Managing Templates | Previous Next

Templates are the basic building framework for sites. All the sites created with iScripts EasyCreate 3.2 are based on templates. So the more templates for users to play with, more happy the users are.
Templates are basically of two kinds:

- Simple
- Advanced

The templates are arranged in to categories for easy navigation and classification. These categories are also managed by the administrator of the site.
Managing Template Categories
To manage template categories, select 'Template Category Manager' from the Template Manager. All the categories present (if any) are displayed in a paged manner.
To Edit the details of a category present already, click on the Edit link given against the category you wish to edit. Now you are displayed all the existing information about the category like Name, Description and the thumbnail image of the category. Make the changes as you wish and click on 'Save Changes'. Your changes are saved if validated correctly. Please make sure that you upload category images of the same sizes since uploading huge variations of pictures for this field may make the display pages disorganized and ugly.
To delete a category, click on the Delete link provided against the category you wish to delete. On confirmation, if the category trying to be deleted is not in use, it is deleted. If the category has templates in it, it is not deleted and you are displayed a message stating that the category cannot be deleted since it is in use. If you require to delete a category in use, first delete all the templates from it and then try deleting the category itself.
To add a category, click on the 'Add New Category' link in the bottom-left part of the Template Category Manager screen. In the resulting page, enter the name and description of the category. Browse for a suitable image for the category. Now click on 'Add New Category'. If validated correctly, your new category is added to the list.
Managing Templates
Uploading templates is perhaps the most time consuming job compared to all other processes in the easycreate.com administration and it should be done very carefully so that your users are not given out faulty templates to work with.
To upload a new template go to 'Template Upload Manager' in the 'Template Manager'. Uploading a template involves 6 steps which are described below:
Depending up on the type of template (simple/advanced) the steps outlined below may differ little bit.
Uploading Simple Type Templates
1. Select Category, Type and set Thumbnail
Fig. 2.6.1
This section is used to select the category for the new template, select its type (simple in this case) and set the thumbnail image for display purposes. Click Next to continue.
2. Select the basic site building images like logo, company name, caption etc for Home Page.
While uploading these images, special care must be taken in the naming convention. As described in the screen 2.6.2 you must provide the names exactly as specified. For example, Logo image should be given name 'tp_logoimage.jpg'. Similarly, all other images should also be named as specified.
Fig. 2.6.2
Given below are the explanations of the images being uploaded in this step:
a. tp_logoimage.jpg
This image is the logo image by default. If the user does not upload a logo of his/her own, this logo will be used.
b. tp_logoband.jpg
This image is a band with a gradient or solid color where the user's logo will be embedded.
c. tp_company.jpg/tp_company.gif
This is the image specifying the company name. If the user does not specify a company name, this will be used by default.
d. tp_companyband.jpg
Similar to the logo band, this is a band with a gradient or solid color. The user's company name will be embedded as text into this area. User can select font type, font size and color while specifying the company name.
e. tp_caption.jpg
This is the image specifying the caption of the site. If the user does not specify a caption for the site, this will be used by default.
f. tp_captionband.jpg
This image is a band with a gradient or solid color where the user's site caption will be embedded as text. User can select font type, font size and color while specifying the caption.
If the 'Use same images for sub page' box is checked, these images will appear on the sub pages. You can skip Step #3. If you have a different set of images or a different layout for the sub pages, you can uncheck the box and select these images in the next step, Step #3.
3. Select the basic site building images like logo, company name, caption etc for Sub Page.
In this step, you can select the images which will appear in each sub page created using this template. (If in Step #2 you check the 'Use same images for sub page' check box, you will not get in to this screen)
Similar to Step #2, be careful when naming the files. Just follow the on-screen instructions.
Fig. 2.6.3
4. Upload all other images used in the template
The template you are uploading may be using many images other than the logo, caption and company images. All these images can be uploaded and incorporated into the template from this screen.
