Question

Hi..

We're relatively new to using twiki. We are interested in trying to see how to "modify" the "skin/template" that comse with the standard twiki install. What we could really use is a site (or sample code of a site) that we could examine to get a feel for how to change the look/feel of the twiki app...

We've seen a few sites that use twiki and have the look/feel modified, so we know it can be done... But we're not sure how to accomplish it...

We've looked through the twiki skin/template docs section, as well as searched across google without finding what we're looking for....

We'd like to create something similar to the display at: Link commented out - appears non-work safe

Ideally, a tutorial explaining this would be good!!! But we'll take what we can find....

Any pointers/assistance in this area would be really helpful... We're pretty sure we're not the only ones trying to do this.

If there is a better place to turn to to find this kind of information, let us know!!

Thanks bruce douglas bedouglas@earthlinkPLEASENOSPAM.net

Environment

-- TWikiGuest - 01 Oct 2003

Answer

The easiest place to start would be to install one of the existing well developed/matured skins and examine what they've done. KoalaSkin and GnuSkin spring immediately to mind, not to detract in anyway from the other good skins available. To aid learning it would also be good to contrast against one of the less mature skins (not as much detail means there is less to get confused about).

There is no skin building tutorial yet which I know of. There is the SkinDeveloperFAQ, which is still in the early stages of info gathering.

-- MattWilkie - 01 Oct 2003

Answer

Hi. We managed to get a skin working. The Hobbes skin. However, we'd like to be able to talk with someone to get a better understanding as to how we can make simple changes. IE, what files get changed, how the files that are part of the pluggin/skin get included, etc... Once we have a basic understanding, we can attempt to make mods, and go from there...

Thanks...

bruce douglas bedouglas@earthlinkPLEASENOSPAM.net

Bruce,

I'll tell you what I know (knew) which isn't much:

• The appearance depends on some files TWiki calls the template files, in the old version of TWiki I installed (several years ago — I believe it was something like the Feb 15, 2001 beta) those files were stored in a directory under twiki named templates, and ended in .tmpl.
• You should know (or be prepared to learn) some HTML, as the templates are written in HTML.
• As I indicated, my experience was with an old version of TWiki. In the old approach, there were template files for view, edit, preview, oops, ... (up to a total of like 30 IIRC). And, there was duplication between the templates — if something appeared on several different views, it was "defined" in each of those templates.
• In the current versions of TWiki, changes have been made so that common things are "defined" only once. I've never tried defining templates under that new scheme, but I understand:
  • You should find templates like for the header (top of a page), footer (bottom of a page), and maybe others; and a way to combine the header and footer for a particular type of view (i.e., view, edit, preview, ...).
  • Under the old scheme, you could create those templates outside TWiki, and view them by simply viewing them in any browser. Under the new scheme, I understand that you can't view the templates except by "incorporating" them into TWiki and viewing them from there.
  • There is some documentation on the new scheme, I haven't tried searching for it today, but I have seen it. IIRC, I had a great deal of trouble understanding it which is one of the reasons I haven't attempted to update my (private) TWiki or move WikiLearn to its own site. It may be that it is written (as someone else has observed for much of TWiki documentation) more as programmer oriented vs. user oriented documentation. If you find the documentation and make any progress, please consider revising or adding to the documentation to make it easier for the next person (who might be me ;-).
  • PeterThoeny did tell me (in a note somewhere on twiki.org) that my old templates (developed for the old approach) should work on the new versions of TWiki. I haven't got as far as trying that yet.
  • Hmm, I'll try making a quick search for the documentation, presumably it's on the TWiki web — be right back. Ahh, here is the main page of documentation: TWiki.TWikiTemplates — at a quick glance, it doesn't seem as confusing as it seemed the last time I read it — either it's been improved or I am better prepared to understand it. You should be aware that TWiki "overloads" the term "template" with about three different meanings — one is these templates, one is the "default" content for a new TWiki page (see, e.g., WebTopicEditTemplate), and the third might be the pages to be included in a newly created web.

-- RandyKramer - 06 Oct 2003