Using MADCAT's Templating/Skinning System

As of version 1.6, MADCAT's original templating system has been extended to a slightly more extensive skinning system. This allows you to "add on" your own template/skin ideas without overwriting MADCAT's default files. It also allows me to update MADCAT's included CSS definitions without overwriting your own. It also allows you to easily try out multiple designs and swap between the two easily.

Files and Directories

All templates/skins now reside in the "skins" directory (though the name of it can be changed in config.php).

With the default installation, inside the skins directory you'll see two directories, "default" and "simple". These hold the same old default and simple templates from before. You'll also now see 'madcat.css' in the skins directory. This replaces the previous style.css file that was in the root MADCAT directory. This file contains all of the CSS classes that are referred to in the standard MADCAT files.

If you look inside the default directory you'll see a regular template.php file that is the same as in previous MADCATs. There is also a style.css file, but it's empty (because the default skin does not change the look of MADCAT, it just adds a template). If you look in the simple directory there is just the same old simple template from before, and no .css file at all. If you don't wish to make any CSS changes, there is no need to have an empty style.css file there (I included it in the default directory to show people where to put their custom .css file).

How to Create a Skin

A skin is made up of two components: a template (which hasn't changed from previous MADCATs) and a custom style.css file. Create a directory inside the skins directory to house your skin.

The Template
You create your template as before in a file called template.php. You're going to need to know HTML to have any real success at this.

The Custom CSS File
Because of the way CSS works, you can create your own class styles in a file called style.css inside your skin directory, and these styles will overwrite the default ones in madcat.css. You do not need to have your own definition for every CSS class. If you just want to change a few things, those are the only ones that need go in your .css file. If you have no idea what CSS is, or how to work with it, I suggest you hit up one of the myriad CSS tutorials the 'net has to offer.

Making Your Skin Show Up

The skin that is used for MADCAT is specified in the URL. If your skin is in a directory called "myskin" you can add "&skin=myskin" at the end of any of the URLs that you are looking at. (if there is no ? in the URL already, add
"?skin=myskin" instead)

But, I Want My Skin To Show Up All The Time!
Of course you do! Go into config.php and scoll to the "MADCAT Skin Configuration" section. Change this line:

$Default_Skin = "default"; // directory name of default skin

To this:

$Default_Skin = "myskin"; // directory name of default skin

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