SID-01812: skin broken after upgrade

Status:	Answered	TWiki version:	6.0.0	Perl version:	5.10.1
Category:	CategorySkin	Server OS:	Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation release 6.3	Last update:	10 years ago

I've just used BackupRestorePlugin to migrate the contents of a 4.1.2 TWiki instance to 6.0.0, which worked remarkably well, with the exception of a simple, custom skin template that I had created in order to modify the actions bar to add and remove functions to the default set.

My skin template is an include of the previous default skin, 'pattern', which I understand is still the base for the new default skin, 'topmenu'. In the converted instance, the top menu is completely white/blank, and the top of the web left bar, which normally shows the web name in a stripe, now shows only the web name and color icon (no colored stripe across).

The custom view template is quite simple, just including the pattern skin and defining a element to be included in the template along with the defaults:

%TMPL:INCLUDE{"view.pattern"}% 
%TMPL:DEF{"myfunction"}% 
%TMPL:P{"sep"}%
  ...  
%TMPL:END%

However, I see the code in the pattern view template has changed almost completely from the code in my previous version.

I've tried testing the upgraded instance with the default skins, but 'pattern' displays the content with the same missing top menu, and 'topbar' displays all the content in the 'classic' skin.

Is there a simple way to update this template without breaking the default pattern or topbar skins, and without losing the entire top menu completely?

-- John DeStefano - 2013-10-24

Discussion and Answer

What is your SKIN setting in Main.TWikiPreferences?

The PatternSkin does not have a top menu. Do you see the proper header when using just the pattern skin? Add ?skin=pattern to any view URL (test it here to to see.)

On restore, make sure you exclude the TWiki web. You'll likely break TWiki if you do.

-- Peter Thoeny - 2013-10-24

Hi Peter,

I had this set to: * Set SKIN = myskin,pattern

I've tried inserting 'topbar' in between the two but that had no effect, nor does just 'pattern'.

I restored the backed-up archive manually into the new TWiki instance, but the archive included only 'twiki/pub/TWiki/' and 'twiki/pub/pub/TWiki/' as far as TWiki directories go. Since I can't seem to get the BackupRestoreConsole working (nothing displays there), what directories are not safe to restore manually?

-- John DeStefano - 2013-10-25

Try %TMPL:INCLUDE{"view"}% at the top of your skin template. Try Set SKIN = myskin, topmeny, pattern

Do not restore twiki/data/TWiki and twiki/pub/TWiki.

-- Peter Thoeny - 2013-10-25

A quick settings change on 'Set SKIN' does seem to fix the top menu and bar -- thanks! I assume SKINs not delimited by commas plus spaces can't be parsed?

But the custom function definition (above) seems to be lost via this method, as are the "Jump" and "Search" placeholders for the text search fields. The custom definition is simply a form containing a button, which calls the "Publish" function.

-- John DeStefano - 2013-10-29

Closing this question after more than 30 days of inactivity. Feel free to reopen if needed. Consider engaging one of the TWiki consultants if you need timely help. We invite you to get involved with the community, it is more likely you get community support if you support the open source project!

-- Peter Thoeny - 2015-12-03

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