Is it okay to import 'controllers' into custom theme just like 'views'?

badlearner · March 2012

The documentation says that all application 'views' can be moved to a custom theme:

Master Views: These represent everything that wraps the main content of every page. If all you want to do is add a menu or banner above Vanilla, this is the only file you will need to alter. To do so, copy the default master view from /applications/dashboard/views/default.master.php to /themes/your_theme_name/views/default.master.php and edit it there.

Views: These represent all of the content in each page. Every application has a "views" folder that contains all of the html for every page. So, for example, if you wanted to edit the html for the discussion list, you could copy the views from /applications/vanilla/views/discussions to /themes/your_theme_name/views/discussions and edit them there.

Does this apply to the 'controllers' as well? For example, can I move /applications/dashboard/controllers/class.entrycontroller.php to /themes/[custom theme]/controllers/class.entrycontroller.php ? Is it going to work?

Hope to see someone knowledgeable clarify on this. Thanks.

x00 · March 2012

no, definitely not. This is bound to end in tears. This why you extend with

even with views, there is some risk of redundancy, and errors when you update becuase it could be referencing an object that is no longer used. However, generally it is ok if you are aware. This becuase view are supposed to be logic light. It should only to be to do with the direct display (however the line is quite grey, and it is not always possible).

x00 · March 2012

ok had a look at the voting plugin it is there

T('Follows')

look up locales in the documentation.

x00 · March 2012

http://vanillaforums.org/docs/localization

x00 · March 2012

in /locales/YourLocale/definitions.php

<?php if (!defined('APPLICATION')) exit();
$LocaleInfo['YourLocale'] = array (
  'Locale' => 'YourLocale',
  'Name' => 'Your Locale',
  'Description' => 'Your Locale',
  'Version' => '1.0.1b',
  'Author' => 'Your Name',
  'AuthorEmail' => 'your@email.com',
  'AuthorUrl' => 'http://vanillaforums.org/profile/yourname'
);
$Definition['Follows']='Stalkers';

then follow the instruction on how to enable. It si also a good idea to copy the definitions from forumtest/applications/dashboard/locale/en-CA/definitions.php to your locale.

peregrine · March 2012

Clear Documentation thanks.

An alternate way that was pointed out to me by @Lincoln.

http://vanillaforums.org/discussion/comment/155751#Comment_155751

If you are only changing a few definintions, you could modify the locale.php in the conf directory and just add these two lines. Don't know which is the preferred way.

# $Definition['Bookmark'] = 'Follow Discussion';
# $Definition['Unbookmark'] = 'Unfollow Discussion';

peregrine · March 2012

I was just going to write that "It probably will get overwritten in an upgrade"
I just make a copy of it and call it "updated-locale.ph" leaving off the letter in the extension, so it doesn't fire off or interfere with the main one.
Then I will go through the directories and look for update and diff the changes, after an upgrade.

Linc · March 2012

conf/locale.php is not distributed with Vanilla, so no, it will not get overridden.

Linc · March 2012

Missed this, sorry. You can safely ignore the conf/locale.php file when upgrading. I'm not sure why that's even in core.

x00 · March 2012

no, definitely not. This is bound to end in tears. This why you extend with

even with views, there is some risk of redundancy, and errors when you update becuase it could be referencing an object that is no longer used. However, generally it is ok if you are aware. This becuase view are supposed to be logic light. It should only to be to do with the direct display (however the line is quite grey, and it is not always possible).

badlearner · March 2012

Oh, okay. Here's the thing @x00 — I am trying to change the title attribute of the 'Follows' box added by ('Voting' plugin) from "Bookmark" and "Unbookmark" to "Follow Discussion" and "Unfollow Discussion" — the thing is, it's being changed by some JavaScript or Ajax function (aside from the PHP in a view file - for changes in real-time without browser refresh), which I am unable to find even using grep.

Can you try to help me with that?

x00 · March 2012

badlearner · March 2012

I never really had those in theme. it is definitely not javascript, on this site. have you tried setting the 'Follows' locale definition?

No. I don't know what that is. Can you try to be more clear? (locale definition? Where should I look for it?)

x00 · March 2012

ok had a look at the voting plugin it is there

T('Follows')

look up locales in the documentation.

x00 · March 2012

http://vanillaforums.org/docs/localization

badlearner · March 2012

@x00 : Yeah, looking right at it. I don't know how to code in PHP, but I hope my common sense helps, as it has so far.

badlearner · March 2012

@x00 : The documentation doesn't make sense to me at all — it isn't clear. Can you please explain to me in simple words (& if possible precisely) as to what I should do?

If you can't do the above (i.e. if what I asked is not easy to explain) I plan to follow this (but I hate to have to use yet another plugin on my site). Should I?

