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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>Added an icon, <tt>images/update.png</tt>, to be displayed in the admin's
202 list of plugins when a plugin needs to be updated. The icon should have the
203 same size as the "edit" icon (16x16 pixel in the Professional theme).</li>
204 <li>Added a "send copy to myself" option to
205 <tt>profiles/contactauthorform.thtml</tt></li>
206 <li>Cosmetics: Made the look and layout of the "Send mail to user"
207 (<tt>profiles/contactuserform.thtml</tt>), "Mail Story to a Friend"
208 (<tt>profiles/contactauthorform.thtml</tt>), and "Mail Users"
209 (<tt>admin/mail/mailform.thtml</tt>) dialogs more consistent (alignment,
210 size of input fields).</li>
211 <li>The Topic Editor now contains a line displaying the number of stories in
212 the current topic. New variables in <tt>admin/topic/topiceditor.thtml</tt>:
213 <code>{lang_num_stories}</code>, <code>{num_stories}</tt></li>
214 <li>Cosmetics: Fixed the position of the story preview when using the
215 advanced editor (was slightly shifted to the right, <a
216 href="http://project.geeklog.net/tracking/view.php?id=963">bug #0000963</a>). Changes to the <code><div id="preview"></code> in
217 <tt>admin/story/storyeditor_advanced.thtml</tt>.</li>
218 <li>Cosmetics: Removed <code>font-size:larger;</code> for the header fields of
219 the admin lists from the stylesheet, but added some top/bottom padding
220 (<a href="http://project.geeklog.net/tracking/view.php?id=956">bug #0000956</a>).</li>
221 <li>Cosmetics: Removed a <code>width="180"</code> from the Block editor template
222 (<tt>admin/block/blockeditor.thtml</tt>) that pushed the first column too
223 far to the right.</li>
224 <li>Cosmetics: Made the permission checkboxes look more like an Admin list,
225 <tt>admin/common/edit_permissions.thtml</tt>. Introduced new CSS class
226 <tt>admin-list-smalltable</tt>, which is almost identical to
227 <tt>admin-list-table</tt> but without the <code>width:100%;</code></li>
228 <li>Added a link back to the story to the "Mail Story to a Friend" form,
229 <tt>profiles/contactauthorform.thtml</tt>. Available variables:
230 <tt>{lang_title}</tt>, <tt>{story_title}</tt>, <tt>{story_url}</tt>,
231 <tt>{story_link}</tt>.</tt>
232 <li>Added textarea fields for meta description and meta keywords to the Story
233 Editor (<tt>admin/story/storyeditor.thtml</tt>,
234 <tt>admin/story/storyeditor_advanced.thtml</tt>).</li>
235 <li>Added textarea fields for meta description and meta keywords to the Topic
236 Editor (<tt>admin/topic/topiceditor.thtml</tt>).</li>
237 <li>Added a <code>{remoteservice}</code> variable in
238 <tt>admin/user/edituser.thtml</tt> to optionally display the name of the
239 service a Remote User was using to log in.</li>
242 <h3>Changes to plugin templates</h3>
243 <p>Note that plugin template files are kept in a directory
244 <tt>plugins/<i>pluginnname</i>/templates</tt> and not in the <tt>layout</tt>
248 <li>Links: Removed a <code>width="150"</code> from the Category editor template
249 (<tt>admin/categoryeditor.thtml</tt>) that pushed the first column too far
251 <li>Static Pages: Added new input fields for a meta description and meta
252 keywords to the Static Pages editor.</li>
253 <li>Static Pages: In the Static Pages editor, moved the Hits display below
254 the Last Updated entry (<tt>admin/editor.thtml</tt>,
255 <tt>admin/editor_advanced.thtml</tt>).</li>
256 <li>Static Pages: Added textarea fileds for meta description and meta keywords
257 in the Static Pages editor (<tt>admin/editor.thtml</tt>,
258 <tt>admin/editor_advanced.thtml</tt>).</li>
259 <li>Polls: Added new input fields for a meta description and meta keywords to
260 the Polls editor.</li>
261 <li>Polls: Added new CSS classes <tt>poll-autotag-message</tt>,
262 <tt>poll-autotag</tt>, <tt>poll-autotag-left</tt>, used when embedding polls
263 via the new autotags.</li>
267 <h2><a name="changes160">Theme changes in Geeklog 1.6.0</a></h2>
270 <li>Themes can now opt to use a <tt>{doctype}</tt> variable in their
271 <tt>header.thtml</tt> instead of using a hard-coded DOCTYPE declaration.
272 The DOCTYPE will then be set from the configuration (currently available:
273 HTML 4.01 Strict and Transitional, XHTML 1.0 Strict and Transitional). Such
274 a theme should <em>not</em> set the <code>XHTML</code> constant in its
275 <tt>functions.php</tt> file!</li>
276 <li>When using <a href="#xhtml">XHTML</a>, the variable <tt>{xmlns}</tt> now
277 contains <tt>xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"</tt> for XHTML compliance
278 (to be used in the <tt><html></tt> element).</li>
279 <li>Added a space between a story's intro text and body text when using the
280 <tt>{story_text_no_br}</tt> variable.</li>
281 <li>The story templates in the Professional theme now use
282 <tt>{story_text_no_br}</tt> instead of <tt>{story_introtext}</tt>, i.e.
283 there are no <tt><br></tt> tags between a story's intro text and
284 body text any more. This allows for greater flexibility in formatting a
285 story (e.g. when using the intro text for teasers) but may result in older
286 stories being displayed differently now (no visible separation between intro
287 text and body text).</li>
288 <li>Bugfix: The variables <tt>{contributedby_user}</tt> and
289 <tt>{contributedby_fullname}</tt> were always empty.</li>
290 <li>The two variables <tt>{start_contributedby_anchortag}</tt> and
291 <tt>{end_contributedby_anchortag}</tt> were not set any more (since Geeklog
292 1.5.0). Instead, the link to the author's profile was added to
293 <tt>{contributedby_author}</tt>, so that the combination of these three
294 variables (as used in the story templates) still seemed to work. Geeklog
295 1.6.0 reinstates the old definitions, i.e. the anchortag variables contain
296 the opening and closing tag to link to the author's profile and
297 <tt>{contributedby_author}</tt> contains only the author's name.</li>
298 <li>New variable <tt>{photo_max_dimensions}</tt> to inform users about the
299 max. dimensions of a userphoto: <tt>preferences/userphoto.thtml</tt></li>
300 <li>Added a <tt>print.css</tt> stylesheet to be used by the
301 <tt>printable.thtml</tt> template files for articles and the static pages
303 <li>The plugin editor can now show a plugin's "display name" (or a beautified
304 version of the directory name) when using the new variable
305 <code>{pi_display_name}</code> in <tt>admin/plugins/editor.thtml</tt>.
