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Chouse Theme — Step 4: Implementation Summary

Note: this summary was written retroactively alongside Stage 5, after Stages 1-4 were already implemented and committed. Each stage's commit is accurate and stage-scoped; only the summary-doc update lagged behind rather than landing in the same commit as its stage, as the process otherwise calls for.

Stage 1 - Registry + palette

  • Changes:

    • src/ForumRewrite/View/ThemeRegistry.php: new entry ['name' => 'chouse', 'label' => 'Chouse', 'mode' => 'dark']

    • public/assets/site.css: new variable block for :root[data-theme="chouse"] — a warm walnut/brass dark palette (deep walnut --page-bg, cream --ink, bronze --line, brass --active-bg/--active-line), serif body font, no reference to Red Bull's actual colors

    • tests/LocalAppSmokeTest.php: updated the one existing assertion that hardcodes the theme allow-list string, an unavoidable consequence of the registry addition

  • Verification:

    • php -l on the touched PHP file — no syntax errors

    • php tests/run.php — full suite green

  • Notes: none

Stage 2 - Header/wordmark chrome

  • Changes:

    • public/assets/site.css: brass .theme-swatch[data-theme="chouse"] swatch; scoped .site-header/.eyebrow rules turning the site-name label into a vertical brass signage tab (writing-mode: vertical-rl, CSS-only, no image assets)

  • Verification:

    • Headless Chrome screenshots at 1280px and 380px widths (FORUM_SITE_ID=chouse, theme forced via the Stage 4 default) — wordmark renders as a legible vertical tab; confirmed no "Continue to Markit event page" link or reference to the concluded external event anywhere in the rendered header

    • Screenshot comparison against the default zenmemes theme at 380px confirmed the "Comfortable ▾" control overflow is a pre-existing app-wide issue, not introduced by this stage

    • php tests/run.php — full suite green (verified with the Stage 4 preview change stashed, so the check reflects only this stage's diff)

  • Notes: none

Stage 3 - Shell-wide chrome

  • Changes:

    • public/assets/site.css: brass top-accent strip on .card (via ::before), inset shadow on input/textarea for tactile depth, brass hover borders on buttons/nav links — all scoped under [data-theme="chouse"]

  • Verification:

    • Headless Chrome screenshots of the board (all-threads view) and about page — cards, thread titles, bylines, and the composer all read clearly against the palette

    • Screenshot of the default zenmemes theme confirmed pixel-unchanged rendering (no bleed from the new scoped rules)

    • php tests/run.php — full suite green (Stage 4 preview change stashed during verification)

  • Notes:

    • Buttons, inputs, and .nav-link.is-active already inherit correctly from the theme's CSS custom properties via existing generic rules (:root:not([data-theme="chicago"]) .nav-link.is-active, base button/input variable usage) — no theme-specific override was needed for those, which kept this stage smaller than planned

Stage 4 - Wire as chouse default

  • Changes:

    • src/ForumRewrite/SiteProfileRegistry.php: chouse entry's defaultTheme changed from 'auto' to 'chouse'; zenmemes entry unchanged

    • tests/LocalAppSmokeTest.php: updated testBoardPageRendersActiveSiteProfilePerFormSiteId to expect data-default-theme="chouse" for the chouse case (was asserting the prior auto default)

  • Verification:

    • php tests/run.php — full suite green

    • Manual render check: FORUM_SITE_ID=chouse now yields data-default-theme="chouse"; zenmemes still yields data-default-theme="auto"

  • Notes:

    • This change was implemented early (before Stages 2-3) and used, uncommitted, to drive visual QA screenshots for those stages — each of those stages' own verification was re-run with this change stashed out to confirm their diffs pass in isolation before committing

Stage 5 - Coverage, verification, docs

  • Changes: none (verification-only stage; the allow-list and default-theme test updates it called for were already made in Stages 1 and 4 respectively, as direct consequences of those changes)

  • Verification:

    • Ran the theme guide's three stale-state traps: deleted public/index.html (and, after an exploratory php scripts/build_static_artifacts.php run against the existing zenmemes local repository produced a large batch of gitignored static artifacts unrelated to this feature, deleted all of public/*.html and the generated public/tags/, public/about/, public/tools/*.html recursively to fully reset)

    • php tests/run.php — full suite green from a clean state

    • Visual sweep via headless Chrome screenshots: board (all-threads view), about page, header at desktop and ~380px widths, all under the chouse theme; one comparison screenshot of the default zenmemes theme to confirm no regression

  • Notes:

    • Full interactive verification (theme popover open/close, keyboard focus, text selection, :target permalink jump) from the theme guide's workflow was not performed — this environment has headless Chrome but no playwright-core/interaction-scripting installed, so only static screenshots were captured. Recommend a manual interactive pass before treating this as production-ready.

    • No custom scrollbar styling was added for this theme, so the guide's headed-Chrome scrollbar-rendering caveat does not apply here.