New template in Joomla 1.6 doesn't show up.

dizzi · Post by **dizzi** » Fri Jan 28, 2011 11:55 pm

@doolz

Arguablly the situation could have been handled differently with a bit more patience and tolerance but to describe the contribution of the others as "completely useless" and "stupid questions" is unproductive and borders on disrespectful as as well.

I am happy and thankful that this discussion highlighted a potentially frustrating issue and provided potential solutions.

Thanks jorhett, the team members and the other posters who chipped in with solutions and recommendations.

Regards

zexelon · Post by **zexelon** » Sat Jan 29, 2011 4:31 am

Done and done, I have proposed the idea on http://ideas.joomla.org hopefully people vote for it and this issue will not crop up for future users

bioblaster · Post by **bioblaster** » Fri Feb 04, 2011 6:21 pm

Oh my god.

Everyone just shut up. All this high horse bickering is annoying. There were many miscommunications which lead to 31 posts about nothing. This could of been solved in a few replies.

Jorhett, just move it to a different directory and install from that path. I chose the install from directory and pointed the extension manager there. I moved mine back to the joomla root in a folder called indigo. All I did was change the templateDetails.xml file. The name, creation date, website, author, and description name. I think as long as it has a unique name and folder name, it will copy.

Let me know if that works for you. If not, we'll find a different solution.

Dave

P.S. The discover option didn't work for me either.

P.S.S. I liked the older copy and paste method in Joomla 1.5. I'm sure there was reasoning for having it install through the extensions manager, just don't know why yet.

mcsmom · Post by **mcsmom** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 12:44 am

So that it gets into the extensions table and you can do automatic updates from the developer.

Terp · Post by **Terp** » Tue Feb 08, 2011 7:43 pm

zexelon wrote:Okay... for the record, allot of the posts in this thread are clearly by users who have been part of the development path for Joomla 1.6 and know everything about it... And yes, most of these reply's are rude and abusive...

I just spent the last 3 or 4 hours trying to figure out why my template was not being listed exactly as described above... I have since solved it, however it should be noted that the "Discover" method is seriously un-intuitive! If you cant have templates auto-discover as it did in 1.5 at least put a "Discover Templates" button in big bold letters ON the template page.

Take a chapter from the Apple OS/Windows 7 books on UI design, if it takes more the 2 or 3 clicks to perform a critical task, you have lost the user.

In any event, the solution is in this thread... its just a pain to find and overly abusive.

I couldn't agree more...and want the hour of my life back spent trying to merely clone a default template and play with it.

I feel like we are going backwards, but I'll keep playing with it to see if there is a method to the madness of not allowing us to copy a template directory, place it in the .../template folder, and having the new copy appear in the populated table of available templates.

Edit: Thanks. "So that it gets into the extensions table and you can do automatic updates from the developer."

I turned my cousin on to Joomla today and felt stupid having to explain how to copy the default template, so that me could modify stuff. I'll have to download the documentation and re-educate myself this weekend.

bioblaster · Post by **bioblaster** » Tue Feb 08, 2011 7:56 pm

I agree. Templates are probably the last thing people are worried about updating. I mean, isn't the point to get the site built to completion, getting all your modules, components, and content situated correctly. Making a cohesive design and proper functionality. All of which would probably have you modifying said template.

I wouldn't want it to auto update and have all my customization ruined. I was a big fan of the copy and paste folder option in 1.5. Just change a few settings in the XML file and you're golden.

Could we at least get the copy button to actually clone a template and prompt us for a new name? I think that would solve a lot of headache, no?

Dave

Terp · Post by **Terp** » Tue Feb 08, 2011 8:12 pm

bioblaster wrote:I agree. Templates are probably the last thing people are worried about updating. I mean, isn't the point to get the site built to completion, getting all your modules, components, and content situated correctly. Making a cohesive design and proper functionality. All of which would probably have you modifying said template.

I wouldn't want it to auto update and have all my customization ruined. I was a big fan of the copy and paste folder option in 1.5. Just change a few settings in the XML file and you're golden.

Could we at least get the copy button to actually clone a template and prompt us for a new name? I think that would solve a lot of headache, no?

Dave

I agree with you on all counts and assumed the 'duplicate template' would perform exactly what you outline...copies the template directory, saved in the .../tempalte folder, and we simply have to rename it.

