General Template Install Instructions

Template Requirements

All of my templates come with a button to edit your entries by default, viewable by all administrators of the site. In order to take advantage of this feature, you need to turn off sessions in your EE Control Panel. Sessions must be cookies only for this to work, otherwise you may be prompted for your username and password if your session has expired. To change your sessions to cookies only, do the following:

  1. Log into your control panel
  2. Once logged in, click on the admin tab and then select "System Preferences" from the System Administration Menu
  3. In the System Preferences, click on the "Security and Session Preferences" link
  4. Change the "Control Panel Session Type" and the "User Session Type" entries to Cookies only, and then click update
  5. That's all there is to it!

If you don't wish to display the edit link to site admins, the link is very easy to remove. This will require editing two templates: your index template and your comments template. If you're sure you won't be taking advantage of the edit link, feel free to do this before you copy and paste the templates into ExpressionEngine.

First, open your index template (index.tpl, if you haven't already pasted the template into EE). Search for and remove this code (note, that the code might vary from template to template. Ocean Mist is used as an example here):

{if member_group == "1"}
  <li><a href="/system/index.php?C=edit&M=edit_entry&weblog_id={weblog_id}&entry_id={entry_id}" title="Edit Post">Edit Post</a></li>
{/if}

Next, open your comments template (comments.tpl, if you haven't already pasted the template into EE). Search for and remove this code:

{if member_group == "1"}
  <p><a href="/system/index.php?C=edit&M=edit_entry&weblog_id={weblog_id} &entry_id={entry_id}" title="Edit Post">Edit Post</a></p>
{/if}

That's all there is to removing the edit link. If you do plan on using the link and you have changed the name of your system folder, be sure to edit the same two files accordingly; changing the word system with whatever you renamed the folder to.

Also, don't forget to leave any credits in place, with the exception of my own. You're free to remove my links, though it would be appreciated if you keep them in there!

How To Install a Template

There are two ways to go about installing ExpressionEngine Templates. I can't say one method is better than the other simply because it all depends on your current configuration/situation, but I can say that both are equally easy. So, without further babble, here we go! (Just a note: Ocean Mist is being used here as an example. Remember to change things accordingly)

First Method: Create a new blog and import the entire template in one swell foop (that was intentional...).

  1. Upload the folder named "ocean_mist" to your "/root/themes/site_themes/" folder (ignore the tpl folder for now).
  2. Create a new weblog in your Admin panel. Set up the blog as you normally would, with the exception of the templates.
  3. In the template section of creating a new blog, select "use one of the default themes" and pick "ocean_mist" from the drop down box.
  4. Still in the template section of creating a new blog, be sure you select "Include RSS Templates."
  5. Next, enter a template group name like "myblog" or whatever you wish to name the group.
  6. Finally, click "Submit." Your blog will be created and all of the page templates will be imported and linked automagically.

Second Method: Import the individual .tpl files.

  1. Upload the folder named "ocean_mist" to your "/root/themes/site_themes/" folder and upload the contents of the "tpl" folder to your "/root/system/templates/" folder.
  2. Create a new template group that you would like to use Ocean Mist in.
  3. Select the new template group that you just made and click on "New Template."
  4. Type in "about" for the template name and then select "use a template from your library." Use the drop down to find the "about" template and select it. Leave the template type as "web page."
  5. Click "Submit."
  6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for every template. Remember to type the name of the template exactly as it is in the template file, without the .tpl extension. The remaining templates should all be "web page" types with the exception of "site_css." This should be set as a "CSS Stylesheet."

I. Customizing the Templates

Please note: This applies to both methods of importing templates listed above!

Now that you have your templates imported, there is just a little more work that needs doing. We need to make a few changes that are specific to your site. If you look inside the newly created templates, you will see this listed at the top:

{assign_variable:my_weblog="default_site"}{assign_variable:my_template_group="site"}
  1. "default_site" represents the "short name" of the default weblog that is created when you install ExpressionEngine. In order to point the template files to the proper blog, you must change this to the "short name" of the blog you wish to use Ocean Mist on. If you haven't made any changes to the default blog, you probably don't have to make any changes, but check your "weblog management page" to be certain.
  2. "site" represents the template group itself, and is the default template group name created when you install ExpressionEngine. To be certain all links work properly, change "site" to the name of the template group you installed Ocean Mist into. Again, if you didn't make any changes to the templates you should be alright, but double and triple check!

II. Additional Templates

Inside the .zip file that you downloaded, you'll notice an extra folder named "additional_templates." Inside this folder there are two sub folders named "errors" and "search."

  1. The "errors" folder contains an "error404.tpl" file that you may use as a global 404 page for your website. It is styled to match the Ocean Mist theme. Point numbers 1 and 2 from step I apply to this file as well, so be sure to check that the settings are correct.
  2. The "search" folder contains three tpl files: "index.tpl," "results.tpl," and "noresults.tpl." These files will replace the default ExpressionEngine search templates with one that matches Ocean Mist. I strongly recommend you use them, as they look rather nice with the template. In order to use them, simply open the .tpl files in your favorite text editor and replace the existing content of your search templates. For the noresults page, you will most likely have to create a new template for it, but you know how to do that now. :D There is no need to worry about the search_css template, as I've combined the necessary styles into the site_css template. Again, point numbers 1 and 2 from step I apply to these files as well, so be sure to check that the settings are correct.

If anyone needs any help getting these templates installed, please don't hesitate to ask. I'll be more than happy to help you as best I can!

Enjoy the template everyone!