Thread

Greetings,

I posted a wiki entry at http://expressionengine.com/wiki/Themes_Manual_EE_2.0/ that tries to organize information about “Themes” (which don’t really exist in EE the way most people think of them).

I started thinking about the idea of importing a set of expression engine files into an existing EE 2.0 site using the “Synchronize Templates” function. Suppose you develop a set of templates in a running version of EE 2.0 and also use the Save to Filesystem feature. Then you take that set of files, in their Group structure, upload them to another server file system that is used by a different EE 2.0 as the location for the Save to Filesystem function. Will that install or import those files into the template structure of the new site?

Now obviously these transfered templates would have no way in code to anticipate the channel names, the custom field names, and a number of other things that exist on the new server. So they would have to be completely generic in a number of ways, perhaps nothing more than a set of CSS stylesheets.

But I would appreciate any feedback on the above from Ellis Labs. I know in another post that it was said that importing the sample “Agile Records” theme was not possible after install, so I don’t want to rock the boat. But is this one possible direction for development?

Thanks,
Bob.

Hey Bob!

I was so excited to see that wiki entry - thank you!

Yes, you can do exactly as you described.  Groups and templates will be created based on the filesystem (if they don’t already have respectively existing records).  That was one of the huge enhancements in EE 2.

The Agile Records theme can’t be done after install because it does a lot more than just bring in templates. It creates channels, custom fields, statuses, categories, etc.  That process can only currently run during installation.  You can use that system too, but it’s not currently documented.  You would need to look at themes/site_themes/agile_records/default_content.php to see how it’s done and modify it to suit your needs.

Does that help answer your questions?

Lisa,

Thanks, that answers my questions. I will look into this more as you suggested. Maybe I can start documenting the undocumented stuff and then get back to you. 😊

- Bob

Oh, I thought of another question. Are there any risks of data loss or corruption or something else if one were to use the installed Expression Engine “themes/site_themes/my_theme” directory as the location of the “Save to filesystem” directory for your working EE 2.0 install?

Sure is, if they wholesale replace their themes directory.  I might recommend storing those files elsewhere for your own templates. =)