to also check out this week's blog post for more details on how this module interacts with the built-in admin theme in ProcessWire, AdminThemeUikit.

Big thanks to Bernhard for his work on this module, as well as Ryan for polishing it further! The module can be installed via the built-in module manager, or you can download or clone it from the Less parser GitHub repository.

Site of the week: Architekturforum Freiburg

Our latest site of the week belongs to Architekturforum Freiburg, a regional platform for information and exchange about architecture, urban planning, landscape architecture and building culture.

Founded in 1987 and based in the famous old German university town of Freiburg im Breisgau, Architekturforum Freiburg is a the non-profit association that welcomes anyone interested in architecture, professional or not. Their newly released website was crafted by designconcepts GmbH and was recently introduced via the showcase area of our support forum by Andreas Scheffczyk.

Design wise the site looks sharp, clean, and very modern, with typography that looks great and is easy to read, and creative use of colour and photography. Some technical highlights mentioned in the showcase forum thread include the use of Uikit for the front-end and Workbox for PWA features, as well as a long list of third party modules — Form Builder, ProCache, Repeater Matrix, Email Obfuscation (EMO), and so on.

Be sure to visit the showcase forum thread for more details. Big thanks to the folks at designconcepts GmbH for sharing this project with us, and our congratulations to Architekturforum Freiburg for their new website!

Stay tuned for our next issue

That's all for the 368th issue of ProcessWire Weekly. We'll be back with more news, updates, and content Saturday, 5th of June. As always, ProcessWire newsletter subscribers will get our updates a few days later.

Thanks for staying with us, once again. Hope you've had a great and productive week, and don't forget to check out the ProcessWire support forum for more interesting topics. Until next week, happy hacking with ProcessWire!