News:

Bored?  Looking to kill some time?  Want to chat with other SMF users?  Join us in IRC chat or Discord

Main Menu

Theme will not change

Started by MamaTea, April 16, 2018, 11:47:08 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

MamaTea

I think I've been at this for a couple of weeks.

I first had SMF installed through an auto installer.  I could change the theme until I went into the css and made a little change, then I would be stuck on the default theme- it would say that I was using whatever theme I selected but it would just show up looking like Curve.

I got on here asking for help in this and was told to manually install.  Well I'm not sure what the issues actually were but it took me forever and 3 attempts- I FINALLY have SMF manually installed! (it doesn't help that I just don't have much time to work on this)

Aaaaaaaaand now I'm having the same issues again with the theme not changing after creating a copy of a theme and doing minor edits.  ::)

I am on SMF 2.0.15
PHP Version 7.0.28 (phpMyAdmin provided by host)
MySQL version 10.1 (Mariadb provided by host)

https://mamateasocial.com/social

I really appreciate any help on this!! Customization is really important to the goals on my site!

Sir Osis of Liver

Quote from: MamaTea on April 16, 2018, 11:47:08 AM
after creating a copy of a theme and doing minor edits.

How did you create a copy of the theme?
Ashes and diamonds, foe and friend,
 we were all equal in the end.

                                     - R. Waters

lurkalot

Also, are you clearing your browser cache after making these "minor edits" 

Ctrl + F5 on your keyboard.

MamaTea

In order to make a copy of the default theme, I followed the directions here:

https://wiki.simplemachines.org/smf/How_to_create_a_smf_theme

I filled out the "install a new theme" under manage and install


I had not tried clearing the cache!  Only refreshing my page.
Sadly, I just tried it and this did not work.


I have also dis-selected "allow members to select their own theme" for the moment


I appreciate the replies :)

Illori

did you reset your theme to the new one you created?

MamaTea

Quote from: Illori on April 16, 2018, 01:40:25 PM
did you reset your theme to the new one you created?


Quote from: MamaTea on April 16, 2018, 11:47:08 AM
I would be stuck on the default theme- it would say that I was using whatever theme I selected but it would just show up looking like Curve.

:D yes, I also reset it to Core just in case there was just an issue with the one that I had made. 

It reads that it is set to whatever theme I select though everything just looks like Curve.  :

Sir Osis of Liver

Crap, I've seen this before but don't remember what caused it, and am unable to replicate it. >:(  Going offline shortly, if you can't get it, pm admin and ftp access and I'll have a look when I'm back on tonight.
Ashes and diamonds, foe and friend,
 we were all equal in the end.

                                     - R. Waters

MamaTea

Quote from: Sir Osis of Liver on April 16, 2018, 02:01:57 PM
Crap, I've seen this before but don't remember what caused it, and am unable to replicate it. >:(  Going offline shortly, if you can't get it, pm admin and ftp access and I'll have a look when I'm back on tonight.

Thanks!  I'll do that if I don't get it sorted out.  ;D

GigaWatt

Quote from: MamaTea on April 16, 2018, 11:47:08 AM
PHP Version 7.0.28 (phpMyAdmin provided by host)

Probably a long shot and not related to the current problem, but... try changing it to 5.6.
"This is really a generic concept about human thinking - when faced with large tasks we're naturally inclined to try to break them down into a bunch of smaller tasks that together make up the whole."

"A 500 error loosely translates to the webserver saying, "WTF?"..."

MamaTea

Quote from: GigaWatt on April 16, 2018, 06:49:18 PM

Probably a long shot and not related to the current problem, but... try changing it to 5.6.

That actually did..SOMETHING.. haha..

now, instead of being stuck looking at the default theme it is some weird hybrid of my custom theme and the default. 

I would include screens shots but I'm not really sure how....lol!




so, another update...

I uninstalled the forum at
mamateasocial.com/social

and installed the forum on
mamateasocial.com/teasocial

just to see if that would resolve any issues.  It didn't.  I'm in the same boat still!  Just on a different page.

GigaWatt

Quote from: MamaTea on April 16, 2018, 07:13:59 PM
I would include screens shots but I'm not really sure how....lol!

Either with the image tag or attach the image in your post ;).
"This is really a generic concept about human thinking - when faced with large tasks we're naturally inclined to try to break them down into a bunch of smaller tasks that together make up the whole."

"A 500 error loosely translates to the webserver saying, "WTF?"..."

MamaTea

AHH haha I remember seeing the attachments at the bottom now.

I'm not sure how to do the tag.


GigaWatt

Quote from: MamaTea on April 16, 2018, 07:51:54 PM
I'm not sure how to do the tag.

[img]http://somesite.com/your/image.jpg[/img]




Yeah, it's a mess :S.

OK, how about this. Have you tried uploading and activating any other theme than the one you've created? Just to make sure it's not how things are supposed to look after the changes you've made to the default theme (not trying to offend you... we're human, people make mistakes ;)).

You can use any theme that's compatible with SFM 2.0.x, but I'd use the ones compatible with 2.0.14 or above.
"This is really a generic concept about human thinking - when faced with large tasks we're naturally inclined to try to break them down into a bunch of smaller tasks that together make up the whole."

"A 500 error loosely translates to the webserver saying, "WTF?"..."

MamaTea

I have previously, and just now uploaded a theme that I know has worked before I started in with the CSS and it does not work.