306 This is a purely cosmetic change.</li>
307 <li>New template file <tt>admin/lists/inline.thtml</tt>, used when embedding
308 lists into an existing HTML <code><form></code> (e.g. the new Groups
310 <li>Added a "send copy to myself" option to
311 <tt>profiles/contactuserform.thtml</tt></li>
312 <li>Cosmetic changes to the <tt>admin/mail/mailform.thtml</tt> template file:
313 Removed <code>{startblock_email}</code> and <code>{endblock_email}</code>
314 and the top table. These elements are now added automatically to make the
315 the mail form look more consistent with the other admin panels.</li>
316 <li>A new checkbox has been added to <tt>search/searchform.thtml</tt> to allow
317 for a search in the title only.</li>
318 <li>Cosmetic changes to the <tt>admin/group/groupmembers.thtml</tt> template
319 file: The header (including the icon, links, and the instructions) is now
320 generated by Geeklog. The <tt><table></tt> that contained these
321 elements has been removed from the template file.</li>
322 <li>Configuration: <tt>config_element.thtml</tt> was missing a closing
323 <code></option></code> tag; the <code><col></code> tags in
324 <tt>configuration.thtml</tt> were not XHTML compliant.</li>
329 <p>The templates for the search form and search results have been changed and
330 new template files have been added for the new display modes of the search
331 results. We suggest to replace the entire <tt>search</tt> subdirectory in your
332 theme with a copy of the directory from the Professional theme as it ships
337 <p>The <tt>commentform.thtml</tt> and <tt>commentform_advanced.thtml</tt>
338 template files were changed to include a security token and a
339 <code>{notification}</code> variable (for the new option to be notified of
340 followup comments).</p>
345 <li>The template file for the Polls editor has been changed to allow up to 40
346 characters for the poll id (pid):
347 <tt>plugins/polls/templates/admin/polleditor.thtml</tt></li>
348 <li>The <tt>printable.thtml</tt> template file for the static pages plugin now
349 uses <tt>print.css</tt> (see above). It also uses the HTML Strict doctype
353 <h3>Permissions Editor</h3>
355 <p>The various instances of the Permissions Editor (where you can set the Read
356 / Edit permissions for Owner, Group, Members, Anonymous) were using slightly
357 different template variable names. From now on, the following names are defined
360 <li><tt>{lang_permissions}</tt> (headline)</li>
361 <li><tt>{lang_perm_key}</tt> (legend: R = read, ...)</li>
362 <li><tt>{permissions_editor}</tt> (the actual checkboxes)</li>
363 <li><tt>{lang_permissions_msg}</tt> (Note: members is all logged in member ...)</li>
365 <p>Template files using the alternative names will continue to work, but new
366 files should use the above names from now on.</p>
369 <h2><a name="changes152">Theme changes in Geeklog 1.5.2</a></h2>
371 <p>Note: Themes made for Geeklog 1.5.0 or 1.5.1 should work just fine with
372 Geeklog 1.5.2. In this release, we only fixed a few problems in the themes
373 (detailed below) that also affected 1.5.0 and 1.5.1. The other changes listed
374 here are optional.</p>
378 <p>These changes are actual bugs in the template files that also exist in
379 Geeklog 1.5.0 and 1.5.1. We recommend making these changes to all custom
383 <li>The security token was missing from the trackback editor template file,
384 <tt>admin/trackback/trackbackeditor.thtml</tt></li>
385 <li>The <code>{start_storylink_anchortag}</code> variable in the story templates
386 was missing the closing '>'. This caused the story title to disappear
387 on some themes. (This was a bug in Geeklog's code, so no theme changes
389 <li>The <code>{site_admin_url}</code> was missing from the Configuration form
390 action in <tt>admin/config/configuration.thtml</tt>. This may have caused
391 problems making configuration changes on some setups.</li>
392 <li>Added a hidden <code>old_pid</code> input field to the polls editor template
393 file, <tt>plugins/polls/templates/admin/polleditor.thtml</tt>, to fix
394 problems when changing a poll's ID.</li>
397 <h3>Other changes</h3>
399 <p>These changes are optional. They fix cosmetic issues or issues that only
400 affect some setups.</p>
403 <li>Cosmetics: In the Professional theme, the last menu entry isn't different
404 from the other entries, so the
405 <code>.header-navigation-container li.last</code> rule in <tt>style.css</tt>
406 is not needed for this theme.</li>
407 <li>Internationalisation: The language direction variable,
408 <code>{direction}</code>, was not available in the printer-friendly
409 templates for articles and static pages.</li>
413 <h2><a name="changes151">Theme changes in Geeklog 1.5.1</a></h2>
415 <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>
417 <h3>Important change: Configuration</h3>
419 <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>
421 <h3>Multilingual blocks</h3>
423 <p>The multi-language support for blocks introduced in Geeklog 1.5.1 relies on
424 <em>disabled</em> blocks being swapped in dynamically. If you are using
425 Geeklog's multi-language support, you may need to modify the piece of PHP code
426 in your theme's <tt>functions.php</tt> so that it picks the correct templates
427 for these multilingual blocks:</p>
429 <pre style="margin-left:4em;"><code>$lang = COM_getLanguageId();
431 $result = DB_query("SELECT onleft,name FROM {$_TABLES['blocks']} WHERE is_enabled = 1");
433 $result = DB_query("SELECT onleft,name FROM {$_TABLES['blocks']}");
436 <p>Prior to Geeklog 1.5.1, you will probably only find the first SQL request
437 in your <tt>functions.php</tt> file.</p>
439 <h3>Other changes</h3>
442 <li>In Geeklog 1.5.0, the behaviour of the variable <code>{page_title}</code>
443 (in <tt>header.thtml</tt>) changed so that it now only contains the actual
444 page title or the site's slogan (in earlier versions, it contained both the
445 site's name and either the page title or the site's slogan). This was done
446 so that the combination <code>{page_title}{page_site_splitter}{site_name}</code>
447 could be used to place the page title before the site's name for better <a
448 href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization"
449 class="wikipedia" title="Search Engine Optimization">SEO</a>. If you prefer
450 to have the site's name first on the index page and the page title first on
451 all other pages, you can now use the new variable
452 <code>{page_title_and_site_name}</code></li>
453 <li>In the Links plugin, links have an icon indicating that it's an external
454 link (taking the user away from the current site). This icon did not show
455 up properly for RTL languages (e.g Hebrew), making the link text unreadable.
