Locating html files and pages

Hi guys - been customizing 7.1 template, but one of the challenges I've been running into is locating the html files needed to copy, edit and place in custom template.  This is particularly challenging when looking for the inline html to edit (maybe php is creating it at execution not sure), but even when you've got the corresponding css class or id, the html page the file is on cannot always be located...........  Can somebody give the trick to locating the html files?  Want to reposition a few things.     thx         Divinearc

I believe most things that are not dynamically created by php+sql are in templates/base/* or your theme folder.  

Use firebug

• Inspect HTML and modify style and layout in real-time
• Use the most advanced JavaScript debugger available for any browser
• Accurately analyze network usage and performance
• Extend Firebug and add features to make Firebug even more powerful
• Get the information you need to get it done with Firebug.
  
  Good Luck..
  

Hey Viraladmin and Expertzkris, thnx so much for getting back with your helpful insight.  I should have probably said from the beginning, I've been using firebug extensively and it works great!  I can make all the adjustments I want to make and everything looks great!  Of course when you refresh your browser it all goes away, because as you know nothing actually changes unless it's modified in the base files or copied to a custom template.  This is where I've been running into difficulty - finding the actual file.................. Now that I think about it, I wonder if you meant by edit in real time, is to save the adjustments straight from firebug.  Would this work? I seem to remember it quearing for a location to save to.  Would it or can it trace back to the org html? I haven't been able to get it to do that, other than with css of course.  Is there some tool or ext or search feature that will help do that?  Know of anything, love to hear about it................in the been time I'll continue to search the base and theme folders a little harder.               thanks again.  

Divinearc

No offense to Expertzkris but I think suggesting firebug is a bit... non-helpful to the question asked. Firebug cannot trace back any of the correct files because all these files are used by php to dynamically create pages, and php is created on the server side, so it would be impossible for a browser to trace, as the browser just spits back generated output. 

Its very possible you are running into design issues where there are things dynamically created that are not obvious within the code. Some of this can be found via database searches, some of it won't be found unless you can decode all the php to see how it is generating the html and css.

Search the forums the answer you are looking for is actually in another post on this site. I forgot who wrote it but I believe they tried their best to match as many files to modules as they could for purpose of customization.  

Viraladmin,  thanks a bunch for you insight.  It is very helpful.  I think you're hitting it spot on right down the center with your suggestion about dynamic page creation via PHP.  That is in fact, exactly what I've been running into. 

Just to help any others with similar challenges here is a link that may help.  The Developer (Jeremy) is very good and users can likely find additional resources there also.

http://www.dialme.com/m/articles/view/How-to-determine-which-html-page

Vi - You're also right about finding some via searches and some not at all, as even using this technique won't find everything, but at least it will help. 

The good news is I'm getting a handle on it, and I'll be able to get things work out one way or the other.

Thanks again guys for the input

Divinearc

If your target audience is wise enough to maintain lastest browsers, css 3 regex can be VERY handy at designing things you otherwise are not able to design in boonex.  

[att=str] 
[att*=str]
[att^=str]
[att$=str]

These have been extremely valuable to me when designing things I couldn't find the actual files for. Using the [att=str] you can pin point ANY element on a page based on its attributes. 

For example you can create css such as

div[id^=page_block] {
    border: 1px solid red;
}

This would target any div that has an id that begins with page_block. So as you add new blocks to your design - they are automatically given a border of red. It  won't matter if the id is page_block_123 or page_block_234324 it will target all that begin with page_block*

This is just a simple of example of new css 3 methods that help me VASTLY change various things in dolphin I could not find the html for.

Perhaps this will help you (or others) 

And I thought I was pretty - at least reasonably proficient in CSS... 

Vi that is a great idea!     I'll study up that and those others highlighted.    Come to think of it, I do seem to recall some advanced selectors that incorporate the tilde and few other, well... strange characters.  It may take me a bit, but I'm quite confident I'll be able to achieve the look we're trying to get. (Which basically involves distinguishing the home page a bit more from the others.) 

I'll do some CSS selector review and see what gives.  So far I've been assigning IDs to various elements and then styling those elements. (Whch works fine as long as you can find the html elements to id).  But this new way circumvents that, which makes  lot of sense in situations where the html is hard to find.

Great info Vi! I'll holler back at you when I have an update, just to let you know how things are going.

Divinearc

I'm sure  get it work.