TWiki Skins

Skins overlay regular templates with alternate header/footer layouts; topic text is not affected

Overview

Skins are customized TWikiTemplates files. You can use skins to change the look of a TWiki topic, for example, the layout of the header and footer. Rendered text between header and footer does not change. You can also use skins to define an alternate view, like a view optimized for printing.

Defining Skins

Skin files are located in the twiki/templates directory and are named with the syntax: <scriptname>.<skin>.tmpl. For example, the Printable skin for the view template is view.print.tmpl.

Use the existing TWikiTemplates (like view.tmpl) or skin files as a base for your own skin, name it for example view.myskin.tmpl.

Variables in Skins

You can use template variables, TWikiVariables, and other predefined variables to compose your skins. Some commonly used variables in skins:

Variable:	Expanded to:
%WIKILOGOURL%	Link of page logo
%WIKILOGOIMG%	Image URL of page logo
%WIKILOGOALT%	Alt text of page logo
%WEBBGCOLOR%	Web specific background color, defined in the WebPreferences
%WIKITOOLNAME%	The name of your TWiki site
%SCRIPTURL%	The script URL of TWiki
%SCRIPTSUFFIX%	The script suffix, ex: .pl, .cgi
%WEB%	The name of the current web. Note: It is recommended to URL-encode the variable in form actions with %INTURLENCODE{"%WEB%"}% for proper handling in an internationalized environment
%TOPIC%	The name of the current topic. Note: It is recommended to URL-encode the variable in form actions with %INTURLENCODE{"%TOPIC%"}% for proper handling in an internationalized environment
%WEBTOPICLIST%	Common links of current web, defined in the WebPreferences. It includes a #GoBox
%TEXT%	The topic text, e.g. the content that can be edited
%META{"form"}%	TWikiForm, if any
%META{"attachments"}%	FileAttachment table
%META{"parent"}%	The topic parent
%EDITTOPIC%	Edit link
%REVTITLE%	The revision title, if any, ex: (r1.6)
%REVINFO%	Revision info, ex: r1.6 - 24 Dec 2002 - 08:12 GMT - TWikiGuest
%WEBCOPYRIGHT%	Copyright notice, defined in the WebPreferences
%BROADCASTMESSAGE%	Broadcast message at the beginning of your view template, can be used to alert users of scheduled downtimes; is defined in TWikiPreferences

The "Go" Box and Navigation Box

The %WEBTOPICLIST% includes a "Go" box to jump to a topic. The box also understand URLs, e.g. you can type http://www.google.com/ to jump to an external web site. The feature is handy if you build a skin that has a select box of frequently used links, like Intranet home, employee database, sales database and such. A little JavaScript gets into action on the onSelect method of the select tag to fill the selected URL into the "Go" box field, then submits the form.

Here is an example form that has a select box and the "Go" box for illustration purposes. You need to have JavaScript enabled for this to work:

Navigate... Intranet home Employee index Main web TWiki web Google Yahoo! Bare bones header for demo only

Welcome | Register | Changes | Topics | Index | Search | Go

Packaging and Publishing Skins

See TWiki:Plugins/SkinPackagingHowTo and TWiki:Plugins/SkinDeveloperFAQ

Activating Skins

A skin can be activated in two ways:

• Define the SKIN Preference variable in TWikiPreferences, one of the WebPreferences, or in a user - TWikiGuest - topic.
  • Set SKIN = print

• Add ?skin=name to the URL, for this example:
  • http://www.clausbrod.de/TWiki/TWikiSkins?skin=print (for the print view skin)
  • http://www.clausbrod.de/TWiki/TWikiSkins?skin=plain (for the plain view skin that has no header and footer)

The ?skin=name URL parameter overrides the SKIN Preference value.

-- PeterThoeny - 05 Jan 2003