Using the Baseline Locale Addon

There is a Baseline Locale addon available in our addons repository that you can use to build your custom locale definitions. To Get Started:

download the Baseline Locale addon

Uncompress the archive, and rename the folder to a phrase with only alphanumeric characters (no spaces, dashes, etc). Example: "danish".

Open the definitions.php file, and update it with your information. Be sure to replace the 'LocaleKey' value (it is "Baseline" by default) with the same name you chose for the containing folder.

Open the captured.php and captured_admin.php files and replace the English definitions with the appropriate values for your language.

I am reading the documentation all over again though... just in case it starts to make sense all of a sudden.

x00 · March 2012

in /locales/YourLocale/definitions.php

<?php if (!defined('APPLICATION')) exit();
$LocaleInfo['YourLocale'] = array (
  'Locale' => 'YourLocale',
  'Name' => 'Your Locale',
  'Description' => 'Your Locale',
  'Version' => '1.0.1b',
  'Author' => 'Your Name',
  'AuthorEmail' => 'your@email.com',
  'AuthorUrl' => 'http://vanillaforums.org/profile/yourname'
);
$Definition['Follows']='Stalkers';

then follow the instruction on how to enable. It si also a good idea to copy the definitions from forumtest/applications/dashboard/locale/en-CA/definitions.php to your locale.

badlearner · March 2012

@x00 : Thanks a lot. The documentation is clear as well, I should have read it more carefully and slowly.

Let me see if I can pull it off — if I do, there'll be a very clear 'how-to' explanation here shortly for everyone else

And... It would be great if someone (who can) can add this to Vanillaforums.org's custom.css file:

pre, code {
white-space: pre-wrap;
}

badlearner · March 2012

I pulled it off! Here's the how-to for everyone as I promised...

[1] Go to /locales directory right inside your Vanilla forum's root directory.

[2] In /locales create a directory /MyLocaleChanges (name's your choice)

[3] Into /MyLocaleChanges upload a file named 'definitions.php' with the following content:

<? php if (!defined('APPLICATION')) exit();

$LocaleInfo['skeleton'] = array( // make sure the key of this array is the same as its folder name.
   'Locale'       => 'en-CA',
   'Name'         => 'Skeleton Locale',
   'Description'  => 'This is a skeleton of a locale pack. If you want to create your own locale pack copy and rename this folder into your locales folder.',
   'Version'      => '2.0.1',
   'Author'       => "Your Name",
   'AuthorEmail'  => 'Your Email',
   'AuthorUrl'    => 'http://your.domain.com',
   'License'      => 'Your choice of license'
);

$Definition['Bookmark'] = 'Follow Discussion';
$Definition['Unbookmark'] = 'Unfollow Discussion';

As you can see, the last two lines were added my me. Now, "Bookmark" gets translated to "Follow Discussion", and so on.

[4] Now go to Dashboard > Locales and enable 'My Locale Changes.'

[5] That's all, but the definitions in captured.php file in Baseline Locale Addon will be a good reference when you want to confirm if you are replacing the right term.

Hope I'm clear enough. Special thanks to @x00 !

peregrine · March 2012

Clear Documentation thanks.

An alternate way that was pointed out to me by @Lincoln.

http://vanillaforums.org/discussion/comment/155751#Comment_155751

If you are only changing a few definintions, you could modify the locale.php in the conf directory and just add these two lines. Don't know which is the preferred way.

# $Definition['Bookmark'] = 'Follow Discussion';
# $Definition['Unbookmark'] = 'Unfollow Discussion';

badlearner · March 2012

Thanks @peregrine that'll help. But do you know if the custom definitions in locale.php get overridden when Vanilla is updated?

peregrine · March 2012

I was just going to write that "It probably will get overwritten in an upgrade"
I just make a copy of it and call it "updated-locale.ph" leaving off the letter in the extension, so it doesn't fire off or interfere with the main one.
Then I will go through the directories and look for update and diff the changes, after an upgrade.

badlearner · March 2012

@peregrine : Nice suggestion. It's always good to have a choice. Thanks!

(Well, as you can see, this question has hell a lot of answers!)

peregrine · March 2012

also, if the definitions don't seem to take effect after changes to locales

I believe deleting the /cache/locale_map.ini file will fix the problem.

I am just a novice at this, and I would certainly defer to the suggestions by the experts.

badlearner · March 2012

Yep. I read that here just before wrote.

Linc · March 2012

conf/locale.php is not distributed with Vanilla, so no, it will not get overridden.

badlearner · March 2012

@Lincoln : Thanks for the tip!

@peregrine : Just wanted to let you know (see Lincoln's comment).

peregrine · March 2012

@Lincoln replied

conf/locale.php is not distributed with Vanilla, so no, it will not get overridden.

If I look at vanilla-core-2-0-18-3.zip, I can see conf/locale.php inside. Wouldn't this mean it would be overwritten or am I missing something?

Is it okay to import 'controllers' into custom theme just like 'views'?

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