so there’s been a sticking point in my redesign, and it is this:
mars had one sidebox. transmothra.com will have 3, which are groupable as one.
right? no problem. got it covered. but here’s where it gets tricky (and i’ll try to make this simple):
when i “wrap” an image-based border around a box (as in mars), i do it like this:
include (wrap_top.html);
include (content.php); // for example
include (wrap_bottom.html);
where
“wrap_top.html” might be something like
<table>
<tr>
<td>(top left corner image)</td>
<td>(top center image)</td>
<td>(top right corner image)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>(middle left side image)</td>
<td>
…then the content gets included next:
(CONTENT GOES HERE)
…and then the “wrap_bottom.html”:
</td>
<td>(middle right side image)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>(bottom left corner image)</td>
<td>(bottom center image)</td>
<td>(bottom right corner image)</td>
</tr>
</table>
(all of that makes a 3 by 3 table in HTML, where images representing the border around the box go. sorta like this:
 |
 |
 |
 |
(CONTENT GOES HERE) |  |
 |
 |
 |
…right now, the files that are being wrapped around the content boxes are utterly blank – hence, no border. and as an added plus, no migraine!)
but with 3 boxes groupable as 1, how should i go about it?
so i’m adding a new variable in the config file for each skin, called “three1”, where i specify, for each theme, whether the border will be wrapped around all three boxes, or just around one.
see, the thing is, what you see right now has 3 boxes, all lined up. but with this templating engine, i can actually spread them out all over the page if i wanted. so i have to be able to just have individual image borders as well as one big border around all three.
funny: i’m not sure when i’ll ever even get around to using image borders.
