Mixing and matching Stacks from different developers

Hi, I need some pointer on using Stacks correctly with RW (I am using RW7).
Over the years I have been buying stacks from the various developers - (Joe Workman, 1LD, Yourhead…)
I often find that when I place the stacks into my project (mix and matched), the layout does not appear as how it is put together - eg. appearing on the next line, or text blocks get appended one behind the other, and not according to how I placed them into columns, or I define 3 items on a menu, but only 2 of the 3 menu items appear – just to name a few.

I use stacks based on both Foundation and Stacks 3.

Appreciate your kind advise, and how I can better do this - its killing my time coz I spend so much time troubleshooting, or working around the issue, or totally abandoning the design.

Thank you.

Alvin

A url and description of a specific problem would help. That being said I use stacks from different suppliers all the time together and in foundation. The one thing that may give you problems is using non foundation (or BWD) columns in foundation then adding stacks into those columns. There are also other column stacks available that work with foundation, best to check with the developer if uncertain.

If you give a url and specific instance you will probably get more help.

I’m not sure I can offer advice based on this question because it’s a bit too general.

I did write a few guides on why layout sometimes gets broken. Perhaps those are pertinent?

Text copied from other apps

Broken scrolling

If those don’t help I’d recommend asking a more specific question. Just take one thing at a time. Look at the very worst thing that’s happening and describe in as much detail as possible what happens. Or use a video and/or screenshot to help explain. Then we can help with hat specific problem.

Isaiah

Hi Scott and Isaiah, TQ for your kind reply. I take your feedback.

Scott - excuse my ignorance, but what is “BWD” ?

Isaiah - TQ for the links to your previous feedbacks. Will need to relook at some of my development.

Over time I have either redeveloped, or abandoned these pages as work around, but it got up my nose yesterday when I hit a problem when developing with a mix of Foundation, Stacks and Super Forms. I will try to extract the relevant pages to reveal the issue, - please bear with me.

again… TQ.

Kind regards,
Alvin

BWD = Big White Duck, @tav makes a lot of stacks that are used to optimize foundation projects along with others that work with all themes.

Hi Scott. I have never found that to be something to be wary of. Certainly the standard Stacks columns, Defligra, Elixir Structure and even my own Paddy column stacks work fine in Foundation. They might produce different results but not cause problems.

Since no one has linked to it, here is the Big White Duck site


and here is a link to his stacks he makes

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Hi @webdeer Gary,
I have, acording to Tav, it has to do with the clearfix issue, someone else had a problem a short while ago on the forum as well over this issue. Here

I’m not by any means saying that using other stacks or other column stacks is going to be an issue, just that I and others have experienced issues with standard Stacks multi column stacks in foundation.

The OP didn’t give much info to go on…

the layout does not appear as how it is put together - eg. appearing on the next line, or text blocks get appended one behind the other, and not according to how I placed them into columns, or …

It may not be related but it is a possible starting point because this is the kind of thing that happens with this problem.

@swilliam I wasn’t aware that the default Stacks Col stacks didn’t implement a Clearfix, so cross the Stacks Col stacks off the approved list. However, other Col stacks that do implement it are fine in Foundation. Even those that don’t may not cause a noticeable issue. Your original statement said that it will give you problems.

A better statement would be to avoid if possible, using Col stacks that don’t implement a Clearfix when using Foundation. Luckily we have the Clearfix mark of certification highly visible on all stacks packaging:)

This does raise a good point about compatibility. I would be very keen to see a “tested on Foundation” or Foundry or whatever statement on stacks and also see a specification of compatibility requirement from developers. On one level such an approach is starting to get out of hand but on the other it is good for end users.

Perhaps someone could create a stack checker that reports such things as Clearfix, JS version xxx loaded, out of date FA symbols loaded, redundant framework code loaded, etc.

Just to be absolutely 100% clear (no pun intended) the fix for that site was because of the layout and particular combination of stacks. You should not need to do it under normal circumstances.

Stacks built in columns work just fine in Foundation.

As with any system like RapidWeaver and stacks, there are so many possible combinations that people can use that occasionally they create an unusual layout that requires a little alteration to work as they expect.

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@webdeer Gary,
Full disclosure, I wasn’t aware of the “Why” until @tav explained it. I was only aware that sometimes things went a little wonky when I had used standard Stacks multi column stacks in foundation so I just stopped using them when in the foundation theme.

I agree I could have stated it better. I have edited the origional from “will cause problems” to “may cause problems”.

IMHO “avoid if possible, using Col stacks that don’t implement a Clearfix when using Foundation” would cause further confusion. How many people know what clearfix is? I certainly didn’t.

I agree it would be very cool if there was some sort of indicator. Even better if it was prevalent within the Edit mode of RW during development. I have no idea what it would take to make this happen or what other “can of worms” that would open up. Would we then expect an indicator for all the other themes out there?

@swilliam Exactly, people don’t need to know. Things should just work and luckily do so 99.9% of the time.

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It would unleash a vat full of worms…

Users should just mix away and not get too bogged down. There are plenty of other bigger things to worry about.

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Scott, TQ for providing the link.

Hi again… I finally managed to get the mix stack pages to play up again. Its a mixture of Foundation Stacks, and Super Forms Stack
You can go to this URL to temporarily view the outcome, and also an image of the RW UI stack placement.
I will leave it there for the next 48-72 hours. Look at the WiP page in

http://junglemagic.com/junglemagic/page/

and scroll to the bottom…

TQ in advance.

OK, you are not using the Foundation theme, so you should NOT be using the Foundation Stacks. The theme you have is Tesla. This could be your whole issue.

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Thank you Robert :+1: That worked.

Now the learning part…
Q1 : How would I know if a Theme is Foundation compatible or other wise?
Q2 : If the theme is NOT Foundation compatible, then what other framework options (apart from Stacks 3) that I should be aware of that will bring out unexpected symptoms?

Thank you again…

Alvin

The only theme that is Foundation compatible is the Foundation theme

Not exactly sure what you are asking here. Stacks 3 is not a Framework, it is a Page Plugin type. Frameworks that work with RapidWeaver are Foundation (based on Foundation by Zurb), Foundry (based on Bootstrap), Pure (based on Pure by Yahoo) and UIKit (by YOOtheme). There is also a freeform theme called FreeStacks, but do not think it is based off of any framework. All frameworks need to work with their own themes, they are not compatible with each other or other themes by other developers.

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Robert TQ again…
Sorry for my confusing use of terminology - my bad.
But you have answered my Question.
That the respective stacks and themes are generally not always compatible.

Well, there you go into a different question. So, you can not use the Freeform Stacks with other themes, BUT, any normal stack, like all of Joe’s regular NON-FOUNDATION stacks will work PERFECTLY in Foundation (or any other Freeform theme too). Here is a way to remember it, if stacks come bundled with a theme, they should only be USED with that theme. If they are normal stand alone stacks, then they should work in ANY theme, even themes bundled with their own stacks.

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