exporting a theme...

[adi]

Hi all, i've got a custom layout installed on one machine, and want to export it to another machine ...

Now, in doing this i need to keep the catalogue/products intact on the recipients machine..

So, would a snapshot from one machine to the other overwrite all the products ? Or will it keep the product list intact...

[I-CC]

A snapshot would export all products and import everything into the machine you import the snapshot into, so if this is only the theme, then you would need to go into Advanced | Themes | Save Site as Theme and then Export it..

We use Developer, so not 100% certain if that is available in Catalog or Business, but take a look..

[adi]

yep cheers..

Now, i have another problem. The theme is done on v7.01, and the recipient has a later version (7.02?) and the theme doesnt import correctly. I've tried inporting it then overwriting the site folder afterwards, which works but i lose the products.

So, i tried the 'file, import, catalog' feature after this in order to get the products back, but its absolute toss and wont even import it back again (even though the export came from the same version).

What a pile of pants.. can someone please tell me how i can import/export this theme easily.. i take it i need to copy the changed temaplte files and import them individually .. but what about the .js files? they dont work !!

What a flexible program this is...

Sorry actinic, youre not my greatest friend at the mo.. a simple thing like importing a theme becomes a quest...

[Bruce]

Hi,

You can try copying over the 'Product' table from within ActinicCatalog.mdb from the export machine to the import machine and that should sort out the products for you.

When the snapshot is imported in to the v7.0.2 machine did the snapshot upgrade? If it did, the upgrade could be the cause for it being messed up. I would suggest upgrading the v7.0.1 to 7.0.2 if you want to take across the custom theme without any issues.

Kind regards,

[adi]

I couldnt do a snapshot on the first machine and import to the version7.0.2 machine as they had already inputted all their products. A catalog back by CSV etc seemed too risky.

Anyway, i eventually did it by using developer (same version), copying the site folder over, saving the site as a theme and exporting into the second machine.

In hindsight i should have used developer in the first place, but would proabbly have still run into problems if it wasnt the same vesion?

[whirlex]

What files have you edited?

I found it easier to just note what 'Act_' files I had modified and then copy them over to the new site1 directory.

Then did an update and it worked fine...

[adi]

I tried that... it just didnt want to know.. odd.

[whirlex]

when i redesigned our web site i only made changes to act_primary and act_simplesearch. So i copied them to my desktop, along with the image folder.

applied the snap shot and simply copied and pasted the files in to the site1 directory after it had finished. I cant see why this wouldnt work.

Note: it may help to rename the file you are replacing to filename.old of to put an underscore in, incase you need to revert back to them....

[Hatticus]

well I never.... day 3 on trial catalog.. and have only jsut found out now that cant save a custom theme....



so.. best way is to back up the Act_.html files I guess... ??

[whirlex]

i doubt its the tidyest way of doin it, i just found it easier whilst playing with it to copy and paste it in to test. When its 99.9999999% complete ill attempt to make a custom theme from it.

[jont]

Are themes patch specific? Would assume the template are OK but what happens with the .pl files etc (doubts occur as when I license a new site I see several .pl files I renamed from the first site I saved as an original copy before modifying - yet these are being brought into the virgin site!!)

If I export a theme using Developer v7.0.4 can this be installed without issues onto say v7.0.2 or v7.0.6?

I have imported a snapshot in v7.0.4 and Actinic went through it's upgrade proceedure but for various reasons it is not feasible to have both running the same version number so I don't want to return a snapshot in fear of killing the client machine. At the moment just a case of returning the modified Act_Templates but wondered if exporting a full theme would be an easier way to go to ensure all modified templates are picked up!

Any advice or tips greatly welcomed.

Jonty

[cdicken]

Any advice or tips greatly welcomed.

I've never actually imported a theme from an older version into a newer version so I am not 100% sure. There are no template changes by us between the two versions you mention, so just sending over templates is fine to do. With a theme snapshot, the site upgrader will take a look at the templates in the snapshot and see that they don't need upgrading and so the upgrader will continue without doing anything.

With regards to the script files, Actinic does not upgrade script files, nor would it replace the customer's 706 script files with your 704 files. So according to the specification it should keep the customer's script files. But I've never done it so I'm not 100% sure.

Basically, if the script files are not customised in any way, it'll be fine. If the script files are customised, then you should either get the customer to back up the script files first, or just keep with sending over just the edited templates.

[jont]

Thanks Chris - will keep sending the templates for now as not a full scale site modification but will try the snapshot at a later stage when not so critical

[jont]

Coming back to this one for clarification as will be needing to use the snapshot function from developer shortly....

I gather exporting a snapshot from my v7.0.4 to a clients v7.0.6 will only export the database, templates etc and not the srcipts.. so when the client imports their Actinic version will still remain compliant to v7.0.6 with the site1 scripts remaining untouched?

Obviously the time stamp will change on the files so a full upload will be required by the client ... just need to get my head round this and not cripple a clients site with ensuing claims for compensation

[Bruce]

Jont,

If you import a v7.0.4 snapshot into v7.0.6 then Actinic will automatically upgrade the snapshot to 7.0.6, the scripts too get upgraded to v7.0.6 scripts.

Kind regards,