Open Realty Template Design Competition

Posted on July 25, 2007
Filed Under Real Estate News |

XHTML Compliant Template - Open Realty 2.4.1

Forum member pbflash (Paul) has started a competition for designs that will eventually be part of the distribution in future releases of Open-Realty.

His requirements were that the design feature an XHTML Strict layout that would validate without error. Additional requirements involve the use of all stock open-realty template tags and features with no modifications, customization, or addons required for the layout.

Is XHTML Strict Possible with Open Realty

After learning about the competition I decided to look at open realty using very basic no frills template to test the core code compatibility. It came as no surprise when I discovered that the core rendering of elements such as tables, css and images were actually non compliant.

Four months ago when I considered repackaging Open Realty in an XHTML format, I actually went through Open Realty and replaced all the missing or non compliant code with compliant code. As usual with core modifications the danger in modification of the core is that so very much is in need of an overhaul, changes from one version to to the next would be a daunting task to maintain. In addition simple things like the breaks and even the old method of styling for bold or italics are ever present throughout the code. To change this on a per version release basis is or should be done by the developers of Open Realty.

Had I not been banned from the forums for providing a link to my blog (still baffles me to this day) I’d contribute willingly to this endeavor along with a compliant template. But politics and vindictiveness aside, Open Realty is in desperate need of fixing its core rendered code first before entertaining the possibility of distributing a compliant layout.

Free Open Realty 2.4.1 Templates

I’ve worked like a mad man the past two days to wrap up dozens of small projects and client packages that have been in limbo and the inventory I now have for Open Realty will validate outside of Open Realty. What I mean by that is my templates as stand alone designs will validate as fully XHTML and CSS, I guarantee. The dozens of my converted templates drop right into Open Realty without core modifications or hacks to the Open Realty core for proper template rendering but validation is tossed and Javascript errors are things that require a professional to modify in the core itself.

I wish them luck on the templates and know that Paul’s intentions are understandably warranted. When you consider that the old design originated from a former (interestingly enough banned member) FROBN who designed the stock template almost three years ago.

Open Realty is NOT JOOMLA

As long as we are on the subject of compliance and compatibility its important to know that Open Realty isn’t Joomla and there fore the standards are much lower. Lower doesn’t mean bad things in this case as I mention lower standards to be MORE FORGIVING to designers than Joomla or even applications like CRE Loaded. The code standards in Open Realty allow for lose coding styles that generally will not break the layout which is in many regards a good thing. Most designs I’ve looked at tend to run in quirks mode while still being able to render a design well enough as to be browser compatible.

Its been my experience that the majority of Open Realty users are Realtors themselves whom of which are rarely designers. Open Realty could tighten up the quality of code in a relatively short period of time but laughingly I must admit I’ve only witnessed that the developers don’t take hints very well and usually take offense before change takes place. Truly unfortunate.

Regardless we wish the project well as well as PBFLASH’s competition.

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