Lillium.net

//Skinning your site\\

First make sure your server supports php (most do)
To do this make a page named phpinfo.php and paste this <?phpinfo();?> into the page, now save your page and view it. If your server supports php you'll see a page with your servers php info on it. If everything went ok continue on to the next step.

Make a folder in your main directory and name it skins.
Inside the skins folder make another folder and name it 1
Also inside the skins folder you will need a 3 pages called cookiecheck.php, index2.php, and skins.php. You will also need to have style1.css here.

Open cookiecheck.php and paste the following code in that page

<? $total_skins = 1; $default_skin = 1; if (isset($_REQUEST['newskin'])) { $newskin=(int)$_REQUEST['newskin']; if ( ($newskin<1) OR ($newskin>$total_skins) ) $newskin=$default_skin; } elseif (isset($_REQUEST['skin'])) { $newskin=(int)$skin; if ( ($skin<1) OR ($skin>$total_skins) ) $newskin=$default_skin; } else $newskin=$default_skin; $skin=$newskin; setcookie ('skin', "", time() - 3600); setcookie('skin',$newskin,time()+(86400*365),'/'); setcookie('skin',$newskin,time()+(86400*365),'/','.yoursite.com/skins'); $skin=$newskin; $headervar = "/home/name/public_html/skins/$newskin/header"; $footervar = "/home/name/public_html/skins/$newskin/footer"; $extension = ".php"; ?>
You will need to change yoursite.com/skins to your actual site address. Mine would be demented-dreamz.net/skins DO NOT put the www or http in front of it. You will also need to change "/home/name/public_html/skins/ to your own path. Mine would be "/home/Trixie/public_html/skins/ Make sure to replace it in both the footer and header part of the code. Right now I have total skins set to 1, keep it this way for now. Once you have skinned your site and want to have more than just one skin be sure to go back and change it to 2 or 3 or however many skins you decide to have.

Now open index2.php and paste the following code in that page

<?php include ("/home/name/public_html/skins/cookiecheck.php");?> <? include($headervar.$extension); ?> Like it? <p>You have successfully changed your skin to <?=$skin?>. If you want to continue using this skin click <a href="/skins/index.php">here</a> . If not, then you can go back to the <a href="/skins/skins.php">selection page</a> and choose a different one.</p> <? include($footervar.$extension); ?>
You will need to change "/home/name/public_html/skins/ to your actual path here too. Mine would be "/home/Trixie/public_html/skins/ Ok save that page

Now open skins.php and paste this code in that page

<?php include ("/home/name/public_html/skins/cookiecheck.php");?> <? include($headervar.$extension); ?> <a href="http://yousite.com/skins/index2.php?newskin=1">Enter </a> <br> <? include($footervar.$extension); ?>
You will need to change "/home/name/public_html/skins/ to your actual path here too. You will also need to change yousite.com/skins/index2.php?newskin=1" to your actual site address. Mine would be demented-dreamz.net/skins/index2.php?newskin=1" Ok save that page.

Open style1.css and add your style sheet there.

Now I use greymatter for my blog, so what I did to pull in my greymatter was to create index.php (still inside the skins folder) and I added the code below

<?php include ("/home/name/public_html/skins/cookiecheck.php");?> <? include($headervar.$extension); ?> <?include("/home/name/public_html/gm/index.php");?> <? include($footervar.$extension); ?>
You can use this to pull in your greymatter too, I've never used any other blogging system but I assume it would be the same. Make sure to change "/home/name/public_html/skins/cookiecheck.php" to your actual path and "/home/name/public_html/gm/index.php" to the path of your greymatter or whatever blog your using.

So now I have a skins folder, inside the skins folder I have a folder named 1 and 4 php pages named cookiecheck.php, index2.php, skins.php, and index.php.

Now open your folder named 1

Just to keep things organized, I created an images folder inside the 1 folder to add my images that I will be using for this skin, its optional, you don't have to do this. Now inside the 1 folder you will need footer.php, header.php and style.php.

Open footer.php

This is where the body of your page will go, such as your links, plug board, etc. I have made a simple footer page you can copy below.

