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[qubie Friend qubieJoin date: September 2011Posts: 12Downloads:7Uploads:0 Thanks: 3]

#168509

I’ve just uploaded your ja_t3_blank template and what I hope are the correct files (T3 Framework 2.0, plug-ins, components, etc.) to go with it

I’m trying to learn how to develop a series of templates/themes for a single site which will have different template designs and different looks and feels depending on which section of the site the user is in.

Watching your video, Making a Joomla! template in 30 minutes with JAT3 Framework ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NU2-a0lLKQ0 ), which I realize was done in a j!1.5 environment, you show at around 2:20 of this video that to start the process of creating a user theme, we navigate to folder: mywebsite > templates > ja_t3_blank > local > themes > user-themes. In that folder, there already exists various subfolders such as css, html, images etc.

On the most recent version I just downloaded, the folder ‘user-themes’ in that location doesn’t exist.

Am I first supposed to create the ‘user-themes’ folder and create inside it empty css, html, images folder (there are also subfolders inside some of these), and then copy and paste existing default files from elsewhere to get the ball rolling?

Or does that video not quite apply to the J!1.7 version I have.

By the way, fantastic job creating all of this. Amazing stuff.

[stilgar Friend stilgarJoin date: September 2011Posts: 3Downloads:0Uploads:0]

#412467

hello,

You’re right, you need to create a folder for your theme then you can add all the specific necessary subfolders like css, image etc.
You also need to add your “info.xml” file in this theme folder.
Works fine on J!1.7

[qubie Friend qubieJoin date: September 2011Posts: 12Downloads:7Uploads:0 Thanks: 3]

#412479

Hi Stilgar, thanks for replying. I’m not quite there yet though after a couple of passes at it.

Here’s what I’d done prior to your reply.

Created a copy of ja_t3_blank and renamed it ja_t3_custom.

In ja_t3_custom (which after opening it up in template manager shows up as: Style Name: ja_t3_custom, Template: ja_t3_blank … I was expecting to see a whole new template here, maybe this is the root of the problem i’m running into below), I created a new Profile ’emptypage’ tweaked it and applied it to the page(s) I wanted.

Then created a custom layout, which I called ‘near-blank-frontpage’ and applied it to profile ’emptypage’ in ja_t3_custom.

At this point, everything was proceeding as expected and I had the frontpage of the site looking as I wanted (except for one minor point: how do I add custom characters like a french accent to some of the letters in the slogan?). I then wanted to specify my own background color/graphics etc. in a custom theme to be applied to this profile.

I created a folder under ja_t3_blank > local > themes > which I called ‘frontpage_qfam’ (so: ja_t3_blank > local > themes > frontpage_qfam) in which I created empty subfolders called css, images, html and I also copied into it and edited an info.xml file (copied from ja_t3_blank > local > info.xml). I did NOT copy nor create any additional subfolders inside the css subfolder.

When I went back into the template manager for ja_t3_custom (which identifies it as a ‘style’ under template: ja_t3_blank) and tried to assign my user theme ‘frontpage_qfam’ to profile ’emptypage’ (I was subsequently going to add CSS rules to customize theme ‘frontpage_qfam’ to my needs), my theme ‘frontpage_qfam’ didn’t appear under Advanced Settings > Theme Settings > (edit button) Local Themes (there was nothing under Local Themes which I where I expected ‘frontpage_qfam’ to appear). A good while later, for unexplained reasons theme ‘frontpage_qfam’ appeared and I was able to assign it to profile ’emptypage’ (I wasn’t expecting anything to change yet since I hadn’t yet added any new css rules to this my new theme … that was going to be next). But then things got even weirder.

Going back to examine the css on the home page (or as i call it ‘frontpage’) which I’d customized successfully up until this point, all of a sudden I found that it had reverted back to the original default styling. At this point, even though all my settings in template manager (e.g. assignment of ja_t3_custom as default template, assignment of that template to act on page 1, assignment of profile ’emptypage’ to be the profile for this template, assignment of layoug ‘near-blank-frontpage’ applied to profile ’emptypage’ etc. ) seem valid. I can’t get it to respond any more, even after removing my custom theme but keeping my custom profile and custom layout (which was working before) ???

What am I doing wrong? Is it because I started by first creating and renaming a copy of ja_t3_blank that this isn’t working?

[qubie Friend qubieJoin date: September 2011Posts: 12Downloads:7Uploads:0 Thanks: 3]

#412488

Really puzzled now.

I went back into template manager and deleted ja_t3_custom, leaving only ja_t3_blank. Then tried to apply the custom profile and custom layout described above but the template won’t respond to any of the changes.

Tried clearing the ja_T3 cache also but that didn’t help.

Any idea what is going on?

[qubie Friend qubieJoin date: September 2011Posts: 12Downloads:7Uploads:0 Thanks: 3]

#412502

Another somewhat peculiar behaviour occurs in Template Manager when selecting ja_t3_blank. As soon as the template manager opens this template, what looks like a menu assignment section appears for a fraction of a second on the left hand side of the screen (where the page assignment is) and then promptly disappears with no visible way of bringing it back.

I’m assuming that is not normal behaviour for this template (I’m wondering if this helps point to what is malfunctioning).

[qubie Friend qubieJoin date: September 2011Posts: 12Downloads:7Uploads:0 Thanks: 3]

#412509

Solved the main problem but don’t know what caused it.

For the first few hours of working with the template, the home page of my development site had page id 1 in template manager’s page assignment. Assigning my custom profile to that page had created the necessary changes. As described above, at some point, the changes were no longer being applied. Turns out, for reasons I don’t understand yet, that the home page of my site went from id 1 to id 435. ??

Re-assigning the Page Assignment to page 435 re-applied my custom profile, layout and theme to the home page.

Still don’t know why the Menu Assignment section disappears in template manager nor how to apply custom ascii characters (e.g. french accents) to the slogan.

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