The Fresh Start BVC5 theme is about halfway through development. This version will feature a new design and will maintain a strong focus on web standards, browser compatibility, and usability. It also may contain a few surprises.

What I Need:
I'd like to open up the floor for those of you who develop your own BVC5 themes by asking, "What would you like to see?" Feel free to post about anything from layout and other visual preferences to simple details that would make theme development easier for you.

Note:
Not every aspect of BVC5 can be taken into account in this theme due to the unfortunate lack of standardization between the default BVModules. Some basic controls will be included, but I can't touch the rest. Just try to keep that in mind when you post. Also, those of you who have emailed me about what you'd like to see in Fresh Start needn't bother posting here again.

What is Fresh Start?
For those of you who don't know what Fresh Start is, it was originally a free starter theme for BVC 2004 that focused on solid presentation throughout all modern browsers, though development was suspended before the theme could be completely optimized. http://www.freshstartbv.com

I would like to see a theme were all pages contain the same elements -- i.e., product pages, catalog pages, custom pages, cart.aspx, all contain, for example, content blocks in the left column area. I'm finding it difficult to add those blocks to pages like cart.aspx and custom pages, not being a developer and not being that adept in CSS or master pages.

Thanks for the input so far.

Chris, the majority of the modules need a lot of work. As often as I've brought attention to the fact, there's only so much I have time for, or can afford to spend time on. It's on my list, though the real problem at this point is that if BV does begin to fix those modules - poof - themes to date no longer work properly. I generally make those changes as needed on a project-by-project basis.

Joe, that's a possibility I'll consider in master pages, except for pages where the individual templates actually decide whether the left column exists, such as product and category pages.

Rick, I assume you mean using ASP.Net's 'AJAX' framework instead of Anthem Ajax? That isn't something that will have anything to do with the theme itself. If there are any speicific javascript/ajax features built into Fresh Start, they will probably be independent of either of those frameworks, since most of the Anthem functionality is in specified in the app's modules.

The goal here isn't to modify BVC5; just to create a solid theme to make building unique presentation layers easier. The rest is up to BV and individual developers.

Andy, I use Telerik Controls in other places in my site and want to use their new Prometheus Framework which is a much easier way of 'wiring up' Ajax-related behaviors. It's designed to work with Microsoft's Ajax.

Hope your summer is gong well.

Rick

After conversing with Andy I ran a find and replace on the entire site files and changed any globalization that was present to system.globalization and my test site compiled fine with AJAX. But upon further research I am finding that Anthem can do almost anything that Ajax.net can do, so I am thinking with Anthem already incorporated into BV5, might as well dive in and start using it.

Personally I would like to see a plain white theme with all the css chiseled out, except for browser standard css. IMHO, blank templates are nice to start out with for a new project.

I can see there be demand for integration of controls that rely on MS Ajax. It might be a good move for an update to BV to include support for MS Ajax without conflicting with Anthem.

Anthem might be great but it's not going to be a requirement like MS Ajax will.

Tim, I agree. Microsoft Ajax will continue to expand as a resource much faster than Anthem will. Also there are already connections between MS Ajax and Silverlight so MS Ajax support is going to be a 'must have' for ASP.NET 2.0 sites in general and BV5 in particular.

Rick