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About themes
The theme is a set of styles, images, and layouts that describe the end-user interface of a Telligent Internet-based internal or external community. A theme itself consists of script files, cascading style sheet (CSS) files, images, and a theme configuration XML (as well as any changes to the generic page layout and widget placement).
The default theme and its framework have been designed with customization in mind - whether you want to make changes that don't require developer knowledge ,or to make large-scale tweaks as a developer in order to meet precise specifications. Themes can be customized with changes ranging from very simple appearance changes to rewritten widget code.
Our themes are completely portable and customizable for your community's experience. The theme is stored in / filestorage.
If you are upgrading or have upgraded your previous Telligent site to Telligent Community Server 9.0, release 9.0 will add the Social theme to your theme choices; however, after an upgrade your pre-existing theme will remain in use on the site. (Social won't be forced onto the site.)
Theme components
The widgets that appear throughout a theme are divided into three distinctive types:
- Header widgets
- Footer widgets
- Content widgets
Header, footer and content widgets
The header widgets are configured through the user interface in Community Server and appear in the Management panel to the left of the configurable content area. A footer widget is similar to a header widget in that it is configured in the interface, but it renders below the body area of your site. All other content widgets appear within the body area which is configurable using the Management panel.
Configuration articles for each widget are located in Widget configuration procedures.
Standard markup
All Community Server headers, footers, and content presentations included in the release are implemented using widgets. Widget code can be customized in the Widget Studio with alternative HTML, CSS, and behavior. Our widgets generally follow this Style/Markup guide.
Cascading style sheets (CSS)
All style and image inclusions in Social's application themes are defined using CSS. This treatment enables you to customize the theme without editing its base styles. The standard markup supports CSS targeting, enabling generic and specific styling. The default Social theme supports adding custom CSS styling rules through the theme's configuration page in the Management panel (Manage Site Theme > Edit this theme > Custom Styles).
Theme design
Social theme
When setting up Community Server 9.0 as a fresh install, the package implements the Social theme. This theme contains modern, flat design elements like the following screen capture:
Social
Additional themes present in upgraded sites - Enterprise or Fiji
If you have upgraded to Telligent Community Server 9.0 from either Telligent Community or Telligent Enterprise, you will still see your pre-existing site theme applied after the upgrade process is complete, looking similar to the way it previously looked. The following screen shots are for reference to Fiji and Enterprise.
Fiji:
Theme types
There are four types of theme contained within the theme: site, group, blog, and user (which is contained in the site theme).
The site theme includes all site-level pages such as login or the site home page. The group theme includes all group-related pages and application pages for forums, media galleries, and wikis. The blog theme includes the current context blog. The user theme includes only the user's home page.
Editing a theme
The following lists tell you where to access site, group, and blog themes for management or editing.
If the administrator has enabled user home page editing:
- Site home page - User theme
- Group home page - Group theme
- Blog home page - Blog theme
- Other application home pages - Group theme
- Profile page - Site theme
If the administrator has not enabled user home page editing:
- Site home page - Site theme
- Group home page - Group theme
- Blog home page - Blog theme
- Other application home pages - Group theme
- Profile page - Site theme