Hi. I have been doing a little back tracking from theme.php, and I've found several files that use the variable set out in theme.php.

The variables are:

$gfxcolor
$bgcolor1
$bgcolor2
$bgcolor3
$bgcolor4
$textcolor1
$textcolor2
$hr

I am trying to figure out what each one does, or perhaps find some documentation on them, however I have one question which might save me all of this trouble. Can these setting be overridden by CSS? If so, then it shouldn't really matter what they are set to, so I don't need to bother with them. Instead I could set them all to "" so that there will be no color differences (like a flicker) as the CSS override kicks in.

Many many thanks in advance, and thanks again for all your hard work so far.

All of the bgcolors were originally coded to give module developers a way of styling their modules internally. This actually happened before there was a thing called CSS. Just goes to show you how badly it needs to be updated. I've done my share of moaning about it 2 years ago at the Dragonfly developers. They don't care to listen to me or anyone else for that matter. There is no pattern to bgcolors. Some modules use them in different ways. Best you can do is change one then look around your site to see if the color works out for you. Rinse and repeat.

There is only one way that we'll all be rid of bgcolors without the help of developers. That's if every 3rd party module developer gets on board and doesn't use them. Then everything can go to css like should have been done years ago. If you don't agree with bgcolors and think they should be dropped in favor of css then please write a letter to a DragonflyCMS developer. Maybe they'll listen to you.

Hehe. I'd love to, however, I am sure they will keep them there for backward compatibility more than anything else, so as not to break other older modules. It would certainly be interesting to see which third party developers actually still use them, and to hear their take on them.

Personally, I have no problem with the being there as long as they are documented. I think the documentation is about the only thing that lets Dragonfly down. Other than that, I can't imagine life without it.

Did you ever try Firebug and the Web Developer's Extension for Firefox I suggested yesterday? If so, what do you think? I am positive that these tools would be a major asset to any Web developer. I swear by them.

Thanks for your feedback.

The only plugin I use is the xhtml validator. I don't want to rely on plugins because with upgrades come broken features. If you rely on something like that today it could be gone tomorrow and then you'll be frustrated with your own efficiency. I'll just avoid all of that right now and rely on myself and my trusty editplus.

Sure, but why do things the hard way? They don't automate anything for you, but they do help a lot. Almost like using syntax highlighting in your editor. I would be completely lost without my syntax highlighter. Sure, I can still code, but it makes it "easier" if I can have tags and attribute highlighted.

I would recommend you try them to see what they can do for you. It might ease your skepticism. I've used them for about a year, and I have never noticed any bugs. They are Firefox extensions, not plugins as such. They can be removed cleanly, and easily, and allow you to do more than just validate HTML.

Your skepticism is a bit like not using a car jack to fix a busted tire, or trying to unscrew a screw with a piece of wet paper, if you get my meaning. It's simply a tool to "help" get the job done. It does nothing for you (like WYSIWYG editors do for example), and you have complete control over every aspect.

Just out of interest, would you rather use a JavaScript debugger that can step through your code 1 line at a time, or would you try to debug your code using alert() clauses everywhere? Firebug is primarily a JavaScript debugger. What's more, is it can give the the source code in a way that's seriously easy to read, and it will show you the "exact" source code, not the source code you see in the "View Source" window, which could have been dynamically changed and doesn't reflect in that window.

You can edit your page on-the-fly, so no more making single changes, uploading them, then previewing them. You can see the style inheritance patterns. You know when you pull your hair out wondering why a style has been overridden? You don't have to anymore. You can monitor and debug Ajax requests (if you use Ajax). It can also help you see what someone's Web site is doing behind the scenes without scouring through obfuscated code. You can see the exact data sent to the server and received from the server.

Honestly, the list is endless. All the things it does are things that are extremely hard to do, or mostly impossible to do by hand without hacking your browser's code. These tools can save you hours of head scratching if used properly, and help you become more productive. (Note, I said said "help" you, not "make" you).

Anyway, I've had my say and I'm not one for pressuring people, I just hate the thought that someone as smart as you could be missing out on something so great. I am now happy that I have said everything I can to explain properly so the choice is yours to make. Please let me know the outcome.

Thanks for the compliment. For some reason I feel really smart right now.

Yeah firebug is really good. Excellent extension.