456 Since we could not find a way to make it show up properly in this case, the
457 icon is not displayed when the text direction is switched to 'rtl'
459 <li>Added an optional <code>feed-link</code> class to be used for links to
460 feeds (e.g. the new Story Option entry for topic feeds). In the Professional
461 theme, a small feed icon (<tt>images/feed.png</tt>) is used as a background
462 image for these links.</li>
463 <li>An optional change to the <tt>comment/commentbar.thtml</tt> template file
464 and the <code>commentbar-line2</code> class in <tt>style.css</tt> to make
465 the "Post a comment" button float to the left and easier to see. There were
466 no changes in functionality and other commentbar layouts will continue to
468 <li>The story template files <tt>archivestorytext.thtml</tt>,
469 <tt>featuredstorytext.thtml</tt>, and <tt>storytext.thtml</tt> are now
470 using the <code>{story_text_no_br}</code> variable to refer to the story
471 text. Template files that use <code>{story_introtext}</code> here will
472 continue to work as before.</li>
476 <h2><a name="changes150">Theme changes in Geeklog 1.5.0</a></h2>
478 <h3><a name="xhtml">XHTML support</a></h3>
480 <p>Geeklog now supports XHTML compliant themes. These themes should define the
481 following constant in their <tt>functions.php</tt> file:</p>
482 <pre style="margin-left:4em;"><code>define('XHTML', ' /');</code></pre>
483 <p>This will ensure that Geeklog switches to XHTML internally. If you want your
484 theme be working both as an HTML and an XHTML theme, you should use the
485 <code>{xhtml}</code> variable wherever XHTML requires a self-closing tag,
486 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
487 theme for XHTML only.</p>
488 <p><strong>Note:</strong> If you're using XHTML, it is your responsibility to
489 ensure that your site's content (stories, comments, etc.) is XHTML compliant.
490 Geeklog does <em>not</em> convert your content to XHTML.</p>
492 <h3><a name="story-submission">"Contribute" - User submitted stories</a></h3>
494 <p>Geeklog 1.5.0 supports the ability for users to specify story intro text
495 and body text seperately rather than just the intro text. This can be
496 turned on and off by changing the templates. The files:</p>
498 <li>submit/submitstory.thtml</li>
499 <li>submit/submitstory_advanced.thtml</li>
501 <p>Contain table rows containing the bodytext inputs. Simply removing these
502 inputs returns behaviour to the original.</p>
504 <h3><a name="admin-menu">Admin Menu, User Menu & Topic List</a></h3>
506 <p>All the above mentioned items are now lists, using <code>ul</code> and
507 <code>li</code> tags (and a new CSS class, <tt>blocklist</tt>, to hide the list
508 bullets). Two new template files have been added to create these blocks:</p>
510 <li>blockheader-list.thtml</li>
511 <li>blockfooter-list.thtml</li>
513 <p>Please note that the <code>{blockid}</code> variable that was present in
514 pre-release versions of Geeklog 1.5.0 has since been removed.</p>
516 <h3><a name="gltoken">Security Changes</a></h3>
518 <p>Many forms, particularly in the admin section of the site need a new hidden
519 form field in order for saving the form/processing the action to work. Add:</p>
521 <pre style="margin-left:4em;"><code><input type="hidden" name="{gltoken_name}" value="{gltoken}"{xhtml}></code></pre>
522 <p>To the following templates:</p>
524 <li>admin/block/blockeditor.thtml</li>
525 <li>admin/block/defaultblockeditor.thtml</li>
526 <li>admin/config/configuration.thtml (new theme file for 1.5)</li>
527 <li>admin/group/groupeditor.thtml</li>
528 <li>admin/group/groupmembers.thtml</li>
529 <li>admin/mail/mailform.thtml</li>
530 <li>admin/plugins/editor.thtml</li>
531 <li>admin/story/storyeditor.thtml</li>
532 <li>admin/story/storyeditor_advanced.thtml</li>
533 <li>admin/syndication/feededitor.thtml</li>
534 <li>admin/topic/topiceditor.thtml</li>
535 <li>admin/trackback/pingbackform.thtml</li>
536 <li>admin/trackback/pingform.thtml</li>
537 <li>admin/trackback/serviceeditor.thtml</li>
538 <li>admin/user/edituser.thtml</li>
539 <li>comment/reportcomment.thtml</li>
541 <p>Some plugin specific templates have also been changed, you may also need to
544 <li>plugins/calendar/templates/addevent.thtml</li>
545 <li>plugins/calendar/templates/editpersonalevent.thtml</li>
546 <li>plugins/calendar/templates/dayview/quickaddform.thtml</li>
547 <li>plugins/calendar/templates/submitevent.thtml (<code>{hidden_fields}</code> variable)</li>
548 <li>plugins/links/templates/admin/categoryeditor.thtml (new theme file for 1.5)</li>
549 <li>plugins/links/templates/admin/linkeditor.thtml</li>
550 <li>plugins/polls/templates/admin/polleditor.thtml</li>
551 <li>plugins/staticpages/templates/admin/editor.thtml</li>
552 <li>plugins/staticpages/templates/admin/editor_advanced.thtml</li>
555 <h3><a name="removed">Removed Files</a></h3>
557 <p>The following template files have been removed and are no longer needed:</p>
560 <li>admin/lists/menufields.thtml</li>
561 <li>admin/lists/topmenu_nosearch.thtml</li>
562 <li>admin/plugins/newlistitem.thtml</li>
563 <li>admin/plugins/newpluginlist.thtml</li>
566 <h3><a name="sysmessage">System Message</a></h3>
568 <p>The previously hard-coded CSS for the System Messages has been moved to the
569 stylesheet (new CSS class <tt>sysmessage</tt>).</p>
572 <h2><a name="changes141">Theme changes in Geeklog 1.4.1</a></h2>
574 <p>The css in 1.4.1 has been changed to a wider extent. More and more layout
575 components are beeing moved to the stylesheet so more change in looks can be
576 achieved with less change in the files. There is a reduction of tables and DIV,
577 and a stronger focus on semantics and consistency. Please also notice that the
578 styles.css includes additional documentation on the use of classes now.</p>
580 <p>As usual, any missing new theme files can simply be copied over from the
581 default theme (Professional) that ships with Geeklog.</p>
585 <p>From now on, all headlines in blocks & stories are made with header-tags. The
586 biggest title in a story is always h1, in a block always h2.</p>
588 <h3>Story layout</h3>
589 <p>The blocks for stories have no more tables, and the classes have been renamed
590 for consistency. There is a box now around the story called class "story" or
591 "story-featured". The components inside that box are story-icons,
592 story-information, story-body and story-footer. The title is a h1-tag. For
593 featured stories, only the outer box has a different class, the rest has to be
594 cascaded for changes.</p>
597 <p>The blocks changed in the same way as the stories. There are no more tables,
598 only one div-tag as a frame around called block-box, block-box-left or
599 block-box-right. The title is a h2-tag and the help icon for the block is a span
600 with a class called block-helpicon. Sub-titles in blocks have the h3-tag (such
