New skin, Finally!

[KellyW]

ADMIN EDIT: This topsite skin is unavailable for download, the author needs to attatch the zip file to this thread.






MapZone Skin for Aardvark. Works with v5.1.x or v5.0.x.

This skin core is based on Kobys Forgotten Memories with permission from Koby- But I have made quite a few changes and am in the process of revamping the skin again. It will now be very unique containing an wide assortments of my own additions/modifications as well as suggestions form the OSempire community.

I would like to thank Koby for his permission to use his skin as the base of what has turned into a pretty sweet skin. Before I started delving into the skins I didnt know much about them. Also a huge thanks to Mark and OSempire for sugggestions and comments which had alot of influence in the development.

Ive added some syndication features to improve SEO. This version (v0.9a) is xhtml Strict. Ive also tried as much as possible to move all of the attributes like fonts, colors, sizes, the CSS menu, to be defined in the CSS file. Actually using the Strict doctype pretty much forces you to do that. By having these attributes all called out in the CSS file it makes it a very flexible and easy to edit skin. You can quickly change the look of the skin without having to edit the skin files themselves.

List of changes/additions:

1. Changed featured_member.html to Site introduction/infomation box. I left a backup of the featured member file in the skin directory in case you wanted to add it back in. (featured_member.html.bak)

2. Added a CSS2 navigation menu. You can edit the menu properties in default.css

3. Moved links around on the stats page for easier viewing.

4. Added an RSS feed that displays in a News box. To change the news edit news.xml located in the skin directory. To edit the look of the News display box including sizes, scroll delay, text and colors look in the file vscroll_data.js.

5. Added meta tags to wrapper.html and a link to display a Live bookmark link for the RSS feed in browsers that can discover feeds.

6. Skin is XHTML 1.0 Strict and CSS validates. RSS Feed is valid as well.

7. All Javascripts required by the skin reside in the skins folder, no external files needed. The RSS Feed is in the skin folder too.

8. Added Site Rules box to join_form.html.

All original functions of Aardvark still work, if they are missing just add the tags back in. There is a pretty good readme.txt file that explains how to edit the news.xml and the style for the news box.

I put in a generic logo and background image you can change to fit your site, you will probably want to change the colors too but it is pretty easy and all in the CSS file. This skin has an extremely low load time as is.

NEW: I will also be adding a few more surprises to the final version to bring it up to date with current concepts. I have compiled a ToDo list of suggestions from this thread and will be reworking the skin this next weekend.

You can download it here:

Download Link Coming Soon

[OS-Mark]

great skin! nice contribution

[nevadabadgirl]

Very nice!

[Jova]

First off, I would like to thank you for this amazing skin.
I have problem with text size, see screen:


What file I should edit to fix it?

Thanks

[KellyW]

You can edit the font sizes in the CSS file, = /MapZone/default.css

What browser are you using and what are the font settings? The main font is Verdana size 10px with no decorations so it shouldnt appear that big. Mess around with the fonts in the CSS file.

[99debra99]

Hiyya!

Thank you so much for your work, I like many others really appreciate a clean design

I have a couple of questions,

1. Can the ability for users to upload there banner be enabled?

2. In IE. Under the News header there is a little transparent square box that appears, can this be deleted or?

Thanks again,

kind regards, Debra.

[KellyW]

If you tell me where you want the image to be placed in the box and about what size you want them I can remake the file for you. All I did was remove the image tag from table_top_row.html then removed the image specs from the sign-up form. Its pretty easy to put it back, just 2 files.

I will remove the transparent box in the news feed too and update the js file. I was testing in Firefox and forgot about it. Its for an AJAX interface on a demo I forgot about. I will post again when I have everything updated.

[bobbyl]

Extremely nice skin KellyW and thankyou for your time and sharing.
The thing is I would really like users to be able to add their banners.
How could I do this?
Thankyou

[KellyW]

Ok here is a quick patch up for this skin. This zip file has 3 files in it. 1 is table_top_row.html - Look at the code on line 19 where the banner images are defined. Find the code:

style="width:234px;height:60px;

This was added by Koby I imagine to give banner sizing support to topsites that are run on servers that have older versions of PHP and/or dont support the PHP banner resizing that is provided in the admin area of AardvarkTopsites. If your PHP does support the resizing you can remove this sizing code or you can adjust your banner sizes here. It is currently set to 234x60.

The second file is join_form.html which I added the banner form field back in for sign-ups.

The 3rd file is vscroll_code.js which is just an updated source code file for the news box.

Just unzip the file and upload the 3 files to the MapZone skin directory and everything should work. The function of the banners was never removed just a few of the PHP tags and form fields which makes it possible.

Update file:

http://www.mapzone.net/topsites/mapzone-wbanners.zip

[bobbyl]

Thankyou KellyW.Its a great skin.

