Using the template system

[woochoo]

Making room for a new template:

To make a new spot for a template on your server, before doing it in the admin, you need to create a new folder in the "templates/" folder. It is probably a good idea to name it something that will make it easy to remember what template is in it. It is also recommended to copy all the files and folders from "templates/default/" to your new folder and just edit those files by replacing the default template HTML with your new templates HTML.

Files required for a new template:

The template system allows you to change from one template to another with the click of your mouse. To make sure each template works with the main script files all templates should have the following files:

- inc/func.php
- inc/game-list.php
- inc/home-page.php
- inc/pre-game.php
- inc/play-game.php
- templates/layout.html
- templates/404.html
- templates/add-plugs.html
- templates/custom-page.html
- templates/contact-submitted.html (if you have a contact form on your site)
- templates/links.html
- templates/trade-signup.html
- templates/trade-stats.html
- templates/trade-submitted.html

Secretly testing a new template:

With ATS you can upload and test a new template on your site without anyone knowing or seeing the template your testing. All you have to do is upload the files to a folder inside the "templates/" folder on your site then login to your admin and add the template from the "Templates" page. There will be a link for each template under the "Options" column that says  "Test." Clicking this will send you to your sites home page where it will display the template you decided to test. It only shows this for you. For every other visitor the site will display the template you set as your sites default from the Configuration page. This way you can be 100% sure your new template works perfectly before letting it go live to to public.

If you let users select the template they want to see your site in then make sure to set the "Status" of any unfinished templates to "Not a choice for users" so they can't choose that template.

Letting your visitors choose the template:

You are capable of uploading any number of templates you want and letting your visitors choose from a drop down list which one they want to view your site in. If a you ever delete a template or remove it from the list of templates that users can choose from ATS will revert them all back to the default you chose. Every 24 hours ATS checks the templates for each users that is not using the site default and it it no longer exists or is no longer selectable it clears their chose and reverts them back to your default.