It took me a while to find this info from several different sources – and its so simple that I thought I’d just write it out step by step.
Firstly this isn’t a complete tutorial on making or changing templates – just a good way to start making templates that can be selected from the admin/ advanced settings screen. It uses a copy of the standard UNI template.
1 First thing is to go to your installation directory (where all the dolphin files and folders live). The folder you want is visible at the base level of your dolphin folder – there’s no need to go burrowing - find the /templates folder – inside is a folder called templ_uni
It may well be that the folder and its contents have permissions that need to change before you can do anything to them – check and remember the old permissions so you can re-instate them. You would need to change these permissions even if you only want to alter the css files through the admin panel.
2 Now duplicate this templ_uni folder. Of course a straight duplication will cause two folders of the same name to exist, so you will need to copy the duplicate somewhere else, rename it and then move it back next to templ_uni. When you rename it just change the last three letters – to something like templ_dup, for instance. While you are at it make a few more copies with different templ_xxx names – you may want them later.
So your /templates folder should now have at least the following files in it:
base (folder)
tmpl_uni (folder)
tmpl_dup (folder - whatever you called it)
OK you now have a new working template folder – but it will not be recognised by the admin panel, and you wont be able to select it as your current template.
3 To make the new template usable you have to edit 2 different text files. These both exist in the new tmpl_dup folder. In tmpl_dup is a folder called scripts and inside that are two files: BxTempleConfig.php and BxTemplName.php – Open them both in a text editor (bbedit is good for macs –the cpanel filemanager code edit is good if you haven’t got).
4 In BxTempleConfig.php
Find
// path to the images used in the template
$site['images'] = $site['url'] . "templates/tmpl_uni/images/";
$site['zodiac'] = "templates/tmpl_uni/images/zodiac/";
$site['icons'] = $site['url'] . "templates/tmpl_uni/images/icons/";
$site['css_dir'] = "templates/tmpl_uni/css/";
$site['smiles'] = $site['smiles'] . 'default/';
and change the tmpl_uni text (shown here in bold) to the name of your new tmple_dup or tmple_xxx file.
And save.
5 In BxTemplName.php
Find
$sTemplName = 'UNI';
(it is the only line in the file) and replace UNI with the name of your new template – like Duplicate - you can afford to be more descriptive with this text as it’s the text used in the admin dropdown, just be careful not to delete the surrounding ‘’;
Save that file too.
6 If you made additional copies do the same for each of them – using unique names of course
7 go to the admin menu / advanced settings and scroll down to the bottom, where the Template dropdown is, you will now find that you have a new template to play with - called 'Duplicate' below 'UNI' – one that you can turn on and off through the admin screen – select it and don’t forget to save the changes.
8 change the hell out of it using css and you have a new look for your Dolphin install.
9 Don't forget to re-instate the permissions on both the old tmpl_uni files/folders and the new templ_xxx (or wahtever you called it.