601 such as in the What's new or Older Stories block). The changes affect (next to
602 styles.css) the follwing files:</p>
604 <li>blockfooter-left.thtml</li>
605 <li>blockfooter-related.thtml</li>
606 <li>blockfooter-right.thtml</li>
607 <li>blockfooter.thtml</li>
608 <li>blockheader-left.thtml</li>
609 <li>blockheader-message.thtml</li>
610 <li>blockheader-related.thtml</li>
611 <li>blockheader-right.thtml</li>
612 <li>blockheader.thtml</li>
615 <h3>Admin templates</h3>
617 <p>Many of the admin template files have had minor changes to tweak appearance
618 or functionality. If you didn't modify the admin templates in your theme, the
619 easiest way to upgrade your theme's admin templates is to simply replace the
620 entire 'admin' directory with the one from Geeklog's Professional theme.</p>
623 <li>All the "delete" buttons in the admin's editors (story editor, etc.) now
624 pop up a JavaScript confirmation box as a simple measure against
625 accidental deletion. If you'd rather not have that confirmation box,
626 replace the <code>{delete_option}</code> variable with
627 <code>{delete_option_no_confirmation}</code> in the admin templates.</li>
628 <li>The order of the save / cancel / delete buttons is now consistent across
629 all admin template files (changed <tt>group/groupeditor.thtml</tt> and
630 <tt>user/edituser.thtml</tt>).</li>
631 <li>Changed the top links in <tt>lists/topmenu_nosearch.thtml</tt> and
632 <tt>topic/topiclist.thtml</tt> to be consistent with the other admin areas
633 (i.e. the links are no longer enclosed in square brackets).</li>
634 <li>To enable changing the group ownership of "gldefault" blocks, the
635 <tt>defaultblockeditor.thtml</tt> has to be changed to include a
636 <code>{group_dropdown}</code> variable.
639 <h3>Other theme changes</h3>
642 <li>There was a div for spreading the with of the blocks to a minimum in the
643 files leftblocks.thtml and rightblocks.thtml. The format of those has been
644 transferred to the stylesheet with the class name block-bg-spreader</li>
645 <li>The template for the Polls-plugin has renamed classes block-vote-results to
646 poll-vote-results and block-vote to poll-vote to avoid confustion with
647 block-related classes.</li>
648 <li>The template files used by the Calendar plugin are now located in the
649 plugin's directory, (<tt>/path/to/geeklog/plugins/calendar/templates</tt>),
650 so the entire 'calendar' directory can be removed from the theme
652 The <tt>submitevent.thtml</tt>, <tt>editpersonalevent.thtml</tt>,
653 <tt>admin/eventeditor.thtml</tt>, and <tt>dayview/quickaddform.thtml</tt>
654 have also been changed to (optionally) support entering the time in <a
655 href="calendar.html#desc_hour_mode">24 hour mode</a>: A hidden input field
656 "hour_mode" is now required, the am/pm dropdowns are available as variables
657 <code>{startampm_selection}</code>, <code>{endampm_selection}</code>,
658 <code>{ampm_selection}</code>, depending on the template file), and the
659 dropdowns for the minutes are available as variables
660 (<code>{startminute_options}</code>, <code>{endminute_options}</code>,
661 <code>{minute_options}</code>, depending on the template file).</li>
662 <li>The variables <code>{author}</code> and <code>{owner}</code> are now
663 available in every template where an object's author (e.g. story or
664 comment author) or owner (e.g. owner of a block) name can be displayed.
665 They will also respect the <a
666 href="config.html#desc_show_fullname">$_CONF['show_fullname']</a> setting,
667 i.e. display either the user's full name or username.</li>
668 <li>The Article Author's tag in <tt>storytext.thtml</tt> and
669 <tt>featuredstorytext.thtml</tt> is now called
670 <code>{contributedby_author}.</code></li>
671 <li>To enable a remarks field in the answer to polls, the
672 <tt>pollvotes_bar.thtml</tt>, <tt>pollansweroption.thtml</tt> and
673 <tt>polleditor.thtml</tt> were changed. The
674 <tt>pollvotes_bar.thtml</tt> is now colored and has two lines, a class
675 for color coding each line and the <code>{answer_text}</code>. The
676 <tt>polleditor.thtml</tt> has an aditional field to enter the remarks,
677 same as the <tt>pollansweroption.thtml</tt>.
678 <li>A user's Account Information page has been redesigned. While there were no
679 technical changes (i.e. template files from earlier versions will still
680 work), some options have been rearranged and a note has been added to tell
681 the user that the current password is required to change those. Affected
682 files in the <tt>preferences</tt> directory: <tt>profile.thtml</tt>,
683 <tt>username.thtml</tt>, and <tt>userphoto.thtml</tt>.</li>
684 <li>The <tt>navbar</tt> directory now contains four files,
685 <tt>menuitem.thtml</tt>,<tt>navbar.thtml</tt>,<tt>breadcrumbs.thtml</tt>,<tt>breadcrumb_link</tt> as well as two images,
686 <tt>button.gif</tt> and <tt>button_over.gif</tt>.</li>
687 <li>A <a name="captcha"><code>{captcha}</code></a> variable has been added to
690 <li><tt>comment/commentform.thtml</tt></li>
691 <li><tt>comment/commentform_advanced.thtml</tt></li>
692 <li><tt>profiles/contactauthorform.thtml</tt></li>
693 <li><tt>profiles/contactuserform.thtml</tt></li>
694 <li><tt>submit/submitstory.thtml</tt></li>
695 <li><tt>submit/submitstory_advanced.thtml</tt></li>
696 <li><tt>users/registrationform.thtml</tt></li>
698 This variable is supposed to be used by a plugin that implements <a
699 href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAPTCHA" class="wikipedia">CAPTCHA</a>s
700 and will simply be empty when no such plugin is installed.</li>
703 <h3>Professional theme</h3>
705 <p>The following changes are specific to the Professional theme. There is
706 probably no need to port them over to other themes.</p>
709 <li>The theme now uses CSS everywhere for spacing and dividers instead of
710 relying on a 1x1 pixel transparent GIF image (<tt>speck.gif</tt>).</li>
711 <li>The amount of nested tables has been reduced, e.g. in the block
713 <li>Two unused template files, <tt>customlogin-header.thtml</tt> and
714 <tt>customlogin-footer.thtml</tt>, have been removed.</li>
718 <h2><a name="changes140">Theme changes in Geeklog 1.4.0</a></h2>
720 <p>As usual, any missing new theme files can simply be copied over from the
721 default theme (Professional) that ships with Geeklog.</p>
723 <h3>Admin templates</h3>
725 <p>Geeklog 1.4.0 comes with revamped Admin sections which required a lot of
726 theme changes. We therefore suggest that you simply replace the entire
727 <tt>admin</tt> directory of your theme with the <tt>admin</tt> directory
728 from Geeklog's default theme (Professional) as it ships with Geeklog 1.4.0
729 and apply any modfications you may have made to your Admin templates again
732 <p><strong>Note:</strong> The new icons for "Command and Control"
733 (<tt>moderation.php</tt>) in the Professional theme use a white background.
