Bulletproof (bp) is a template framework, which means it is, on the one hand a template for the weblog engine Serendipity (s9y), and on the other hand is meant to be used as a framework to build new templates for s9y.
The Bulletproof developers' primary design goal was to create a template which is, well, bulletproof!! It should be able to create any of the "classic" website/blog layouts, in any popular browser, on any popular platform, without falling apart. The developers are fairly confident that we have achieved that goal, but of course nothing is 100% certain.
Bulletproof makes great use of s9y's "theme options", so users can now configure almost any desirable option using just the administration panel. There is almost no need to edit any of the template's core files. Of course we cannot cover every specific custom feature every user might desire, but we are fairly sure we have covered the most desireable features.
User or designer?
If you are a s9y user, you can use bp as a template for your blog if you like the design of one of the colorsets (it comes with three). In this case, you will want to read the user documentation only (i.e. entries tagged "user") as it will tell you what you can do with bp.
If you are a s9y template designer, you can use the bp code to produce new templates. You, and the people using your templates, will be able to benefit from all the nice features of bp (unless you decide to disable them), so you can concentrate on designing neat new s9y templates. The code base is already there, your part will be to make it look great. If you want to go with a car comparison: We have built the engine, the transmission and stuff like that. Your job is it to give it a paint job, put some tires on and do the interior 
You will probably want to read the user documentation first to get an idea of bp's features. Then you will want to dive into the more detailed styling documentation which is supposed to give you an idea of how you can customize bp further.
I think the bulletproof template is a really good concept. I'd like to work with it and i'm trying to find where i can download the user documentation you were talking about. Can you help me?
Thanks
Matthias
I'm sorry about it, but this entry is a little outdated, i.e. from a time when the concept we would use for documentation hadn't been settled.
At the time of writing this comment, there is no special user or technical documentation. I'll see what I can do later to tag the existing articles properly.
But one question is left: How do I fix the width, when using a headerimage?
the easiest way would be to adjust the width of the wrapper div in the colourset css file to the width of your header image.
I've shown the code below for the bulletproof variation used on this site.
#wrapper {
padding: 0;
width: 968px;
font-family: "Trebuchet MS", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size: 76%;
background: #fff url(img/bpmain.gif) repeat-y;
border: 0px;
}
HTH
In the meantime I've made a very wide header. I fear, this would not be the right way?
The new project is here: www.das-echte-fotoalbum.de
So I take the ultra wide header banner again. What do you think about this: www.das-echte-fotoalbum.de
If you don't want a fixed #wrapper but still want to have a banner image, you should make it wide enough to fit today's usual screen resolutions, i.e. 1280x1024px. That image, however, will be cropped in smaller resolutions.
I tried this: I.e., if you have a banner that's 960px wide ... well, see above
But: The banner was cropped in the middle of it's hight. That's the point!
>1280x1024px. That image, however, will be cropped in smaller resolutions.
Okay. That means, the ultra wide banner can be 1280 x 150px. Right?
And, yes, the banner can be 1280x150px.
#serendipity_banner {
height: 134px;
}
I had to had to change the headerimagae because my client has a small monitor. He was't happy with the wide banner image.
Now I tried to center the imagee and to place a additional background image. Is there a way to get rid of the white behind the banner?
das-echte-fotoalbum.de
Nice regards
Fiona
Yes, I solved the problem with the white background.
There is only one small problem: The flexible width of the sideboxes causes unbeautiful appearances if there is a picture inside of a box (I called it "Schaufenster"). This only happens, whith a screen, smaller than 1000 Pixels (unfortunally my client uses such a small resolution). The white background does help a bit ...
Btw, congratulation of the good job done with bulletproof!
Just upgraded to v1.1. Downloaded through Spartacus and found out it's only v1.0.
About the width option: For starters, it's not as easy as you imagine. Second, that would only be possible using inline styles, and I guess we'll keep those to a minimum. Bottom line: I don't think so.
I'd really like to hear how you updated BP using spartacus, because BP isn't on spartacus ..?
I just upgraded to s9y v1.2 a few days ago and I thought I'd get a new style too. Then I found BP.
I installed the BP from the menu Appearance > Manage Styles. That's not Spartacus? When I installed it from there, it was still v1.0. Then I came here to check, it's v1.1. So, downloaded and overwritten everything. Had to reinsert all my custom changes. LOL!
Just rechecked at Manage Styles, the version is already v1.1 now.
For background colors only, the sidebars could have something like class="sbwidth_$template_option.sbwidth". The config.inc.php file could define sbwidth as 20, 25, 30, etc.
and stylesheet selectors like:
sbwidth_20 {width: 20%};
sbwidth_25 {width: 25%}; etc
I would not personally want to implement this in the bp core code, but thought I would mention it if anyone wanted to make their own bp derivative that included this type of feature.
ps-If you want to see my change to the green color scheme, just visit my homepage.