Bobby

[mfreund]

I am having a problem with the skin.......It seems when I turn off the google friendly links feature in the admin area. The Link code does not change like the other skins. How do i go about fixing this cause i like your skin


Matt

[KellyW]

Thanks Bobbyl, Im glad you like the skin. Koby from Forgotten Memories did most of the footwork. I mainly did alot of tweaking of fine details and added a few fancy things. Someday I am going to update the news box to an AJAX system to reduce refreshing.

Something else I keep forgetting to post is- The captcha.html file doesnt validate the way it is distributed in alot of skins and i fixed this in the mapzone skin. It was just missing an alt tag for the image that is displayed. So all pages should validate now.

Matt, Im not sure why the buttons.php does that when you switch off the Google friendly links. I never edited that file. Maybe Koby can help you on that one or someone else who is familiar with that file. Im sure its a fairly easy fix.

[mfreund]

Originally Posted by KellyW

Matt, Im not sure why the buttons.php does that when you switch off the Google friendly links. I never edited that file. Maybe Koby can help you on that one or someone else who is familiar with that file. Im sure its a fairly easy fix.

I hope so cause I am really wanting use it and i cant unless i get that to work

[mfreund]

Originally Posted by mfreund

I hope so cause I am really wanting use it and i cant unless i get that to work

actually it isnt the buttons.php file....What is happening is this. When i turn the google friendly links option off the link to the toplist changes to a different type of linking. This is a better way for me.When i turn it on it will use the buttons.php system..But with your skin....Whether google frinendly is on or not it uses the buttons.php structure.

[mfreund]

I also changed to the classic skin and the google buttons feature changes the outputted cod everytime when it is on or off....So i figured that i would copy the link_code.html file from the classic skin to the mapzone one..but that doesnt fix it either.....So somewhere in the skin is a bug

Matt

[KellyW]

Hopefully Koby will see this and can comment on it. I will look at the files tomorrow if i have some time and try to figure it out. I never changed anything to do with the links so Koby probably made the change somewhere along the line. Wish I could be of more help to you.

[mfreund]

Originally Posted by KellyW

Hopefully Koby will see this and can comment on it. I will look at the files tomorrow if i have some time and try to figure it out. I never changed anything to do with the links so Koby probably made the change somewhere along the line. Wish I could be of more help to you.

Excellent I appreciate it....I hope he does see it

Matt

[hitemuprobbo]

hi, iv just installed and edited this skin, great work, and it only took me around 3 mins to edit fully!

Im struggling however with one aspect of the skin, the rss news scroller!

I have updated the url of my preferred RSS Feed, but it does not display the items from that feed, just the default text!

SO how do i remove the default text and replace it with my news feed i want to display intstead

thanks!

[hitemuprobbo]

hi, sorry bout this, iv just realised the feed works fine with Internet Explorer users but not firefox, is there a script change i could implement in order for this to work on FireFox and other browsers except I.E.

thanks!

[mfreund]

dtill no news on the fix for the google friendly links being off? It generates the wrong link when off

Let me know

Matt

[KellyW]

Originally Posted by hitemuprobbo

hi, sorry bout this, iv just realised the feed works fine with Internet Explorer users but not firefox, is there a script change i could implement in order for this to work on FireFox and other browsers except I.E.

thanks!

Are you using a relaitve or absolute URL? Can you post the code so i can see. The news box doesnt work with news feeds, only RSS2.0 XML files

[hitemuprobbo]

hi, do you mean which newsfeed url am i using??? if so its: rapcentral.co.uk/newsfeed.xml

thanks!

[KellyW]

Is that your site? I believe the xml file has to be on your site but I thought it was the other way around. I tohught it wouldnt display absolute urls if they werent local fils in IE. I hope that makes sense.

It would be easier if you could post the link code you are using and show me the site so I could tell you exactly why its not working. I dont think you can use it to hotlink into someone elses feed.

[hitemuprobbo]

yes i own and run rapcentral.co.uk, but the code is used on another of my newer sites, so is that the reason this wont work???

[KellyW]

Originally Posted by hitemuprobbo

yes i own and run rapcentral.co.uk, but the code is used on another of my newer sites, so is that the reason this wont work???

I dont know because you wont post the code or tell us where the site is.

I would put a copy of the xml file on the host the topsite is on. Its not meant to be hotlinked.

Wish I could help but I need details, I need to see the code.

[tweedie]

Hi Kelly, Thank you so much for all the hard work you put into this awesome skin. It's exactly what I was looking for. If I could ask you for a tiny bit of help please. I reincorporated the banners like you said and everything is great, but noticed that when people logged into their account to change their banner button URL, that the field was missing. Can you tell me how I would put that into the code please. Thank you so much.

[aremalzz]

why.. when i click home.. the page cannot found

[Joe H]

how can I get it to display pageviews. It only shows "in" and "out" ?