You can upload images one by one, or zip them all into a single zip file and upload. We recommend the zip method since it is more easy to do and all images are uploaded as a single file. While making the zip file, make sure all the images are included so that none of your images are found missing when the template is finally rendered.
One thing to note is that all the images should start with a prefix 'tp_'. All images not confirming to this norms are ignored and are not included in the template.
Fig. 2.6.4
To view all the files uploaded to the template till this time, you can click on the 'View images present' link to the top right of the 'Add images' section.
If you require to watermark each and every image being added to the template, you can use the individual file upload method. Watermarking is done to prevent users from using your template images without paying. To watermark images, check the check boxes against each image you upload through the 'Add images'. In the opening screen, you will see only one field to upload image. Click on the 'Add New Image' link for each image you want to upload, a new field will be created for you to upload a new image. Before you upload files, you can also remove one or more images selected for upload by using the 'Delete' link against each image or selecting more than one image using the check boxes provided in the first column and clicking the 'Delete selected' link in the bottom part of 'Add images' section. Once you have selected all the files for upload, click on 'Upload Files' to upload all the files.
To upload a zip file, create a zip file with all the images you want to upload. Make sure that you follow the naming conventions of prefixing all images with 'tp_' and all images are of format jpeg or gif. Do not re-upload any images you have uploaded through the steps #2 and #3. After creating the zip file, browse and select it through the 'Select the zip file' field in the Upload a zip file section and click on 'Upload zip'.
In both the cases, the maximum file size should not exceed 2 MB.
After your images are successfully uploaded without any errors, you are redirected to the next and the final step where you are asked to upload the home page, sub page and the style sheet.
5. Upload Home Page, Sub Page and Style Sheet.
This is the final step in uploading a template. In this section you need to upload the Home Page, Sub Page and the Style Sheet.
Each template will have two kinds of page layouts - Home and Sub. Home layout is the main layout and Sub layout can be used for the sub pages. These two pages are uploaded in this section. The style sheet page is used to control the appearance and behavior of the elements in your pages like text, links etc. The style sheet also must be uploaded in this section. While uploading these files also it should be noted that you stick to the naming conventions. Follow the on-screen instructions to upload the files.
Fig. 2.6.5
The home page must be named 'index.htm', sub page 'sub.htm' and style sheet 'style.css'.
In the 'Others' section you can set the Link type and link separator for home page and sub page. Link Type defines the way links will be displayed in the pages. It can have values 'Vertical' or 'Horizontal'. Link separator is used to separate the links displayed in the pages. It can be typically spaces ('&nbsp;') or even images. For eg. '&nbsp;|&nbsp;' creates a space and a vertical bar between each link created. If the link separator and link type for the sub page is same as the home page, check the 'Same as Index' check box.
Click on upload when you are done with selecting the files and entering the values.
When all your inputs are validated correctly, all the pages are uploaded and you get a successful message stating that your template has been created successfully.
Uploading Advanced Type Templates
Uploading Advanced Type templates is similar to the above one, with a very few changes. The steps are described using screen-shots and explanations are provided where it is different from Simple Type.
1. Select Category, Type and Display Thumbnail
Fig. 2.6.6
Same as Simple Type, but select 'Advanced' as Type of Template.
2. Upload Home Page Images
Same as the Simple Type. One difference you can find here is that you can upload gif or jpg images here. But the naming convention should be followed strictly as specified on the screen.
Fig. 2.6.7
3. Upload Sub Page Images
Same as the Simple Type. One difference you can find here is that you can upload gif or jpg images here. But the naming convention should be followed strictly as specified on the screen.
Fig. 2.6.8
4. Upload all other images
Same as the Simple Type
Fig. 2.6.9
5. Upload Home Page, Sub Page and Style Sheet.
Same as the Simple Type. One difference you can find here is that you dont have to define link types and link separators here. Users can directly create all the links using the advanced editor itself.
Fig. 2.6.10