Display the number of stories in the current topic in the Topic Editor (feature request #0000806)
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4 <title>Geeklog Documentation - Theme How-To</title>
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9 <p><a href="http://www.geeklog.net/" style="background:transparent"><img src="../images/newlogo.gif" alt="Geeklog" width="243" height="90"></a></p>
10 <div class="menu"><a href="index.html">Geeklog Documentation</a> - Theme How-To</div>
12 <p><small>(see below for a list of <a href="#changes">theme changes</a> in
13 recent Geeklog versions)</small></p>
16 <h1>Creating a Theme for Geeklog</h1>
18 <p>Creating a theme for Geeklog is easy and quite fast. If you can
19 manipulate HTML files then you can create a theme! There's no need to learn
22 <h2>Creating a theme</h2>
24 <p>First, copy an existing theme that is most similar to what you want to
25 implement (if one exists). If what you will do is radically different (and we
26 hope so!) then copying any one will do. Copy the existing theme to the name you
27 want your theme to have (please, <em>no</em> spaces in the theme name):</p>
29 <p><kbd>cp -R /path/to/geeklog/public_html/layout/professional /path/to/geeklog/public_html/layout/My_Theme_Name_No_Spaces</kbd></p>
31 <p>Change into your new theme directory:</p>
33 <p><kbd>cd /path/to/geeklog/public_html/layout/My_Theme_Name_No_Spaces</kbd></p>
35 <p>Now edit the templates to suit your needs. Keep in mind that templates,
36 generally are partial HTML files. The directory you just created holds ALL
37 templates Geeklog needs but you will only need to modify a small few to
38 make a huge impact on the look.</p>
40 <p>In particular these are the templates you will undoubtedly want to
46 <li>blockheader.thtml</li>
47 <li>blockfooter.thtml</li>
48 <li>storytext.thtml</li>
49 <li>storybodytext.thtml</li>
50 <li>featuredstorytext.thtml</li>
51 <li>featuredstorybodytext.thtml</li>
52 <li>archivestorytext.thtml</li>
53 <li>archivestorybodytext.thtml</li>
58 <h3><a name="how-themes-work">How themes work</a></h3>
60 <p>When rendering a theme, Geeklog starts with <tt>header.thtml</tt> which
61 builds the site's header and then goes on to include the left column of blocks
62 (look for the variable {left_blocks} and the <tt>leftblocks.thtml</tt> file).
63 The middle part of a site consists of the stories which are built using the
64 <tt>storytext.thtml</tt> and <tt>storybodytext.thtml</tt> (for normal stories)
65 and <tt>featuredstorytext.thtml</tt> and <tt>featuredstorybodytext.thtml</tt>
66 (for featured stories) template files. The <tt>footer.thtml</tt> file then
67 builds the right column of blocks (variable {right_blocks}, file
68 <tt>right_blocks.thtml</tt>) and the site's footer. Blocks themselves consist
69 of the <tt>blockheader.thtml</tt> and <tt>blockfooter.thtml</tt> files.
71 <p>The above only describes how Geeklog's main page and stories are rendered.
72 More templates exist for the various editors and lists you will see in Geeklog,
73 as well as for the calendar and almost every other part of Geeklog.</p>
75 <p>There is currently no complete list available that explains which template
76 file is used for which part of Geeklog. However, in most cases the use should
77 be obvious when you have a look at the file and directory names in your theme's
78 layout directory. If you're unsure which template file is used to render a
79 certain part of Geeklog, have a look at the URL. You will notice the name of
80 a PHP file there, e.g. the <tt>users.php</tt> file when you view a user's
81 profile. Open that file and search for '<kbd>.thtml</kbd>'. For the profile
82 you will find these lines (in <code>function userprofile()</code>):</p>
83 <pre style="margin-left:4em;"><code>$user_templates = new Template ($_CONF['path_layout'] . 'users');
84 $user_templates->set_file (array ('profile'=>'profile.thtml', 'row'=>'commentrow.thtml', 'strow'=>'storyrow.thtml'));</code></pre>
85 <p>You don't need to understand PHP code to see that this uses the template
86 files <tt>profile.thtml</tt>, <tt>commentrow.thtml</tt>, and
87 <tt>storyrow.thtml</tt>. The first line also indicates that these are taken
88 from the <tt>users</tt> directory within the theme's layout directory.</p>
90 <p>An <a href="themevars.html">incomplete list of variables</a> that can be
91 used in templates files is also included.</p>
93 <h3><a name="testing">Testing a theme and further information</a></h3>
95 <p>After you have edited your themes, you are now ready to test it out.
96 Simply go to http://mygeeklogsite/usersettings.php?mode=preferences - in the
97 theme drop-down select your newly created theme (note the name of your theme is
98 the <em>same</em> name as the directory for your theme).
100 <p>Finally, you may want to update the logo and other images in your
101 theme's images directory.
103 <p>For the template system we are using PHPLib's template class (<a
104 href="http://phplib.sourceforge.net/">http://phplib.sourceforge.net/</a>).
105 Read their documentation and, optionally, look at
106 /path/to/geeklog/system/classes/template.class.php to see how it is
107 implemented. Even with this knowledge it may not be clear which templates
108 are used in conjunction with one another (i.e. <tt>storytext.thtml</tt> and
109 <tt>storybodytext.thtml</tt> together make up the complete format of a
111 story). If you have questions join our mailing list at <a
112 href="http://lists.geeklog.net/listinfo/geeklog-users">http://lists.geeklog.net/listinfo/geeklog-users</a>
113 or check us out in IRC at irc.freenode.net in #geeklog.</p>
115 <h3><a name="tips">Tips and tricks</a></h3>
117 <p><strong><a name="wysiwyg">Themes and WYSIWYG editors:</a></strong>
118 The template files used by Geeklog are not complete HTML files - they contain
119 only parts of the HTML that Geeklog puts together to build a proper HTML
120 document. This, however, seems to confuse some WYSIWYG HTML editors and some of
121 them tend to add the HTML which they think is missing from the file, thus
122 making it unusable for Geeklog.<br>
123 We suggest you use a simple text editor to edit your themes.</p>
125 <p><strong><a name="php">PHP in themes:</a></strong>
126 You can use PHP in the <em>header</em> of a theme, i.e. in the
127 <tt>header.thtml</tt> file. If you want to use custom PHP functions, you can
128 put them in the file <tt>functions.php</tt> within your themes directory.</p>
130 <p><strong><a name="different-look">Different look for left and right blocks:</a></strong>
131 You can give the blocks on the left and right a different look. See
132 <a href="http://www.geeklog.net/forum/viewtopic.php?showtopic=21070">this story on the Geeklog homepage</a> for details.</p>
134 <p><strong><a name="polls">Polls:</a></strong>
135 To use multi-colored bars in the graphical display of poll results, you can use
136 the <code>{answer_counter}</code> and <code>{answer_odd}</code> variables in
137 the <tt>pollbooth/pollvotes_bar.thtml</tt> template file.
138 <code>{answer_counter}</code> will be replaced with a running number for each
139 answer, hence <code>bar{answer_counter}.gif</code> would result in
140 <tt>bar1.gif</tt>, <tt>bar2.gif</tt>, etc. Giving each of those GIFs a different
141 color would give you a different color for each answer.<br>
142 <code>{answer_odd}</code> will alternate between 0 and 1 for every answer, hence
143 <code>bar{answer_odd}.gif</code> will result in <tt>bar0.gif</tt> for the first,
144 third, fifth, etc. answer and <tt>bar1.gif</tt> for the second, fourth, etc.
