History: Using Site Look and Feel Features

The quickest way to customize a Tiki site is to use its built-in "Look and Feel" features. While not "theme-making" in the full sense, this is described here because it is related and might be used in conjunction with other aspects of site design.

The Look and Feel features help an admin to simplify the customization process of his/her site. Instead of manually hacking the code of the template (*.tpl) files, you can have your own Site Header area with Site Logo and more optional elements set up directly from TikiWiki Admin section. Site identity was introduced in Tiki 1.9, and as of Tiki 3.0 it is no longer an option, but is an integral part of Tiki. Now the "site identity" features are each optional individually.

The various features that contribute to the site identity can be enabled by at the Admin -> (Admin Home ->) Look and Feel page (tiki-admin.php?page=look).

As of Tiki 3.0, you can:

• Theme
  • select the site's default theme
  • select a theme option (variation of the main theme) if available
• General Layout
  • enable additional layout layers for styling (this checkbox activates additional divs around page parts such as module boxes, columns, etc.)
  • input and activate html or Smarty code for a custom page header
  • specify a site logo and/or site title and subtitle
  • indicate whether to place the logo/titles left, center, or right
  • activate a site search bar
  • activate a site menu bar and specify which menu to use
  • input and activate html or Smarty code to display just below the menu but above the page columns
  • specify page column display (can be set by admin or allow visitors to switch side columns on and off)
  • activate a breadcrumbs trail (currently not very useful)
  • input and activate html or Smarty code for a custom site footer area (displays below page columns but above the default footer)
  • turn on or off the "bottom bar" that holds rss feed icons, etc.
  • input and activate custom code for the end of the page (mostly for non-displaying analytics code, etc.)
• UI Effects
  • JQuery Tooltips
  • JQuery Autocomplete
  • JQuery Superfish
  • JQuery Reflection
  • JQuery Cycle (slideshow)

These are the options specifically on the Look and Feel admin page in Tiki 3.0 (though this list is not complete; some more minor items were left out to keep things simple). Other admin pages are also related to visual aspects of the site, such as the Theme Manager (controls application of themes per feature, per page, etc.)

This is the admin interface at "Admin -> (Admin Home ->) Site Identity". (Note that this is an old screenshot and needs to be updated for Tiki 3.0, but you get the idea.)

• Enhance visual identity and distinguish Tiki-powered sites from others.
• Easy customization of the site header, footer and possibly other common shared elements displayed on every page across the site.

Please go to:
http://demo.opensourcecms.com/tiki/
user: admin
password: demo

Then go to the Look and Feel admin panel:
http://demo.opensourcecms.com/tiki/tiki-admin.php?page=look