CSS edits

So I found what I thought was going to be the answer to my question at this thread: http://www.boonex.com/forums/topic/CSS-Styles-How-to-use-.htm Here, houstonlively gives a pretty good explanation of whats going on with the CSS import we see in the Edit CSS Files option in the admin area: 

"....they import the corresponding css file from the templates/base/css directory.   The files shown in the editor, are the ones in your current tmpl_xxx/css/ directory, and they are he ones you should be editing...NOT the css files in the base directory.  Any css you put in the css files in your tmpl_xxx/css/ directory, will override the css that exists in the base directory css files.  You should never change any files in the /templates/base directory"

I had found the /templates/base/css files and attempted some simple edits that had absolutely no affect. Thats why I went looking and found the above thread. I then took the advice and tried to edit the file located at /templates/tmpl_uni/css/common.css but this had no affect either.

I am pretty confused at this point as to what is actually going on here. I am directly editing CSS that should have a dramatic effect of the look of the site and getting nothing. Can anyone clarify please? Thanks! 

You need to clear Dolphin's cache after making changes to the template for the changes to take effect.

Nathan,

What do you mean "Dolphin's cache" and how would I go about this?  

I have cleared my browser's cache every time and even gone as far as launching a different browser just to be sure. 

Found the answer to the cache question here: http://www.boonex.com/forums/topic/Making-Changes-Clear-Your-Cache-.htm

Which got me on track with everything I was confused about to begin with.

So here is a definitive answer on how to edit the css.

1) Go to Settings > Advanced Settings > Template and turn off the enable cache options (temporarily, during development).

2) Be sure to edit the proper css files using an FTP client of your choosing. I prefer Filezilla. The files you want are here: /template/tmpl_xxx/css/common.css for example. NOT /template/base/css/common.css. To be clear, the former imports the latter but editing the former will override the rules found in the latter. 

3) Delete the files found in /cache and /cache_public at the root of your dolphin install (Except the .htaccess files).

4) Clear browser cache and viola!

5) Remember to enable caching options it the Advanced settings when you go live!

Thanks for the help everyone!

P.S.

You may want to leave JS Cache and Compression settings alone. I had some strange trouble today that I am not sure was related to this. But I think it still might be best to leave these options alone unless you are sure you need to disable them. 

No related.

If your JS stopped working after the cache was turned off than that simply means there was a problem that did not show up until it was turned off because dolphin was using cached copies.

This is why i always recommend all caching be off while work is being done on the site so problems can be detected quickly.