• the TWiki.<name>Skin topic, with documentation, examples and installing instructions
• the directory pub/TWiki/<name>Skin containing all <name>Skin attachments:
  • gifs, jpegs, ccs, javascript et caetera
• all needed templates, data files, etc... named:
  • view.<name>Skin.tmpl
  • preview.<name>Skin.tmpl
  • edit.<name>Skin.tmpl
  • ...

All these files are packaged into a single <name>Skin.zip file, and attached to the <name>Skin topic in this web.

The Installation will usually be just:

• unzip the <name>Skin.zip file in your twiki installation directory.
• (if you like it) set the SKIN preference to <name>Skin in your TWikiPreferences or WebPreferences.
• check the <name>Skin topic to see if the installation is successful.

-- AndreaSterbini - 24 Apr 2001

I am new to Twiki and so need more direction than this. After spending several hours I still have not suceeded in installing FlexibleSkin-2.1.

• What is my installation directory?
• After the download and unzip do I FTP the FlexibleSkin-2.1 folder to pub/TWiki/FlexibleSkin-2.1?
• Do I remove the 2.1 so it is just FlexibleSkin?
• How specifically do I check the <name>Skin topic to see if the installation is successful? If I type FlexibleSkin into the Go Box it takes me to the FlexibleSkin topic. Does that mean I have installed the skin and just don't know it?

-- GaryMilczarek - 07 Jun 2003

Seeing your note here Gary, I thought surely there is a PluginInstallationHowTo? somewhere but to my surprise didn't find one. That's a bit a documentation that is badly needed since so much of TWiki's power is found in the plugins. In the mean time, I'll try to answer your questions as best as I can.

The installation directory is simply the top level of the your TWiki directory that contains the data, template, lib, and pub directories. If you have shell access for your site, you can upload the zip archive to this location and then unzip it there. If the plugin archive if properly set up, it should place all the plugin components into their proper places. This assumes:

• That you have the "standard" twiki directory structure inwhich your data and template directories are in the same directory as your lib and pub directories. Many of us with hosted sites are not set up this way.
• That the plugin author did not assume there is a Plugin web as there here on TWiki.org but which is not the case on many (or most) TWiki installations. See PluginsWebOrTWikiWebForPluginPackages for more discussion on this.

Based on these complications, I have found it easier to un-zip the plugin archive locally and then ftp all the components into their rightful places on my TWiki site directory. When you unzip the plugin archive and look at it's contents, it should more or less mirror the directory structure of the TWiki directory (with the above caveats) so it should be pretty easy to see where everything goes.

All of this applies only to "basic" plugins and skins. Some, such as KoalaSkin, are quite a bit more involved to install and configure but they have more extensive instructions. Note that some plugins require CPAN modules and that's a whole other matter. On my hosted site, I have to ask support to install CPAN modules. Regarding FlexibleSkin, it has some special topics that need to be defined but I believe it comes pre-configured with a default setup that should work "right out of the box" as it were.

Regarding how to know if the skin or plugin is installed, that's an interesting question. Pretty much you just have to test it out. You're right that the place to start is to see if the plugin or skin topic is there. If it is, that's a good sign. Some plugins have a test right in their topic that will confirm that the plugin (and any supporting modules) are properly installed. To see if skins are properly installed, you pretty much have to "turn them on" for the site by configuring TWikiPreferences or better yet for an individual web by configuring WebPreferences. Both places contain a skin variable that has six spaces, asterisk, space, then "set SKIN = Name-ofskin". After previewing and saving the preference topic, the skin should be in effect.

Hope this is helpful!

-- LynnwoodBrown - 07 Jun 2003

Hi Gary, I've posted your question in FlexibleSkinDev where the flexible skin author and users are more likely to see it and possibly respond directly. Follow up should go there.

Lynnwood: yes I think we need an installation howto. I've personally refrained from starting one because "any day now" the structure might change, depending the outcome of TWikiUnixInstaller and PluginsWebOrTWikiWebForPluginPackages to name the two most recent 'revamp twiki installs' discussions. Of course laziness can not be discounted either. ; -)

-- MattWilkie - 08 Jun 2003