Skin Changes 2.0 to 3.0

content of file docs/Skin Changes 2.0 to 3.0.txt

Note: This is not a tutorial on how to update a skin. It's pretty much my notes on what will eventually have to go into a tutorial. Therefore, there's probably things missing. We'll be working on a real tutorial. Optional additions to listings.tpl for stories:

{toc} - Table of Contents link to story index {count} - The view/read count {new} - The text "New!" for new stories or alternately a graphic (use the URL to the graphic from the main directory). {featuredtext} - The words "Featured Story" or "Past Featured Story" to use instead of the graphics if you wish

This is already done for you in the default_tpls folder.

Also in listings.tpl you will need to add {comment} to both the seriesblock and storyblock sections. This will be used for favorite stories to show the member's comments about the story. Style the comment with favcomment.tpl. See the default_tpls folder for an example.

In viewstory.tpl optional addtion:

{toc} - Table of Contents link to story index

The story and chapter notes (beginning and end) have been moved into blocks in viewstory.tpl This will let you style them any way you wish and also hide those blocks when there are no notes to display. (See the default_tpls for an example)

For any new classifications you add you will need to modify listings.tpl, series_title.tpl, and optionally viewstory.tpl and storyindex.tpl to include those additional classifications. Optionally, you can use {classifications} to include all your classifications at one time. The default_tpls/listings.tpl uses {classifications}

In reviews.tpl you can now add a quick review form to the bottom of the list of reviews instead of the "Submit a Review" link using the {reviewform} variable. Already done in default_tpls.

The reviewsblock has been pulled into its own .tpl so it can be reused in places other than the reviews page (such as the user panels)

The profile section of the user page has been pulled into its own .tpl, again so that it can be re-used. It should also make it easier for people modding skins. There is also now a setting in your admin settings for whether or not to show the profile at the top of the view user page all the time or only when it's selected.

In user.tpl you no longer have individual variables for the tabs. Instead it's been put into a block to allow more tabs to be added dynamically without editing the tpl's each time.

{link} {count}

You can also use {linkcount} to include the count of items inside the link instead of next to it. You don't have to use 's. This is just an example.

Rather than have the news archive link hardcoded into the news block at the bottom, I've assigned it to a global link (i.e. {home}) so that you can put it where you want. It's assigned as {newsarchive}

There are a large number of new links you can add to your skins and the menu block. The list is in the "Page Links" section of the admin panel.

In default_tpls, we changed the "classification" CSS class to "label". It's more clear what the purpose is and shorter. :)

For the new profile block, if you add new fields to the profile information, you will need to either add the individual links such as {yahoo} or remove the individual links and make use of the new {authorfields} variable that displays the complete list of custom fields. If you're creating skins for the use of others, you're encouraged to use {authorfields} instead of the individual links.

The $current variable for the index page was changed to home to solve a conflict with the variable name for the pagelink. This will affect skins like Romance that use the current setting as the name of a containing div.

For the featured, recent, and random blocks, if you use the .tpl option you'll need to remove the name of the block from each of the variables. For instance {recenttitle} will now be {title}. This is because each of these blocks now uses the storyblock.php code. Therefore, you can also add any of the information you can use in the listings.tpl to your random, featured, and recent blocks.