Announcement

**cdicken** · 08-Aug-2006, 03:42 PM

Paul

The upgrader takes your customised code and then replaces the NETQUOTEVARs for v8 variables. Therefore it should still be using your customisations you made in v7 - but if, as you say, it was heavily customised, it may not be able to handle everything.

If you drop an email to v8beta@actinic.co.uk they can take a look at your snapshot and see whether we can improve the upgrader to handle it in time for 8.0.1 - which is the version we will be encouraging existing users to upgrade to.

**wjcampbe** · 08-Aug-2006, 03:43 PM

Paul, there are no Act_BrochurePrimary or any other separate template in v8. That's both the beauty of it, and the hardest thing for someone familiar with v7 to overcome.

Every image, link, product and property on the site is now controlled by a layout or variable or a combination of layout/variable AND condition(s).

Even standard v7 installations will benefit from a rewrite in v8 rather than an upgrade.

If you go to Actinic v8\Upgrades\ folder, you should find a text file with the name of your site and Design somewhere in its name. This will have a listing of the design elements that did not translate and suggestions for how to handle them.

**cdicken** · 08-Aug-2006, 03:44 PM

FYI to view the v8 equivalent of a BrochurePrimary template, go to the 'Design' tab, and select a brochure page in the content tree. Then click anywhere in your design and click the 'Navigate to Parent Layout' (bottom left, yellow spiral with up arrow) button until you see a dotted line going around the entire design in the preview. You should now be looking at the overall page layout and you can check how your customisations have been brought accross.

**PaulGrimshaw** · 08-Aug-2006, 04:15 PM

Aha, I understand now.

I have moved up and seen my layout, however, there is a big difference. I guess a lot of it is down to the way actinic now does the variables and I will have to get into that, but as a quick question, how does 8 deal with includes?

I previously used includes for the header, menu & footer (as they were the same no matter what brochure page I was on). The old html is:

Code:

<div id="primary_wrapper" class="primary_wrapper">
 <div id="primary_header" class="primary_header">
   NETQUOTEVAR:INCLUDE Act_InsertHeader.html
 </div>

but the new code is this (I am assuming this is the equivelant):

Code:

<actinic:variable name="HeaderArea" value="Header Area - Cart in Row 1 - Search in Row 2" />

I assume this means that I need to edit that variable to show the html that I used to have in my seperate insertheader file?

Incidently, I had a whole load of script in my primary template that checked on browser/screen size and ran a different document.writes depending on what it found. Would this also be in a variable, or is it something that would be in the actual html layout?

Thanks,
Paul.

**cdicken** · 09-Aug-2006, 08:59 AM

Paul

First of all I would suggest having a good read of the 'Design' section of the Getting Started Guide or the 'Read This First' section of the Advanced User Guide.

Basically all your custom code should have been retained. The code which you quote is from a standard overall page layout - and Actinic should have retained your custom code rather than replace it with standard code - i.e. all your 'primary_wrapper' stuff should still be there.

Can I suggest downloading the full production version and see if it's any better at upgrading your design.

WIth regards to the NETQUOTEVAR:INCLUDE tag - the new way to do this is:

1) Go to 'Design | Library | Variables' and create a new user-definable variable (what used to be called custom properties). Read in the getting started guide about how to create your own new variables.

2) Set the 'Type' of the variable to 'File Content' and in the 'Initial Value' and 'Top Level Value' fields, select the file you want included into the design.

3) Then just insert the user-definable variable into your design where you want the file content to appear.

I cannot really advise on the finer technicalities of your upgrade yet. I suggest trying out the production version and if you still get issues, then register an email support query. Do bear in mind though we are not encouraging existing live sites to upgrade until the first maintenance release of v8.

**PaulGrimshaw** · 09-Aug-2006, 04:09 PM

Excellent. Its all working as was now.

Thanks for your help.

Paul.

**jubbbird** · 16-Aug-2006, 04:25 PM

Hi,

I have done some reading and I am quite happy with the new concepts. It seems much improved and I am confident that my previous approximation of the time required to produce my next site was well over what I will actually require - good news.

I am however at a loss as far as understanding where everything comes from, on the topic of this thread:

I understand that all the code can be handled by the surprisingly comprehensive code editor window, however it is not imediately obvious where the fruits of my coding labours will eventually be stored upon exiting Actinic. I have switched themes a few times to find the easiest starting point, and clearly all the layout code is being replaced with each theme. However I would like to know either - where this code is actually stored (taking into account that the advanced guide details how to get an externally editable CSS document) - OR where in the documentation I can read about this in order to save you time typing a reply

Cheers

Dave

**wjcampbe** · 16-Aug-2006, 04:54 PM

I think you will find "It's all in the database" or at least everything that is not within the programme code.

**RuralWeb** · 16-Aug-2006, 05:32 PM

I think you will find "It's all in the database"

I think you are correct bill - I remember Chris saying something like that in the beta.

**pinbrook** · 16-Aug-2006, 05:47 PM

Yep its all in the database,thus if you really mess up you can take the database from the original folder back into site1 and start again

**jubbbird** · 16-Aug-2006, 06:10 PM

So given that the theme is only the images, and the button set is also only images, and the code is in the database - there must be a link between the three, or at least a link between the theme and the code in the database, and I assume an extra database link to the selected button set...?

I would like to understand the process of creating new theme, with all new images, all new buttons (or no buttons if there's no need) with all new code, all successfully linked in the actinic database.

**RuralWeb** · 16-Aug-2006, 06:43 PM

I would like to understand the process of creating new theme, with all new images, all new buttons (or no buttons if there's no need) with all new code, all successfully linked in the actinic database.

Welcome to the club - we are all trying to do this

**cdicken** · 17-Aug-2006, 11:24 AM

I think it's fair to say we had never realised so many people would be looking to create custom themes that are colorisable and can be sold onto customers. I would have thought the majority of people would just be looking to create specific designs for their customers. If there really is a lot of people wanting to create and distrubute themes, then we can look at putting in some features to support this. As things stand, http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=22968 provides everything I know on teh subject - and should be a useful place to start (particularly how themes.ini associates a button set, an image set and an overall page layout with each theme.

I also suggest you read the getting started guide (of the first chapter of the advanced user guide) for more of an explanation about how design works in Actinic. It's all in the database now - and you really do need to read up on the design features before plunging in.

**jubbbird** · 17-Aug-2006, 02:46 PM

I'm a little unsure as to what you were expecting us to be doing

I'm interested ONLY in producing a specific design for my single client - not to be resold to anyone else - as you seem to be implying that you assumed I would want to do.

However, this functionality (that was very obvious in v7) seems to require that I be able to create a theme, package up, send to my client and have them easilly "import" it into their Actinic installation. Technically, therefore, I COULD go and sell the theme to someone else, although without the ability to colourise it there would be little point. This way, if I alter the design to support another feature, or fix a bug, I can repackage the theme, allowing the client to simply re-apply the theme thus impementing the updated design in about 4 clicks.

Everything that has been said so far is hinting at the fact that we will need to manually arrange alterations to .ini files and images folders, etc. :/

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