Ningja skin update

Clay Gordon
@claygordon
10 years ago
744 posts

For each of the items in the 1.0.12 changelog is it possible to know which .tpl files have been changed?

This will help me know what changes I need to apply, where.
updated by @claygordon: 02/08/15 07:37:41PM

@brian
10 years ago
10,148 posts

thechocolatelife:
For each of the items in the 1.0.12 changelog is it possible to know which .tpl files have been changed?

This will help me know what changes I need to apply, where.

This is what the COMPARE tool does in the template tab...

--
Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net

Clay Gordon
@claygordon
10 years ago
744 posts

Maybe I don't understand the skin update process - which in entirely probable.

Right now I am working in the Ninga skin.

Before the update I clone and activate the cloned skin.

I update to 1.0.12

The modified templates in the clone are preserved and I merge the diffs from the updates via compare into the modified templates?

I did look in the docs - https://www.jamroom.net/the-jamroom-network/documentation/skins/839/creating-your-own-skin
updated by @claygordon: 01/06/15 11:48:34AM

Strumelia
@strumelia
10 years ago
3,603 posts

Clay, this all confused me for a couple of months as well.
----you will be using your own custom skin, set as the activated one, from day to day, and make all your customizations on it. (NOT on your basic Ningja skin).
Then when a ningja skin update gets put out, you update your Ningja skin. After that, go into your CUSTOM skin and use the Compare templates function to look over all the templates that show a difference between your custom skin and the (updated) Ningja skin. You';ll see the same ones over and over, but new ones will pop up when you update Ningja. Look over all the highlighted differences and copy paste any new ones from the updated Ningja skin that you want to incorporate into yuor custom skin.
Dont keep customizing your Ningja skin- only keep 'updating' it. Use your CUSTOM skin to be activated and run your site on, and make your skin modifications to IT- not to the Ningja skin.

--
...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

@brian
10 years ago
10,148 posts

I've got a to-do to get a good document on this, as this seems to be confusing for a lot of users. I'll try to get that done (or an existing one updated).

--
Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net

Clay Gordon
@claygordon
10 years ago
744 posts

@Strumelia:

So far, I have made all my changes to the default Ningja skin. I plan to clone it before updating. I am assuming that the update will overwrite the default skin - .tpl and .css, and henceforth all changes will be made in the clone skin.

Yes?
updated by @claygordon: 01/06/15 12:38:34PM

@brian
10 years ago
10,148 posts

thechocolatelife:
@Strumelia:

So far, I have made all my changes to the default Ningja skin. I plan to clone it before updating. I am assuming that the update will overwrite the default skin - .tpl and .css, and henceforth all changes will be made in the clone skin.

Yes?

Yes - if you clone it BEFORE updating, your changes will be in the clone.

--
Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net

Clay Gordon
@claygordon
10 years ago
744 posts

Okay then, my next act is to clone my skin.

Sounding all scientifical and such.

On my third cup of coffee sitting in a local coffee shop watching it snow. [grin]

@brian
10 years ago
10,148 posts

thechocolatelife:
Okay then, my next act is to clone my skin.

Sounding all scientifical and such.

On my third cup of coffee sitting in a local coffee shop watching it snow. [grin]

I want some snow here. I'm north of Seattle and we still have got nothing this year. I was in Leavenworth WA a month ago and we got 6 inches of snow which was nice. I'm not a big fan of the gray and short days - if it's going to be dark and gray, give me snow all winter long...

--
Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net

Strumelia
@strumelia
10 years ago
3,603 posts

Snowing lightly here as well.

So @Brian:
the new Ningja update lists its changes as such:
Version 1.0.12:
- New: Added Dashboard link to mobile menu.
- Change: Moved Dashboard link to the bottom of the ACP drop down.
- Change: Changed Top Discussions to Latest Forum Posts on the index page.
- Bug Fix: Pagebreak is not working correctly for index "about" blog entry
- Bug Fix: Fixed crop parameter typo in the jrProfile_item_list.tpl file.
- Bug Fix: Fixed typo for default language string paramter in the index.tpl file.
- Bug Fix: Fixed Image and Profile pages where the image rows were becoming out of aligned.