734 For themes with a dark (or other non-white) background, you can <a
735 href="http://www.geeklog.net/filemgmt/singlefile.php?lid=623">download</a> these
736 icons as PNGs with alpha transparency (note that Internet Explorer can not
737 display images with alpha transparency unless you include a JavaScript "<a
738 href="http://homepage.ntlworld.com/bobosola/">hack</a>" into your theme, so you
739 may want to convert those icons to normal transparency or simply set the
740 background to that of your theme).</p>
743 <h3>Advanced editor</h3>
745 <p>To use the included advanced editor (FCKeditor) you will need the following
746 new template files:</p>
748 <li><tt>comment/commentform_advanced.thtml</tt> (for comments)</li>
749 <li><tt>submit/submitstory_advanced.thtml</tt> (for story submissions)</li>
750 <li><tt>admin/story/storyeditor_advanced.thtml</tt> (Admin's story editor)</li>
751 <li><tt>staticpages/templates/admin/editor_advanced.thtml</tt> (for the Static
752 Pages editor, located in <tt>/path/to/geeklog/plugins</tt>)</li>
753 <li><tt>advanced_editor_header.thtml</tt> (included by all of the above)</li>
755 <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>
757 <h3>Other changes</h3>
760 <li>The comment templates <tt>commentbar.thtml</tt> and <tt>thread.thtml</tt>
761 have changed due to changes in the comment handling.</li>
762 <li>New directories <tt>trackback</tt> and <tt>admin/trackback</tt> containing
763 several new template files have been added for the trackback support.</li>
764 <li>New variables <code>{send_trackback_link}</code>,
765 <code>{send_trackback_url}</code>, and
766 <code>{lang_send_trackback_text}</code> are available in the story and
767 article template files. They provide a complete link as well as the URL and
768 link text allowing you to send a trackback comment for the current
770 <li>The <tt>links</tt> and <tt>admin/link</tt> directories have been
771 removed. Links are now a plugin and the plugin's templates can be found in
772 <tt>/path/to/geeklog/plugins/links/templates</tt>.</li>
773 <li>The <tt>pollbooth</tt> and <tt>admin/poll</tt> directories have been
774 removed. Polls are now a plugin and the plugin's templates can be found in
775 <tt>/path/to/geeklog/plugins/polls/templates</tt>.</li>
776 <li>The <tt>preferences/profile.thtml</tt> template now has additional fields
777 for the password change (old password, confirmation field for the new
779 <li>The search form, <tt>search/searchform.thtml</tt> has a new option for the
780 number of search results per page, while the hard-coded option to search
781 for links has been removed (since Links are in plugin now, it will show up
782 as part of the <code>{plugin_types}</code> option).</li>
783 <li>An additional variable, <code>{services}</code>, has to be added to the
784 <tt>loginform.thtml</tt> template file if you plan to allow users to log in
785 to your site using remote authentication.</li>
786 <li>If you plan to enable Trackbacks on your site, you may want to add links to
787 a story's trackbacks section to your story template files, e.g.
788 <code>{start_trackbacks_anchortag}{trackbacks_with_count}{end_trackbacks_anchortag}</code>. See the Professional theme's story template files for
790 <li>For the site statistics, the file <tt>stats/sitestatistics.thtml</tt> has
791 changed (entries for the links and poll have been removed and a new entry
792 for the number of active users has been added). There is also a new file,
793 <tt>stats/singlesummary.thtml</tt>, that is used for plugin entries.</li>
794 <li>The <tt>navbar</tt> directory is now part of a Geeklog theme (previously
795 used by some plugins, e.g. the Forum plugin). It contains two files,
796 <tt>menuitem.thtml</tt> and <tt>navbar.thtml</tt>, as well as two images,
797 <tt>button.gif</tt> and <tt>button_over.gif</tt>.</li>
801 <h2><a name="changes1311">Theme changes in Geeklog 1.3.11</a></h2>
803 <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>
805 <p>A few minor additions / new options have been introduced:</p>
807 <li>A new variable, <code>{camera_icon}</code>, can now be used in the story
808 and comment template files to display the small camera icon (the same as in
809 the Who's Online block) to link to the author's user profile (only if they
810 uploaded a userphoto).</li>
811 <li>The <code>{layout_url}</code> variable is now available in the templates
812 for the story, link, and event submission forms.</li>
813 <li>Also in the submission forms, a variable <code>{separator}</code> is now
814 available in addition to the misspelled <code>{seperator}</code>
816 <li>A new variable, <code>{calendar_mode}</code>, can be used in the
817 <tt>calendar/events.thtml</tt> template file to ensure that the "add event"
818 link will take the user to the proper event submission form for either the
819 site calendar or the personal calendar.</li>
822 <h2><a name="changes1310">Theme changes in Geeklog 1.3.10</a></h2>
824 <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>
826 <p>The biggest change in Geeklog 1.3.10 is that we now ship it with only one
827 default theme (the Professional theme, kindly provided by Victor B. Gonzalez)
