Customization of Site

Hi,

I am a complete beginner to building a social network.  I'm eager to learn, but don't really know where to start.  I have a trial of DolphinPro right now and have selected the EVO template.  I want to understand how to make changes to the way the site looks.  I understand how to add the different blocks, but not how to change the appearance (font, color, background image etc).  Can anyone point me to a good place to get this information?  I'm eager to learn and want to understand what I'm doing.

Thanks,

Lynne

I would start with https://www.boonex.com/trac/dolphin/wiki/TutorialHowToPersonalizeYourDolphinSite 

Some of it good, some bad, some out of date.

Try installing the Site Customizer Module but please don't ask me how to use it? I tried it once and it was okay for a few changes, but now I do everything manually. That's a bit of a learning curve.

first off - here are a few key tips to remember. The Element Inspector is your best friend. By default, both chrome and firefox have this ability. To use it, right click anywhere on a webpage - you will get that little popup. Click on "Inspect Element" - this will open up a section - either below or to the right of your webpage - with a whole bunch of stuff.

Second - turn off all caches - in your site admin section - tools - cache - settings - uncheck everything and save.

Third - make a copy of the evo template and rename whatever you want. So, your folder should be something like tmpl_whatever. Then, in the classes/BxTemplName.php file - changeall instances of  "evo" to your new template name - be sure to follow capitalization.

OK - so why those three steps. Simple. When cache is on - it minimizes a lot of css coding and creates a cached css file. When viewing the element inspector - the name of the css file will not reflect the actual css file that is being used. So, you turn off all caches so that now the element inspector will show the exact page.

Usage of the element inspector is very powerful. You can edit the css of a website - any site for that matter - locally on your machine only. These edits do not affect the actual site itself, ut for developers, it allows to make changes and see what they will do without going through the whole make a change, save, upload, redo if not right - and on and on.

Now, with the caches turned off - you can use the element inspector to manipulate your site any way you want - then apply these changes to the appropriate css file.

So, lookup the element inspector and see how to use it - play around with it - nothing you do will affect anything. simply refresh the page to return everything back to normal.

@lynnemwest  First of all, WELCOME to this great community, you will love it here! Great people and not to mention Dolphin is one of the best Social Network Software on the market..

If you have the time and you want to learn how to use CSS, all the best to you. But just so you know, there are lots of cool templates on the market that are ready to be installed. They are very reasonable around $20-$60. In my case, it was worth spending few dollars so I could use the extra time wisely with my 12yr son rather than playing with CSS colors which can be very time consuming. One day, I had a wake up call when out of nowhere my son said to me: "Dad, you are always on the computer.." I really didn't know what just hit me.. So I stopped everything & said, lets go swimming.. then he replied -- really Dad 

In any case, here are some cool templates I myself used from @Gorpus. He is a great guy & helped me quite a lot:
https://www.boonex.com/gorpus 

Cheers,

It's amazing how so many responses on this forum turn to M O N E Y.  I'm sick of it! Can't we help each other for nix for pete's sake?

  This joint reminds me of a fence lined with vultures waiting to pounce. The answers are there, but too many people are so reluctant to share them.

  Many, many thanks to those of you who do!

DDD

Demmy's Daily Diary
  When I first discovered ELGG, I was so confused and so frustrated. Then I discovered a 400 page ebook that cost $5 on special and what an incredible difference that made. Within days I had an amazing Elgg site running and it's still there today. it's about 10 Elgg versions old, but it still works.

  Prior to that I was using Zen Cart which is nearly as complex as Dolphin. Then I discovered a $30 book called eStart your Web Store with Zen Cart and a week or so later I was up and running. That's where I learned about overrides, an undocumented feature Dolphin also uses.

  Sadly there is no such thing as "The Dolphin Book". If there were, Andrew would have my $50 now. However, this is a typical mistake most programmers make. They're so used to their own coding they say "Anyone can use my script - nobody needs instructions because it's so intuitive."

