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How to use one theme but with multiple choice head.gif and style.css options (13 posts)

  1. nonegiven
    Member
    Posted 15 years ago #

    I wanted to use one theme, for multiple blogs on a WPmu install, with ability ... ONLY to define a choice of head.gif and matching style sheet.

    What I mean by that is that I wanted a blog farm where all the blogs looked the same ... EXCEPT for the choice of a matching head.gif and style.css.

    In effect, this means that the only change between each blog is of the header image one sees and minor coloration for each blog. This is for a NPO organization website that wishes to maintain uniformity across all its regional websites.

    Now, the simple but laborious way, which I am laboring through, is to make 100 copies of one theme and manually replace the head.gif, edit the style.css and screenshot.png.

    Not my idea of a great day ...

    In addition, if it ever comes to upgrading the template, it means that all 100+ templates have to be manually upgraded. Which seems crazy.

    I have been through this template forum and cannot see ay solution. It appears to be an obvious option to have. Are there any plugins or work arounds to make it happen?

    Appreciate it.

  2. rizapn
    Member
    Posted 15 years ago #

    Try my Custom CSS plugin. Get it from http://rizapn.blogsome.com ... Using that plugin your users have the ability to change the default CSS setting.

  3. nonegiven
    Member
    Posted 15 years ago #

    Thanks but that is not what I am trying to achieve.

    It would still require each user to have their own template and we would not want to allow each user to edit or colorize their own.

    * The idea is that every blog shares the one single template

    ... which means sitewide upgrades are done simply ...

    but each blog is given and identified only a unique head.gif and a style sheet ... which pre-matches that head image, e.g. taking the colors and tones from the image.

  4. andrea_r
    Moderator
    Posted 15 years ago #

    No, that's exactly what a custom css plugin does. It *adds* more CSS rules, so users can override the template, and it only affects their blog.

    Also look up the custom header API.

    This plugin has a global css option and a global background hiding in with everything else:
    http://xsnp.livelyblog.com/

    And it does exactly what you want.

  5. nonegiven
    Member
    Posted 15 years ago #

    OK ... I'll give it a spin and see how far I get. Will post back as I go.

  6. nonegiven
    Member
    Posted 15 years ago #

    ... I have had no luck with this at all I am afraid.

    There is no readme.txt, no real instructions on the website and VERY little to no documentation anywhere. Rizapn, please consider adding instructions. Thank you.

    The plugin contains two files;

    ccss.php > /wp-content/mu-plugins
    wpmu-custom.php > wp-admin

    I upload them and make permissions 755.
    It does not say to where but I upload an alternative image 'alt.gif' to the same directory as the current template ....

    *** Does this need to be in '/wp-content/default/images' or can it be the edited template's directory, e.g. '/wp-content/example/images'?

    ***Is there a place to load a new global default css to work from?

    ***Does one have to edit any of the setting in either file?

    A very simple page appears in Site Admin > Design > Custom CSS

    It does not say how much of an edit one has to make so I attempt adding a complete string from the hash

    #home{background:transparent url(images/alt.gif) no-repeat;width:990px;height:250px; margin:0 auto;list-style:none;}
    .right-col{width:240px;float:right;padding-right:5px;padding-left:5px;padding-top:30px;color:#fafafa;}

    Custom CSS shows a custom css based on that edit and it appears to make directories in /blogs.dir/$blog_id/files/themes/

    I refresh browser's cache, try alternative browser ... no difference. No change.

    Am I missing something?

    It could be great but ... I cant see where I have gone wrong. Any assistance appreciated.

    It would be nice to have a little bit more feedback, e.g. the page showing the list of alternative images etc. Perhaps the ability to edit which directory one's alternative images sit in. Some folks might appreciate a web interface to upload alternative images to. It would be wonderfully simple.

  7. nonegiven
    Member
    Posted 15 years ago #

    I also tried this by adding a complete style.css file ... with changes ... but it did not work either.

    What could be wrong?

    Thank you.

  8. rizapn
    Member
    Posted 15 years ago #

    I've answer your question in your other posting. Please read it.

  9. nonegiven
    Member
    Posted 15 years ago #

    See discussion, here; http://mu.wordpress.org/forums/topic.php?id=9879

    I have been at this for a few days now and spent some time on the forum. It seems that there is a lot of interest around having a global css AND the ability to edit userthemes.

    It also seems that any previous plugins or hacks DNF with 2.6.2.

    How do other folks deal with this?

    You have a blog farm ... you want to have some kind of uniformity over the look of all the blogs ... what do you do??? Load up 100 identical themes, identical excluding the one or two details you wanted to change, e.g. color, header.gif? How do you them maintain that?

    I don't don't know ... it seems to me to be a core and primary thing to want to do but yet WPMU just doesn't. It seems ridiculous to have to host 100 different copies of the same theme AND manage them via the interface. Why not just a custom css?

    I am sorry to say that 'Custom CSS' is not ready for prime time blogging.

  10. rizapn
    Member
    Posted 15 years ago #

    Try my latest : Header Insert Plugin ...
    Hope my explanation in rizapn.blogsome.com is clear enough for you and others who need this kind of plugin.

    rizapn

  11. andrea_r
    Moderator
    Posted 15 years ago #

    "You have a blog farm ... you want to have some kind of uniformity over the look of all the blogs ... what do you do??? Load up 100 identical themes, identical excluding the one or two details you wanted to change, e.g. color, header.gif? How do you them maintain that?"

    Um, I get a theme that has a Custom Header Option and has an Options page or menu to adjust certain colors on the theme.

    Or I build a theme like that myself, but there are literally hundreds of themes out there like that.

    80% of your users will not want to edit css files, and I believe in other threads, I gave answers for CSS editing plugins that DO WORK and work fine.

  12. Mediatricks
    Member
    Posted 15 years ago #

    You could try the new MU release of VIVA7 theme - gives users the option to completely customize the layout of their theme within a single theme template. 7 colour choices, each individual blog can upload custom header graphics through the WP Add Media facility. Masses of choices for customisation allowing a total magazine experience to each blog user.

    Check it our here:

    http://www.mediatricks.com/viva7/

  13. realsol
    Member
    Posted 15 years ago #

    I couldn't find anything I really wanted:

    • I wanted a custom stylesheet I could put in the blogs upload directory and only have used if it existed, otherwise no customizations would be shown.
    • I wanted the option to also put a custom stylesheet in a different directory to keep users of the blog for accidentally messing it up or deleting it.
    • I needed this plugin to insert the custom stylesheet into the head below where my theme stylesheet was inserted, thus making it an alternate or child stylesheet, allowing me to change only the elements I wanted to rather than creating a whole stylesheet from scratch. This takes away the hassle of having to make sure my custom theme worked in all versions of WordPress. I leave it up to the theme developers.
    • I didn't want to have to edit the theme itself, if possible. This way, as theme developers came up with new versions, I wouldn't have a hard time updating the individual themes.
    • I also wanted to be able to use the custom stylesheet to change the default graphic and other elements of the login.php file (user login screen).

    If you think it is something you could use, there is more info on my site, http://rdgriffin.com/wordpress. In fact, my theme on my site is Tarski that is using a custom stylesheet. Didn't have to edit the theme!

About this Topic

  • Started 15 years ago by nonegiven
  • Latest reply from realsol