828 and that the previously included themes are now available as a separate
831 <h3>Admin templates</h3>
833 <p>Most themes don't change the template files in the theme's <tt>admin</tt>
834 directory, so you can often save yourself a bit of work by simply replacing
835 the entire <tt>admin</tt> directory with the one from the Geeklog 1.3.10
839 <li>The story editor, <tt>admin/story/storyeditor.thtml</tt> includes new
840 options for the story archiving and for editable story IDs. <em>It is
841 recommended to make a copy of this file and re-apply any changes you may
842 have made to your copy again afterwards!</em></li>
843 <li>The list of polls, <tt>admin/poll/polllist.thtml</tt> now supports
844 paging, i.e. uses the {google_paging} variable.</li>
845 <li>The list of events uses paging and a row number now (files affected:
846 <tt>admin/event/eventlist.thtml</tt> and
847 <tt>admin/event/listitem.thtml</tt>).</li>
848 <li>The plugin editor, <tt>admin/plugins/editor.thml</tt>, now displays 2
849 version numbers for the plugin: The installed version and the (possibly
850 differing) version of the actual code. In the latter case, it will also
851 display an update button.<br>
852 The list of plugins, <tt>admin/plugins/pluginlist.thtml</tt> and
853 <tt>admin/plugins/listitem.thtml</tt>, also displays the 2 version numbers
854 and now supports paging when more than 25 plugins are installed.</li>
855 <li>The topic editor, <tt>admin/topic/topiceditor.thtml</tt>, contained a
856 hard-coded "10" for the default number of stories per pages. The new
857 variable {default_limit} provides the actual default value now.</li>
858 <li><tt>admin/mail/mailform.thtml</tt> has been changed to look slightly less
862 <h3>Other templates</h3>
865 <li>Added two new templates for the new story archive feature. This allows you
866 to theme olderstories differently. By default Geeklog 1.3.10 ships with
867 these template files not themed and the same as a standard story. The new
868 template files are <ul><li>archivestorytext.thtml</li>
869 <li>archivestorybodytext.thtml</li></ul></li>
870 <li>Due to various changes in the comment engine, it is recommended that you
871 copy over all the comment template files from the <tt>comment</tt> directory
872 (<tt>comment/reportcomment.thtml</tt> is actually a new file).</li>
873 <li>In <tt>calendar/dayview/dayview.thtml</tt>, i.e. in the calendar's day
874 view, the hard-coded am/pm times have been replaced by variables of the
875 form {xx_hour} (where 'xx' is 0-23).</li>
876 <li>In the event details template, i.e. in <tt>calendar/eventdetails.thtml</tt>,
877 the event type and an edit icon were added (this change was only made in
878 Geeklog 1.3.10rc3).</li>
879 <li>A "location" field was added in the user's profile: Added {lang_location}
880 and {user_location} in <tt>users/profile.thtml</tt> and {lang_location},
881 {lang_location_text}, and {location_value} in
882 <tt>preferences/profile.thtml</tt>.</li>
885 <h3>Optional changes</h3>
887 <p>The following is a list of optional changes (mostly new variables that are
888 now available). This information is mostly of interest for those who want to
889 develop their own themes.</p>
892 <li>{article_url}, i.e. the full URL to an article, is now also available in
893 <tt>article/printable.thtml</tt>.</li>
894 <li>In <tt>links/linkdetails.thtml</tt> the new variable {link_actual_url} now
895 contains the actual link URL (instead of a link to Geeklog's
896 <tt>portal.php</tt>).</li>
897 <li>The following variables are now available in <tt>calendar/eventdetails.thtml</tt>:
898 {event_state_name} (full name of the state), {event_state_only} and
899 {event_state_name_only} (abbreviated and full state name without the comma),
900 {event_edit} (link to edit the event, if allowed for the current user),
901 {edit_icon} (same, but with the edit icon instead of a text link),
902 {lang_event_type} and {event_type} for the event type
903 <li>The topic image is now available through the {topic_image} variable in
904 <tt>topicoption.thtml</tt> and <tt>topicoption_off.thtml</tt></li>
905 <li>Several class names have been introduced so that the various lists that
906 Geeklog uses can now be styled individually: list-feed, list-new-comments,
907 list-new-links, list-new-plugins, list-older-stories, list-personal-events,
908 list-site-events, list-story-options, list-whats-related (the names should
909 be self-explanatory).<br>
910 Use {list_class_name} to get the actual class name, and {list_class} to get
911 class="classname".</li>
912 <li>Several class names have been introduced so that the 2 small calendars
913 in the calendar's month view can be styled: .smallcal, .smallcal-headline,
914 .smallcal-week-even, .smallcal-week-odd, .smallcal-week-empty,
915 .smallcal-day-even, .smallcal-day-odd, and .smallcal-day-empty</li>
919 <h2><a name="changes139">Theme changes in Geeklog 1.3.9</a></h2>
922 <li>In <tt>header.thtml</tt>, you can now use the new variable
923 <code>{allowed_menu_elements}</code> as an alternative to using
924 <code>{menu_elements}</code>. The new variable takes the
925 <code>$_CONF['<i>XXX</i>loginrequired']</code> settings into account, i.e.
