Templates
From Splash Frog Docs
Contents |
Overview
The template system for Splash Frog has been designed to make it easy for administrators to add templates, push system-wide updates to templates out to their websites, and overall manage of how the templates use the menu's and side modules easy.
Adding a Template
Adding a template to either the system level or website level is relatively easy. If you are uploading the template through the ZIP method, then select the template's ZIP file, and click the "Create" button. The system will then verify that what you uploaded is a .zip file, and attempt to run the Linux Execute Command unzip. If your FTP account is restricted in permissions, or your Linux server does not have the unzip package installed, or you are running another kind of server other than Linux (Example: Microsoft's IIS Server), then this method will not work for you. Instead, you will have to manually unzip the the template locally, and then manually add it to the system or website.
To manually add a template, create a folder to store the template files. On the system level, you create the folder within /templates/. On the website level, you create the folder within /sf/templates/. Upload all of the files into that directory except for the config.php file. Once completed then through Splash Frog select the option to "Manually enter in the information". Give the template a name and then type in the name of the folder you had created for the template. The system will then try to verify that the template directory does exist and that there is a template file there. Once it has confirmed it the template will then be recognized by the system / website.
On the website level, you can add a system-installed template by selecting the option "Select a system template". A dropdown will appear with all of the available system templates. Select the one you want and click the "Create" button. The system will then copy that template's information and files into the website template system.
Note: If you do install a system-installed template, you will not be able to update the template on the website level. That template must be updated on the system level and then it will have to be pushed out to the websites that have that template installed on them.
System Templates
On the system level, by adding templates here you will make that template available to all of the websites within your system for use. This is good if you have multiple websites that need to use the same template, but do not want to add that template and update the template for each website.
When you update a template on the system level, you can "push" that newly updated template to all of the websites that have it installed, automatically updating the template files, but leaving any customization such as custom css or default area information intact.
Site Templates
Templates on the website level are visible and available only to that website. This means that no other website within the Splash Frog system will have access to that same template. All updates to a template installed on the website level will have to be done from within the website, and not on the system level.
Custom Headers
You are able to add in your own customizable CSS or Javascript to the template. This option is here to help you, as the administrator, help further define and customize any general CSS variables or Javascript you want.
This is particularly useful for when having to customize your installed module CSS. The reason why you would want to customize the CSS here within the template for a module instead of the module itself is then because if you have multiple templates installed, you would only be able to get the module truly customized for just one template instead of them all if you added in the custom CSS on the module itself.
Custom Area's
For each template you have on your website you can define what will be their default menu to show and any side modules as well.
Each template have what are called "Custom Area's". Within each area is where you specify what menu and / or side module will be. Templates can also have as many or as few of these custom area's, depending upon how the template was created.
When modifying the custom area for a template, the system will give you the number of area's that template has. You then select an area # from the dropdown, then select a menu group (A menu group is a group of specified menu links. See Menu Manager) or a side module and then press the "Add to Area" button to add your selection to the selected area.
Once you have all of the menu's and side modules in the area's that you want, you can re-arrange their order in their respective area's by simply clicking and dragging on their names up or down.
If you have difficulty knowing what area's are what on your template, simply click the link "Click here to view what area's are where on this template" and a popup with a screenshot of the different area's will appear. (Note: If the template creator did not include a screenshot within their template package you will not see the screenshot.)
