Item1284: Using custom FOSWIKI_COLORS_URL in SitePreferences leads to 404 for several images

When using e.g. (commented the setting just here as otherwise it would break the colors of this topic which looks intersting ):

   * Pattern Skin is customized to Local corporative identity.
      * #Set FOSWIKI_COLORS_URL = %PUBURLPATH%/Main/LocalSkinCustomization/Local_Colors.css

then the following picture files are not found (404 error) if not present in LocalSkinCustomization. Those pictures had to be copied over manually from foswiki/pub/System/PatternSkin.

-rw-r--r-- 1 www-data www-data 1106 2009-02-17 16:27 bg_buttoncancel_gradient.gif
-rw-r--r-- 1 www-data www-data 1490 2009-02-17 16:27 bg_button_gradient.gif
-rw-r--r-- 1 www-data www-data 1533 2009-02-17 16:27 bg_submit_gradient.gif
-rw-r--r-- 1 www-data www-data  281 2009-02-17 16:27 bullet-lock.gif
-rw-r--r-- 1 www-data www-data   51 2009-02-17 16:27 bullet-personal_sidebar.gif
-rw-r--r-- 1 www-data www-data   54 2009-02-17 16:27 bullet-toc.gif
-rw-r--r-- 1 www-data www-data 1297 2009-02-17 16:27 button_arrow.gif
-rw-r--r-- 1 www-data www-data  831 2009-02-17 16:27 button_font_selector.gif

I don't think this is what should happen when just defining FOSWIKI_COLORS_URL with a customized .css file (unless we may have misunderstood something).

-- IngoKappler - 14 Mar 2009

Assigning to PatternSkin

Agree - not release blocker but OK to fix it naturally.

Please never use SomethingElse for "AppliesTo". That is a dark hole where people look with a flashlight once per year. In fact I hate that we have that category. All bugs in the Foswiki software are either "Engine" or "Extension". And when it is an Extension the name of the Extension spelled right must be added to the Component field. For engine bugs the Component field can be considered a free text information field.

-- KennethLavrsen - 14 Mar 2009

Ingo, how would you do it?

-- ArthurClemens - 14 Mar 2009

My quick idea would be to look for something like skin and then providing the name for the skin, similar to what we do already for the extensions. I didn't think about the skin to be kind of extension.

-- IngoKappler - 14 Mar 2009

I mean, how would you work with the color settings and images?

-- ArthurClemens - 14 Mar 2009

Well, regarding the colors I'd expect behind a macro (variable) named FOSWIKI_COLORS_URL nothing more than color settings or the referred colors.css (only colors no images). But I understood this also appears to be your understanding.

I don't know if there is something like e.g. a FOSWIKI_IMAGE_DIR that could be customized in the same way like the colors. If that would exist great, then people could set it and throw in the images they customized just using the same names as for the default images in the default directory. I am not sure if that mechanism could be a bit to rough but sounds pretty simple. Maybe some people would like to replace images by using exact new and different names, so possibly a second mechanism could be offered were one can define a setting by specifying what default image name to replace by what custom image name. I'd think of only one macro here that might cover all images by just repeating it for each image (e.g. %FOSWIKI_CUST_IMAGE{defname="main.gif" custname="/path/to/custom_name.gif"}% ).

Just my 2 cent.

(Slightly off topic: My personal bigger issue is that we have different skins which are not just different skins (colors, images, fonts, etc.) but also different functionality and different technical implementation. In the long run there should be one main skin that will be the official base for everything so everybody can build on top of it and functionality must be independet from that skin).

-- IngoKappler - 14 Mar 2009

With a static CSS file, the directory paths contained within are fixed and cannot be set using a variable. (Now a wiki page with an appropriate skin could be used to dynamically generate a CSS file, but it would slow down the server for every access.) If the CSS file for your customized skin refers to any other files (such as graphic files), it needs to use a path relative to its location or an absolute path. I don't believe this is a bug per se; if you create your own customized skin, it has to use appropriate paths.

As I understand it, there are plans to make NatSkin the default skin, as it provides more avenues for customizations.

-- IsaacLin - 14 Mar 2009

The following pictures are defined in Local_Colors.css and as stated by Isaac we didn't adjust the paths there while the default paths expects all those pictures in the same directory where this Local_Colors.css is located.

# grep gif Local_Colors.css
   background-image:url(bullet-toc.gif);
   background-image:url(bg_submit_gradient.gif);
   background-image:url(bg_button_gradient.gif);
   background-image:url(bg_button_gradient.gif);
   background-image:url(bg_buttoncancel_gradient.gif);
   background-image:url(bg_button_gradient.gif);
   background-image:url(button_font_selector.gif);
   background-image:url(button_arrow.gif);
   background-image:url(background_alert.gif);
   background-image:url(bullet-personal_sidebar.gif);
   background-image:url(bullet-lock.gif);
   background-image:url(bullet-lock.gif);

So this is deeper customization than just changing some colors and moving the file to a new location and we just did half of what is required.

I now also retested this "fix" successfully:

# grep gif Local_Colors.css
   background-image:url(../../System/PatternSkin/bullet-toc.gif);
   background-image:url(../../System/PatternSkin/bg_submit_gradient.gif);
   background-image:url(../../System/PatternSkin/bg_button_gradient.gif);
   background-image:url(../../System/PatternSkin/bg_button_gradient.gif);
   background-image:url(../../System/PatternSkin/bg_buttoncancel_gradient.gif);
   background-image:url(../../System/PatternSkin/bg_button_gradient.gif);
   background-image:url(../../System/PatternSkin/button_font_selector.gif);
   background-image:url(../../System/PatternSkin/button_arrow.gif);
   background-image:url(../../System/PatternSkin/background_alert.gif);
   background-image:url(../../System/PatternSkin/bullet-personal_sidebar.gif);
   background-image:url(../../System/PatternSkin/bullet-lock.gif);
   background-image:url(../../System/PatternSkin/bullet-lock.gif);

Should this change be better documented somewhere or did we miss something?

-- IngoKappler - 16 Mar 2009

Feel free to close if considered ready.

-- IngoKappler - 17 Mar 2009

Closing based on agreement with originator. -- IsaacLin - 17 Mar 2009