My site reverted back to the plain default, I was able to change it to Core Theme, then the theme I made showed up as it did before (partially)--only for a bit. Now it is stuck on Curve again.

I am pretty new at all of this so if I did make a mistake with the new theme I wouldn't be too surprised, though with the circumstances of my troubles, I wouldn't think it would be from my code-writing talents (or lack-there-of).

Sir Osis of Liver

#14
Just got on, having a look.  Curve theme runs correctly, as does Pagan.  TeaTime looks like your first screenshot, Curve with yellow background.  What are you trying to do that it's not doing?

Ok, couple of obvious things.  Your background images are not loading because paths in index.css are incorrect. 

This -



background: url(../teasocial/images/tea.png);



should be this -



background: url(/teasocial/images/tea.png);



Also, your pngs are way to big, both over a half mb, take a long time to load.  I've converted them to jpgs at 20% compression, you won't see any difference.  That makes the css this -



background: url(/teasocial/images/tea.jpg);



and this -



background: url(/teasocial/images/mice.jpg); no-repeat 0 -480px;



Looks like there's still a lot to do, but don't want to tinker any further until I know what you want.

Ashes and diamonds, foe and friend,
 we were all equal in the end.

                                     - R. Waters

GigaWatt

Too much transparency (alpha) on the background of the forum.
"This is really a generic concept about human thinking - when faced with large tasks we're naturally inclined to try to break them down into a bunch of smaller tasks that together make up the whole."

"A 500 error loosely translates to the webserver saying, "WTF?"..."

MamaTea

Thanks!  I thought only the .PNGs would work but I guess that is only because I had it written wrong.  I had pasted right into the original coding- I'm still sort of feeling my way in the dark here.  (And I sort of went crazy on it after my themes stopped working because I figured I'd do some experimenting at that point)

All that I wanted to see happen was to be able to switch my themes on the site- which is happening now.  Maybe it will glitch out again the next time I go in to edit the CSS of my theme, I'm not sure.  I can update you about that.  If the theme does keep glitching out, it seems like it fixes itself if given time.

Thanks for helping!

Oh and about the transparency, I am using opacity:0.9; for most of it and .8 for the footer.  I'm not using any in the header or tables.  What would you suggest?

Sir Osis of Liver

Errors in theme css will not affect other themes (unless you mess with Curve css).  There's nothing wrong with the theme select, what you were seeing was your custom theme looking like Curve because incorrect css modifications were not being applied.  Mixing light and dark backgrounds makes life difficult because you have to change text and link colors to show up on different backgrounds.  I like the mice.png image, but the aspect ratio is not compatible with the div you're putting it in, so you're losing a good part of it (the mice).  You're running Pagan now, so can't see where you're at.

Ashes and diamonds, foe and friend,
 we were all equal in the end.

                                     - R. Waters

GigaWatt

Quote from: MamaTea on April 17, 2018, 10:42:27 AM
Oh and about the transparency, I am using opacity:0.9; for most of it and .8 for the footer.  I'm not using any in the header or tables.  What would you suggest?

I'd try increasing it. Maybe 0.9 or 0.91, 0.92 for the footer and 0.95, 0.96 for the rest of the forum. Don't worry about the numbers, what looks good on the eye doesn't always look good on paper ;). Basically it's a percentage (0.XX * 100 = XX). I don't know how precise you can be in defining the transparency values because I've never actually set a background image on any theme (just left the default gradients), but I think a two decimal field is adequate (increase/decrease transparency in 1% steps).

Sir Osis of Liver left you some good advice on theme changes, modding, etc. ;). My advice would be: keep it simple. Most of the time, gradients (shades) of a certain color are a great choice. Also, try to choose colors that soothe the eye ;). You don't want your members to gawk or squirt each time they log in the forum. Pagan is a good theme ;)... too dark for my taste (although my favorite "color" is black, I actually don't like black themes... at least not on web sites or forums), but a good design. You could try and change a thing or two in it, see how it works, if it looks good, kind of get into it a bit, and try it on other themes... the default for example ;).

If you're serious about this, try not to rush the learning process. It's a curve, the more you know, the faster you'll learn ;).
"This is really a generic concept about human thinking - when faced with large tasks we're naturally inclined to try to break them down into a bunch of smaller tasks that together make up the whole."

"A 500 error loosely translates to the webserver saying, "WTF?"..."

MamaTea

Thanks you guys!  I am certainly taking my time and enjoying the learning process.

When I first posted here I really did have the issue that my themes would not change over. 
I never even got to see my theme in action until I lowered my PHP like GigaWatt suggested.  Even after that I was not able to change to any other theme.  I always test between Curve and Core because they are the originals and shouldn't have any issues pulling up. 

It was working fine, like you said, until I just did a test edit (I've been too busy to work on this so this is the first time I have done anything since you worked on it) and now it is stuck on Core, which is what I had changed it to before I did the editing.  (the problem always seems to arise after I save the script for a theme).

Do you think the problem could be the browser that I am using? (Google Chrome)

I also thought that Pagan was nice yet too dark for my taste.  My site is just completely under construction right now so I'm really not worried about how it looks at the moment, I just want things to run smoothly!

I figure that I will take things from the theme I have been making and start over- for a clean slate because I may have deleted things in it that I shouldn't have.  I was having fun.   ;D

Advertisement: