Missing sidebar?
I've installed the 5.x-1.3 theme downloaded from Drupal.org, but it loads without a sidebar, all in one column. In looking through the configuration settings, I see spots for specifying column widths in pixels, but all are set to zero. So some questions:
Is this the likely cause of my problem?
What are the recomended pixel widths (not specified in the documentation) for a site originally developed using the stock Chamelon theme with unaltered column widths?
Is it necessary to specify column widths in pixels? I am concerned about how the site will look at different screen resolutions with column widths set in pixels. A horizontal screen percentage would seem more appealing to me. At the same time, I am not an experienced web developer and may be missing something here.
Thank you for the tips.
The slow loading is, I think, due to a meltdown my hosting service (Dreamhost) had a few days ago. Its entire system was offline for about 12 hours and the server has been slow to respond since they came back up. I suspect an issue with an upstream router or router cable, based on past experience with other hosts.
I checked on the CSS compaction but it's set to disabled and grayed out, so I'm unable to change until I figure out what's up with that.
Only possible reason I can think of for not showing sidebar is that no block was configured to be shown in the sidebar. You can check this on admin/build/block. If this is not the case, please write back.
Column width defaults are 736px for main column and 210px for sidebar. This adds up nicely for screens with 1024x768 and larger resolutions. This size also accommodates well most of standard banners and advertisement blocks.
Theme currently supports only fixed layout. Main reasons are issues with margins for Highlights and Category theme regions. If you are interested, I can give you some pointers how to make theme to support liquid layout with little bit of CSS.
Chameleon theme has two sidebars with around 180px and main column of around 500px. I have a feeling that C01 defaults will work well for you. However, you need to try it with actual content.
As an alternative you could try something like 620px/310px ratio to give it more modern look.
Thank you very much. I will give your pointers a try later tonight after a couple of alligators stop snapping at me.
I don't think the problem is lack of content. At least in Chamelon, I have a left sidebar showing standard Drupal navigation entries. The only thing I've done with that is to add navigation entries. But C01 out of the box (the 5.x version downloaded from Drupal.org) is showing no navigation at all on my test site.
Figured out the problem. In the default Chamelon theme, all of the sidebar content is set by default to be in the left sidebar, whereas CO1 wants it on the right. So you were right about the sidebar having no content. I've now brought the site online and am looking forward to learning more about C01.
For the benefit of future newbie users, in Drupal 5.x, whether sidebar content displays on the left or the right is set at Administer › Site building › Blocks.
I'll nominate this issue as worthy of discussion in the CO1 Readme.
Thank you for the feedback. I'm glad that issue is solved.
I was under impression that I resolved this particular matter by adding whatever was configured as content of left sidebar to the end of right sidebar, but I obviously did something wrong. Need to check this.
As for Readme, there is actually a warning about this in chapter about installation of theme user guide;)
Site is looking good. You can speed it up by enabling "Aggregate and compress CSS files" in Home › Administer › Site configuration › Performance.