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Tutorial Fail

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Hoping someone has experienced this issue and the answer is something simple.

I have followed the standard tutorial here:

https://documentation.concrete5.org/developers/pages-themes/designin...

for creating a customized theme to the letter multiple times, and each time when I go to look at the result at the various stages of the tutorial, all I get is a blank page.
The tutorial makes this look rather straightforward but does not really deal with troubleshooting ...

I have followed the video then the written instructions, gone back and tried it again.
Using a general html template with Bootstrap as a test. There is general content from the html template in the file so SOMETHING should have been showing up.

I am using
Core Version - 8.5.1
Database Version - 20190301133300

If someone would be so kind as to enlighten me, I doubt I am the only one who has experienced this...

THANKS!!!
 
ConcreteOwl replied on at Permalink Reply
ConcreteOwl
One possibility is that the tutorial shows you how to create theme paths using php short open tags like this
<?=$view->getThemePath()?>

If your server is not setup to allow php short_open_tag then the code will fail.
If this is the case you have two options.
1 In your server PHP settings, allow php short_open_tag
2, Change that line of code to this
<?php echo $view->getThemePath()?>

As a general rule-of-thumb where you find this
'<?='
Replace it with this
'<?php echo '
And where you see this
'<? '
Replace it with this
'<?php '

Here I am enclosing the code in ' ' this is just to show any necessary spaces
owebsmart replied on at Permalink Reply
that's a great point... thank you! I will check. I did try just straight html file before adding the pointer snippet, still didn't work.
Kinda stuck until I figure this out, appreciate the info!

O
mesuva replied on at Permalink Reply
mesuva
As another example of how to structure a theme (and put that theme in a package), you could take a look at this example I put together a few years ago.

https://github.com/Mesuva/anatomy_theme...

It might not solve your particular issue here, but could be useful as another example.
owebsmart replied on at Permalink Reply
thank you! I will have a look and see if this helps.

I wasn't sure if this latest concrete5 version is doing things differently than the version in the tutorial I watched.
ob7dev replied on at Permalink Reply
ob7dev
There's a new tutorial, one of the sections here might help out:
https://documentation.concrete5.org/building-website-concrete5/5-add...

The theming part of the tutorial starts here:
https://documentation.concrete5.org/building-website-concrete5/4-cre...


Here is an old package that helps out with building your first theme:
https://www.concrete5.org/marketplace/themes/cloneamental...

some of the code is deprecated
JohntheFish replied on at Permalink Reply
JohntheFish
Elemental Cloner is good for creating a theme starting point.
https://www.concrete5.org/marketplace/addons/elemental-cloner...