FWIW:  I'm probably about 1 week away from needing someone(s) to test this theme re-write for me. I have everything re-incorporated and re-written except the "Series/Story Arcs" sections, the home page navigation bar, the home page sliders, as well as the handling of dynamically created content (such as breadcrumbs and headers) in browser history so they display correctly when a browser forward/backward button is used.

Shared folders under a single category (your biggest issue) are now available in the corresponding library that you're currently in (but only if you have multiple shared folders in that category).

ie: if you have strips and strips2 as shared folders for the "comics" category, a folder icon appears in the library navigation bar to the right of the settings button that allows you to switch folders without breaking the entire breadcrumb and header routines. The folder icon only appears in categories that have multiple shared folders.  So, if "comics" has 2 shared folders, but "books" has only 1, the folder icon will appear in "comics", but not books.

The home page navigation to each category (comics/books/magazines/documents) will still appear under the "Browse" tab and will re-direct to the first shared folder in the category you choose.  As stated above, from there you'll be able to switch folders if you have multiple shared folders in that library category. I've been testing this for a solid week now and it's pretty slick and solid (even if I do say so myself). ;)

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Having said all that, there is another small issue with this rewrite that will affect people who've installed the old theme.

You see, in order to make certain variable available on pages that Ubooquity does not natively make them available on (ie.. the {{userName}} mustache tag is only available in the page-home.html file), I have to store them in your browser's session storage or local storage so I can access them across all pages. In the old version, I just gave them names related to what they were used for and stored each variable separately in browser storage.  In this version I'm currently working on, I'm storing them AND the settings in Ubooquity's API all in 1 object ("Ubooquity_Settings").  The point being: the new version will store everything differently than the last version.  So, upgrading to this new version will lose all existing library and audio bookmarks and the color schemes will be set to default because they're stored under different names and in objects rather than individually in browser storage.

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Anyway, once I'm ready, I'll post a beta link in this thread for people to try it out. ;)

Peace,
G

Dennis,

What you're asking for is virtually impossible because Ubooquity does not expose the root folders on the home page.  The only way it would be possible is to have the sysadmin pre-define what their comic bases IDS are in themeScript.js.  And the problem with that is that there is no telling how many shared folders a person has under a single category.  This also prevents use of the main navigation on the home page in the libraries - as there are no root links available for a category until you actually go to that page.

ie.. when you go to the comics library your root folders are exposed in page-library-category-root-dirs,html  for "comics" but not for "books" or "magazines" or "documents" until you specifically choose one of those categories and go to those libraries.  

So, unless Tom decides to expose the root folders on the home page, this is a non-starter because there is no way to get the information I need without scraping it from the page-library-cateogry-root-dirs.html or trying to figure out a way to get an unknown amount of pre-defined variables telling the theme where your root folders are.

See my conundrum?

Having said that, I am completely rewriting the theme from scratch.  What I'm planning is to add a way to switch folders when you're in the libraries (which completely breaks the navigation, breadcrumbs, and header system in the current version).

So far, I'm very satisfied with the progress, as I've been wanting to take all the variables I was using in session storage and combine them under 1 "Ubooquity_Settings" object - which I've successfully done in the rewritten version.

Now, when you pass through the page-library-category-root-dirs.html, you're re-directed to the first shared folder in that category where you'll be able to switch shared folders (within that category) with a popup menu (similar to settings or search).  Of course, this requires a complete rewrite of the navigation, breadcrumb, and header systems.  So, it will be a while before the next update.

However, like I told Tom, when I started this theme, I was experimenting a lot because I wasn't real familiar with how Ubooquity worked.  So, there are a lot of "hacks" in the current version rather than "clean" easily followable coding.
So, the rewrite was coming at some point anyway...

Peace,
G

For everyone's information:

Since I plan on improving/changing this theme as Ubooquity evolves, I just wanted to make everyone aware that the most current version of the theme can always be found at the beginning of the thread (so you don't have to search the entire thread for the latest version).

When there is a new release, I will announce it here and list the revisions I made to it...

Speaking of which, I did update the theme early this morning.  Below are the revisions:

Renegade Reader v1.05 
Changed:  IMPORTANT! MAKE SURE "BYPASS SINGLE ROOT FOLDER IS OFF IN UBOOQUITY (not checked).  Previously, it needed to be on (checked) and you needed to pre-define your root category IDs in themeScript.js.  Now, the theme scrapes your root folder information from the page-library-category-root-dirs.html file (which is only available when you are NOT bypassing single root folder in Ubooquity).  If you do NOT have multiple shared folders under a single category then page-library-category-root-dirs.html automatically re-directs the user to the correct root folder for comics, books, and magazines.