...no auto-updating anything template related for this cat, either. Nothing worse than changing 300 lines of CSS and a myriad of php files, only to....well, you know.

mcsmom · Post by **mcsmom** » Wed Feb 09, 2011 3:15 am

What would be great is for you to code or fund someone to code a real copy complete templates button in the template manager. In the meantime though, definitely post that as an idea on
http://ideas.joomla.com.

bioblaster · Post by **bioblaster** » Wed Feb 09, 2011 3:33 am

Wow. There you guys go again being all unnecessarily sarcastic and glib. It's a valid request and a good one. The current way Joomla 1.6 is handling templates isn't ideal or very practical.

Joomla is great. I know it's great. I also know it's free. But if you're gonna add or change things, make them useful. You seem kind of sore when I make a comment on templates. Did you code that section? Am I criticizing your work? I apologize if your work is not the best it could be.

If my suggestion was dumb or outrageous, your sarcasm would be warranted.

It seems many a user has struggled with the new template section where they haven't before. Spending lots of unnecessary hours trying to get there theme to work. Nah, my suggestion is totally offbase and stupid. I hereby retract all my previous posts and comments.

Dave

mcsmom · Post by **mcsmom** » Wed Feb 09, 2011 3:51 am

It's not sarcastic or glib. I suggested that feature for 1.6 but no one coded it. Sadly it's beyond my skill level to code. But if you don't want it in 1.7 don't suggest it. Totally up to you, but feature goals will be set soon so now is the time to make suggestions.

Terp · Post by **Terp** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 1:41 pm

...another sad day for the Joomla community. It's comments like hers that keep so many away. I really tire of it, which is why I no longer troll the forums and help people...too many "moms" out there.

mcsmom · Post by **mcsmom** » Fri Feb 11, 2011 3:39 am

Comments encouraging people to make suggestions of things that they want for 1.7 discourage you? I find that very very strange.

thune · Post by **thune** » Fri Feb 11, 2011 7:27 am

Yes, me to. terp, what the hell is your problem? I think you've gone from helping to bullying and that's sad for the Joomla community.

dougald · Post by **dougald** » Fri Feb 11, 2011 7:06 pm

Hackwar, noob so I can't PM you, I hope you see this. I downloaded and extracted a template on a local file. Uploaded it to a directory I created on the remote server under Templates using WinSCP. Used the Extension Manager - Discover and it worked a treat.

Thanks for your help in posting.

Some of us appreciate the help.

Siddan · Post by **Siddan** » Wed Mar 16, 2011 1:05 pm

Hi

I was searching for this as I also had troubles copying an existing template and make my own changes. Doesn´t show up in the backend as it did in 1.5, which somone already mentioned in this thread.

So I tried the discover in Extension Manager: Install, after updating it found this new template and I installed it...but.... the language file seems to be absent as I only see the raw language code. You can see this when the template is installed as the discription is not translated and you can see it very clearly when you go edit your new template.
Viewing the xml file the paths to the language files are locally so it should be pointed correctly.

Anyone else seeing this and how do I correctly use the language files for this template?

-----
SOLVED
I luckily found this thread where it was asked and answered.
http://forum.joomla.org/viewtopic.php?f ... e#p2437585

aaanativearts · Post by **aaanativearts** » Sat Apr 02, 2011 7:36 pm

The Discover button does not "discover" anything for me. I have tried to discover numerous templates and extensions that won't install for me with the admin upload functions. So I uploaded the files to the appropriate directory with FTP and try to discover them and it says it can't find anything, although I can see the files there. Why does it have to discover stuff now? With Joomla 1.5 I could manually upload anything that wouldn't install with FTP , and that was it, it was done and it worked. Why is this Discover step necessary now?

I believe it may not work for me due to permissions problems, although I don't get any specific error message other than it can't find anything. Joomla does not recognize 755 as writable on my webhosting, so I have to change permissions to 777 and then change them back after installing something, but I am not clear what needs to be changed to install a template or extension.

I have tried setting the tmp folder and templates folder to 777 temporarily, but that doesn't seem to work.

thune · Post by **thune** » Sat Apr 02, 2011 7:47 pm

First you click on the discover tab and then the discover button on the top of the page (to the right).

aaanativearts · Post by **aaanativearts** » Sun Apr 03, 2011 11:59 pm

thune wrote:First you click on the discover tab and then the discover button on the top of the page (to the right).

