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Is there a spot on the dashboard where I can create "Areas" for our site?

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Hi, so I am attempting to migrate and upgrade our Concrete5 site which is currently running on version 5.6.3 to version 8.3.2. I am using the migration tool provided by Concrete5 to do so.

I'm stuck on how I can map the "Areas" out from our existing custom theme to the information that is in version 8.3.2. I'm not sure why it couldn't automatically map the areas. (i.e. we have an Area in our custom theme called "Hero image" and I have to manually map it out to correspond to an Area on our new site.)

But how can I create new Areas to map batch item "hero image" to if there is no spot on the dashboard to create these Areas? Is there even a spot that lists existing Areas out? Screenshot is attached of the item in question (from Migration Tool).

Thank you.

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Gondwana replied on at Permalink Reply
Gondwana
Areas can only be created by editing theme .php files.

I've never used the migration tool so I don't know whether it could be told to map an area in 5.6 to a differently-named area in 8.
codej replied on at Permalink Reply
I uploaded our custom theme files into the "themes" folder on our new site and installed/activated it. Then I exported the XML file from our site using the migration tool and imported it into the new site. The migration tool isn't recognizing any of the areas of our custom theme as "installed areas"...is it because I have to change something in the code? Are areas no longer created in the same way? (I didn't create this theme, someone who is more experienced in Concrete5 who worked on the site before me did. He no longer works here.)

Here is a snippet of what our custom theme (built for v5.6.3) currently looks like for the "hero image" Area: 

<!-- Home Page Full Width Banner
================================================== -->
<div class="band banner">
   <div class="sk_container">
      <div class="twelve columns hero-content">
         <?php
            $a = new Area('Hero Image');
            $a->display($c);
         ?>
      </div>
   </div>
</div>


Is that no longer the way areas are created in version 8? If so, what would I need to modify it to for Concrete5 to recognize it as an installed area?

Thanks!
Gondwana replied on at Permalink Reply
Gondwana
I hope you're not trying to use a c5.6 theme in c 8! They're incompatible.
codej replied on at Permalink Reply
Yes....that theme was built for our current (old site running on 5.6.3). Is it completely incompatible or does the code just need a little tweaking? Like for the Areas for example?

I'm asking this cause some of the theme is displaying correctly and I haven't gotten any error messages (well...except the issue with mapping the content areas). The colors, footer, header, navigation style, and even our social media embed add-ons on our footer are displaying correctly. I just can't get the content areas I described to show up. For example, on the home page, it's still showing the default Concrete5 core items instead of our hero image and clickable content blocks.
Gondwana replied on at Permalink Reply
Gondwana
You should assume it's incompatible and not trivially easy to convert. As I understand it, theme differences (eg, the distinction between page templates and page types) are a large part of the reason for the need for a conversion tool.
mnakalay replied on at Permalink Reply
mnakalay
Areas still work the same way and they are identified by page template and name so for instance if you have that area called "Hero Image" in the page template "full.php", as long as you have it named exactly the same way in the new version and also in full.php, it will be mapped automatically.