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I have a question about “best practices”. I read the thread above because I am also a new EE user and also have questions about themes. I chose the Agile_Records theme at time of installation and now want to create my own. Is a fresh install the only way to remove reference to the Agile_Record theme?

What would I have ended up with if I had choses “default” at installation, just a “default_theme” folder in my site themes folder?

Is it possible to run the installer again to add a different default theme or do you have to delete everything prior to starting over? (guess I should have chosen the blue pill)

Well, hold on. 😉

Let’s talk about what the word ‘theme’ means - because if you come from other CMS’s you probably have some expectations behind that word.

In EE-land, a ‘theme’ should really be considered a “re-installable site design”.  In other words, you only want to worry about creating a new theme if you want to be able to install that exact site on multiple installations.

If you are just looking to implement a specific site design in one EE installation then you really don’t need to work with themes at all.

Tell us more about your goals and we can help give you some ideas for moving forward…

My goal would be to remove the Agile Records theme completely and start from scratch with my own site. I’m working on my own server (behind my firewall and not public) and when I’m finished I want to install my live version with everything complete. In doing so I would rather not have my theme folder named “agile_records”. I would think that somewhere there must be a configuration file or database entry that is telling EE to look where it is for it’s templates.

I tried making a duplicate copy of the theme folder and change it’s name but when I changed the path to the theme in general settings I lost all the theme for control panel.

You’ll need to do a fresh install - otherwise you’d have to run through all backend configs and delete whats’s there (channels / fields / categories etc).

Your templates are stored in the database by default - look in the CP / design / template manager.

If you chose to save your templates as flat files you can set the directory where they should go.

Honestly I never install anything in the /themes/ directory that has to do with the front end of my site.

Ah ha! So that local copy of the files in the “theme/site themes/agile records” folder is just for working with locally? The actual code is stored in the database?

I haven’t yet created a true theme (but am about to for use in Train-ee classes) but I’m 99% sure that code at the file level is only there as a source for the import during the theme installation process, at which point it’s copied into the EE database to appear in the CP / Template library.

As an EE developer you can chose to store your code in or out of the EE database.  Keeping it in the db makes it accessible from any computer/browser (I’ve been known to make small template edits on my iPhone), lets you use the EE revisioning, and is a bit better for site performance.

Keeping the code outside of EE as flat-files lets you use any text editor with all their code formatting / highlighting / find & replace features, etc.  You’re on your own for revisioning, and there is a bit of a database hit in that EE has to reach out to the file level to get the code.

The EE Addon market has a few options in this area as well.

Thanks Mike.

k2zs, the “theme/site themes/agile records” folder is mostly used by the installer at install time, though there are some images in there that are referenced by the entries it creates. Agile Records is nice to get a feel for a potential structure, but when you’re ready to start building the real deal it’s easier to re-install than to delete everything the Agile site theme creates.

Thanks Mike.

k2zs, the “theme/site themes/agile records” folder is mostly used by the installer at install time, though there are some images in there that are referenced by the entries it creates. Agile Records is nice to get a feel for a potential structure, but when you’re ready to start building the real deal it’s easier to re-install than to delete everything the Agile site theme creates.

Yes, I’m getting that impression. I currently have my control panel set to “save template” files and use that directory for making modifications. Then I use the “synchronize” feature to publish my changes. I just went through the online documentation and am disappointed at how this subject isn’t even covered. How would one replace an existing site with an EE site without experiencing a large amount of down time? That is my ultimate goal here.

I’m only 2 days into the EE experience so I’m working with an offline installation. I am still going through every piece of the Agile Records theme to learn as much as I can. The first day I was overwhelmed but now it’s starting to click. I’ve made formatting changes and tried different tag changes so it is becoming a bit clearer. My next step will be to blow it all away and start from scratch without Agile Records to see what I end up with.

Hi, k2zs.

Are you talking about how to convert a basic .html site to use EE tags, or something else?

Reinstalling will be the easiest way to start from scratch. During the install process, you’ll see a message about an existing database, allow EE to continue the install and it will gladly do so.

Does that help?