I did that. It said there were no new files to discover, but I could see they were there with FTP.

mcsmom · Post by **mcsmom** » Tue Apr 12, 2011 2:57 am

Please take a screen shot of your directory showing the location of your files.

aaanativearts · Post by **aaanativearts** » Tue Apr 12, 2011 11:18 am

I figured out the problem, in my case. After I clicked on the language tab and set a language as default (en_GB was the only one installed, so I hadn't done that previously), now I can upload extensions and templates just fine. Go figure.

sgartner · Post by **sgartner** » Fri May 13, 2011 9:16 am

I had this same problem and I fought with it for some time (I spent the better part of an hour trying to figure out why my template couldn't be discovered). I think a significant amount of this confusion is in the text on the pages and on the buttons and links in the Extension Manager.

I figure that when you click on the "discover" tab, all you ever want to do is discover, right. So, why doesn't it just do the discover before displaying the tab? It is reasonable to expect that by hitting a button/link with a verb on it you are doing what the verb suggests.

Second, when you go to the discover tab you get the following text on the page:

No extensions have been discovered. Click Discover to find new extensions that might be available for install.

Well, I assumed (and clearly others did as well) that it was reporting the results of hitting the link "discover" and that it had attempted discovery and had not found anything (it is in the past tense, after all, not the future tense as you would expect if no discovery had been attempted). If you click on a verb and you get a "result" that says nothing was found, it's not unreasonable in the slightest to come to the assumption that something was done (or at least attempted).

The "update" tab has exactly the same problem. When you click on the "update" tab (another verb) you get text which gives the clear impression that an update check has been done (and why wasn't it?) saying "There are no updates available at the moment. Please check again later.", which to me implies that it just checked for updates ("at the moment") but that is not true, as with the discover tab above you have to hit a second button.

So, I think that there are a few bugs here:

First, the tabs should be changed to nouns ("update list", "discovered items", etc.) so that it is clear that these are not action links, but simply changing tabs.

Second, the default text on the tabs should never imply that work has been done when it has not. If there are no updates in the list, it should say, "Please click the 'update now' button to find updates." and "Please click the 'discover' button to discover new extensions.".

Third, when a person goes to the update tab or the discover tab, they are clearly looking to do one or the other function so the tabs should do those functions immediately and not wait for a wholly redundant button press. So, I would rename the buttons to be "Check Again" in both cases. IMO, there is no need to specify what is being checked for (I know what tab I'm on), but the buttons could mention what is being checked for.

scottialex · Post by **scottialex** » Thu May 19, 2011 2:18 am

Hi all, sorry to read all the sarcasm and arguing. I promise I'll refrain from wasting anymore of your time.

I am an XHTML, CSS and Adobe graphics expert, Mac & PC blah blah blah and I am just pulling my hair dealing with this same issue. I offered one of my clients to use Joomla so save up money and time since she wants a simple yet nice website. I found a free template for 1.6 that she already approved and I installed as the default. So now I want to update the bg image and some minor edits and I cant find the folder where my template is installed + it's my first time using Joomla! so it adds more confusion.

I read all the 51 replies and I swear I can't figure it out. I tried FTPing the folder to the /templates/ folder where I see "beez" "ja_purity" and "rhuk_milkyway", changed the <name>IyosisJ3</name> in the "templateDetails.xml" to match the folder where the site resides /templates/IyosisJ3/; clicked the "Discover" button but it wont find it. I tried "Purge Cache" but didn't do anything.
I also tried installing from a URL directly using http://www.......... pointing to the folder (not zip package) and got this error:
"Error connecting to the server: failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 404 Category not found Invalid URL"

I hope that at this point there is a somewhat straightforward solution and I hope I am doing something wrong here.

Thank you very much,
Alejandro (yeah yeah i know, ale ale alejandro...)

aaanativearts · Post by **aaanativearts** » Sun May 22, 2011 7:56 am

There are two discover links you have to click. First under Extensions->Extension Manager, click the tab button marked Discover. This takes you to a new screen. Then you have to click a second Blue Discover button in the upper right corner, and it should then discover the template you uploaded via ftp.

If it still doesn't discover the new template:
1)Check that the folder name the template resides in is all lower case letters. I've read in other threads that when the template is installed with the discover link, it changes the file location or name to lowercase. So if your template resides in /templates/SomeFile, change the name of that folder (and the name of the template in the templateDetails.xml file) to /templates/somefile.