My question is: are all these changes going to be found by us in the TEMPLATES, so we can 'compare' to find them and bring them into our CUSTOM skin as needed in the future? That's the million dollar question. Otherwise, if they include CSS changes i don't know how we will be able to find them to properly include these fixes into our custom skins...?

Are the above all changes that we will find in our Templates Compare function?
Need to know this- thanks!

--
...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015
updated by @strumelia: 01/06/15 01:34:00PM

@brian
10 years ago
10,148 posts

These are all template changes, so using the compare tool you should be able to see the differences between the templates.

Hope this helps!

--
Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net

Clay Gordon
@claygordon
10 years ago
744 posts

So I went and cloned the jrNingja skin (which I modified) and called it jrChocoLifeOne.

I went and activated the new skin and the site is fuuuun-ky!

Here's what the home page looks like:

http://www.thechocolatelife.info/thechocolatelife/Screenshot-ClonedSkin-homepage.png

When I go to the ACP and take a look at the Skins/Templates here's what I see:

http://www.thechocolatelife.info/thechocolatelife/Screenshot-ClonedSkin-template.png

This is similar to what @Strumelia was reporting in her earlier thread.
https://www.jamroom.net/the-jamroom-network/forum/ning-to-jamroom/19307/my-developer-tools-skin-cloner-is-not-working-right

Changing the name to clChocoLife did not solve the problem.

My guess is that what I need to do is FTP down a local copy of the changed Ningja skin so that I have all of the changes - templates, css, images, everything.

I then update to the new Ningja skin.
I clone that and make it the active skin.
Then I copy and paste the changes I made from the original skin and make them active in the clone skin.
Now I can do the compare.
updated by @claygordon: 01/06/15 04:12:27PM

Strumelia
@strumelia
10 years ago
3,603 posts

Clay- maybe helpful, but I found 'most' of the new changes to be in the "index" template.
Also- when updating your CUSTOM template with stuff from the Ningja skin update, before closing your work after saving your changes to your custom template, do a "find" through the custom template code to look for instances of "jrNingja" and change them to the name of your custom skin, so the code will have correct references instead of pointing to the wrong skin. In my case for example, i changed all references to jrNingja to mdLisaNEW instead, which is my current custom skin I have active for my site.

@Brian- it would save us HOURS every month if whenever a Ningja update was put out with its changes descriptions- it could be indicated which templates had been altered so we don't have to keep doing a 'compare' on like 30 templates every time. Pretty please...?

--
...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

Clay Gordon
@claygordon
10 years ago
744 posts

Strumelia:
Clay- maybe helpful, but I found 'most' of the new changes to be in the "index" template.
Also- when updating your CUSTOM template with stuff from the Ningja skin update, before closing your work after saving your changes to your custom template, do a "find" through the custom template code to look for instances of "jrNingja" and change them to the name of your custom skin, so the code will have correct references instead of pointing to the wrong skin. In my case for example, i changed all references to jrNingja to mdLisaNEW instead, which is my current custom skin I have active for my site.

@Brian- it would save us HOURS every month if whenever a Ningja update was put out with its changes descriptions- it could be indicated which templates had been altered so we don't have to keep doing a 'compare' on like 30 templates every time. Pretty please...?

@Strumelia - Thanks for the heads up on where the bulk of the changes are as well the search and replace tip.

@Brian - I heartily concur on giving us heads up on which templates were affected. Could mean huge time savings at this end.

Clay Gordon
@claygordon
10 years ago
744 posts

So - I did the FTP copy and all of the .tpl files show modification dates of Dec 29.

skins/jrNingja-release-1.0.11 is symlinked to jrNinga in the same directory - but I don't see any files with last modified filestamps from today - they are all 12/29/2014.

The modified files are still there and working because I can see them working.

Where are the files in the host filesystem? I can't find them in two different FTP tools.

updated by @claygordon: 01/06/15 04:53:26PM

@michael
10 years ago
7,778 posts

The clone system from the acp:
ACP -> TOOLS -> DEVELOPER TOOLS -> TOOLS -> CLONE SKIN

takes the "Skin To Clone" and outputs it to a new skin. What happens at this time is all the alterations that were done via the TEMPLATES tab of the skin are now written out to the file system.

