Keeping skins organized

That's basically what I do... i've had to edit all my skins multiple time for version changes, as well as for just updating them. I tend to move all my old copies into a file not listed on my local site and just stay with the files that are pertient for the current site.

Since eFiction is very customizable, I've used the same skin index, header and footer files for different skins. All I do, is make sure that the css files uploaded into each file are different, point to different graphics and using different color schemes.

Use the sitename, siteslogan, menu type variables. The variables always stay the same, but the things they output are different depending on the site.

Use the sitename, siteslogan, menu type variables. The variables always stay the same, but the things they output are different depending on the site.

By the above line, do you mean {sitename} and {siteslogan} and the like? If I made those different between each site, it would be because of the way they're defined in the Admin Panel(s) or in the variables.php, right? *_* I'm just a bit confused...

Yes. In the skin you just put {sitename} and {siteslogan}. The admin panel is where you put what the site name and the site slogan actually is in the settings.

Ah, but what if you use header images? Can you define that the variables point to images, rather than plain text? (I think you can, if you disable TinyMCE for that one input box, and just put in HTML, right?)

I have no idea.

For my skins that use header images as background of a large table cell, I just assign it in the css file. For skins with an actual image I just spell it out with the full url. I really don't find it to be a problem. You only have to keep the skins straight once when you first edit them. Or whenever you do edit them, remember to make sure that the different urls are right. How often do you really edit them?

If you want to try to assign an image using html as the sitename then go ahead. Please post back and let us know if it works. 🙂

I checked a bit earlier, and I guess I was getting a block input box confused with the site setting (i.e. site name, site slogan) boxes; you can't enable or disable tinyMCE in those boxes, and I don't think HTML is allowable in those fields. What I've been doing so far is editing the images (background, table corners, header images, etc.) and then saving them under a different filename than the original. I realize that I have to change the CSS then, to reflect it, but I don't want to overwrite the CSS for my other site. So I think what I would have to do is move the skins folder to something outside its usual directory (i.e. another folder which I don't intend to upload), with two separate folders within them one for site1, and one for site2. But rather than have ALL the skins duplicated twice, the only things in those folders would be the style.css and any applicable images in the images folder. I would just have to make sure I used the right paths in the CSS, and that when I uploaded the skins, I made sure to upload them to the "real" skins directory.

o_O Does that make sense, or sound wise?

Ah, but what if you use header images? Can you define that the variables point to images, rather than plain text? (I think you can, if you disable TinyMCE for that one input box, and just put in HTML, right?)

No.  The sitename and slogan are also used for your page title and therefore can't use an image.

What I do is put a div for the sitename in the .tpl:

<div id="sitename">&nbps;</div>

Then assign a background image and height to the div in my CSS:

#sitename {
   background: url(images/Banner.jpg) no-repeat top left #369;
   height: 80px;
}

The Banner.jpg graphic is of course 80px high here.  You need the &nbsp; in the div for IE which doesn't display <div>s without content in them.

With

background: url(images/Banner.jpg)

will it automatically call up a banner image found in each skin file? Or does it call up a banner in the main image directory?

If it calls up images from each individual skin file, all you would have to do, Azurite, is keep track of all the images.

A good idea is to regularly copy your skin folders into a zip and keep them before you do any changes. I did that a lot when I was upgrading, or changing things and it saved me from some cataclysmic problems. Becasue I had a backup of a skin file, or config, ect, I was able to fix it when I overwrote it with the wrong file.

In CSS the url is relative to the CSS file.  So this example will look for a Banner.jpg file in the images/ sub-folder of the skin in question.

Are the skins or any skin files ever updated in patch updates and the like?

I've occasionally updated the default skins to fix errors, but your skins are your own.

It doesn't always work because I'll occasionally move things to the wrong folder,  but what I've got set up locally is a couple different installs in separate folders.  One for testing the main script, one for testing my site (where my skins are at) and one for development.