147 <p><strong><a name="left-blocks">Left blocks in the right column:</a></strong>
148 <code>$_CONF['left_blocks_in_footer']</code> is a
149 rather curious option. It makes the <code>{left_blocks}</code> variable
150 available in the site's footer (i.e. <tt>footer.thtml</tt>) while at the same
151 time disabling it in the header (<tt>header.thtml</tt>).<br>
152 The idea is that this can be used for two-column layouts (one column for the
153 blocks and one column for the content) but when you want to have the blocks
154 on the right side. Simply moving all blocks to the right will not work as
155 expected, as you'd end up with <em>no blocks</em> at all on those pages that
156 normally only display the left blocks (e.g. <tt>article.php</tt> or the
157 admin pages). Setting <code>$_CONF['left_blocks_in_footer'] = 1</code> will
158 fix this, so that the blocks, while internally still treated as <em>left</em>
159 blocks, will actually be displayed on the <em>right</em>.<br>
160 The theme's <tt>header.thtml</tt>, <tt>footer.thtml</tt>, and
161 <tt>leftblocks.thtml</tt> will probably need some adjustments. The
162 'left_blocks_in_footer' option is therefore not available in the main
163 configuration but should instead be set in the theme's <tt>functions.php</tt>
164 file. That way, you can even leave your users a choice between, for example,
165 a "normal" theme and one with the blocks on the right.</p>
167 <p><strong><a name="error-message">Error Message:</a></strong>
168 Since Geeklog 1.4.1 it is possible to control what HTML is displayed to
169 non-root users in the event of an error occurring (a crash bug). To do
170 so, you need to change the function <code>CUSTOM_handleError</code> in
171 lib-custom.php to output any HTML you like.</p>
173 <p><strong><a name="permalink">Adding a "permalink" to stories:</a></strong>
174 Many websites offer a so-called permalink, i.e. a link to a permanent URL for
175 the story. In Geeklog's default Professional theme, the article's headline
176 already provides the same functionality - it links to a permanent URL for the
177 story (pointing to article.php). However, since this is not very obvious and
178 since visitors often expect to find a "permalink" somewhere on the page, here's
179 how to add one yourself:</p>
181 <li>Find a place in the story template files. The "story-footer" section in
182 <tt>storytext.thtml</tt> may be a good place since it already contains quite a
183 few story-related links.</li>
184 <li>Once you've found a place to put the permalink entry, enter this piece of
186 <code style="margin-left:2em"><a href="{article_url}">{lang_permalink}<a></code><br>
187 This will add a link to the article (<code>article_url</code>) using the word
188 "Permalink" from the current language file (<code>lang_permalink</code>).</li>
189 <li>Try it out. Be aware that at this point, your permalink entry only shows up
190 for non-featured articles. You may want to tweak the appearance a bit (using
191 CSS) or move the link around.</li>
192 <li>Add the same piece of code to the <tt>featuredstorytext.thtml</tt> and
193 <tt>archivestorytext.thtml</tt> templates so that the link also appears for
194 featured and archived stories.</li>
198 <h2><a name="changes">Theme changes in Geeklog 1.6.1</a></h2>
201 <li>The Topic Editor now contains a line displaying the number of stories in
202 the current topic. New variables in <tt>admin/topic/topiceditor.thtml</tt>:
203 <code>{lang_num_stories}</code>, <code>{num_stories}</tt></li>
204 <li>Cosmetics: Fixed the position of the story preview when using the
205 advanced editor (was slightly shifted to the right, <a
206 href="http://project.geeklog.net/tracking/view.php?id=963">bug #0000963</a>). Changes to the <code><div id="preview"></code> in
207 <tt>admin/story/storyeditor_advanced.thtml</tt>.</li>
208 <li>Cosmetics: Removed <code>font-size:larger;</code> for the header fields of
209 the admin lists from the stylesheet, but added some top/bottom padding
210 (<a href="http://project.geeklog.net/tracking/view.php?id=956">bug #0000956</a>).</li>
211 <li>Cosmetics: Removed a <code>width="180"</code> from the Block editor template
212 (<tt>admin/block/blockeditor.thtml</tt>) that pushed the first column too
213 far to the right.</li>
214 <li>Cosmetics: Made the permission checkboxes look more like an Admin list,
215 <tt>admin/common/edit_permissions.thtml</tt>. Introduced new CSS class
216 <tt>admin-list-smalltable</tt>, which is almost identical to
217 <tt>admin-list-table</tt> but without the <code>width:100%;</code></li>
218 <li>Added a link back to the story to the "Mail Story to a Friend" form,
219 <tt>profiles/contactauthorform.thtml</tt>. Available variables:
220 <tt>{lang_title}</tt>, <tt>{story_title}</tt>, <tt>{story_url}</tt>,
221 <tt>{story_link}</tt>.</tt>
222 <li>Added textarea fields for meta description and meta keywords to the Story
223 Editor (<tt>admin/story/storyeditor.thtml</tt>,
224 <tt>admin/story/storyeditor_advanced.thtml</tt>).</li>
225 <li>Added textarea fields for meta description and meta keywords to the Topic
226 Editor (<tt>admin/topic/topiceditor.thtml</tt>).</li>
227 <li>Added a <code>{remoteservice}</code> variable in
228 <tt>admin/user/edituser.thtml</tt> to optionally display the name of the
229 service a Remote User was using to log in.</li>
232 <h3>Changes to plugin templates</h3>
233 <p>Note that plugin template files are kept in a directory
234 <tt>plugins/<i>pluginnname</i>/templates</tt> and not in the <tt>layout</tt>
238 <li>Links: Removed a <code>width="150"</code> from the Category editor template
239 (<tt>admin/categoryeditor.thtml</tt>) that pushed the first column too far
241 <li>Static Pages: In the Static Pages editor, moved the Hits display below
242 the Last Updated entry (<tt>admin/editor.thtml</tt>,
243 <tt>admin/editor_advanced.thtml</tt>).</li>
244 <li>Static Pages: Added textarea fileds for meta description and meta keywords
245 in the Static Pages editor (<tt>admin/editor.thtml</tt>,
246 <tt>admin/editor_advanced.thtml</tt>).</li>
247 <li>Polls: Added new CSS classes <tt>poll-autotag-message</tt>,
248 <tt>poll-autotag</tt>, <tt>poll-autotag-left</tt>, used when embedding polls
249 via the new autotags.</li>
253 <h2><a name="changes160">Theme changes in Geeklog 1.6.0</a></h2>
256 <li>Themes can now opt to use a <tt>{doctype}</tt> variable in their
257 <tt>header.thtml</tt> instead of using a hard-coded DOCTYPE declaration.
258 The DOCTYPE will then be set from the configuration (currently available:
259 HTML 4.01 Strict and Transitional, XHTML 1.0 Strict and Transitional). Such
260 a theme should <em>not</em> set the <code>XHTML</code> constant in its
261 <tt>functions.php</tt> file!</li>
262 <li>When using <a href="#xhtml">XHTML</a>, the variable <tt>{xmlns}</tt> now
263 contains <tt>xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"</tt> for XHTML compliance
264 (to be used in the <tt><html></tt> element).</li>
265 <li>Added a space between a story's intro text and body text when using the
266 <tt>{story_text_no_br}</tt> variable.</li>
267 <li>The story templates in the Professional theme now use
268 <tt>{story_text_no_br}</tt> instead of <tt>{story_introtext}</tt>, i.e.
269 there are no <tt><br></tt> tags between a story's intro text and
270 body text any more. This allows for greater flexibility in formatting a
271 story (e.g. when using the intro text for teasers) but may result in older
272 stories being displayed differently now (no visible separation between intro
273 text and body text).</li>
274 <li>Bugfix: The variables <tt>{contributedby_user}</tt> and
275 <tt>{contributedby_fullname}</tt> were always empty.</li>
276 <li>The two variables <tt>{start_contributedby_anchortag}</tt> and
277 <tt>{end_contributedby_anchortag}</tt> were not set any more (since Geeklog
278 1.5.0). Instead, the link to the author's profile was added to
279 <tt>{contributedby_author}</tt>, so that the combination of these three
280 variables (as used in the story templates) still seemed to work. Geeklog
281 1.6.0 reinstates the old definitions, i.e. the anchortag variables contain
282 the opening and closing tag to link to the author's profile and
283 <tt>{contributedby_author}</tt> contains only the author's name.</li>
284 <li>New variable <tt>{photo_max_dimensions}</tt> to inform users about the
285 max. dimensions of a userphoto: <tt>preferences/userphoto.thtml</tt></li>
286 <li>Added a <tt>print.css</tt> stylesheet to be used by the
287 <tt>printable.thtml</tt> template files for articles and the static pages
289 <li>The plugin editor can now show a plugin's "display name" (or a beautified
290 version of the directory name) when using the new variable
291 <code>{pi_display_name}</code> in <tt>admin/plugins/editor.thtml</tt>.