Great skin!

[KellyW]

Originally Posted by tweedie

Hi Kelly, Thank you so much for all the hard work you put into this awesome skin. It's exactly what I was looking for. If I could ask you for a tiny bit of help please. I reincorporated the banners like you said and everything is great, but noticed that when people logged into their account to change their banner button URL, that the field was missing. Can you tell me how I would put that into the code please. Thank you so much.

I just saw your Topsite while poking around on MSN's seach. You did an awesome job on redoing the colors and images. I was hoping that it would be fairly easy to change everything with the CSS.

I thought I had edited the account page as well in the update but guess I missed it. I will look at it tonight. I am going to make another update to this skin and put the image function back in as the default so people wont have to patch it anymore. I will also at the time make some minor updates. When I get it done I will post any changes I made in case anyone wants to use them.

I was happy to see that people have been using the skin and the different looks people have come up with.

[KellyW]

Originally Posted by aremalzz

why.. when i click home.. the page cannot found

I dunno, where is your site.

[KellyW]

Originally Posted by Joe H

how can I get it to display pageviews. It only shows "in" and "out" ?

Great skin!

I modified the skin to only show in - out and totals. You can add the pageviews back into it though. If you are familiar with html open the file table_top_row.html and you will see the format of the display. You will have to add another table box somewhere to add it in. Then open the file stats.html, this file contains the tags for every stat you can display. Just look at the stats page on your website then find the correct box in the stats.html file and use that tag. There are total pageviews, unique pageviews and you can use totals for certain time periods. Choose the one you want then add it to the table_top_row.html page.

[KellyW]

Tweedie, For a quick fix take this code, paste it into notepad or your html editor and save it as edit_form.html then upload it to the skin folder and let it overwrite the old file. This will put the banner URL option back in the user control panel.

<form action="index.php?a=user_cp&amp;b=edit" method="post">
<fieldset>
<legend>{$lng->join_website}</legend>
<label>{$lng->g_url}<br />
<input type="text" name="url" size="50" value="{$url}" /><br /><br />
</label>
<label>{$lng->g_title}<br />
<input type="text" name="title" size="50" value="{$title}" /><br /><br />
</label>
<label>{$lng->g_description}<br />
<textarea cols="40" rows="5" name="description">{$description}</textarea><br /><br />
</label>
<label>{$lng->g_category}<br />
{$categories_menu}<br /><br />
</label>
<label>{$lng->g_banner_url}<br />
<input type="text" name="banner_url" size="50" value="{$banner_url}" /><br /><br />
</label>
<label>{$lng->g_email}<br />
<input type="text" name="email" size="50" value="{$email}" />
</label>
</fieldset>

<fieldset>
<legend>{$lng->join_user}</legend>
<label>{$lng->g_password} - {$lng->edit_password_blank}<br />
<input type="password" name="password" size="20" /><br /><br />
</label>
<input name="submit" type="submit" value="{$lng->edit_header}" />
</fieldset>
</form>

[KellyW]

In the next few days I will be fixing the issues that has been brought up in this thread. Main changes will be:

Add image support back in.
Fix the files missing the banner options.
Change the XML News box.

I am going to change the XML news box over to a different style one from Dynamic drive. It will still basically function the same and I will use a generically named xml file to make it easy. The new box uses AJAX so it will function alot quicker and have less of a load. The only difference really is that the new one will fade in- fade out news items instead of scrolling through them. The fade in fade out is a MS IE page transition so it wont work in Firefox Opera or Netscape. If you like the current one or are a big Firefox fan you may want to keep the current news box.

There will be minimal changes to the skin so if you want to update it just leave out the style.css file when you upgrade and your custom colors wont be overwritten. All of the image names will be the same so unless you changed them in the skin you shouldnt have any problems.

[tweedie]

Oh I'm so glad you like how I tweaked the wonderful skin you came up with. I had to girlify it a bit. LOL I was wondering if it's not too much trouble could you put in the password and code retrieve link. I have members contacting me all the time having lost their password or code. LOL Thank you so much for an amazing topsite skin.
Love in Christ,
Tina C.

[TuRKMaX]

fusion skin please fusion skin puff.Help me

[tweedie]

Thank you so much hun, it worked like a charm. You're the best!!

[marie]

Hi,

I love the skin, thank you for sharing. Is there a way I can change the background behind the top site? Where do I have to go to do this.

that's, all. Thanks again.

[Oncegone]

Question...

Where are the Categories listed at????

there is no category selection in the User Sign up and on the Wrapper.html there is no drop down for the categories.

[agire_sores@msn.com]

very nice

[Oncegone]

Ithink i figured it out. I just added this:

<label>{$lng->g_category}<br />
{$categories_menu}<br /><br />

to the Join_form.html

I thnk that will work. I hope lol