When to use panels vs CSS theming
January 17, 2009 - 10:16am
I don't use it...
Personally, I never use panels. However, because I never use it, my input may be lacking some information about what panels can do...but that being said, here's why I don't use it:
- The panels interface is cumbersome. It takes 10 steps to change anything. It really slows down workflow and is unusable for anyone who's not a 'drupal person' (church site administrators, etc)
- Panels is overkill for what I do. Generally I'm just placing Views blocks on the homepage...I never really need anything beyond this.
- I know CSS...Panels generally is useful for people who wouldn't be able to place and style block content with CSS, to me that' it's main advantage.
- Panels vs. Blocks is a performance question, most of all. Panels is overhead that just isn't needed if you don't need any of it's functionality.
On this last point, Micah is working on a new module (block_front.module?) that solves a performance issue when NOT using panels. Generally, you'll be placing blocks on an empty node, which causes a node_load (not good for performance when it's not even used). Therefore, the goal is to strip everything off the default /node river of news, and give options for just placing blocks there. It will be a good solution when it's up and running.
Thats my 2 cents on panels vs. blocks only...
January 17, 2009 - 4:17pm
OG Panels
This video might be helpful for anyone wanting to use panels with Organic groups.
January 18, 2009 - 12:17am
Panels and Block Front
Ok, I guess I need to make some time to work on this Block Front module idea we have.
I used panels for a little while before I learned some good theming tricks that make it unnecessary. I did set up OG Panels using that Drupal Dojo tutorial, and it rocks, but I stripped them back out of that site when I migrated to Drupal 6. (OG Panels is not yet working in D6.) I had only really tweaked a couple of the groups and the site needed a lot of content rearranging, so it wasn't a huge loss. I think I'm going to tackle pimping out those Group home pages with custom modules and theming next time.
Panels is a really cool concept, but once you can do most of the same things in theming, it's almost more work to do things in Panels.
Micah
January 18, 2009 - 6:39am
thanks
Hi - I appreciate the advice on this. Just like Rob, I'm only wanting to put views blocks on the homepage, and I can do that with CSS.
The workflow comments are helpful too - the sites I build are pretty much completely for non-geeks, so I need to keep things simple.
Cheers guys, and thanks!
January 18, 2009 - 7:56am
OG Panels
Does anyone know of a way to theme OG group pages. From what I can tell the OG_panels module works on a per group basos - I want to create a standard group node layout/theme which will seperate node types etc. into blocks/panels. Haven't yet found a way to do this.
January 21, 2009 - 9:59pm
I figured Panels would be
I figured Panels would be good on performance since it was designed by Earl Miles who uses it with SonyBMG on large sites. Interesting to find out that I'm wrong on that issue.
Also, really interesting to hear of Micah's idea for a simplified option for just the front page.
Looking through this post on formatting the front page of a site, I was thinking about using the Panels module.
A question for the experienced designers: Assuming one is proficient in CSS and the *.tpl.php architecture... When would you use the Panels module? What are the pros & cons?
One of the great strengths of Drupal is the range of choices you have for implementing stuff. I'd love to hear back from you guys about the pros/cons of using Panels.
Thanks!