926 it will only list those entries that the current user has access to.</li>
927 <li>The <tt>admin/syndication</tt> directory, containing
928 <tt>feededitor.thtml</tt>, <tt>listfeeds.thtml</tt>,
929 <tt>listitem.thtml</tt>, and <tt>selecttype.thtml</tt> has been added.</li>
930 <li>Template files <tt>comment/comment.thtml</tt> and
931 <tt>comment/thread.thtml</tt> have been added and
932 <tt>comment/startcomment.thtml</tt> has been changed to implement
933 template-driven comments.<br>
934 Please note that <tt>comment/comment.thtml</tt> was changed <em>again</em>
935 in Geeklog 1.3.9rc2.</li>
936 <li>A <code>{link_edit}</code> variable has been added to
937 <tt>links/linkdetails.thtml</tt> so that admins can edit links directly
938 from the links section.</li>
939 <li>An "edit" icon has been added: <tt>images/edit.gif</tt>. The new variable
940 <code>{edit_icon}</code> can be used as an alternative to
941 <code>{edit_link}</code> in the story template files and in
942 <tt>links/linkdetails.thtml</tt>.</li>
943 <li>In the <tt>calendar/calendar.thtml</tt> file, the "mode" parameter has been
944 added to the << and >> buttons, so that users stay in their
945 personal calendar when browsing through months.</li>
946 <li>A new file, <tt>admin/group/groupmembers.thtml</tt>, has been added and
947 <tt>admin/group/listitem.thtml</tt> has been changed for the new
948 alternative option to add users to groups.</li>
949 <li>A new file, <tt>admin/block/listside.thtml</tt>, has been added and
950 <tt>admin/block/listitem.thtml</tt> and <tt>admin/block/listblocks.thtml</tt>
951 have been changed for the enhanced block list.</li>
952 <li>A <code>{google_paging}</code> variable has been added to
953 <tt>admin/link/linklist.thtml</tt>. Also added a column number to
954 <tt>linklist.thtml</tt> and <tt>admin/link/listitem.thtml</tt>.</li>
955 <li>All template files where the user can enter a URL are now using a new
956 variable, <code>{max_url_length}</code>, instead of a hard-coded number of
957 characters for the max. length of the URL. Files affected:
958 <tt>admin/block/blockeditor.thtml</tt>,
959 <tt>admin/event/eventeditor.thtml</tt>,
960 <tt>admin/link/linkeditor.thtml</tt>,
961 <tt>admin/topic/topiceditor.thtml</tt>,
962 <tt>submit/submitevent.thtml</tt>, <tt>submit/submitlink.thtml</tt>.</li>
963 <li>The hard-coded <code>&nbsp;</code> has been removed from the
964 <code>{welcome_msg}</code> variable. The blank was then added to the
965 <tt>header.thtml</tt> of the Classic, XSilver, and Yahoo themes (the other
966 themes either look fine without it or didn't use <code>{welcome_msg}</code>
967 in the first place).</li>
968 <li>An extra <code>table</code> has been removed from the
969 <tt>users/profile.thtml</tt> file of the XSilver theme so that the
970 username now lines up properly with the other entries.</li>
973 <h2><a name="changes138">Theme changes in Geeklog 1.3.8</a></h2>
975 <p>Theme changes in Geeklog 1.3.8 were mostly aimed at moving as much of the
976 hard-coded HTML into template files as possible. Other changes were made to
977 give theme authors better control over the layout and a small portion of changes
978 were done to incorporate new Geeklog features.</p>
980 <h3>New template files</h3>
982 <p>This is a list of the new files. You can safely copy these over from one of
983 the standard themes that ship with Geeklog (most of these files contain HTML
984 that was previously hard-coded into Geeklog).</p>
986 <pre>adminoption_off.thtml
989 topicoption_off.thtml
991 admin/database/listbackups.thtml
992 admin/database/listitem.thtml
993 admin/user/edituser.thtml
994 admin/user/plainlist.thtml
995 comment/commentbar.thtml
996 comment/startcomment.thtml
997 pollbooth/pollanswer.thtml
998 pollbooth/pollblock.thtml
999 pollbooth/pollcomments.thtml
1000 pollbooth/pollresult.thtml
1001 pollbooth/pollvotes_bar.thtml
1002 pollbooth/pollvotes_num.thtml
1003 preferences/boxesblock.thtml
1004 preferences/commentblock.thtml
1005 preferences/deleteaccount.thtml
1006 preferences/digestblock.thtml
1007 preferences/displayblock.thtml
1008 preferences/displayprefs.thtml
1009 preferences/excludeblock.thtml
1010 preferences/language.thtml
1011 preferences/privacyblock.thtml
1012 preferences/profile.thtml
1013 preferences/theme.thtml
1014 preferences/username.thtml
1015 preferences/userphoto.thtml
1016 search/resultauthdatehits.thtml
1017 search/resultrowenhanced.thtml
1018 search/resultsummary.thtml
1019 search/resulttitle.thtml
1020 users/newpassword.thtml</pre>
1022 <p>Note: <tt>preferences</tt> and <tt>admin/database</tt> are new directores.</p>
1025 <h3>Changed / updated template files</h3>
1027 <p>These files have changed since Geeklog 1.3.7, i.e. they may contain new
1028 variables, table columns, etc. If you haven't changed these files in your
1029 existing theme, it is probably best to simply copy them over from one of the
1030 themes that ship with Geeklog (with the exception of <tt>style.css</tt> and
1031 <tt>header.thtml</tt>, see below).</p>
1033 <pre>style.css <em>(see below)</em>
1034 header.thtml <em>(see below)</em>
1035 admin/block/blockeditor.thtml
1036 admin/block/listblocks.thtml
1037 admin/block/listitem.thtml
1038 admin/event/eventeditor.thtml
1039 admin/event/eventlist.thtml
1040 admin/event/listitem.thtml
1041 admin/group/grouplist.thtml
1042 admin/group/listitem.thtml
1043 admin/story/liststories.thtml
1044 admin/topic/listitem.thtml
1045 admin/topic/topiceditor.thtml
1046 admin/topic/topiclist.thtml
1047 calendar/editpersonalevent.thtml
1048 calendar/eventdetails.thtml
1049 search/searchform.thtml
1050 search/searchresults.thtml
1051 submit/submitevent.thtml
1052 users/getpasswordform.thtml</pre>
1054 <p>In <tt>style.css</tt>, four classes have been added that are used in the
1055 new search code of Geeklog 1.3.8. Instead of copying over the entire file, you
1056 will probably only want to copy over the code for those four classes:
1057 <tt>searchAuth</tt>, <tt>searchDate</tt>, <tt>searchHits</tt>,
1058 <tt>highlight</tt>.</p>
1060 <p>If the <tt>header.thtml</tt> of your theme is using the
1061 <tt>{menu_elements}</tt> variable, then you do <em>not</em> need to make any
1062 changes to it. If it is not using that variable, then you will need to make one
1063 change to it. In that case, search your <tt>header.thtml</tt> for the link
1064 to the story submission form, i.e. something like</p>
1065 <pre style="margin-left:4em;"><code><a href="{site_url}/submit.php?type=story"></code></pre>
1066 <p>and change it to read</p>
1067 <pre style="margin-left:4em;"><code><a href="{site_url}/submit.php?type=story{current_topic}"></code></pre>
1070 <h3>Removed template files</h3>
1072 <p>If you have a file named <tt>commentheader.thtml</tt> in your theme
1073 directory, you can safely remove it. It isn't used at all.</p>
1076 <h2><a name="changes137">Theme changes in Geeklog 1.3.7</a></h2>
1078 <p>Please note that all the following changes are <em>optional</em>. Themes
1079 made for Geeklog 1.3.6 will work just fine with Geeklog 1.3.7 - no changes
1082 <h3>New features and improvements</h3>
1085 <li>Theme-based topic icons are now supported by setting <tt>$_THEME_URL</tt>
1086 in the theme's <tt>functions.php</tt> file. The variable should point to
1087 a directory that has the same hierarchy as Geeklog's images directory
1088 (note that the path to topic images is stored relative to Geeklog's
1089 public_html directory).<br>
1090 <strong>Example:</strong>
1091 <code>$_THEME_URL = $_CONF['layout_url'];</code></li>
1092 <li>The <code>$_BLOCK_TEMPLATE</code> "hack" can now be applied to the
1093 What's Related and Story Options blocks, as well. Use
1094 <tt>whats_related_block</tt> and <tt>story_options_block</tt> as the block
1096 <li>The What's Related and Story Options blocks are now available as
1097 separate variables using <tt>{whats_related}</tt> and
1098 <tt>{story_options}</tt>, respectively
1099 (the <tt>{whats_related_story_options}</tt> variable for both blocks is
1100 still available).</li>
1101 <li>Several new variables can now be used in the story templates, e.g.
