Hey all...

I've been able to easily change the default skin to how I'd like to see it but I was trying to "add" my new look as a selectable skin in the admin's skin section. While it works fine changing the default skin I thought it would be nice to have it set up as, what seems to be, the designed way. But of course I'm running into a wall and keep getting an error message.

Admin -> Site -> Skin. Then I go down to "New Skin" and add in the names, click 'create' and get the following error: Your skin export attempt has failed, because the necessary folder (./templates/dark) couldn't be created. So I cannot create the skin directory from the admin section. By the way I've already changed the CHMOD of the templates directory to 777. Also, why does it say "Your skin export attempt has failed" when I didn't click the export button?

I did try creating the directory via ftp but it doesn't show up in the admin section.

...confused...

The skin export writes into directory /tmp/ --- double check that's also writable, Until the next version and improved skin management, what you can do is this (since you're already in over FTP in either case):

1. Download the folder /default and its subdirectories /images and /css,
2. Rename the folder into whatever you may want to call it,.
3. Open skin_global.php and change all references to /default/ to your new skin folder name.
4. Open skin_modules.php and do the same.
5. Create a new skin in the Admin CP > Skins and use the above for the folder name.
6. Edit the skin's properties (compare to "default") as desired — and remember to set it to "active" too.

Please let me know how it works.

I'll give it a go Markus, thanks.

The only thing is the "Create a new skin in the Admin CP" doesn't seem to work for me. The /tmp directory is writable by the way.

I found only two places in skin_global.php refferring to default and changed those. Those two I changed to 'dark':

Line 23 - include PATH_TEMPLATES."default/skin_modules.php";
Line 32 - var currentSkin = '{$core['init']['default_skin']}';

skin_modules.php was easier... all of them - lol.

I'm still not able to create a new skin in the Admin CP > Skins. When I do I get the following error message:

⋅ Folder ./templates/dark already exists, overwriting is not possible!

So I'm stuck... in my last attempt that you saw I changed the files within the default skin so essentially my new design WAS the default. I'm attempting to "ADD" a new skin and leave the default.

So then I save the new 'dark' directory to my puter, delete it via ftp and try to add in admin cp and get the following error message:

⋅ Your skin export attempt has failed, because the necessary folder (./templates/dark) couldn't be created.

Both the /tmp/ and /template/ directories are 777.

frustrating need a break. My eyes are getting crossed... lol

I have tested again the new skin creation in iWiccle 1.11 on both Linux and Windows servers (with /templates CHMOD 0777), and they both worked fine.

This may have been unclear in the previous post: The system will create the folder for you — you don't need to create it.

When you create a new skin in the Admin CP, the folder and a copy of the "base" skin you have selected is automatically generated. Download that folder (or use the "default" you downloaded before), do the changes I noted there, and stick it back in.

(Path changes inside skins are automated with the next version.) Let me know how it works.

By the way, in skin_global.php, this one shouldn't be changed:

Line 32 - var currentSkin = '{$core['init']['default_skin']}';

$core['init']['default_skin'] is a variable with the identifier of the current skin in use (not the "default" skin set). There are some variables I should rename for clarity...

Search for the string "/default/" — there are eight occasions there, as below.

----------

    Line 23: include PATH_TEMPLATES."default/skin_modules.php";
    Line 112:     <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="templates/default/{$core['skin']['skin_css_folder']}/style.css" />
    Line 144:     <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="templates/default/{$core['skin']['skin_image_folder']}/favicon.png" />
    Line 146:     <link rel="shortcut icon" type="image/x-icon" href="templates/default/{$core['skin']['skin_image_folder']}/favicon.png" />
    Line 172:   image_url[0] = "{$core['init']['base_url']}templates/default/{$core['skin']['skin_image_folder']}/ajax_loading.gif";
    Line 173:   image_url[1] = "{$core['init']['base_url']}templates/default/{$core['skin']['skin_image_folder']}/ajax_popup_lite_bottom_500.png";
    Line 174:   image_url[2] = "{$core['init']['base_url']}templates/default/{$core['skin']['skin_image_folder']}/ajax_popup_lite_middle_500.png";
    Line 175:   image_url[3] = "{$core['init']['base_url']}templates/default/{$core['skin']['skin_image_folder']}/ajax_popup_lite_top_500.png";

Thanks for the line numbers Markus. That helped a lot.

I'm still not able to create a skin in the admin section. I understand that it will create the directory for me and populate it with a copy of the default skin and then I can make the changes to that file. BUT the error message persists.

So I go and look at the error logs and see the following: (I changed out some private info)

[Wed Jan 06 16:00:31 2010] [error] [client xx.x.xxx.x] PHP Warning:  rename(tmp/export/wic_skin_default,./templates/skin_folder) [<a href='function.rename'>function.rename</a>]: No such file or directory in /usr/local/apache/sites/******/domain.com/htdocs/core/admin/admin_area_site.php on line 214, referer: http://domain.com/index.php?module=admin&show=site&area=skins

Then I have a look at the referenced line 214 of the /admin_area_site.php file and it reads as follows:

rename("tmp/export/wic_skin_{$new['skin_base']}", $export_dir);

Sorry for pestering with this as I know I can simply change the default files and make the default my own color scheme, but now this is becoming "one of those things" that should work, and I have to know why it's not working for me. Besides I'd like to have a choice of skins at the ready.

