Hey guys,

First off, I'm going to state that I am far below the understanding of even the newbie tutorials and explanations on this site.

I cannot figure out how to get my theme to even appear in the selectable themes listing under system preferences on my site.

To put it simply, I made and coded my first template using this tutorial:

Thus, I made a folder, erroneously named "Template" (as I did not know there was a difference between template and theme at the time). In it includes a style.css file, a index.html file, and a "images" folder with all the .png files necessary.

To me delight, opening the index.html file shows a theme and working potential links, etc.

From what I understood - this was all that was necessary to create a basic, decent looking site.

By the way: If needed, I'll upload the files to help troubleshoot if necessary. I noticed every other default theme in the ftp /theme folder has java script files: are these necessary?

Again, please understand I have almost no idea what I'm doing and going off tutorials with huge holes in them, making me question a lot of things and trial and error the rest.

Some side questions: What's the difference between the sftp and ftp to me site? they essentially contain the same files, and both have a XOOPS directory.

The site I'm using to host, Register.com, automatically installed XOOPS for me. Version: 2.2.6

There's a root/public_html/xoops/theme directory, and then there's a root/www/xoops/theme directory: what's the difference? To be safe, i tried uploading my theme folder to both.

I read a tutorial on here, saying to clone the default template of the site. I did that, but it doesn't say whether to "generate the files" or not? What's the point of doing this anyway?

Lastly, there's an index.html file in the theme directory, but not in any of the choose-able theme folders under that directory - what's the point of this .html file?

I hope this is enough information for you guys to get me started off on the right direction. This is the first attempt of hosting and running a website of my own, and I've spent about 10 hours yesterday and starting again today, trying to learn as much as possible.

Thanks for the help in advance,
-Jake

Sounds like an ugly auto install by the host. XOOPS should be only in one folder. I would suggest removing it and installing 2.0.18.2 manually. Once you get XOOPS installed properly then can focus on the theme problem.

Welcome to the XOOPS.org Forum!
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Just upload a theme to the themes directory.
Quote:As beginner it is far more easier to select a theme from the themes gallery or here
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Yes
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They do the same things, but sftp is more secure. (see wikipedia)
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That's ok for the time being. When the version 2.3 comes out in a few weeks, an upgrade will be offered by your hoster or you can do it yourself.
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www is an alias for htdocs and they point both to the same directories and files.
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As you may understand now, useless work! Either one will do.
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It's for large customizations. Don't bother for the moment.
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It prevents unauthorised acces to the directory listing and should be present in every directory, where this is not wanted. In themes this is not much a problem.
Quote:Computers and programs: the ubiquitous passtime!

You can select a lot of modules from the repository or take a look at the module packs.

jdseymour,

Well, apparently everything is normal according to ghia, as sftp and ftp link to the same thing, then there really is only one xoop directory. Since everything else about the site is working fine, it's my own error regarding the theme I figure.

Ghia,

I did upload a theme folder to the theme directory, but it does not show up in admin->system preferences.

Yeah, well you have to eventually learn from a tutorial to make your own, selecting an already made theme isn't going to give me any knowledge of how to make my own. I'm also very picky and wanted to say that I made the theme for my page ;).

They're necessary of course, to that specific theme - but must MY theme need them to function, or even just show up in the selection box of the system preferences?

Can you define "Large customizations," regarding cloning templates? Is making a new web layout and links considered a large customization? This is making sure I understand the difference between a theme and template.

Thanks for the help, guys - but I'm still stuck on my theme, and don't want to move on to anything else until I'm successful =)

Is there anything else you need to help me with this?

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It would help if you specify which one. Typical error is that directories are not correctly aligned. You have the themes directory with some default themes. Your theme directory has to be there also with its name. In that directory there is an theme.html file. So, you have /themes/yourtheme/theme.html .
Quote:You don't need to assemble a car to drive it! It's easier to tweak an existing theme already resembling your idea.
Quote:I tell people always: "Yeah, selected entirely by myself!" (Of course it never goes untweaked, because there is always something I don't like or feel could be better.)
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A theme makes the general appearence of the site: style, colours, columns. Templates bothers with the layout of details as in this post: user info on the left, right or on top; links at the top or on the bottom.

Ghia,

Once again, thanks for the reply.

I understand your analogy and may take that approach if I must, but I would really prefer to start this way - at this point especially after putting so much time into it.

I have made some progress. I did not know you had to name your .html file in your /root/themes/mytheme, to "theme.html" for it to be recognized in the XOOPS admin preferences.

So I make it the active theme, and go to the home page. All the text, links, etc - is there, but no images. Hmm. I changed all the a href's from index.html to theme.html to make sure changing the html name didn't screw anything up. As far as I know the .css doesn't refer back to the html file - no index.html reference.

Essentially, my style.css file is not being seen by the html document, why is this?

Edit: Also, I noticed the theme.html files for the other default themes are all javascript; mine is in .html - is this some reason why the style.css cannot be found?


EDIT After some quick advice from a friend who designed a site from the same host, he told me I don't need a CMS for what I want and can just put my (what turns out to be apparently) template in the public_html folder and bam it works! Thanks for the assistance, guys.