# Best Theme Engine?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/best-theme-engine/110813>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [July 31, 2007, 7:56am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/best-theme-engine/110813 "2007-07-31T07:56:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jimmyz](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/e68b1a/32.png) [@jimmyz](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jimmyz)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2007, 7:56am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/best-theme-engine/110813/1 "2007-07-31T07:56:39Z")

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I’m starting a new rails project which requires users being able to  
select/edit a theme for the site. There appears to be several plugins  
and libraries available for this.

> From any of you that have experience using/contributing to the  
> different theme engines, which do you prefer?

At the moment we are considering:  
Matt McCray’s Theme Support Plugin ([http://www.mattmccray.com/archive/](http://www.mattmccray.com/archive/)  
2006/04/09/Rails\_Theme\_Support\_Plugin\_v\_1)  
MasterView ([http://www.masterview.org/](http://www.masterview.org/))  
Liquid ([http://www.liquidmarkup.org/](http://www.liquidmarkup.org/))

It appears that MasterView and Liquid are just templating engines, and  
that’s where the Theme Support Plugin comes into play (which allows  
you to do multiple themes with either ERB or Liquid). Is this correct?

If there is any other theme support plugins available, I’d be  
interested in taking a look.

Thank you,

Jimmy

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**Author:** ![jimmyz](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/e68b1a/32.png) [@jimmyz](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jimmyz)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2007, 2:41pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/best-theme-engine/110813/2 "2007-07-31T14:41:35Z")

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On 7/31/07, jimmyz [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> Matt McCray’s Theme Support Plugin ([http://www.mattmccray.com/archive/](http://www.mattmccray.com/archive/)  
> 2006/04/09/Rails\_Theme\_Support\_Plugin\_v\_1)  
> MasterView ([http://www.masterview.org/](http://www.masterview.org/))  
> Liquid ([http://www.liquidmarkup.org/](http://www.liquidmarkup.org/))
> 
> It appears that MasterView and Liquid are just templating engines, and  
> that’s where the Theme Support Plugin comes into play (which allows  
> you to do multiple themes with either ERB or Liquid). Is this correct?

Theme support is one idea that we have on our todo list for MasterView  
but  
have not had a chance to investigate it yet. If you do try to combine  
Matt’s  
Theme support plugin and have any problems let us know and we’ll do what  
we  
can to resolve it. But since we do use ERB underneath everything there  
is a  
good chance it will work, especially if you set the  
config.generate\_rhtml\_files = false so that the ERB is generated to the  
file  
system. This provides the maximum compatibility with other plugins and  
saves  
a little memory as well.

[http://masterview.org/configuration.html](http://masterview.org/configuration.html)

Let us know what you find out!

Blessings,

–  
Jeff B., MasterView core team  
Inspired Horizons Ruby on Rails Training and Consultancy  
[http://inspiredhorizons.com/](http://inspiredhorizons.com/)