Tutorial: Skinning your site

Not all the changes that take place here show up on the front page, but some are worth noting here when they happen.

For quite some time, I’ve been muttering that I needed to write up a real tutorial on how to create skinnable (or themed) websites. What I’d previously made available was seriously under-documented and, I think, had a few errors in the code.While walking Christine (of blahblahblog.com) through the process of making her site skinnable, I started making notes. By this morning, I’d amassed enough notes that I could no longer ignore the fact that I was sitting on a tutorial.

So, at last, here is a decent explanation of what it takes to really make a site thoroughly skinnable, plus some generous snips and bits of code to help smooth the transition. The explanations, plus code and suggestions on how to structure the back-end portion of your site, take up a whopping ten pages. Ouch. (I knew there was a reason I didn’t do this any earlier.)

I’m hoping this helps matters for the people who are thinking of skinning (or theming) their sites. I’d like to update the code a bit more—insert some stuff about deleting old cookies and perhaps fixing the (to me) clumsy way it redirects you once you’ve selected a new skin. That, for sure, is should be left for another day entirely.

Now, if I could just get the rest of the front flowerbeds weeded, I’d be ahead of my game.

Edmund’s been loving this; I do believe that cat has spent the entire day snoozing on my desk. Ever since we got home from dragon*con, he hasn’t wanted to be more than ten feet from me. He generally doesn’t want petting, doesn’t want to be cuddled—just wants to make sure that I’m not going to pull another five-day vanishing act again anytime soon.

For now, I think my karmic duty is to turn off the computer, sit on the couch, and scritch whichever cat shows interest in having his head scratched.

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