Customize Main Page Layout

[JeffMXP]

Hi -

I've installed, picked a template, done some customizing of the css file and all is working well.

I can't see where to customize the entire layout of the frontpage, however. The documentation mentions a layout.php file but I have none anywhere. What file is used to create the main page? I want to format it to look like my site but I can't find it anywhere.

Any help?

Thanks.

Jeff

[garvinhicking]

Hi!

I'm not sure which documentation you looked at, but might I suggest this:

http://www.s9y.org/44.html
http://www.s9y.org/121.html
http://www.s9y.org/102.html

HTH,
Garvin

[JeffMXP]

I'm missing something fundamental. The first link you gave me takes me to a page that includes a section on "Creating layout.php."

Here it says that if I dont create this page then it will use /default/layout.php but I dont see this page in my system anywhere.

I can customize css for my page, but I still dont know where the layout of the page is handled, i.e. how can i modify the links on the sidebar, add a banner at top, change the page structure, etc.

Thanks for the help!

Jeff

[JeffMXP]

Ok, I'm making progress and further customizing my page, and my question is now focused to:

How can I add a header or footer to my main blog page? I want to add a simple banner and text at top. What file controls the layout of the main page?

Any help?

Thanks.

Jeff

[d_cee]

Hi

can you let us have a url to your blog so that we can take a look?

Cheers

Dave

[JeffMXP]

My blog is currently in a member's area of an adult website - tame and tasteful by comparison, but it's still NSFW.

I can provide access if necessary, but the question is simple - anyone who customizes their blog will know the answer (I make this assumption because I'm certain I'm missing something simple!)

Take a template, customize the css, and then.... how can you customize the layout of the page itself. Add a banner, html, header, whatever. There's a page that controls this somewhere and I just can't find it!

Thanks for the help!

Jeff

[d_cee]

Hi

how can you customize the layout of the page itself. Add a banner, html, header, whatever.

If you used an existing template as a basis for your own template then there will already be a banner or header div and pretty much anything you want to do to style it can be done in your style.css file.

You can add HTML in your template's entries.tpl and index.tpl files. If you don't have these in your template folder you should copy them from your templates/default folder into your own template folder and edit these - not the files in your default template folder.

HTH

Dave

[garvinhicking]

Hi!

Oh my god. I'm so terribly sorry. That first link REALLY is outdated, I didn't know about this.

I instantly modified it and now you have verbose information on each .tpl file there.

HTH,
Garvin

[JeffMXP]

Ah... I'm slowly making my way. Thanks Garth for the updated link - I've now figured out how to put a banner on my main page - it was the index.tpl file in the default folder all along!

However.....

Now I'm trying to do some work on my page when it's displaying comments, and I'm lost again. Tried all the tpl files in the default folder but can't find it. I'm including a screenshot of the lower portion of my page when it's displaying a test entry and it's test comments.



I'm uninterested in trackbacks and would love to simply remove the trackback listing from this comment page but I can't figure out what file displays that text!

And below the comment form is text in black that explains some formatting features - I can't figure out where that text is either. I'm trying to customize that text.

Any idea where these two things are handled? Thanks!!!!

Jeff

[garvinhicking]

Hi!

According to the new documentation, those changes can be made in the central 'entries.tpl' file, which is the "heart" of all entry formatting.

And below the comment form is text in black that explains some formatting features - I can't figure out where that text is either. I'm trying to customize that text.

That text is contained in the lang*.php include files of the plugin they belong to. The formatting comes from the s9ymarkup and emoticate plugin lang files.

HTH,
Garvin

[JeffMXP]

Thanks Garvin, again, for pointing me in the right direction. I had found a trackback section of entries.tpl but there was another below it that controlled the display of the heading, which is what I had circled in my image above.

As for the black text, I'm searching around lots of language files, in various lang folders, etc but have not yet come across it. You said it is in the lang* file of the plugin it refers to, but this is attached to the comment form. Anything relating to comment is where I'm searching now, but haven't found it yet.

I'm new to this, clearly, so I dont yet understand how s9ymarkup works or where teh emoticate plugin lang files are. So I'm hunting and pecking so far...

Thanks.

[JeffMXP]

I've found where to change the text but still can't find where to format it.

When the page with comments is pulled up, these two black text lines are coded as follows:

<div class="serendipity_commentDirection serendipity_comment_s9ymarkup">Make text bold by enclosing it in asterix, as in *bold text*</div><div class="serendipity_commentDirection serendipity_comment_emoticate">Standard emoticons like and are converted to images.</div><input type="hidden" name="serendipity[token]" value="42174c60242d5a4112d46b0b3e3322d4" />

So I'm assuming I need to find "serendipity_commentDirection" in a css file somewhere, but I can't. I even created it in the default style.css file but that didn't do anything. So I clearly haven't found where this text is controlled yet...

[JeffMXP]

Ok, hopefully this novice exploration isn't annoying everyone, but my questions are getting more focused....


What my problem seems to be boiling down to is one thing:

When my blog is displayed and I view the source, whether it is the main page or a comment page or whatever, I always see several css classes listed that I can't find in any css file or tpl or anywhere. Since I can't find them I can't customize them, though they are being formatted somewhere.

My above thread ended up focusing in on the class that defined the text that appears in black in my image above.

Now I'm seeking more class ID's titled .serendipity_commentBody, comment_source_author, comment_source_date. These define the look of the text below a comment.

I'll continue digging around, but if anyone's still perusing this thread and knows what I'm doing wrong please help out.

Thanks!

Jeff

[garvinhicking]

Hi!

When my blog is displayed and I view the source, whether it is the main page or a comment page or whatever, I always see several css classes listed that I can't find in any css file or tpl or anywhere. Since I can't find them I can't customize them, though they are being formatted somewhere.

This is because those CSS classes are addeed for forward compatibility, they might not be used at all. So you can insert them easily into your CSS!

Remember to purge your browsers cache when you change something in the CSS.

HTH,
Garvin