292 This is a purely cosmetic change.</li>
293 <li>New template file <tt>admin/lists/inline.thtml</tt>, used when embedding
294 lists into an existing HTML <code><form></code> (e.g. the new Groups
296 <li>Added a "send copy to myself" option to
297 <tt>profiles/contactuserform.thtml</tt></li>
298 <li>Cosmetic changes to the <tt>admin/mail/mailform.thtml</tt> template file:
299 Removed <code>{startblock_email}</code> and <code>{endblock_email}</code>
300 and the top table. These elements are now added automatically to make the
301 the mail form look more consistent with the other admin panels.</li>
302 <li>A new checkbox has been added to <tt>search/searchform.thtml</tt> to allow
303 for a search in the title only.</li>
304 <li>Cosmetic changes to the <tt>admin/group/groupmembers.thtml</tt> template
305 file: The header (including the icon, links, and the instructions) is now
306 generated by Geeklog. The <tt><table></tt> that contained these
307 elements has been removed from the template file.</li>
308 <li>Configuration: <tt>config_element.thtml</tt> was missing a closing
309 <code></option></code> tag; the <code><col></code> tags in
310 <tt>configuration.thtml</tt> were not XHTML compliant.</li>
315 <p>The templates for the search form and search results have been changed and
316 new template files have been added for the new display modes of the search
317 results. We suggest to replace the entire <tt>search</tt> subdirectory in your
318 theme with a copy of the directory from the Professional theme as it ships
323 <p>The <tt>commentform.thtml</tt> and <tt>commentform_advanced.thtml</tt>
324 template files were changed to include a security token and a
325 <code>{notification}</code> variable (for the new option to be notified of
326 followup comments).</p>
331 <li>The template file for the Polls editor has been changed to allow up to 40
332 characters for the poll id (pid):
333 <tt>plugins/polls/templates/admin/polleditor.thtml</tt></li>
334 <li>The <tt>printable.thtml</tt> template file for the static pages plugin now
335 uses <tt>print.css</tt> (see above). It also uses the HTML Strict doctype
339 <h3>Permissions Editor</h3>
341 <p>The various instances of the Permissions Editor (where you can set the Read
342 / Edit permissions for Owner, Group, Members, Anonymous) were using slightly
343 different template variable names. From now on, the following names are defined
346 <li><tt>{lang_permissions}</tt> (headline)</li>
347 <li><tt>{lang_perm_key}</tt> (legend: R = read, ...)</li>
348 <li><tt>{permissions_editor}</tt> (the actual checkboxes)</li>
349 <li><tt>{lang_permissions_msg}</tt> (Note: members is all logged in member ...)</li>
351 <p>Template files using the alternative names will continue to work, but new
352 files should use the above names from now on.</p>
355 <h2><a name="changes152">Theme changes in Geeklog 1.5.2</a></h2>
357 <p>Note: Themes made for Geeklog 1.5.0 or 1.5.1 should work just fine with
358 Geeklog 1.5.2. In this release, we only fixed a few problems in the themes
359 (detailed below) that also affected 1.5.0 and 1.5.1. The other changes listed
360 here are optional.</p>
364 <p>These changes are actual bugs in the template files that also exist in
365 Geeklog 1.5.0 and 1.5.1. We recommend making these changes to all custom
369 <li>The security token was missing from the trackback editor template file,
370 <tt>admin/trackback/trackbackeditor.thtml</tt></li>
371 <li>The <code>{start_storylink_anchortag}</code> variable in the story templates
372 was missing the closing '>'. This caused the story title to disappear
373 on some themes. (This was a bug in Geeklog's code, so no theme changes
375 <li>The <code>{site_admin_url}</code> was missing from the Configuration form
376 action in <tt>admin/config/configuration.thtml</tt>. This may have caused
377 problems making configuration changes on some setups.</li>
378 <li>Added a hidden <code>old_pid</code> input field to the polls editor template
379 file, <tt>plugins/polls/templates/admin/polleditor.thtml</tt>, to fix
380 problems when changing a poll's ID.</li>
383 <h3>Other changes</h3>
385 <p>These changes are optional. They fix cosmetic issues or issues that only
386 affect some setups.</p>
389 <li>Cosmetics: In the Professional theme, the last menu entry isn't different
390 from the other entries, so the
391 <code>.header-navigation-container li.last</code> rule in <tt>style.css</tt>
392 is not needed for this theme.</li>
393 <li>Internationalisation: The language direction variable,
394 <code>{direction}</code>, was not available in the printer-friendly
395 templates for articles and static pages.</li>
399 <h2><a name="changes151">Theme changes in Geeklog 1.5.1</a></h2>
401 <p>Note: Themes made for Geeklog 1.5.0 are mostly compatible with Geeklog 1.5.1. We only made one mandatory change (for the Configuration admin panel) - all the other changes listed below are optional or adjustments for special setups (e.g. multi-language sites, right-to-left languages). See details below.</p>
403 <h3>Important change: Configuration</h3>
405 <p>The JavaScript code used for the Configuration admin panel used a generic name which caused conflicts with other JavaScript code. You should update the file <tt>admin/config/config_element.thtml</tt> to make sure your theme works with Geeklog 1.5.1.</p>
407 <h3>Multilingual blocks</h3>
409 <p>The multi-language support for blocks introduced in Geeklog 1.5.1 relies on
410 <em>disabled</em> blocks being swapped in dynamically. If you are using
411 Geeklog's multi-language support, you may need to modify the piece of PHP code
412 in your theme's <tt>functions.php</tt> so that it picks the correct templates
413 for these multilingual blocks:</p>
415 <pre style="margin-left:4em;"><code>$lang = COM_getLanguageId();
417 $result = DB_query("SELECT onleft,name FROM {$_TABLES['blocks']} WHERE is_enabled = 1");
419 $result = DB_query("SELECT onleft,name FROM {$_TABLES['blocks']}");
422 <p>Prior to Geeklog 1.5.1, you will probably only find the first SQL request
423 in your <tt>functions.php</tt> file.</p>
425 <h3>Other changes</h3>
428 <li>In Geeklog 1.5.0, the behaviour of the variable <code>{page_title}</code>
429 (in <tt>header.thtml</tt>) changed so that it now only contains the actual
430 page title or the site's slogan (in earlier versions, it contained both the
431 site's name and either the page title or the site's slogan). This was done
432 so that the combination <code>{page_title}{page_site_splitter}{site_name}</code>
433 could be used to place the page title before the site's name for better <a
434 href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization"
435 class="wikipedia" title="Search Engine Optimization">SEO</a>. If you prefer
436 to have the site's name first on the index page and the page title first on
437 all other pages, you can now use the new variable
438 <code>{page_title_and_site_name}</code></li>
439 <li>In the Links plugin, links have an icon indicating that it's an external
440 link (taking the user away from the current site). This icon did not show
441 up properly for RTL languages (e.g Hebrew), making the link text unreadable.
442 Since we could not find a way to make it show up properly in this case, the
443 icon is not displayed when the text direction is switched to 'rtl'
445 <li>Added an optional <code>feed-link</code> class to be used for links to
446 feeds (e.g. the new Story Option entry for topic feeds). In the Professional
447 theme, a small feed icon (<tt>images/feed.png</tt>) is used as a background
448 image for these links.</li>
449 <li>An optional change to the <tt>comment/commentbar.thtml</tt> template file
450 and the <code>commentbar-line2</code> class in <tt>style.css</tt> to make
451 the "Post a comment" button float to the left and easier to see. There were
452 no changes in functionality and other commentbar layouts will continue to
454 <li>The story template files <tt>archivestorytext.thtml</tt>,
455 <tt>featuredstorytext.thtml</tt>, and <tt>storytext.thtml</tt> are now
456 using the <code>{story_text_no_br}</code> variable to refer to the story
457 text. Template files that use <code>{story_introtext}</code> here will
458 continue to work as before.</li>
462 <h2><a name="changes150">Theme changes in Geeklog 1.5.0</a></h2>
464 <h3><a name="xhtml">XHTML support</a></h3>
466 <p>Geeklog now supports XHTML compliant themes. These themes should define the
467 following constant in their <tt>functions.php</tt> file:</p>
468 <pre style="margin-left:4em;"><code>define('XHTML', ' /');</code></pre>
469 <p>This will ensure that Geeklog switches to XHTML internally. If you want your
470 theme be working both as an HTML and an XHTML theme, you should use the
471 <code>{xhtml}</code> variable wherever XHTML requires a self-closing tag,
472 e.g. <code><br /></code> would be written as <code><br{xhtml}></code>. If you don't plan to use the theme for HTML, feel free to hard-code your
473 theme for XHTML only.</p>
474 <p><strong>Note:</strong> If you're using XHTML, it is your responsibility to
475 ensure that your site's content (stories, comments, etc.) is XHTML compliant.
476 Geeklog does <em>not</em> convert your content to XHTML.</p>
478 <h3><a name="story-submission">"Contribute" - User submitted stories</a></h3>
480 <p>Geeklog 1.5.0 supports the ability for users to specify story intro text
481 and body text seperately rather than just the intro text. This can be
482 turned on and off by changing the templates. The files:</p>
484 <li>submit/submitstory.thtml</li>
485 <li>submit/submitstory_advanced.thtml</li>
487 <p>Contain table rows containing the bodytext inputs. Simply removing these
488 inputs returns behaviour to the original.</p>
490 <h3><a name="admin-menu">Admin Menu, User Menu & Topic List</a></h3>
492 <p>All the above mentioned items are now lists, using <code>ul</code> and
493 <code>li</code> tags (and a new CSS class, <tt>blocklist</tt>, to hide the list
494 bullets). Two new template files have been added to create these blocks:</p>
496 <li>blockheader-list.thtml</li>
497 <li>blockfooter-list.thtml</li>
499 <p>Please note that the <code>{blockid}</code> variable that was present in
500 pre-release versions of Geeklog 1.5.0 has since been removed.</p>
502 <h3><a name="gltoken">Security Changes</a></h3>
504 <p>Many forms, particularly in the admin section of the site need a new hidden
505 form field in order for saving the form/processing the action to work. Add:</p>
507 <pre style="margin-left:4em;"><code><input type="hidden" name="{gltoken_name}" value="{gltoken}"{xhtml}></code></pre>
508 <p>To the following templates:</p>
510 <li>admin/block/blockeditor.thtml</li>
511 <li>admin/block/defaultblockeditor.thtml</li>
512 <li>admin/config/configuration.thtml (new theme file for 1.5)</li>
513 <li>admin/group/groupeditor.thtml</li>
514 <li>admin/group/groupmembers.thtml</li>
515 <li>admin/mail/mailform.thtml</li>
516 <li>admin/plugins/editor.thtml</li>
517 <li>admin/story/storyeditor.thtml</li>
518 <li>admin/story/storyeditor_advanced.thtml</li>
519 <li>admin/syndication/feededitor.thtml</li>
520 <li>admin/topic/topiceditor.thtml</li>
521 <li>admin/trackback/pingbackform.thtml</li>
522 <li>admin/trackback/pingform.thtml</li>
523 <li>admin/trackback/serviceeditor.thtml</li>
524 <li>admin/user/edituser.thtml</li>
525 <li>comment/reportcomment.thtml</li>
527 <p>Some plugin specific templates have also been changed, you may also need to
530 <li>plugins/calendar/templates/addevent.thtml</li>
531 <li>plugins/calendar/templates/editpersonalevent.thtml</li>
532 <li>plugins/calendar/templates/dayview/quickaddform.thtml</li>
533 <li>plugins/calendar/templates/submitevent.thtml (<code>{hidden_fields}</code> variable)</li>
534 <li>plugins/links/templates/admin/categoryeditor.thtml (new theme file for 1.5)</li>
535 <li>plugins/links/templates/admin/linkeditor.thtml</li>
536 <li>plugins/polls/templates/admin/polleditor.thtml</li>
537 <li>plugins/staticpages/templates/admin/editor.thtml</li>
538 <li>plugins/staticpages/templates/admin/editor_advanced.thtml</li>
541 <h3><a name="removed">Removed Files</a></h3>
543 <p>The following template files have been removed and are no longer needed:</p>
546 <li>admin/lists/menufields.thtml</li>
547 <li>admin/lists/topmenu_nosearch.thtml</li>
548 <li>admin/plugins/newlistitem.thtml</li>
549 <li>admin/plugins/newpluginlist.thtml</li>
552 <h3><a name="sysmessage">System Message</a></h3>
554 <p>The previously hard-coded CSS for the System Messages has been moved to the
555 stylesheet (new CSS class <tt>sysmessage</tt>).</p>
558 <h2><a name="changes141">Theme changes in Geeklog 1.4.1</a></h2>
560 <p>The css in 1.4.1 has been changed to a wider extent. More and more layout
561 components are beeing moved to the stylesheet so more change in looks can be
562 achieved with less change in the files. There is a reduction of tables and DIV,
563 and a stronger focus on semantics and consistency. Please also notice that the
564 styles.css includes additional documentation on the use of classes now.</p>
566 <p>As usual, any missing new theme files can simply be copied over from the
567 default theme (Professional) that ships with Geeklog.</p>
571 <p>From now on, all headlines in blocks & stories are made with header-tags. The
572 biggest title in a story is always h1, in a block always h2.</p>
574 <h3>Story layout</h3>
575 <p>The blocks for stories have no more tables, and the classes have been renamed
576 for consistency. There is a box now around the story called class "story" or
577 "story-featured". The components inside that box are story-icons,
578 story-information, story-body and story-footer. The title is a h1-tag. For
579 featured stories, only the outer box has a different class, the rest has to be
580 cascaded for changes.</p>
583 <p>The blocks changed in the same way as the stories. There are no more tables,
584 only one div-tag as a frame around called block-box, block-box-left or
585 block-box-right. The title is a h2-tag and the help icon for the block is a span
586 with a class called block-helpicon. Sub-titles in blocks have the h3-tag (such
587 such as in the What's new or Older Stories block). The changes affect (next to
588 styles.css) the follwing files:</p>
590 <li>blockfooter-left.thtml</li>
591 <li>blockfooter-related.thtml</li>
592 <li>blockfooter-right.thtml</li>
593 <li>blockfooter.thtml</li>
594 <li>blockheader-left.thtml</li>
595 <li>blockheader-message.thtml</li>
596 <li>blockheader-related.thtml</li>
597 <li>blockheader-right.thtml</li>
598 <li>blockheader.thtml</li>
601 <h3>Admin templates</h3>
603 <p>Many of the admin template files have had minor changes to tweak appearance
604 or functionality. If you didn't modify the admin templates in your theme, the
605 easiest way to upgrade your theme's admin templates is to simply replace the
606 entire 'admin' directory with the one from Geeklog's Professional theme.</p>
609 <li>All the "delete" buttons in the admin's editors (story editor, etc.) now
610 pop up a JavaScript confirmation box as a simple measure against
611 accidental deletion. If you'd rather not have that confirmation box,
612 replace the <code>{delete_option}</code> variable with
613 <code>{delete_option_no_confirmation}</code> in the admin templates.</li>
614 <li>The order of the save / cancel / delete buttons is now consistent across
615 all admin template files (changed <tt>group/groupeditor.thtml</tt> and
616 <tt>user/edituser.thtml</tt>).</li>
617 <li>Changed the top links in <tt>lists/topmenu_nosearch.thtml</tt> and
618 <tt>topic/topiclist.thtml</tt> to be consistent with the other admin areas
619 (i.e. the links are no longer enclosed in square brackets).</li>
620 <li>To enable changing the group ownership of "gldefault" blocks, the
621 <tt>defaultblockeditor.thtml</tt> has to be changed to include a
622 <code>{group_dropdown}</code> variable.
625 <h3>Other theme changes</h3>
628 <li>There was a div for spreading the with of the blocks to a minimum in the
629 files leftblocks.thtml and rightblocks.thtml. The format of those has been
630 transferred to the stylesheet with the class name block-bg-spreader</li>
631 <li>The template for the Polls-plugin has renamed classes block-vote-results to
632 poll-vote-results and block-vote to poll-vote to avoid confustion with
633 block-related classes.</li>
634 <li>The template files used by the Calendar plugin are now located in the
635 plugin's directory, (<tt>/path/to/geeklog/plugins/calendar/templates</tt>),
636 so the entire 'calendar' directory can be removed from the theme
638 The <tt>submitevent.thtml</tt>, <tt>editpersonalevent.thtml</tt>,
639 <tt>admin/eventeditor.thtml</tt>, and <tt>dayview/quickaddform.thtml</tt>
640 have also been changed to (optionally) support entering the time in <a
641 href="calendar.html#desc_hour_mode">24 hour mode</a>: A hidden input field
642 "hour_mode" is now required, the am/pm dropdowns are available as variables
643 <code>{startampm_selection}</code>, <code>{endampm_selection}</code>,
644 <code>{ampm_selection}</code>, depending on the template file), and the
645 dropdowns for the minutes are available as variables
646 (<code>{startminute_options}</code>, <code>{endminute_options}</code>,
647 <code>{minute_options}</code>, depending on the template file).</li>
648 <li>The variables <code>{author}</code> and <code>{owner}</code> are now
649 available in every template where an object's author (e.g. story or
650 comment author) or owner (e.g. owner of a block) name can be displayed.
651 They will also respect the <a
652 href="config.html#desc_show_fullname">$_CONF['show_fullname']</a> setting,
653 i.e. display either the user's full name or username.</li>
654 <li>The Article Author's tag in <tt>storytext.thtml</tt> and
655 <tt>featuredstorytext.thtml</tt> is now called
656 <code>{contributedby_author}.</code></li>
657 <li>To enable a remarks field in the answer to polls, the
658 <tt>pollvotes_bar.thtml</tt>, <tt>pollansweroption.thtml</tt> and
659 <tt>polleditor.thtml</tt> were changed. The
660 <tt>pollvotes_bar.thtml</tt> is now colored and has two lines, a class
661 for color coding each line and the <code>{answer_text}</code>. The
662 <tt>polleditor.thtml</tt> has an aditional field to enter the remarks,
663 same as the <tt>pollansweroption.thtml</tt>.
664 <li>A user's Account Information page has been redesigned. While there were no
665 technical changes (i.e. template files from earlier versions will still
666 work), some options have been rearranged and a note has been added to tell
667 the user that the current password is required to change those. Affected
668 files in the <tt>preferences</tt> directory: <tt>profile.thtml</tt>,
669 <tt>username.thtml</tt>, and <tt>userphoto.thtml</tt>.</li>
670 <li>The <tt>navbar</tt> directory now contains four files,
671 <tt>menuitem.thtml</tt>,<tt>navbar.thtml</tt>,<tt>breadcrumbs.thtml</tt>,<tt>breadcrumb_link</tt> as well as two images,
672 <tt>button.gif</tt> and <tt>button_over.gif</tt>.</li>
673 <li>A <a name="captcha"><code>{captcha}</code></a> variable has been added to
676 <li><tt>comment/commentform.thtml</tt></li>
677 <li><tt>comment/commentform_advanced.thtml</tt></li>
678 <li><tt>profiles/contactauthorform.thtml</tt></li>
679 <li><tt>profiles/contactuserform.thtml</tt></li>
680 <li><tt>submit/submitstory.thtml</tt></li>
681 <li><tt>submit/submitstory_advanced.thtml</tt></li>
682 <li><tt>users/registrationform.thtml</tt></li>
684 This variable is supposed to be used by a plugin that implements <a
685 href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAPTCHA" class="wikipedia">CAPTCHA</a>s
686 and will simply be empty when no such plugin is installed.</li>
689 <h3>Professional theme</h3>
691 <p>The following changes are specific to the Professional theme. There is
692 probably no need to port them over to other themes.</p>
695 <li>The theme now uses CSS everywhere for spacing and dividers instead of
696 relying on a 1x1 pixel transparent GIF image (<tt>speck.gif</tt>).</li>
697 <li>The amount of nested tables has been reduced, e.g. in the block
699 <li>Two unused template files, <tt>customlogin-header.thtml</tt> and
700 <tt>customlogin-footer.thtml</tt>, have been removed.</li>
704 <h2><a name="changes140">Theme changes in Geeklog 1.4.0</a></h2>
706 <p>As usual, any missing new theme files can simply be copied over from the
707 default theme (Professional) that ships with Geeklog.</p>
709 <h3>Admin templates</h3>
711 <p>Geeklog 1.4.0 comes with revamped Admin sections which required a lot of
712 theme changes. We therefore suggest that you simply replace the entire
713 <tt>admin</tt> directory of your theme with the <tt>admin</tt> directory
714 from Geeklog's default theme (Professional) as it ships with Geeklog 1.4.0
715 and apply any modfications you may have made to your Admin templates again
718 <p><strong>Note:</strong> The new icons for "Command and Control"
719 (<tt>moderation.php</tt>) in the Professional theme use a white background.
720 For themes with a dark (or other non-white) background, you can <a
721 href="http://www.geeklog.net/filemgmt/singlefile.php?lid=623">download</a> these
722 icons as PNGs with alpha transparency (note that Internet Explorer can not
723 display images with alpha transparency unless you include a JavaScript "<a
724 href="http://homepage.ntlworld.com/bobosola/">hack</a>" into your theme, so you
725 may want to convert those icons to normal transparency or simply set the
726 background to that of your theme).</p>
729 <h3>Advanced editor</h3>
731 <p>To use the included advanced editor (FCKeditor) you will need the following
732 new template files:</p>
734 <li><tt>comment/commentform_advanced.thtml</tt> (for comments)</li>
735 <li><tt>submit/submitstory_advanced.thtml</tt> (for story submissions)</li>
736 <li><tt>admin/story/storyeditor_advanced.thtml</tt> (Admin's story editor)</li>
737 <li><tt>staticpages/templates/admin/editor_advanced.thtml</tt> (for the Static
738 Pages editor, located in <tt>/path/to/geeklog/plugins</tt>)</li>
739 <li><tt>advanced_editor_header.thtml</tt> (included by all of the above)</li>
741 <p>You also have to add <code>{advanced_editor}</code> to the <code><head></code> section of your theme's <tt>header.thtml</tt> file.</p>
743 <h3>Other changes</h3>
746 <li>The comment templates <tt>commentbar.thtml</tt> and <tt>thread.thtml</tt>
747 have changed due to changes in the comment handling.</li>
748 <li>New directories <tt>trackback</tt> and <tt>admin/trackback</tt> containing
749 several new template files have been added for the trackback support.</li>
750 <li>New variables <code>{send_trackback_link}</code>,
751 <code>{send_trackback_url}</code>, and
752 <code>{lang_send_trackback_text}</code> are available in the story and
753 article template files. They provide a complete link as well as the URL and
754 link text allowing you to send a trackback comment for the current
756 <li>The <tt>links</tt> and <tt>admin/link</tt> directories have been
757 removed. Links are now a plugin and the plugin's templates can be found in
758 <tt>/path/to/geeklog/plugins/links/templates</tt>.</li>
759 <li>The <tt>pollbooth</tt> and <tt>admin/poll</tt> directories have been
760 removed. Polls are now a plugin and the plugin's templates can be found in
761 <tt>/path/to/geeklog/plugins/polls/templates</tt>.</li>
762 <li>The <tt>preferences/profile.thtml</tt> template now has additional fields
763 for the password change (old password, confirmation field for the new
765 <li>The search form, <tt>search/searchform.thtml</tt> has a new option for the
766 number of search results per page, while the hard-coded option to search
767 for links has been removed (since Links are in plugin now, it will show up
768 as part of the <code>{plugin_types}</code> option).</li>
769 <li>An additional variable, <code>{services}</code>, has to be added to the
770 <tt>loginform.thtml</tt> template file if you plan to allow users to log in
771 to your site using remote authentication.</li>
772 <li>If you plan to enable Trackbacks on your site, you may want to add links to
773 a story's trackbacks section to your story template files, e.g.
