What, When and Why

Administration themes are new designs for the Textpattern admin pages, sometimes called the “back-end”. Since the release of Textpattern 4.2.0 at the end of August 2009 the ability to use administration themes has become a “built-in” facility. Prior to 4.2.0 you could only use administration themes via “hacks” which entailed swapping Textpattern files with modified versions of those files. This was an inconvenient method because if you upgraded Textpattern you would need to re-install your modified files and these may have become obsolete if the original Textpattern file had been modified and the “hacked” file hadn’t been updated to suit.

Textpattern 4.2.0 makes using administration themes a breeze and further upgrades of Textpattern will not render your administration theme defunct.

How

When you download an administration theme you will find that you have a zipped (.zip) file.

Method 1

  • You will first need to extract (unzip) it.
  • Occasionally you may find that the extracted file contains a folder within a folder. You only need the folder that actually contains the .css, .php and any images. The “wrapping” folder(s) can be discarded.
  • You then need to upload the extracted folder and all it’s contents to the /textpattern/theme/ folder of your site using an FTP client. You will find that there are already 2 folders there called “classic” and “remora”. Your new folder needs to be sited with them.
  • You can upload as many theme folders as you wish.
  • Login to Textpattern.
  • Go to the “Admin / Preferences” tab and select “Advanced”.
  • In the “Admin” block near the top you will see the option “Admin-side theme” with a drop-down box alongside it.
  • Click on the drop-down box arrow and select the theme of your choice.
  • Click on the “Save” button at the bottom of the page.
  • Once the save process has completed you will need to “refresh” your browser and the new theme should appear.
  • If it doesn’t you have gone wrong somewhere so re-check that you have followed these installation steps correctly.
  • If you still can’t find the problem, ASK!
  • All themes have comments “open” or you could send the designer an email.

Method 2

If you have Stef’s smd_admin_themes plugin installed and your server set-up gives you the appropriate permissions you can install the theme directly from the plugin’s “Extensions” page without needing to extract (unzip) it first. Very simple but it does rely on your host’s idea of the perfect server set-up. If it doesn’t work for you then it is something to harrang your host about. It is not the fault of the plugin.

There are several other advantages to using Stef’s plugin though:-

  • Provided the designer has included a screenshot image in the download, you will be able to see all your installed themes at a glance.
  • Simply clicking on the screenshot will change the theme.
  • The plugin links to a special feed at Textgarden and can tell you if there is an updated version of the theme you are using.
  • You will be able to edit a theme from within the plugin, both the .css and the .php file plus any other file that may be included, upload images to a theme and export the results.
  • Because of the above using the plugin is probably the easiest way of creating and distributing your own themes.

So even if you can’t install a theme from within the plugin you still ought to use it.