Unfortunately I know little to nothing about php so all that above may as well be written in Klingon.

No pestering at all, if there's a chance of a bug lurking there, it should be brought up and looked into.

For some odd reason, it seems that the two variables passed to the rename() function are understood as one variable. You could try to just re-upload this file and see if that solves it — FTP programs don't seem to be 100% fail proof when it comes to integrity of uploaded data.

---

Regarding the skin folder name (and identifier), if your skin is for example called Dark, you would probably want to call the folder "dark".

On identifiers in general. Whenever you see an "identifier" or an "ident" in use somewhere, it's always a string consisting of characters a-z 0-9 _, keeping it completely filesystem and URL friendly. (You could of course have capital letters too, but we're going with lower case only to avoid problems users often bump into when they mess between Windows and Linux, where things work different with filenames and capitals.)

We have been equipping much of the database-stored content in the system with both an "id" (automatic identifier number in database) and "ident" (string-based unique identifier, generated automatically most of the time) to both make descriptive URLs, to make identifier references recognizable without having to look up what that anonymous number might stand for, and to avoid data correlations breaking, should the automatic identifier numbers in the system change in the course of one sort of maintenance or another.

For today's Wiccle trivia. =)

keep file names in lower case: CHECK

I've uploaded the file to the template directory before but it doesn't appear in the list of skins in the admin panel.

I've even tried changing the permissions via my hosts website ftp.

I did notice the section "EDIT SKINS" and where it says: "To edit the skin HTML and CSS, modify the files in /templates/skin_folder."

But there is no such folder in /templates. So I try to create it both myself via ftp - doesn't work, and via the admin section where I can enter "Skin Folder".

Nada...

I'm in the soup on this one.... lol

Oopsy doopsy. skin_folder is the same as enter_name_of_skin_folder_here_please. Let's take it from there and see what's going on. =)

I've tried using that field also. Added the name "skin_folder" there and "dark" to the skin name line above it. Here's the error message:

⋅ Your skin export attempt has failed, because the necessary folder (./templates/skin_folder) couldn't be created.

Could the blockage be due to limits on my hosting? Can't imagine why though...

Do you have PHP running in safe mode by any chance? Would you like me to log in and check it out?

In other news, you're getting a iWiccle upgrade real soon — we're short-circuiting the sequence of release to get the existing iWiccle users to a fresh platform. (I'll help you out with upgrading the customizations you have done for the site where needed.)

Safe mode is off... I ran a php info check and it's off. I'll email you the link to see the whole read out.

Looking forward to the upgrade Markus - thanks :)

Good to hear that there's a short-circuit happening at Wiccle/iWiccle HQ!  - there are far too many dormant iWiccle websites out there (like mine) - just do a Google search on "powered by Wiccle" - you'll find many sites, most of them dormant! I'm no marketing expert (I'm a Business Consultant), but I strongly suspect that this is not a good look for the company and/or the product.

I'm an avid fan of iWiccle, and I have been for a while - I think Markus produces exceptional software and I appreciate his honesty and pride in his product, but I have lost so much credibility over the past few months - promising my site-users a new site that has (to date) not eventuated (because I will not release a sub-standard site/product).

Bring-on the 1.2 release - for all our sakes!

Hi John —

Yes I fully agree with you on that — while there are some neat budding sites with iWiccle in progress, the average iWiccle you get is a test install with not too much activity. To tell you the truth I haven't done the research on other CMS systems' testing/developed ratios for random sites across the net, would be interesting to get a statistical context to all this.

We intend to remedy this with a swift 1.20 release (the core and the iWiccle modules are already there — the thing taking a bit of time with Wiccle are some extra modules and some goodies we want to have in), followed by crash course documentations on how to get down to business in developing your iWiccle website.

Hope this gets things going a bit smoother for everyone.

Footman, do you want to work on solving this now or wait for 1.20? I need one proper working day to cut the release out of our main Wiccle trunk, featuring a bit of cleanup and packaging. Some Wiccle Web Builder core features will be rolled in with a subsequent update post WWB release, but the main beast is coming out in fine form, and I believe is something you will all be quite happy with.

Thanks to sufficient isolation of different areas of code, we can pretty much tailor any kinds of sub-releases out of the full Wiccle CMS Framework without having to worry over the snips affecting application stability — just in case anyone was wondering whether I'm going to throw out a bug-burdened fabrication in mid-development. =)

Prolly the best use of time and effort would be to wait for you to put out 1.20 - if it's addressed in the new release.

Any idea how a time frame for it Markus?

Two sites to wrap up and I'm almost there, some buzz going on with the hiring and so, need to free myself up for the task. As I noted packing 1.20 from the current Wiccle trunk is one full working day. Couple of days time? I'll keep you all updated here.

Great Markus - I'll sit tight and not make any changes to the site for now.

For the record -- all this search and replace business with skin creation I noted earlier is not an issue since 1.20.