774 <code>{start_trackbacks_anchortag}{trackbacks_with_count}{end_trackbacks_anchortag}</code>. See the Professional theme's story template files for
776 <li>For the site statistics, the file <tt>stats/sitestatistics.thtml</tt> has
777 changed (entries for the links and poll have been removed and a new entry
778 for the number of active users has been added). There is also a new file,
779 <tt>stats/singlesummary.thtml</tt>, that is used for plugin entries.</li>
780 <li>The <tt>navbar</tt> directory is now part of a Geeklog theme (previously
781 used by some plugins, e.g. the Forum plugin). It contains two files,
782 <tt>menuitem.thtml</tt> and <tt>navbar.thtml</tt>, as well as two images,
783 <tt>button.gif</tt> and <tt>button_over.gif</tt>.</li>
787 <h2><a name="changes1311">Theme changes in Geeklog 1.3.11</a></h2>
789 <p>There are no mandatory theme changes in Geeklog 1.3.11, so themes made for Geeklog 1.3.10 will work just fine without any modifications.</p>
791 <p>A few minor additions / new options have been introduced:</p>
793 <li>A new variable, <code>{camera_icon}</code>, can now be used in the story
794 and comment template files to display the small camera icon (the same as in
795 the Who's Online block) to link to the author's user profile (only if they
796 uploaded a userphoto).</li>
797 <li>The <code>{layout_url}</code> variable is now available in the templates
798 for the story, link, and event submission forms.</li>
799 <li>Also in the submission forms, a variable <code>{separator}</code> is now
800 available in addition to the misspelled <code>{seperator}</code>
802 <li>A new variable, <code>{calendar_mode}</code>, can be used in the
803 <tt>calendar/events.thtml</tt> template file to ensure that the "add event"
804 link will take the user to the proper event submission form for either the
805 site calendar or the personal calendar.</li>
808 <h2><a name="changes1310">Theme changes in Geeklog 1.3.10</a></h2>
810 <p>General note: To upgrade your custom theme for use with Geeklog 1.3.10, you can simply copy over any new template files from the Geeklog default theme.</p>
812 <p>The biggest change in Geeklog 1.3.10 is that we now ship it with only one
813 default theme (the Professional theme, kindly provided by Victor B. Gonzalez)
814 and that the previously included themes are now available as a separate
817 <h3>Admin templates</h3>
819 <p>Most themes don't change the template files in the theme's <tt>admin</tt>
820 directory, so you can often save yourself a bit of work by simply replacing
821 the entire <tt>admin</tt> directory with the one from the Geeklog 1.3.10
825 <li>The story editor, <tt>admin/story/storyeditor.thtml</tt> includes new
826 options for the story archiving and for editable story IDs. <em>It is
827 recommended to make a copy of this file and re-apply any changes you may
828 have made to your copy again afterwards!</em></li>
829 <li>The list of polls, <tt>admin/poll/polllist.thtml</tt> now supports
830 paging, i.e. uses the {google_paging} variable.</li>
831 <li>The list of events uses paging and a row number now (files affected:
832 <tt>admin/event/eventlist.thtml</tt> and
833 <tt>admin/event/listitem.thtml</tt>).</li>
834 <li>The plugin editor, <tt>admin/plugins/editor.thml</tt>, now displays 2
835 version numbers for the plugin: The installed version and the (possibly
836 differing) version of the actual code. In the latter case, it will also
837 display an update button.<br>
838 The list of plugins, <tt>admin/plugins/pluginlist.thtml</tt> and
839 <tt>admin/plugins/listitem.thtml</tt>, also displays the 2 version numbers
840 and now supports paging when more than 25 plugins are installed.</li>
841 <li>The topic editor, <tt>admin/topic/topiceditor.thtml</tt>, contained a
842 hard-coded "10" for the default number of stories per pages. The new
843 variable {default_limit} provides the actual default value now.</li>
844 <li><tt>admin/mail/mailform.thtml</tt> has been changed to look slightly less
848 <h3>Other templates</h3>
851 <li>Added two new templates for the new story archive feature. This allows you
852 to theme olderstories differently. By default Geeklog 1.3.10 ships with
853 these template files not themed and the same as a standard story. The new
854 template files are <ul><li>archivestorytext.thtml</li>
855 <li>archivestorybodytext.thtml</li></ul></li>
856 <li>Due to various changes in the comment engine, it is recommended that you
857 copy over all the comment template files from the <tt>comment</tt> directory
858 (<tt>comment/reportcomment.thtml</tt> is actually a new file).</li>
859 <li>In <tt>calendar/dayview/dayview.thtml</tt>, i.e. in the calendar's day
860 view, the hard-coded am/pm times have been replaced by variables of the
861 form {xx_hour} (where 'xx' is 0-23).</li>
862 <li>In the event details template, i.e. in <tt>calendar/eventdetails.thtml</tt>,
863 the event type and an edit icon were added (this change was only made in
864 Geeklog 1.3.10rc3).</li>
865 <li>A "location" field was added in the user's profile: Added {lang_location}
866 and {user_location} in <tt>users/profile.thtml</tt> and {lang_location},
867 {lang_location_text}, and {location_value} in
868 <tt>preferences/profile.thtml</tt>.</li>
871 <h3>Optional changes</h3>
873 <p>The following is a list of optional changes (mostly new variables that are
874 now available). This information is mostly of interest for those who want to
875 develop their own themes.</p>
878 <li>{article_url}, i.e. the full URL to an article, is now also available in
879 <tt>article/printable.thtml</tt>.</li>
880 <li>In <tt>links/linkdetails.thtml</tt> the new variable {link_actual_url} now
881 contains the actual link URL (instead of a link to Geeklog's
882 <tt>portal.php</tt>).</li>
883 <li>The following variables are now available in <tt>calendar/eventdetails.thtml</tt>:
884 {event_state_name} (full name of the state), {event_state_only} and
885 {event_state_name_only} (abbreviated and full state name without the comma),
886 {event_edit} (link to edit the event, if allowed for the current user),
887 {edit_icon} (same, but with the edit icon instead of a text link),
888 {lang_event_type} and {event_type} for the event type
889 <li>The topic image is now available through the {topic_image} variable in
890 <tt>topicoption.thtml</tt> and <tt>topicoption_off.thtml</tt></li>
891 <li>Several class names have been introduced so that the various lists that
892 Geeklog uses can now be styled individually: list-feed, list-new-comments,
893 list-new-links, list-new-plugins, list-older-stories, list-personal-events,
894 list-site-events, list-story-options, list-whats-related (the names should
895 be self-explanatory).<br>
896 Use {list_class_name} to get the actual class name, and {list_class} to get
897 class="classname".</li>
898 <li>Several class names have been introduced so that the 2 small calendars
899 in the calendar's month view can be styled: .smallcal, .smallcal-headline,
900 .smallcal-week-even, .smallcal-week-odd, .smallcal-week-empty,
901 .smallcal-day-even, .smallcal-day-odd, and .smallcal-day-empty</li>
905 <h2><a name="changes139">Theme changes in Geeklog 1.3.9</a></h2>
908 <li>In <tt>header.thtml</tt>, you can now use the new variable
909 <code>{allowed_menu_elements}</code> as an alternative to using
910 <code>{menu_elements}</code>. The new variable takes the
911 <code>$_CONF['<i>XXX</i>loginrequired']</code> settings into account, i.e.