2)If you can't upload any templates with the file uploader, check that the permissions on all your pertinent folders are 755 (or 777 if your web hosting doesn't give Joomla write permissions with 755 --but remember to change them back after you are done installing stuff, because 777 isn't safe). You can find out which folders need write permission by going to Site->System Information->Directory Permissions.

3)Make sure you have selected a default language. I don't know why that matters, but that fixed discovering templates for me.

aaanativearts · Post by **aaanativearts** » Sun May 22, 2011 8:05 am

Your background image is probably called in one of your css files or in the index.php file of your template. You can download the appropriate file and modify it on your local computer with whatever you use for an editor, then ftp it back up to your webhosting if you don't have the right permissions set to modify it in the Joomla administrator interface. You'll also need to upload your new bg image.

If you can't find the file folder where your bg image is called, you can hover your mouse on the background, then right click and choose save background to see what the image name is, then name the image you want to substitute the same name and upload it. Then you won't have to change the name in the file.

But you still have to "discover" your template folder before you can assign it as Default or to a particular set of pages.

scottialex · Post by **scottialex** » Sun May 22, 2011 2:55 pm

Thanks aaanativeearts, I tried all of that already. I also use the "Inspect" tool in Chrome to go to that line of code. I checked the CSS before I uploaded it because once it's up I can't find it anymore.
This is the CSS code:

body {
line-height:1.5;
background:url("../images/bg.jpg") no-repeat right top;
text-shadow:1px 1px 1px #fff;
}
All the image links refer to the images folder however when I go in there I don't see any of the files. I tried uploading my copy of the bg.jpg file into this folder, it copied without overwriting anything but the image wont get swapped.

As for your first reply, I followed your suggestion and nothing new happened. My folder name matches the XML file as follows, all lower-case;
<name>iyosisj3</name>

And I check the permissions, I am a super user and have access to everything.

=(

Alejandro

scottialex · Post by **scottialex** » Sun May 22, 2011 2:57 pm

Is it possible that my FTP permission won't allow me to see the template files?

Alejandro

scottialex · Post by **scottialex** » Mon May 23, 2011 1:39 am

It turns out that my client had provided me with an admin FTP user name and pass given to her by GoDaddy people to access the server and it seems I didn't have full privileges. I used her user name and pass and now I can see and modify the template that I uploaded via the install option using a ZIP package.

Thank you for the help,
Alejandro

k24 · Post by **k24** » Fri May 27, 2011 5:54 pm

It's amazing what we can get done when we stop jousting for mental supremacy.

Thanks to tabularjon and thune for actually providing an answer.

scottialex · Post by **scottialex** » Mon May 30, 2011 12:54 am

I decided to give up Joomla all together. For someone who knows XHTML, CSS and some Javascript it's really not very useful.

Thanks,
Alejandro

oldfart · Post by **oldfart** » Fri Jun 17, 2011 11:55 pm

I have read the full 2 pages of comment here so you can see how desperate I was. I'm making my first website and have found everybody's comments and advice on forums a life saver. This one has been the hardest in an otherwise steep learning curve. If I didn't have oodles of time I'd have chucked it all in. But I'm happy to have struggled with css which looked incomprehensible 3 weeks ago and my site is beginning yo look how I want it - up to a point as I'm fussy about visuals.

Wanting some pages to work with different modifications from the mods I've already made brought me to a halt: copied and renamed beez_20 to no avail, no show in the Template manager after eventual successful install in Extension manager. Replaced Beez name to the one I chose for the duplicate template in every instance in every file in its folder. Found the discover button which I wouldn't have looked for given the 'not found' message the tab threw up thanks to this forum. Purge cache seemed to be the answer and re-discover before the orange Install button would work. But it did in the end, i.e. hours after I'd started. So, thanks to you all. I can well understand the expletives even tho' they don't help. When giving advice, it seems to me think dummies and can they understand sometimes cryptic comments. Believe me, they can't. Plain, simple English every time, please.

Being able to create differences for just some page layouts in a site - such as inverse colour for text and background - seems important to me, so accessing a different template is, too. (At least that's the method I've adopted. Perhaps there's a better way.) I hope clear advice will emerge next stable issue of Joomla: this conversation shows the general need, I think.

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