Introduction

In the old days, banners in RapidWeaver typically consisted of fixed height boxes with a CSS background image applied through the theme style settings. The problem with this method was that users were typically tied to whatever settings the theme provided, and options for creativity were rather limited. Then something called 'responsive web design' came along in 2012, and people needed banners that were also fully flexible; in response to the 40% or so of handheld/mobile traffic arriving at some websites.

We decided to listen to what our theme customers were saying. We took into consideration the things people wanted to do with theme banners and headers in RapidWeaver. Time was spent researching emerging trends in web design. As a result of this, the 'FreeStyle' banner concept was conceived. FreeStyle has solved a great many problems and given RapidWeaver users (both novice and expert users) options to build beautiful banners that simply were not possible a few years ago.

Basically FreeStyle is a branch off the opensource ExtraContent project, but also borrows a few ideologies from the Concrete5 publishing platform. FreeStyle is nothing more than an empty divisional container in the theme index.html file. With the correct code or stack, you can effortlessly embed a broad range of different content into the theme banner container. FreeStyle does some important tasks behind the scenes for you, like ensuring content is responsive and search engine optimised.

This stack serves as an optional 'FreeStyle enabler'. It can be used to configure FreeStyle banner containers in a compatible theme (any theme advertised as having support for FreeStyle). This FreeStyle stack can do all sorts of wonderful things, like display static images, a slideshow or even video content. The possibilities are almost endless. As the name suggests, 'FreeStyle' gives you the freedom to create eye-catching banners of any style you like.

Although mostly intended for use in ThemeFlood RapidWeaver themes, it's certainly feasible (as proven in the past) to reuse this same stack in non-FreeStyle themes from other companies. To do so, just uncheck the Embed In FreeStyle setting, and place this stack in the normal page flow or within the ExtraContent stack. However please note that we do not provide support for RapidWeaver addons from other companies and therefore cannot guarantee compatibility or suitability of this stack beyond ThemeFlood themes.

Getting started

In the stack settings over on the right, choose the type of banner you want to setup from the Template popup menu. This will load one of several ready-made templates. Each template displays a different set of instructions, together with configurable options relevant to what you're building. Just follow the instructions carefully on the screen, enter your code or content and hit publish to see the results.

Start building RapidWeaver theme banners the easier and smarter way!