912 it will only list those entries that the current user has access to.</li>
913 <li>The <tt>admin/syndication</tt> directory, containing
914 <tt>feededitor.thtml</tt>, <tt>listfeeds.thtml</tt>,
915 <tt>listitem.thtml</tt>, and <tt>selecttype.thtml</tt> has been added.</li>
916 <li>Template files <tt>comment/comment.thtml</tt> and
917 <tt>comment/thread.thtml</tt> have been added and
918 <tt>comment/startcomment.thtml</tt> has been changed to implement
919 template-driven comments.<br>
920 Please note that <tt>comment/comment.thtml</tt> was changed <em>again</em>
921 in Geeklog 1.3.9rc2.</li>
922 <li>A <code>{link_edit}</code> variable has been added to
923 <tt>links/linkdetails.thtml</tt> so that admins can edit links directly
924 from the links section.</li>
925 <li>An "edit" icon has been added: <tt>images/edit.gif</tt>. The new variable
926 <code>{edit_icon}</code> can be used as an alternative to
927 <code>{edit_link}</code> in the story template files and in
928 <tt>links/linkdetails.thtml</tt>.</li>
929 <li>In the <tt>calendar/calendar.thtml</tt> file, the "mode" parameter has been
930 added to the << and >> buttons, so that users stay in their
931 personal calendar when browsing through months.</li>
932 <li>A new file, <tt>admin/group/groupmembers.thtml</tt>, has been added and
933 <tt>admin/group/listitem.thtml</tt> has been changed for the new
934 alternative option to add users to groups.</li>
935 <li>A new file, <tt>admin/block/listside.thtml</tt>, has been added and
936 <tt>admin/block/listitem.thtml</tt> and <tt>admin/block/listblocks.thtml</tt>
937 have been changed for the enhanced block list.</li>
938 <li>A <code>{google_paging}</code> variable has been added to
939 <tt>admin/link/linklist.thtml</tt>. Also added a column number to
940 <tt>linklist.thtml</tt> and <tt>admin/link/listitem.thtml</tt>.</li>
941 <li>All template files where the user can enter a URL are now using a new
942 variable, <code>{max_url_length}</code>, instead of a hard-coded number of
943 characters for the max. length of the URL. Files affected:
944 <tt>admin/block/blockeditor.thtml</tt>,
945 <tt>admin/event/eventeditor.thtml</tt>,
946 <tt>admin/link/linkeditor.thtml</tt>,
947 <tt>admin/topic/topiceditor.thtml</tt>,
948 <tt>submit/submitevent.thtml</tt>, <tt>submit/submitlink.thtml</tt>.</li>
949 <li>The hard-coded <code>&nbsp;</code> has been removed from the
950 <code>{welcome_msg}</code> variable. The blank was then added to the
951 <tt>header.thtml</tt> of the Classic, XSilver, and Yahoo themes (the other
952 themes either look fine without it or didn't use <code>{welcome_msg}</code>
953 in the first place).</li>
954 <li>An extra <code>table</code> has been removed from the
955 <tt>users/profile.thtml</tt> file of the XSilver theme so that the
956 username now lines up properly with the other entries.</li>
959 <h2><a name="changes138">Theme changes in Geeklog 1.3.8</a></h2>
961 <p>Theme changes in Geeklog 1.3.8 were mostly aimed at moving as much of the
962 hard-coded HTML into template files as possible. Other changes were made to
963 give theme authors better control over the layout and a small portion of changes
964 were done to incorporate new Geeklog features.</p>
966 <h3>New template files</h3>
968 <p>This is a list of the new files. You can safely copy these over from one of
969 the standard themes that ship with Geeklog (most of these files contain HTML
970 that was previously hard-coded into Geeklog).</p>
972 <pre>adminoption_off.thtml
975 topicoption_off.thtml
977 admin/database/listbackups.thtml
978 admin/database/listitem.thtml
979 admin/user/edituser.thtml
980 admin/user/plainlist.thtml
981 comment/commentbar.thtml
982 comment/startcomment.thtml
983 pollbooth/pollanswer.thtml
984 pollbooth/pollblock.thtml
985 pollbooth/pollcomments.thtml
986 pollbooth/pollresult.thtml
987 pollbooth/pollvotes_bar.thtml
988 pollbooth/pollvotes_num.thtml
989 preferences/boxesblock.thtml
990 preferences/commentblock.thtml
991 preferences/deleteaccount.thtml
992 preferences/digestblock.thtml
993 preferences/displayblock.thtml
994 preferences/displayprefs.thtml
995 preferences/excludeblock.thtml
996 preferences/language.thtml
997 preferences/privacyblock.thtml
998 preferences/profile.thtml
999 preferences/theme.thtml
1000 preferences/username.thtml
1001 preferences/userphoto.thtml
1002 search/resultauthdatehits.thtml
1003 search/resultrowenhanced.thtml
1004 search/resultsummary.thtml
1005 search/resulttitle.thtml
1006 users/newpassword.thtml</pre>
1008 <p>Note: <tt>preferences</tt> and <tt>admin/database</tt> are new directores.</p>
1011 <h3>Changed / updated template files</h3>
1013 <p>These files have changed since Geeklog 1.3.7, i.e. they may contain new
1014 variables, table columns, etc. If you haven't changed these files in your
1015 existing theme, it is probably best to simply copy them over from one of the
1016 themes that ship with Geeklog (with the exception of <tt>style.css</tt> and
1017 <tt>header.thtml</tt>, see below).</p>
1019 <pre>style.css <em>(see below)</em>
1020 header.thtml <em>(see below)</em>
1021 admin/block/blockeditor.thtml
1022 admin/block/listblocks.thtml
1023 admin/block/listitem.thtml
1024 admin/event/eventeditor.thtml
1025 admin/event/eventlist.thtml
1026 admin/event/listitem.thtml
1027 admin/group/grouplist.thtml
1028 admin/group/listitem.thtml
1029 admin/story/liststories.thtml
1030 admin/topic/listitem.thtml
1031 admin/topic/topiceditor.thtml
1032 admin/topic/topiclist.thtml
1033 calendar/editpersonalevent.thtml
1034 calendar/eventdetails.thtml
1035 search/searchform.thtml
1036 search/searchresults.thtml
1037 submit/submitevent.thtml
1038 users/getpasswordform.thtml</pre>
1040 <p>In <tt>style.css</tt>, four classes have been added that are used in the
1041 new search code of Geeklog 1.3.8. Instead of copying over the entire file, you
1042 will probably only want to copy over the code for those four classes:
1043 <tt>searchAuth</tt>, <tt>searchDate</tt>, <tt>searchHits</tt>,
1044 <tt>highlight</tt>.</p>
1046 <p>If the <tt>header.thtml</tt> of your theme is using the
1047 <tt>{menu_elements}</tt> variable, then you do <em>not</em> need to make any
1048 changes to it. If it is not using that variable, then you will need to make one
1049 change to it. In that case, search your <tt>header.thtml</tt> for the link
1050 to the story submission form, i.e. something like</p>
1051 <pre style="margin-left:4em;"><code><a href="{site_url}/submit.php?type=story"></code></pre>
1052 <p>and change it to read</p>
1053 <pre style="margin-left:4em;"><code><a href="{site_url}/submit.php?type=story{current_topic}"></code></pre>
1056 <h3>Removed template files</h3>
1058 <p>If you have a file named <tt>commentheader.thtml</tt> in your theme
1059 directory, you can safely remove it. It isn't used at all.</p>
1062 <h2><a name="changes137">Theme changes in Geeklog 1.3.7</a></h2>
1064 <p>Please note that all the following changes are <em>optional</em>. Themes
1065 made for Geeklog 1.3.6 will work just fine with Geeklog 1.3.7 - no changes
1068 <h3>New features and improvements</h3>
1071 <li>Theme-based topic icons are now supported by setting <tt>$_THEME_URL</tt>
1072 in the theme's <tt>functions.php</tt> file. The variable should point to
1073 a directory that has the same hierarchy as Geeklog's images directory
1074 (note that the path to topic images is stored relative to Geeklog's
1075 public_html directory).<br>
1076 <strong>Example:</strong>
1077 <code>$_THEME_URL = $_CONF['layout_url'];</code></li>
1078 <li>The <code>$_BLOCK_TEMPLATE</code> "hack" can now be applied to the
1079 What's Related and Story Options blocks, as well. Use
1080 <tt>whats_related_block</tt> and <tt>story_options_block</tt> as the block
1082 <li>The What's Related and Story Options blocks are now available as
1083 separate variables using <tt>{whats_related}</tt> and
1084 <tt>{story_options}</tt>, respectively
1085 (the <tt>{whats_related_story_options}</tt> variable for both blocks is
1086 still available).</li>
1087 <li>Several new variables can now be used in the story templates, e.g.
