SandSpace, a theme for the Textpattern CMS admin interface

“SandSpace” (phw_sandspace) is a theme for the administrative backend of Textpattern CMS 4.9 and 4.8.8. Delicate shades of grey and touches of pale yellow are used to make the controls as un-intrusive as possible and let the user concentrate to the main task of creating stellar content. This theme is optimised to work on any device from small screen handheld device to large screen desktop computers. Support for dark mode and high contrast / forced colours OS mode is build in. A showcase mockups and design patterns are available here for Textpattern 4.9 and here for Textpattern 4.8.8.

Scroll down to download the theme.

Screenshot:

This theme is compatible with a modern browser, such as Chromium based browsers (Brave, MS Edge, Vivaldi, Yandex, …) Firefox 115ESR, Safari 15.7 and other WebKit based browsers, Chrome v120, etc running on all type of devices from smartphones to HDPI laptops and desktop computers. As always the most recent version of each browser is recommenced for optimal compatibility and your personal security. It may work on (some) older browsers.

Version 4.8 had seen significant improvements under the hood, code has been modernised as older browsers are no longer supported. Version 4.9.0 builds on those improvements and sees additional code modernisation, and adaption to the Core layout changes. See the included readme file for more details and options.

Of note, for Sandspace 4.9:

• Modern handling of colours: using the oklch() format, light-dark() function,…
• Tentative use of field-sizing: contents for selected input fields (for browser that support this)
• Sandspace fully supports the Textpattern admin thumbnail size customisation mechanism. Leave the aspect-ratio field blank to prevent image cropping.
• Full support for the checksum.txt mechanism for file integrity verification.

The theme allows for personalised customising, both user styles and user scrips are supported – see the readme file for the how-to.

Note

1. This theme makes heavy use of CSS custom properties which are different from the Core Hive theme. In case of need such as a plugin, those core Hive custom properties are included in a separate file, aliased to the Sandspace custom Properties.
2. The 4.9.0 theme is not backward compatible with Textpattern 4.8.8

Downloads

Installation and usage

• Unzip the archive and upload the phw_sandspace folder to your textpattern/admin-theme folder. Login and select the theme from the Preference panel > Admin sub-tab. From Textpattern 4.8.3 onwards, the theme change is applied instantly. In previous versions, you have to switch between panes to see the changes.
• Upgrading from a previous version follows the same procedure, but be careful not to override or remove your custom folder if in use.
• For the Textpattern 4.7 series the previous version of this theme is still available: Sandspace 4.7 admin theme

Discuss, bug reports and support request in the Textpattern forum

Changelog & History

• v.1.01 – Initial release (2009.09.08).
• v 3.0-4.8.7 for older versions
• v 4.8.8 – v 4.8.8.6 for Textpattern 4.8.8
• v 4.9.0 – for Textpattern 4.9.0
  • adapting to Core layout changes
  • improved accessibility (text zoom on small screen devices, forced colours OS themes…
  • further modernising code (logical properties, custom properties, selected comparison functions (clamp(), min(), max() )
  • modernising the styling for input controls, including accent-color, auto-sizing for textareas and select[multiple], improved vertical sizing,…
  • use of oklch() colors for supporting browsers
  • support for admin-side thumbnail size configuration
  • the checksum.txt mechanism for file integrity verification (.php and .js files).