</div> <div id=layer1 style="position:absolute; top:425; left:550; width:170; height:2500; layer-background-image:url('http://yoursite.com/skins/1/images/backgroundimage.jpg');border: #ffffff 0px solid;overflow:auto;"> <td width="165"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" class="border" width="165"> <tr> <td width="165" class="title" height="21"> Navigation </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="165" class="td" height="1"> <tr> <td class="text" valign="top" align="left" width="277"> <br> <a href="http://www.yoursite.com/you.php">you</a><br> <a href="http://www.yoursite.com/me.php">mer</a><br> <a href="http://www.yoursite.com/whatever.php">whatever</a><br> <a href="http://yoursite.comt/x.php">Clear Blog</a><br><br> </tr> </table> <tr> <td class="text" valign="top" align="left"> <br> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" class="border" width="165"> <tr> <td width="165" class="title" height="21"> Change the skin </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="165" class="td" height="1"> <tr> <td class="text" valign="top" align="left" width="277"> <a href="http://www.yoursite.com/skins/skins.php">Change the skin</a> </div> </tr> </table> </body> </html>
You'll need to edit it and change yoursite.com to your actual site.

Open header.php

This page contains the head of your page. I have an example you can copy below to use for your header.

<html> <head> <title>Your Site Name</title> <LINK REL=stylesheet HREF="http://yoursite.com/skins/1/style.css" TYPE="text/css"> <META NAME="description" CONTENT="Say some stuff about your site here!"> <META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="list here what your site includes, like tutorials, graphics, glitter, myspace"> <META NAME="author" CONTENT="demented-dreamz.net"> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Expires" CONTENT="-1"> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Pragma" CONTENT="no-cache"> </head> <body> <BODY BACKGROUND="http://yoursite.com/skins/1/images/backgroundimage.jpg" alt""> <img border="0" src="http://yoursite.com/skins/1/images/topimage.jpg" style="position: absolute; left: 0; top: 0" width="1000" height="500"></p> <STYLE TYPE="text/css"></STYLE> <div style="position:absolute; top:525; left:10;width:470;">
Make sure to change yoursite.com to your actual site.

Open style.css and add your stye sheet here, I use the same one in style.css that I used for style1.css

Now what I did was use my main index just to say enter and I have it targeting x.php. So if you go to demented-dreamz.net and click enter you will be redirected to demented-dreamz.net/x.php. So create a page called x.php in your main directory (not under the skins folder). Now add the code below to that page.

<?php include ("/home/name/public_html/skins/cookiecheck.php");?> <? include($headervar.$extension); ?> <td class="text" valign="top" align="left"> <?include("/home/name/public_html/gm/index.php");?> <? include($footervar.$extension); ?>
Make sure to change "/home/name/public_html/skins/cookiecheck.php" to your direct path.

Make sure all your pages end in .php. If they end in .html or .htm or .shtml or .whateverthatsnotphp you will need to change them.
After you've done all this you'll need to go in on all your pages and at the very top of the page, before any coding begins add the following

<?php include ("/home/name/public_html/skins/cookiecheck.php");?> <? include($headervar.$extension); ?>
Be sure to change "/home/name/public_html/skins/cookiecheck.php" to your direct path. Mine would be "/home/Trixie/public_html/skins/cookiecheck.php"

Now at the bottom of every page after all the coding add the following

<? include($footervar.$extension); ?>

Now sometimes there are pages that you will need to have opened in a pop up window, like my tagboard. On these pages you will NOT include the header and footer tags like on all the other pages, instead you will add the code below between the <head> and </head> of your page.
<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript"> function GetCookie(name) { var startIndex = document.cookie.indexOf(name); if (startIndex != -1) { var endIndex = document.cookie.indexOf(";", startIndex); if (endIndex == -1) endIndex = document.cookie.length; return unescape(document.cookie.substring(startIndex+name.length+1, endIndex)); } else { return null; }} var style = GetCookie('skin'); if (style==null) {style=1;} document.writeln("<link rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"http://yoursite.com/skins/style" + style + ".css\" type=\"text/css\" />"); </script>
Make sure to change yoursite.com to your actual site address.

<~~~Rewind