This is not fair..

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I tried to find explanation on how to convert templates to c5 but all i can find is how people proud themselves for doing that, i thought this was about sharing knowledge.. Just share so that this community can grow, you cant compete with Joomla and Drupal this way..

 
mobius2000 replied on at Permalink Reply
Hi there,

This particular thread doesn't give much info as to your actual problem and just starting this thread is not overly constructive...

That said, these should help you a little:

http://www.concrete5.org/help/building_with_concrete5/developers/th...

http://www.concrete5.org/help/building_with_concrete5/developers/th...
(scroll down to "How do Themes and Page Types work?", quarter of the way down).

http://www.codeblog.ch/2009/01/concrete5-theme-erstellen/...

http://hungred.com/2009/03/07/how-to/tutorial-making-a-template-for...

If you are after something specific, please reply.
mdg replied on at Permalink Reply
lericmor

I share your frustration.

I only just discovered C5 two days ago and am still playing with it.

It did take me awhile to get my head around the theme creation but don't despair it is quite easy. (If you've ever made or hacked Wordpress themes or others, then the following will be familiar, and a damn site easier.

Anyway, here's what I did (and keep in mind I'm a two day old virgin at c5)

Copy the entire default them from concrete5/concrete/themes/default/

Then, don't paste it in the same folder, you have to go backup tot he main directory and paste it in concrete5/themes/ or whatever you called your top level directory.

Word of warning. There are many folders called themes, so make sure you paste it in the correct one. (This fact drove me round the twist for several hours.)

Now, rename the default folder you just pasted. Something like "yournewtheme" whatever you like.

Copy and paste your css file and images folder from the template you want to convert into the new folder.

You don't have to call them main.css or img, but just remember what you called them for later.

Next you'll see text file called description in the folder. Open it up and put in a new description of your theme.

That's all the prep work.

Now, open up the template you want to convert, or a copy of it as we're going to cut it up.


Copy and cut out everything in the head. IE Everything above the first body tag. And paste it somewhere for temporary keeping.

Where the head used to be paste in this
<?php
defined('C5_EXECUTE') or die(_("Access Denied."));
$this->inc('elements/header.php');
?>


Repeat the process for the footer. IE Take out everything that makes up the footer and the end of the page, including the last body and html tag.

Paste for safekeeping.

In its place paste
<?php
$this->inc('elements/footer.php');
?>


This should be the last thing on your template.

Save this template as default.php

Now go to the elements folder and open up header.php

All you need in here is

<?php defined('C5_EXECUTE') or die(_("Access Denied.")); ?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
        "http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-xhtml1-20000126/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html lang="en">
<head>
<!-- Site Header Content //-->
<style type="text/css" media="screen">@import "<?php echo $this->getStyleSheet('style.css')?>";</style>
<style type="text/css" media="screen">@import "<?php echo $this->getStyleSheet('typography.css')?>";</style>
<?php
Loader::element('header_required');
?>
</head>
<body>


Remember to change the the stylesheet name to whatever yours is called. Also, make sure any images referenced in your stylesheet are referenced correctly. EG: img/headerbg.jpg

That's it. You may want to add any other bits from your original head in here, but that's for you to work out.

Now do a similar process for the footer.php

All you need in here is
<?php
defined('C5_EXECUTE') or die(_("Access Denied."));
require(DIR_FILES_ELEMENTS_CORE . '/footer_required.php');
?>
</body>
</html>


Again add whatever you need to from your original template as you see fit.

Save everything, then open up the dashboard and go to Pages and Themes and you should see the description of your new theme in there.

It'll have the thumbnail of the default theme in there, but you should be able to figure out how to change that. Anyway, it won't affect the theme.

Click Activate and there you go.

I haven't covered how to make the content blocks editable as that's another tute. And there are already some good ones in the help section and forum.

Hope that helps. Again, if you're comfortable taking advice from a total noob to C5 that's up to you.

All I can say is this worked for me.
bcarone replied on at Permalink Reply 1 Attachment
bcarone
Check the attached PDF. I have been using C5 since around March of this year and love it.

There is good documentation/vids in the main HELP section of this site to get you started. Follow the links that MDG posted above and it should be ok.

The attached is a work in progress (so sue me:)) It doesn't have all the answers but it will point you in the right direction.
thallman replied on at Permalink Reply
Go tohttp://www.concrete5.org/help/editing/... and study a bit. I went through topics I needed to learn ASAP, then other topics to learn about other features. There are still a few holes in the knowledge base, as there are with any knowledge base. Forum catches the overflow.

In this case about themes, it's covered in the help section with video + separate text for the PHP coding used in the vid. Give it a try.