Design During Development

[eluser]craig.hoog[/eluser]
Another question not related directly to code, but I'm starting into "big time" application development. I am starting with the admin panel side of things and I want to know what people recommend for a "skeleton" admin theme.

I want to be able to build my navigation, modules, pages, etc without having to worry about design (I won't be the designer). What is the best practice for this during development?

Any advice, suggestions, etc would be awesome.

[eluser]johnpeace[/eluser]
I base my custom apps on PyroCMS. It's default admin theme and UI framework are just wonderful.

[eluser]craig.hoog[/eluser]
I try to avoid using a CMS on top of CI. I love CI, but I don't love learning a "third level" of integration - I like that CI has made PHP clean and tidy for me, but I want to build my own CMS and layout.

That said, I don't mind their layout.. I just want a really skeletal layout for development purposes.

[eluser]johnpeace[/eluser]

I try to avoid using a CMS on top of CI. I love CI, but I don’t love learning a “third level” of integration - I like that CI has made PHP clean and tidy for me, but I want to build my own CMS and layout.

The very cool thing about PyroCMS is that it really minimizes the pain of 'learning a “third level” of integration'. It brings commonly required components that most projects will need and does it in a very clear CI way. Your custom app code will exist in a 'module' directory which is essentially a self contained, standalone CI app.

It's been a HUGE timesaver for me and I'm sold on this approach as the way to do custom CI apps.

[eluser]craig.hoog[/eluser]
I'm not disagreeing that it's a huge time saver or that it's amazing - both of these are very likely true. However, the application I am working on now will be a bit too custom for Pyro I think - I need everything done in a very particular way, right down to authentication being integrated with third party systems.

That said, I appreciate the advice and will likely be looking at Pyro again in the future for smaller / more time constrained projects.

[eluser]johnpeace[/eluser]
No problem. It's not so much advice as just general contribution to the community encouraging users to check it out as the basis for their own apps.

You may be true that your project has requirements that wouldn't be satisfied by Pyro...but many of the projects we do most regularly would benefit from it's use tremendously, the project would also benefit from your involvement and contributions!