1102 <tt>{contributedby_fullname}</tt> for the full name of a story author and
1103 <tt>{contributedby_photo}</tt> for his/her user photo.</li>
1104 <li>When the new config variable <tt>$_CONF['showfirstasfeatured']</tt> is set
1105 to 1, then the first story on <em>every</em> page is rendered using the
1106 template files for featured stories, even when the story is not marked as
1110 <h3>Other changes</h3>
1113 <li>The template file <tt>admin/plugins/installform.thtml</tt> has been
1114 removed since it isn't used any more.</li>
1115 <li>Two new <em>optional</em> template files,
1116 <tt>admin/plugins/newpluginlist.thtml</tt> and
1117 <tt>admin/plugins/newlistitem.thml</tt>, have been added to support
1118 formatting of the list of plugins which haven't been installed yet. If
1119 these files do not exist, hard-coded HTML is used to present the list.</li>
1120 <li>The template file <tt>admin/link/listitem.thtml</tt> has been changed
1121 so that all the links are clickable.</li>
1122 <li><code>COM_pollResults()</code> doesn't use the side block templates any
1123 more when called from <tt>pollbooth.php</tt>. Therefore, you can now use
1124 different layouts whether the poll results are displayed in a side block
1125 or on the separate poll results and comments page.</li>
1126 <li>Removed the Normal / Archive / Refreshing drop down menus from the admin
1127 story and poll editors of the themes that ship with Geeklog. The setting
1128 of this dropdown isn't used in Geeklog anyway and has just confused users
1129 in the past ... (files <tt>admin/story/storyeditor.thtml</tt> and
1130 <tt>admin/poll/polleditor.thtml</tt>)</li>
1134 <h2><a name="changes136">Theme changes in Geeklog 1.3.6</a></h2>
1136 <p>There have been a lot of changes in the themes for 1.3.6 to get rid of the
1137 last pieces of hard-coded english texts so as to make localisation easier.
1138 Most of these changes have been made in the Admin editors (<tt>admin</tt>
1139 directory) and the calendar (<tt>calendar</tt> directory). If you created
1140 your own theme for an earlier version of Geeklog, we recommend that you copy
1141 over these two directories from one of the themes that come with Geeklog
1142 (choose one that is similar to your own theme or which it was originally based
1143 on). It seems like most Geeklog themes didn't change these files anyway, so
1144 this shouldn't be too much of a hassle ...</p>
1146 <h3>Other changes</h3>
1148 <li>The template file <tt>admin/mail/mailform.thtml</tt> has been added.
1149 This form for sending emails to other users of the site was previously
1150 hard-coded into Geeklog.<br>
1151 If you followed the above advice and copied over the <tt>admin</tt>
1152 directory to your theme, you got this file already.</li>
1153 <li>Two new files <tt>menuitem_last.thtml</tt> and
1154 <tt>menuitem_none.thtml</tt> have been added to give theme authors better
1155 control over the items in menu bars ({menu_elements} and {plg_menu_elements}
1156 variables in <tt>header.thtml</tt>). The template file
1157 <tt>menuitem.thtml</tt> is now used to render the first and any following
1158 menu items - with the exception of the last menu item, which is rendered
1159 using <tt>menuitem_last.thtml</tt>. If there are no menu elements for a
1160 menu bar, <tt>menuitem_none.thtml</tt> is used.</li>
1161 <li>New files have been added and the existing files have been changed for
1162 the links section (<tt>links</tt> directory). Again, we recommend to just
1163 copy over those files from one of the themes that ship with Geeklog.<br>
1164 The new files are: <tt>categoryactivecol.thtml</tt>,
1165 <tt>categorycol.thtml</tt>, <tt>categorynavigation.thtml</tt>,
1166 <tt>categoryrow.thtml</tt>, <tt>pagenavigation.thtml</tt></li>
1167 <li>The user profile has been extended to include a list of the last 10
1168 stories as well as the total numbers of stories and comments posted by that
1169 user. Have a look at the file <tt>users/profile.thtml</tt> to see the
1170 changes or just copy that file over from one of the themes that ship with
1171 Geeklog. You should also copy over the file <tt>users/storyrow.thtml</tt>
1172 which describes the block for the last 1o stories.</li>
1173 <li>The Classic theme has been updated to have an "Edit" link (for
1174 StoryAdmins) in every story now.<br>
1175 Files changed: <tt>storybodytext.thtml</tt>,
1176 <tt>featuredstorybodytext.thtml</tt></li>
1177 <li>In the Classic and Digital Monochrome themes the "contact" link now
1178 points to the form to send an email to the admin user instead of using a
1179 <code>mailto:</code> link with the site's email address from the
1183 <h3>CSS changes</h3>
1185 <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>
1186 Names that changed: <b>cal-oldday</b>, <b>cal-today</b>,
1187 <b>cal-futureday</b>, <b>cal-nullday</b>, <b>weekview-curday</b>,
1188 <b>weekview-offday</b></li>
1189 <li>A new class named <b>pagenav</b> can be used to format the paged
1191 Please note that this change was made <em>after</em> the release of Geeklog
1192 1.3.6rc1 and affects the use of the paged navigation in
1193 <tt>admin/user/userslist.thtml</tt> and <tt>links/links.thtml</tt>: In
1194 1.3.6rc1, the navigation was wrapped in <p> tags in those files. As
1195 of Geeklog 1.3.6 however, the function producing the navigation will wrap
1196 it in a <div> automatically.</li>
1199 <p><strong>Note:</strong> Theme authors are encouraged to specify a character
1200 set in the <tt>header.thtml</tt> of their themes like this:</p>
1201 <pre style="margin-left:4em;"><code><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset={charset}"></code></pre>
1202 <p>Geeklog will replace the <code>{charset}</code> variable with the proper
1203 character set based on the currently used language file. Also make sure that
1204 you put the above line <em>before</em> the <code><title></code> tag in
1205 the <code><head></code> section of your <tt>header.thtml</tt> file.</p>
1207 <div class="footer">
1208 <a href="http://wiki.geeklog.net/">The Geeklog Documentation Project</a><br>
1209 All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. Geeklog is copyleft.