So any alterations you did are now the default .tpl files for the skin.

Does that make sense? When you use the TEMPLATES tab to make changes to a skin, the changes are stored in the database. When you clone the skin, the alterations are made to be the default file system templates.

So if you are looking for the over-ridden templates via FTP you will not find them because they are in the database. If you clone the skin, THEN you can find them via FTP in the new skins directory.

--update--
an example.
in jrNingja i go to ACP -> SKINS -> NINGJA -> TEMPLATES and click on 404.tpl -> MODIFY.

I add "Hello world". The form shows that 404.tpl is being over-ridden and i can reset it with the RESET button. If i then clone jrNingja to xxNingja the "Hello World" will appear in 404.tpl in the file system and the templates form will show it as NOT being over-ridden.
updated by @michael: 01/06/15 09:08:20PM

Clay Gordon
@claygordon
10 years ago
744 posts

@Michael:

I go here to clone the skin:

http://www.thechocolatelife.info/thechocolatelife/developer/clone_skin

I clone the skin (calling it nsNewChocSkin) and I return to:

http://www.thechocolatelife.info/thechocolatelife/core/skin_admin/info/skin=nsNewChocSkin

I select this as the active skin and save changes and what I see does not reflect the changes I made in the default Ningja skin.

I downloaded one of the template files I know I edited from the cloned skin directory and I can see the changes. I look at the template in the template editor and I see that the changes are there in the template.

The changes I made to footer.tpl show up in the footer.

The changes I made to header_menu_desktop.tpl are in the file - mostly. I modified the word "Discussions" to "Forum" in the top menu nav and that link is missing in the cloned and updated skin.

The logo image has been replaced with the default Jamroom image (resized and relocated, which indicates that the CSS has transferred over).

But the home page is entirely messed up - I made a lot of changes in the index.tpl that mess up the display of the footer on the home page.

I am beginning to wonder if there are some changes in the new beta core that are having an influence?

I will leave the site up with the cloned skin active for a while so you can see.
updated by @claygordon: 01/07/15 07:10:39AM

@brian
10 years ago
10,148 posts

If you compare the index.tpl file in your nsNewChocSkin to the index.tpl file in jrNingja do they look different?

Thanks!

--
Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net

Clay Gordon
@claygordon
10 years ago
744 posts

I need to do this manually - the compare function does not enable me to compare across skins, right?

@brian
10 years ago
10,148 posts

thechocolatelife:
I need to do this manually - the compare function does not enable me to compare across skins, right?

Yeah it does - when viewing "compare" for your nsNewChocSkin skin, in the selector in the upper right you can choose jrNingja.

--
Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net

Clay Gordon
@claygordon
10 years ago
744 posts

@Brian -

Not sure what I am seeing here - I don't see how to get index.tpl from jrNingja skin and nsNewChocSkin side by side

nsNewChocSkin skin -- http://www.thechocolatelife.info/thechocolatelife/imagez/ScreenShot-compare1.png
jrNingja skin -- http://www.thechocolatelife.info/thechocolatelife/imagez/ScreenShot-compare2.png
Compare nsNewChocSkin skin -- http://www.thechocolatelife.info/thechocolatelife/imagez/ScreenShot-compare3.png
Compare nsNewChocSkin skin -- http://www.thechocolatelife.info/thechocolatelife/imagez/ScreenShot-compare4.png
updated by @claygordon: 01/07/15 07:51:59AM

@brian
10 years ago
10,148 posts

You need to actually click on "compare" next to "index.tpl". Once you are actually comparing the files you will see a drop down in the upper right that you can use to change what you're comparing it to.

EDIT: added a screenshot so you can see what I mean

--
Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net
updated by @brian: 01/07/15 07:47:24AM

Clay Gordon
@claygordon
10 years ago
744 posts

Is my problem here that I haven't uploaded the 1.0.12 update?

-- edited to add --

@Brian, can we go back to first principles?

I made changes to the base jrNingja skin.

I want to clone that skin so that updates to the next version 1.0.12 won't blow away any of the changes I've made.