Added: Some support for multiple shared folders under a single category.  The theme now uses the page-library-category-root-dir.html file to display your shared folder options.  Additionally, as you can see in the navigation above, I'm currently working on adding a way to switch libraries when you have multiple shared folders under a single category - but I've been balked for the time being because the {{#rootFolders}} non-empty mustache list is not working in the inc-library-popups.html.

Changed: The themeeditor to reflect the changes above.  comicBaseId, bookBaseId, and magBaseId in themeScript.js are now defined as empty numeric arrays that are filled as the user passes through the page-library-category-root-dirs.html.  So, they are no longer a part of the pre-defined settings portion of this theme.  

That's all for now folks!
G

Another example:

This is my root book section:

Note: The header is just a header.jpg located in my root book folder library and the pictures of the authors are folder.jpg files located in each of the author's sub-folders.

This is one of the authors in my books section:

Again, the "Book by 'Anne Rice'" is a centered text header generated by the theme. The background picture of the books on both sides is a PNG with no background in the center and the book images are from 1 the books in the collection (Ubooquity's default when no folder.jpg exists).

All,

Just some screen shots to show you what's possible with this theme using header pngs in your library folders when "useHeaders" and "useTextHeaders" = true on your themeScript.js.

This is my root comics folder:

Note: "The Comic & Graphic Novel" is a centered text header generated by the theme.  The outer image part is a header.png located in my comics library root folder with no background in the center (the beauty of png vs jpg).  The images showing the comics groups or publishers are folder.jpg files located in the sub-folders off the root.

ListerD,

That's the beauty of writing themes in Java script.  People can tweak things to make them aesthetically pleasing.

When I aligned the thumb images at the top of the cells, they looked very disorganized and jumbled to me.  So, I tried your method (making them all the same size).  But that distorts non-standard images and makes it difficult to know what the folder/file contains at a glance.  So, I opted for aligning them to the bottom of the cells so that the folder/file names lined up. 

I think it looks more organized without distorting the images. <shrugs>

But, again, the beauty of using Java script is that people can make these kinds of small tweaks without too much effort. You also might want to tweak the space between the cells and the labels so that they don't overlap the cells below them when your comic descriptions are longer. ;)

And thank you for your compliment.

Ugh! Seems {{#rootFolders}} non-empty list does not work on inc-library-popups.html.

Dennis,

Thanks for the ideas.  However, I opted for a quicker (less messy) fix that actually turned out to be beneficial to the overall theme.  

First, "bypass single root folder" in Ubooquity MUST BE OFF now.  I used page-library-category-root-dirs.html to scrape the root URLS and if there is more than 1 it asks you to choose one.  If there is only 1, you're automatically re-directed to it and page-library-category-root-dirs.html is hidden (so you don't even know you were re-directed). That also means there is no longer a reason to pre-define the comic/book/magazine ID numbers in themescript anymore. :)

Second, eventually I will add a way to switch between libraries and shared folders while you're in the libraries.  I know exactly what I want it to do and how to achieve it.  The thing that will take a while is coming up with a new navigation bar and figuring out exactly where to implement it.  But, for now, at least this makes the theme usable.

I updated the "Renegade Reader" link at the beginning of this thread so that the latest version is available.

Peace,
G

Awesome!  I posted a request to Tom in the appropriate thread, explained the problem, and will wait for a response before proceeding.  

Rest assured, one way or another, I'll come up with something that will work for your setup once I've heard back.

Thanks,

G

Hey Tom,

Know you're busy and that you've got a list piling up, but I have a suggestion with regard to how Ubooquity handles multiple shared folders under a single category.  

Rather than separating them, can you combine them like the "latest" and "random" categories?  Like a RAID array would handle separate drives rather than using "drive letters"?

The reason I'm asking for this is because, currently, Ubooquity forces an extra page between the home page and the library page when using multiple shared folders under a single category - which mimics "bypass single root folder" being turned off.
So, technically, there is no way to "bypass single root folder" if you are using multiple shared folders under a single category.

However, if Ubooquity treated multiple shared folders under a single category as 1 shared folder then, theoretically, "bypass single root folder" could still be used to display multiple shared folders under a single category or be turn on to completely skip showing root folders altogether.

This would help tremendously with dynamic navigation on the home page and throughout the libraries.  Otherwise, we have to trap for a shared folder page that (IHMO) shouldn't exist if "bypass single root folder" is on.

Is this something you would consider?  I'd like to know before I go through the trouble of changing my entire theme to trap for the extra page Ubooquity is creating when using multiple shared folders under a single category. 

Thanks
G