Description:
summary: maintain theme compatibility across creator releases. that is, a user
should be able to take a theme that was pkg'd via creator version X, and use it
within creator version Y. below is a conversation between jeff blattman and
david botterill that has more detailed information:

Jeff Blattman wrote:
> thanks david,
>
> David Botterill wrote:
>> Jeff,
>>
>> First, are you aware that themes and portlets are not necessarily a good
thing?  I've been pushing for a "neutral" or "untheme" for the components in a
portlet context because of the impact of the CSS on the rest of the portal.  To
date, Greg Z.'s blog on working around the component theme issue is the best
approach.
> the approach we've used is to have all of the portlets, and the portal, use
the same theme. it gives a very homogeneous looking portal, but it works.
>>
>> All that aside, I'm copying the rave-dev alias to get feedback about future
theme support.  Also note that the theme infrastructure is part of the
"Braveheart" (Lockheart components customized to work in Creator) component set.
 This means the theme support is really at the component level rather the
Creator IDE level.  We've simply given the user a way to switch themes in
Creator and made sure the right one is packaged in the WAR.  If I'm wrong about
any of this I'm confident the Creator engineers will set me straight. :)
> so you are saying that you do not support theme customization?
We do support theme customization.  In fact we encourage it. Sorry if I implied
otherwise.
>
> even if, i think the problem remains. maybe i made the question unnecessarily
complex. can i take a theme pkg'd by creator version X and put it into a new
portlet app that i'm pkging w/ creator version Y? i have not customized the
theme JAR, i just copied it from the creator version X portlet.
This is the direction I'm not sure about.  I don't know if we've committed to
supporting the current themes in future Creator versions.  You can see we have a
"ThemeBuilder" in plans for a future release
(http://jupiter.czech.sun.com/wiki/view/Main/ThresherNextPossibleFeatures). 
Even though backward compatibility seems obvious, I'd encourage you to submit a
high priority RFE. Here are the details for that.