  Garbage! Fifty pages could be devoted to Profile Fields Manager alone and we'd still be asking questions.

  And then I ask: Why should anyone who pays $300-$400 for a script have to go to W3 Schools to learn how to make basic changes to annoying things that have been overlooked? That's the only reason I'm sticking with the free version.

  Then I refer to my favourite web design program WYSIWYGWebBuilder. For under $50 you get an endless responsive help routine and a 400 page user guide, not to mention 100 free modules (extensions) and another 300 free third party extensions. The business is probably smaller than Boonex, but sixty or so daily forum posts are answered by the company reps within hours. We're lucky we have AlexT, but what happens when he goes on leave?

  Finished.

There you go..... talking about M O N E Y.

$50?

The price is going up.... $5..... $30......

Off to write the book.

Will bring out a new one every time there's a fix to the previous version.

Will even sell it on Subscription..... just $12 a month.

Not everything is based around money - I personally have not ever charged anyone for any assistance I have provided - and HLs post did not reference any money either. But I will admit - his post is probably the most valuable one here. I personally did not look up coding for coding sake - but instead researched how Dolphin is coded and learned from there. There are a lot of people here willing to assist without charging anything - but also keep in mind, there are those trying to make some money - so you will see those posts as well.

I wasn't referring to @Houstonlively. I listen to his advice more that I reject it. I was referring to the the guy who recommended a 3rd party template. I've used HL's FREE template with great success but I'm not going to use it on my first Dolphin site. It's a great template and I do recommend it.  Unfortunately I hate the EVO method of showing sub-menus.

I realise a book costs money, but when it makes a difficult-to-use script easy as pie it has to be worth it even if it costs $100. For many people that's two or three hours labour, yet a good instruction manual can save hundreds of hours frustration and have the project online weeks, or months earlier. By having to learn CSS or PHP to make minor changes, the average person would lose interest rapidly.

I've posted this before. it's a chunk out of an article I'm preparing about running Dolphin on a home server. Although it's written with a home server in mind, it may still help.

Looking forward to the final book publication.

Michel on Meta-Travel.com

"I won't be writing any more until I get some sales!"

Just had to repeat it. I reckon it's the quote of the year.

So we buy a chapter at a time.

>Unfortunately I hate the EVO method of showing sub-menus.

I was beginning to think I was the only one who doesn't use EVO for that very reason. As challenging as it is for any site to garner traffic, to force users to learn a completely different way to accomplish the same thing doesn't seem like it would help reduce that challenge. While there will definitely be some individuals who are drawn to the novelty of trying to drive with a square steering wheel, most folks would prefer to use the familiar. 

 >I realise a book costs money, but when it makes a difficult-to-use script easy as pie it has to be worth it even if it costs $100. For many people that's two or three hours labour, yet a good instruction manual can save hundreds of hours frustration and have the project online weeks, or months earlier.

One could do quite well financially to make such an instruction manual available for purchase and keep it updated. Trying to glean usable information from former posts that (far too often) references outdated versions amounts to little more than "digital dumpster-diving" rather than informative research, IMO.

 Hi lynnemwest

I too am new to all this and am also using Evo. Not sure how much help I can be in comparison to the experts on here but if you look at my site you can see it looks nothing like the original template.

I installed and modified using the site customizer ....which once installed will show up on your members tool bar

I've attached a couple screen shots as a walk through. hopefully it helps.

Thanks!  That helped lots.

Canadianchildcare, thanks for that. I like what you have done with your site within the EVO environment. It is a look that I hope you won't mind us emulating. ;) 

I wanted to get away fro the block heavy look of my current site and toward something lighter and you have achieved that.

We will be upgrading to 7.3 over the next couple of weeks so I will be playing with a test-bed install to get the look right and your tips will be a big help!

Andrew.

 Just to add to @ProfessorSr useful post, the location of the file where you need to change the template name is :  templates/{your new template}/scripts/BxTemplName.php

And remember to change to your new template in the Admin panel.