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Difference b/w Skins and Templates?
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Written on: 09/15/2010
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Holly Ross
Topic creator
registered since: 10/22/2007
Posts: 53
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Can someone please point me toward the proper documentation that describes the full difference b/w Skins and Templates and how they function/work/Skins are modified? I am trying to turn my own HTML design into a skin by modifying a copy of the Regal skin, but I keep running into documentation on the old style Templates. This is SO confusing because there seems to be no good documentation on how to go about turning your HTML into a SKIN... or the best way to access those skin files... or how templates still work into this whole picture. I guess this whole switch to Skins (vs. Templates) took me/our team by surprise last March when it rolled out and I still feel like I missed a beat somewhere to understand how things work now. Thanks in advance! - Holly |
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Written on: 09/15/2010
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Peter Schott
registered since: 03/17/2007
Posts: 321
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"Holly Ross" wrote: Can someone please point me toward the proper documentation that describes the full difference b/w Skins and Templates and how they function/work/Skins are modified? I am trying to turn my own HTML design into a skin by modifying a copy of the Regal skin, but I keep running into documentation on the old style Templates. This is SO confusing because there seems to be no good documentation on how to go about turning your HTML into a SKIN... or the best way to access those skin files... or how templates still work into this whole picture. I guess this whole switch to Skins (vs. Templates) took me/our team by surprise last March when it rolled out and I still feel like I missed a beat somewhere to understand how things work now. Thanks in advance! - Holly Holly, If you're still running on the old WEC package (without the TemplaVoila Framework from Ron Hall (BusyNoggin) ), then you're likely still on the old TemplaVoila templates. The new skins are more CSS-based than anything else. That makes it pretty easy to tweak the CSS driving the look and feel and make it into something more like what you want. There's likely still some HTML as well, but we were able to tweak the look/feel of our site just with the CSS. Admittedly, we didn't have a lot of demands, but it was still relatively painless. You may want to download a copy of the latest Starter package from this site to play with it and see what the new Skins offer and more on how they work. I think that Ron's got a better description of his framework here: http://templavoila.busynoggin.com/introduction You can read the docs behind it as well and maybe pick apart a Skin to see how it works. If you need to convert your site from the old Templates to the newer skins, you may have some work ahead of you. I'd be prepared to spend a couple of hours to make the changes and then verify that everything is working correctly. It won't take too long to switch over, but you'll need to re-link your content elements and position them after the switch, along with template modifications. As for your HTML design into a skin, you'll likely need to know some CSS to work the changes effectively. As noted, the skins use a lot of CSS. Not exactly the answer you sought, but hope it was helpful. -Peter |
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Written on: 09/21/2010
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Holly Ross
Topic creator
registered since: 10/22/2007
Posts: 53
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Thanks Peter! Well actually, I don't think I'm as bad off as you described, because it was AFTER the skins released that we finally registered for our WEC hosting account. So right now our development site is using the Regal Theme, but we can't stand the design. http://wpumc.wecbuilder.org We want to change out the graphics, and I've designed something new in Photoshop, but we just aren't sure if replacing the graphics in a duplicated skins folder is the way to go, or if there's a more proper way to do it. And as far as editing the CSS... which way do I get to that from the backend of TYPO3? There seem to be 10 different ways to access anything in TYPO3 and I'm usually confused/forgetful about which ways are the best. I know that there are some other people out there modifying their own skins, so I was just hoping that there is a guide of some sort on how to do it best. I'm not at all scared of CSS and can create graphics too, so hopefully this shouldn't be TOOOO hard.  I'll take a look at Ron Hall's link you posted above... hopefully that will get me started! If anyone else has other suggestions too, I'd love to hear those as well! Thanks! - Holly |
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Written on: 09/21/2010
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Peter Schott
registered since: 03/17/2007
Posts: 321
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It should pretty much just be a matter of creating that copy and then making your changes to that copy. All of the CSS files and images would be stored w/ that copy of the template. That's what we ended up doing for our site. I used a Windows app called Stylizer for my work - just made it easier to pull up the site in the program and tweak the CSS against local files, but seeing those changes live. There are definitely other apps that can do that, but I'll admit to knowing very little about CSS so Stylizer was a big help for me. In any case, you just modify the CSS in the template copy folder, add or replace any images you want and you should be fine. And no, you shouldn't have any problems if you're comfortable w/ CSS already. If I can make the changes, you should definitely be able to.  -Peter |
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Written on: 09/22/2010
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 Jeff Segars
registered since: 12/20/2004
Posts: 665
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Hey Holly, Just to echo what Pete said, the goal of the new skins is to allow you to go a lot farther just by tweaking the CSS and not requiring as many TYPO3 specific skills as the old templates did. That said, if you're more of a designer and not as comfortable in the CSS world, WEC does offer services to take a photoshop design and convert it directly to a skin. If that's something you want to explore, give us a call or open up a ticket. If you do try to make the changes on your own, its very doable with some CSS knowledge and we're happy to give pointers along the way. Just wanted to throw out the other option if its one of those cases where its easier to have someone else do it. Thanks! Jeff |
