solved NingJa vs NingJaClone - do I need both skins?

After the recent import, I found that two NingaJa skins in my ACP Skins list:

NingJa and NingJaClone*

The latter, marked with an asterisk, is the active skin.

Was this created at the same time as the import?

Should I delete the NingJa skin to avoid future confusion?


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PJ Matthews, Kyoto
Migrated from Ning 2.0. Now at Jamroom 6 beta and using Jamroom Hosting for The Research Cooperative (researchcooperative.org)
updated by @researchcooperative: 01/08/17 09:23:13AM

You must have created a clone of Ningja and called it NingJaClone.

NingJa was created by us and is in the marketplace, so if we adjust anything with the marketplace version you will receive those updates when they come out.

NingJaClone will receive no updates. It is your skin totally now.

If you want to see what updates come out keep NingJa, if you dont, it can be deleted.

NingJa is getting minor updates for the upcoming jr6.

Quick question- I have my custom skin as active, it was customized from the parent Ningja skin, which I still keep updated.
But I also have a copy of Ningtastic skin for some reason, which i think is an old skin you guys created long ago? Is there any reason for me to keep the Ningtastic skin around anymore, or should I just delete it now? (I plan to continue keeping my Ningja skin updated, and my custom (active) skin.


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

I think you can delete Ningtastic.

It does sound like a spray cleaner.


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

@michael, @paul
[quote="michael"]
You must have created a clone of Ningja and called it NingJaClone.
NingJaClone will receive no updates. It is your skin totally now.

***
Thanks. That is what I was afraid of.

So far I have not made many changes within NingJaClone, so I can easily switch the active skin back to NingJa.

Then I can customise with NingJa, and also benefit from the updates.

Is that the best plan?


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PJ Matthews, Kyoto
Migrated from Ning 2.0. Now at Jamroom 6 beta and using Jamroom Hosting for The Research Cooperative (researchcooperative.org)
updated by @researchcooperative: 10/06/16 10:42:08PM

Yes, if it has not been changed, revert back to the original Ningja and delete the cloned skin. Then wait for the updates, re-clone and take it from there.


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Paul Asher - JR Developer and System Import Specialist

@strumelia
Is this how you incorporate JR updates for your site? Or do your changes mean that you can no longer update the JR modules?

@paul
Isn't a certain level of change possible while using the native NinJa skin, and accepting updates, without any need to clone? My goal is to use the NingJa skin as is, as much as possible, so that I can take advantage of the JR updates, which will be far more useful than any small changes I am capable of making.


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PJ Matthews, Kyoto
Migrated from Ning 2.0. Now at Jamroom 6 beta and using Jamroom Hosting for The Research Cooperative (researchcooperative.org)

Now belatedly reading the Documentation for Skins.
/documentation/skin-customization/839/creating-your-own-skin

Points to note (with my comments):

1. "Even if you plan to only do minor changes, its a good idea to clone an existing skin and give it a new name before you start. This way your changes won't be lost when the original skin releases a new version."

OK - so I should be good with my NingJaClone skin.

2. Further documentation... gets into coding details I can't handle.

3. Further documentation... doesn't explain the overall strategy here. The compare tool is useful for comparing our own edits with what was originally in our cloned skin. But how do we deal with all the updates that are happening at JR with the original JR modules?

4. My hope (and perhaps my memory of previous conversations here at JR is telling me this) is that updating the JR modules in our personal JR system copy is generally not going to affect the operation of Skins.

It is only when a Skin update is offered that we have compare the updated Skin with our wrinkled version, and figure out how to use the new Skin (I will cross that bridge when I come to it).

When @michael said "NingJaClone will receive no updates. It is your skin totally now" he meant that NingJaClone will receive no (!) NingJa Skin updates.

Time to stop panicking and call this solved.

Thanks everyone.


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PJ Matthews, Kyoto
Migrated from Ning 2.0. Now at Jamroom 6 beta and using Jamroom Hosting for The Research Cooperative (researchcooperative.org)

If your skin and a module have conflicting instructions, your skin will override the module's instructions.

Any custom skin (ningjaclone) you are using will not get changed by any JR skin (Ningja skin) updates. You would apply the Ningja skin updates to your custom skin yourself, if you care to (and in most cases this is something good that you'd want to do if the update is fixing a bug etc).

You keep an original unchanged copy of Ningja skin, but your Active skin is the clone from Ningja that you renamed and you do your customizing on that skin. Then when a Ningja skin update comes out, you update your ningja skin and then use the Compare tool to see how the update code differs from your custom skin and you decide whether you want to pull that new code into your custom skin or not...if it's a feature you want in there.
Also when you are about to try some skin changes on your custom skin, first Clone it so you can go back to that if youve screwed everything up.

Go ahead and keep applying JR updates to your modules- you'll want them up to date. Your custom skin will retain the tweaks you made to it and will generally take priority if there's a conflict.


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

Seems this was solved so I will risk hijacking with a related question
I have a site the uses jrPhotopro- awhile back new updates came out for the Photopro skin but if I apply them then I lose my custom header menu and custom mobile menu and some site custom css
Revert back to the previous version and everything is fine again. I have all my custom templates save to the skin...still cannot understand whats causing the issue...I have just left it alone for the last few month but would like to keep the Photopro skin up to date...
I did not clone the skin early on when I made this site- but for some reason when i clone it now and make the clone the active skin-I lose the menus and css again... any ideas?

Are you going back and forth with Sitebuilder on/off?

You can clone.rename your customized active skin to keep it safe, then reload the original Photopro skin and Compare it to your customized versions (both when they're updated and not updated)


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

Yes i have site builder on- but when I clone my current skin and make it active- I lose my header menu, my mobile menu and some custom css...just by cloning it...even before i try to update it

Have you tried turning SB OFF and then cloning?


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

Sorry I didnt understand...no...will that help?

I don't know, but I do know that turning SB on and off sometimes effects the menus if I'm not mistaken. Worth a try?


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

When you clone a skin, say jrPhotoPro to a new name say xxPrettyPhoto all instances of 'jrPhotoPro' get swapped out for 'xxPrettyPhoto' so the skin is self contained in the directory on the server at:
/skins/xxPrettyPhoto/(all the files)

If one of those 'jrPhotoPro' changes got missed or was still pointing to
/skins/jrPhotoPro/(some file)

That could be the cause of your issue. I'd check the .tpl files in your skin to make sure there are no other skin names in your cloned skin causing issues.

Site builder wont cause any issues in this case unless you have the name of a skin specifically defined in any of the site builder code. It doesn't change over skin changes.

Not sure what you mean by checking them- they all have the same names as the originals...
If I clone a skin right now- then make that clone skin active...it should be the same as the previous skin...at least thats always been my basic understanding...
Just now- I cloned my existing skin...then set it as active...but my website has totally changed...so i have to set it back to the original photopro...
updated by @derrickhand300: 10/08/16 07:50:33PM

Open another thread curtis. You've got something weird going on.