So, I clone the skin and make that new skin the active skin.

WHY are there differences between the default skin and the cloned skin?
updated by @claygordon: 01/07/15 08:06:31AM

@brian
10 years ago
10,148 posts

thechocolatelife:
WHY are there differences between the default skin and the cloned skin?

There shouldn't be - that's why I am asking WHERE the differences are - I need to know WHERE you see differences so I can check out the code and see if I can replicate.

--
Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net

Strumelia
@strumelia
10 years ago
3,603 posts

Clay, does this help at all?:

--
...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015
updated by @strumelia: 01/07/15 09:03:47AM

@brian
10 years ago
10,148 posts

One thing to add is that we actually have an updated compare tool coming out with 5.2.20 that let's you "merge" any template differences line by line, instead of all or none, which is really cool.

--
Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net

Strumelia
@strumelia
10 years ago
3,603 posts

That will be HUGELY useful Brian!

--
...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

Clay Gordon
@claygordon
10 years ago
744 posts

@Brian -

I am having trouble interpreting compare. With nsNewChocSkin active - this is a clone of nsNingja - I display the template list. Next to index.tpl, I click on Compare.

Above the left-hand column, the header reads nsNewChocSkin/index.tpl (1.0.11)
Above the right-hand column, the header reads nsNewChocSkin/index.tpl (1.0.11)
Above the right-hand column, jrNingja/index.tpl (1.0.11) is selected in the pop-up.

I downloaded index.tpl from the nsNewChocSkin folder.
I made nsNingja the active skin.
I opened up the index.tpl and saved it locally.
I have a text diff utility, so I did the compare.
There is no difference between the two.

I did the same thing for desktop_header_menu.tpl.
The diff utility says there is no difference.

The filesystem (get info on my mac) says there is a one-byte difference between each of the two sets of files; the clone is 1 byte smaller.

Paul has all my login credentials.

@brian
10 years ago
10,148 posts

So it shows no differences, but when "active" it's not looking the same as it was when you were just using the NingJa skin?

Thanks!

--
Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net

Clay Gordon
@claygordon
10 years ago
744 posts

Strumelia:
Clay, does this help at all?:

Yes it does and I think I may know where the problem may lie. I don't know WHY ... BUT ...

When I select template version 1.0.10 from the pop-up I get a 404 error. I go back one page in the history and then select 1.0.09 and the compare works properly.

Now, when I select 1.0.11 (or 1.0.10) I get a 404 error (a nice custom one, I should add).

The munge-up in the page formatting appears to be in index.tpl and in the desktop_header_menu.tpl. There's also a pair of asterisks I don't remember adding in surrounding the word "images" in the page header on that page.

-- edited to add --

There is no jrNingja skin 1.0.10 in my release archive. There is a directory for it, so that's why I have to assume that it is selectable.
updated by @claygordon: 01/07/15 09:56:13AM

Strumelia
@strumelia
10 years ago
3,603 posts

The asterisks will either go away once you do an inegrity check, OR if they don't- I found it's some line item word or phrase in my template language file that is not jiving with my template code.

When doing a 'compare' you have to pay attention to the two column haders that name the two things you are comparing. Just because the drop down box is showing a certain version doesn't mean the columns are reflecting that choice. The first columns you will see being compared are your current custon skin to itself.
set dropdown for a couple versions back FIRST (to any older version), and check the the comlumn titles...then click to the latest Ningja in the drop down and the compare should be shown properly...does it for you?

--
...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015
updated by @strumelia: 01/07/15 09:58:58AM

@brian
10 years ago
10,148 posts

thechocolatelife:
There is no jrNingja skin 1.0.10 in my release archive. There is a directory for it, so that's why I have to assume that it is selectable.

Yeah - if you only have an empty directory then that would be the cause - delete that one and that should be fixed.

--
Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net

Strumelia
@strumelia
10 years ago
3,603 posts

Aside from keeping the previous skin release for safety- is there any critcal reason to keep all the older skin Ningja versions on our server? Are they containing things that are needed and referenced by the newer versions?