1088 <tt>{contributedby_fullname}</tt> for the full name of a story author and
1089 <tt>{contributedby_photo}</tt> for his/her user photo.</li>
1090 <li>When the new config variable <tt>$_CONF['showfirstasfeatured']</tt> is set
1091 to 1, then the first story on <em>every</em> page is rendered using the
1092 template files for featured stories, even when the story is not marked as
1096 <h3>Other changes</h3>
1099 <li>The template file <tt>admin/plugins/installform.thtml</tt> has been
1100 removed since it isn't used any more.</li>
1101 <li>Two new <em>optional</em> template files,
1102 <tt>admin/plugins/newpluginlist.thtml</tt> and
1103 <tt>admin/plugins/newlistitem.thml</tt>, have been added to support
1104 formatting of the list of plugins which haven't been installed yet. If
1105 these files do not exist, hard-coded HTML is used to present the list.</li>
1106 <li>The template file <tt>admin/link/listitem.thtml</tt> has been changed
1107 so that all the links are clickable.</li>
1108 <li><code>COM_pollResults()</code> doesn't use the side block templates any
1109 more when called from <tt>pollbooth.php</tt>. Therefore, you can now use
1110 different layouts whether the poll results are displayed in a side block
1111 or on the separate poll results and comments page.</li>
1112 <li>Removed the Normal / Archive / Refreshing drop down menus from the admin
1113 story and poll editors of the themes that ship with Geeklog. The setting
1114 of this dropdown isn't used in Geeklog anyway and has just confused users
1115 in the past ... (files <tt>admin/story/storyeditor.thtml</tt> and
1116 <tt>admin/poll/polleditor.thtml</tt>)</li>
1120 <h2><a name="changes136">Theme changes in Geeklog 1.3.6</a></h2>
1122 <p>There have been a lot of changes in the themes for 1.3.6 to get rid of the
1123 last pieces of hard-coded english texts so as to make localisation easier.
1124 Most of these changes have been made in the Admin editors (<tt>admin</tt>
1125 directory) and the calendar (<tt>calendar</tt> directory). If you created
1126 your own theme for an earlier version of Geeklog, we recommend that you copy
1127 over these two directories from one of the themes that come with Geeklog
1128 (choose one that is similar to your own theme or which it was originally based
1129 on). It seems like most Geeklog themes didn't change these files anyway, so
1130 this shouldn't be too much of a hassle ...</p>
1132 <h3>Other changes</h3>
1134 <li>The template file <tt>admin/mail/mailform.thtml</tt> has been added.
1135 This form for sending emails to other users of the site was previously
1136 hard-coded into Geeklog.<br>
1137 If you followed the above advice and copied over the <tt>admin</tt>
1138 directory to your theme, you got this file already.</li>
1139 <li>Two new files <tt>menuitem_last.thtml</tt> and
1140 <tt>menuitem_none.thtml</tt> have been added to give theme authors better
1141 control over the items in menu bars ({menu_elements} and {plg_menu_elements}
1142 variables in <tt>header.thtml</tt>). The template file
1143 <tt>menuitem.thtml</tt> is now used to render the first and any following
1144 menu items - with the exception of the last menu item, which is rendered
1145 using <tt>menuitem_last.thtml</tt>. If there are no menu elements for a
1146 menu bar, <tt>menuitem_none.thtml</tt> is used.</li>
1147 <li>New files have been added and the existing files have been changed for
1148 the links section (<tt>links</tt> directory). Again, we recommend to just
1149 copy over those files from one of the themes that ship with Geeklog.<br>
1150 The new files are: <tt>categoryactivecol.thtml</tt>,
1151 <tt>categorycol.thtml</tt>, <tt>categorynavigation.thtml</tt>,
1152 <tt>categoryrow.thtml</tt>, <tt>pagenavigation.thtml</tt></li>
1153 <li>The user profile has been extended to include a list of the last 10
1154 stories as well as the total numbers of stories and comments posted by that
1155 user. Have a look at the file <tt>users/profile.thtml</tt> to see the
1156 changes or just copy that file over from one of the themes that ship with
1157 Geeklog. You should also copy over the file <tt>users/storyrow.thtml</tt>
1158 which describes the block for the last 1o stories.</li>
1159 <li>The Classic theme has been updated to have an "Edit" link (for
1160 StoryAdmins) in every story now.<br>
1161 Files changed: <tt>storybodytext.thtml</tt>,
1162 <tt>featuredstorybodytext.thtml</tt></li>
1163 <li>In the Classic and Digital Monochrome themes the "contact" link now
1164 points to the form to send an email to the admin user instead of using a
1165 <code>mailto:</code> link with the site's email address from the
1169 <h3>CSS changes</h3>
1171 <li>The underscore '_' is not a valid character in CSS. Therefore, some class names used by the Geeklog calendar have been changed to use the dash '-' instead. You may need to change your stylesheet accordingly.<br>
1172 Names that changed: <b>cal-oldday</b>, <b>cal-today</b>,
1173 <b>cal-futureday</b>, <b>cal-nullday</b>, <b>weekview-curday</b>,
1174 <b>weekview-offday</b></li>
1175 <li>A new class named <b>pagenav</b> can be used to format the paged
1177 Please note that this change was made <em>after</em> the release of Geeklog
1178 1.3.6rc1 and affects the use of the paged navigation in
1179 <tt>admin/user/userslist.thtml</tt> and <tt>links/links.thtml</tt>: In
1180 1.3.6rc1, the navigation was wrapped in <p> tags in those files. As
1181 of Geeklog 1.3.6 however, the function producing the navigation will wrap
1182 it in a <div> automatically.</li>
1185 <p><strong>Note:</strong> Theme authors are encouraged to specify a character
1186 set in the <tt>header.thtml</tt> of their themes like this:</p>
1187 <pre style="margin-left:4em;"><code><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset={charset}"></code></pre>
1188 <p>Geeklog will replace the <code>{charset}</code> variable with the proper
1189 character set based on the currently used language file. Also make sure that
1190 you put the above line <em>before</em> the <code><title></code> tag in
1191 the <code><head></code> section of your <tt>header.thtml</tt> file.</p>
1193 <div class="footer">
1194 <a href="http://wiki.geeklog.net/">The Geeklog Documentation Project</a><br>
1195 All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. Geeklog is copyleft.