[Koha-cvs] CVS: koha/koha-tmpl templates.readme,NONE,1.1.1.1.4.1

[Steve Tonnesen]

Update of /cvsroot/koha/koha/koha-tmpl
In directory usw-pr-cvs1:/tmp/cvs-serv10197

Added Files:
      Tag: rel-1-2
        templates.readme 
Log Message:
Adding template files to rel-1-2 branch


--- NEW FILE ---
This is a README-file for all interested in the templating system used by Koha.
It contains guidelines ans descriptions, please feel free to make comments and 
contributions to this file.
  
1. Introduction
  The advantage of a templating-system is the separation of code and design.
  It is much easier to read the html and get an imagination of what it will 
look like without having it shattered by declarations and functions.
  And it is also nicer being able to alter some functions without worrying 
about the webdesign.
  On the other hand templating stands in contradiction on scripting the 
procedural way, it forces obect-oriented programming.
  With templates Koha can be made fully skinnable, we speak of themes, and can 
support different languages.
  
2. How does it work
  The short version: Instead of printing html from your script you only define 
some template-parameters.
  You design your html-page without code in it and where you need to insert 
data generated by the script you can pass this data from the 
template-parameters via special tags.
  Indeed there is a little more to know.
  I recomend reading the documentation to the HTML::Template-module.
  You ca obtain it from http://www.perldoc.com/cpan/HTML/Template.html
  
3. How is it implemented in Koha
  Koha uses templates to handle different themes and languages.
  There is a CVS-module for the design-files: koha-tmpl.
  It contains two directories for the opac- and the intranet-templates: 
opac-tmpl and intranet-tmpl.
  Each of this directories reflects the available themes and their languages.
  The default theme is "default" and the default language is "en" (we use the 
2letter-abbreviations, en => english, fr => french, de => german and so on).
  If you for example want to write a template for the opac part of the 
"custommade"-theme in polish it has to go in 
koha-tmpl/opac-tmpl/custommade/pl/template.tmpl.
  The template-files will not reside in your webtree, if you want to use a 
image you have to put this in your webtree, which is organized the same way as 
the templatetree (koha-html/opac-html/custommade/pl/images/image.gif).
  If you have files (either templates or files in the webspace) which are the 
same for all themes or languages use the "all"-directory. For example the 
"background.jpg"-image, which is the same for all languages within a theme 
should go in 
koha-html/(intranet|opac)-html/custommade/all/images/background.jpg).
  
4. How to use it
  Simply add an entry to the systempreferences: name=theme, value=nameoftheme.
  If you want your users be able to override your theme-settings enter 
name=allowthemeoverride value=customtheme1,customtheme2,... (names of themes 
you want to be allowed) to the preferences.
  For the language you normally don't have to enter anything, the preferences 
of the user's browser will be used.
  If anything is wrong you can specify a languageorder with the following 
entry: name=languageorder value=en,fr,de,es (or whatever comma-separated 
languages you want)
  If you want to specify a directory for the templates you can do so in 
koha.conf with 'templatedirectory=younameit'.
  
5. Rules and hints
 5.1 for the templates
  -use absolut paths, relative paths in html-tags would be relative to the 
script's position and relative paths in <TMPL_INCLUDE> would be relative to the 
template.
  -you don't have to make templates for everything in your custom-theme or 
language. if you omit a template in a language the template of next available 
language is used (languages are tried in the order of the user's 
browser-settings). 
   if there is no template in the specified language in a theme a different 
language will be chosen and NOT a different theme.
   if you omit a template in all languages the template of the default-theme 
will be used.
  -include comments with useful information such as the template's location, 
this simplifies debugging
  -use the same name for the template and the script (with different extensions 
of course)
 5.2 for the scripts
  -use meaningfull english (abbreviations) as parameter-names
  -if you fetch a list of data, pass it completely and let the designer decide 
which data to use.
  -working with arrays and loops is always better, even if you have only three 
similar rows.
  -don't let the script generate html and pass the output to the template
  
6. Templating stuff in Koha
  This section is to describe scripts, modules and functions within them to 
handle with themes, languages and other templating stuff.
  If you write something which matches this, please add a brief description 
here (e.g. function calls and return values).
  -function %path = pathtotemplate(%hash) in C4::Output
   Takes a hash with the following keys:
    -template: the name of the template-file (e.g. 'mytemplate.tmpl')
    -type: 'opac', 'intranet', 'none' or something you specify, decides which 
directory to lookup, defaults to intranet
      -'opac': /somedirs/opac-tmpl/theme/language/template.tmpl
      -'interanet': /somedirs/intranet-tmpl/theme/language/template.tmpl
      -'none': /somedirs/theme/language/template.tmpl
      -'my own words': /somedirs/my own words/theme/language/template.tmpl
      somedirs is 1. the path-parameter if specified 2. the templatedirectory 
in koha.conf, 3. the includes + '/templates', 4. the includes
    -theme: you can manually set a theme (e.g. 'customtheme') only if 
'allowthemeoverride' in systempreferences is set
    -language: you can manually set a language (e.g. 'es')
    -path: you can manually set the path to search for templates (e.g. 
'/usr/koha/sometesttemplates')
    You only need to pass the last three parameters if you want to override the 
preferences for some reasons
   Returns:
    - $path{'path'}: the complete+absolute path of the template (e.g. 
'/somedirs.../opac-tmpl/customtheme/es/mytemplate.tmpl')
    - $path{'fondlanguage'}: '1' if the requested template was available in the 
requested language
    - $path{'fondtheme'}: '1' if the requested template was available in the 
requested theme
    
7. Links
  Do you have good links for the templater?
  The HTML::Template documentation: 
http://www.perldoc.com/cpan/HTML/Template.html
  
  
Comments to address@hidden
Dorian