--
...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

Clay Gordon
@claygordon
10 years ago
744 posts

I only have 1.0.9, 1.0.10, and 1.0.11 to select from. I choose .09 and the display updates properly - and I can see all my changes.

I then select 1.0.11 and I get the 404.

Clay Gordon
@claygordon
10 years ago
744 posts

brian:

thechocolatelife:
There is no jrNingja skin 1.0.10 in my release archive. There is a directory for it, so that's why I have to assume that it is selectable.

Yeah - if you only have an empty directory then that would be the cause - delete that one and that should be fixed.

Bran - hard to tell if it's empty because of the symlink. All I know is that I get a 404 when trying to select it. And then I get a 404 when trying to re-select 1.0.11.

Looking at things in my FTP client:

1.0.09 has files in it with dates of 12/22/14
1.0.10 has files in it with dates of 12/27
1.0.11 has files in it with dates of 12/29
nsNewChocoSkin skin directory has dates of 1/7/15
updated by @claygordon: 01/07/15 10:41:19AM

@brian
10 years ago
10,148 posts

the directory skins/jrNingja-release-1.0.11 should NOT be a symlink - it should be a directory.

--
Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net

Clay Gordon
@claygordon
10 years ago
744 posts

@Brian -

How do I tell? I only have access to the filesystem via FTP and the CPanel file manager.

In Filezilla, when I click on jrNingja the directory for 1.0.11 is highlighted and the jrNingja directory icon has a question mark on it.

The basic install was done via Softaculous and verified by Paul. Since that install, everything has been done via System Updates.
updated by @claygordon: 01/07/15 10:54:38AM

@brian
10 years ago
10,148 posts

thechocolatelife:
@Brian -

How do I tell? I only have access to the filesystem via FTP and the CPanel file manager.

The basic install was done via Softaculous and verified by Paul. Since that install, everything has been done via System Updates.

Your FTP client should be able to distinguish between a synlink and a directory - if it can't you might try a different FTP client? Not sure...

--
Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net

Clay Gordon
@claygordon
10 years ago
744 posts

brian:

thechocolatelife:
@Brian -

How do I tell? I only have access to the filesystem via FTP and the CPanel file manager.

The basic install was done via Softaculous and verified by Paul. Since that install, everything has been done via System Updates.

Your FTP client should be able to distinguish between a synlink and a directory - if it can't you might try a different FTP client? Not sure...

In Filezilla, when I click on jrNingja the directory for 1.0.11 is highlighted and the jrNingja directory icon has a question mark on it.
updated by @claygordon: 01/07/15 10:55:26AM

@brian
10 years ago
10,148 posts

Unfortunately I'm not sure - I don't use FileZilla. How it should be setup:

"jrNingja" should be a symlink pointing to the active release directory (usually the latest)

All the jrNingja-release* directories are actual directories.

--
Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net

Clay Gordon
@claygordon
10 years ago
744 posts

That's what appears to be happening here.

Which does not explain why I can't pick directories using the pop-up. I am sure 404s are not the usual behavior.

Is there any reason NOT to upgrade to the latest core beta in the middle of this?
updated by @claygordon: 01/07/15 11:40:43AM

@brian
10 years ago
10,148 posts

thechocolatelife:
That's what appears to be happening here.

Which does not explain why I can't pick directories using the pop-up. I am sure 404s are not the usual behavior.

Is there any reason NOT to upgrade to the latest core beta in the middle of this?

Jamroom Core 5.2.20 was released earlier today - upgrade to that (you should see it in your Marketplace -> System Updates).

--
Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net

Clay Gordon
@claygordon
10 years ago
744 posts

@Brian -

I did that - needed to to get to the Image Galleries update Paul has been working on. The only thing I haven't done is update to the 1.0.12 skin as we have not - yet - resolved what's going on with my cloned skin.

@brian
10 years ago
10,148 posts

thechocolatelife:
@Brian -

I did that - needed to to get to the Image Galleries update Paul has been working on. The only thing I haven't done is update to the 1.0.12 skin as we have not - yet - resolved what's going on with my cloned skin.

OK - I know Paul is looking at it, so he'll get me involved if he feels it is something I need to check out.

Thanks!

--
Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net

investigating Ningja skin update

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