68 Classifieds Basic Structure for Design Part 1
Overview and getting setup
The purpose of this entry, is to cover the basic structure for newcomers to the 68 Classifieds software script. This is part one of an ongoing series of articles which will follow. When I first purchased 68 Classifieds it was a 3.x version. It has worked very well for me and I use it for my local community website. The latest “released” version is now at V4.0.9. It is this version that all of my released templates are designed for.
If you are new to 68 Classifieds and you already know at least basic HTML/XHTML and CSS, then you’ll enjoy working with the 68 Classifieds structure. If you are not familiar with HTML/XHTML and CSS, then I would highly recommend that you familiarize yourself with at least the basics of these web technologies. I personally recommend visiting W3 Schools and go through these classes. It doesn’t take long to do this and will help you immensely in trying to make your site all that it can be.
In my opinion, one of the best features of the 68 Classifieds software is the way that they separate function from design. This is done in three ways, First is the fact that they use XHTML.That in of itself warrants the use of CSS for design/layout and keeping the HTML separate. Second is the use of Smarty. Smarty is a template system. The third is that 68 uses their own template files in conjunction with the Smarty system. All of the 68 template files are within your template folder and each of them are named with the extension of “.tpl”.
So regardless of whether you purchased the Developers or the Designers edition of the 68 Classifieds software script, working with the design/layout confines you to one folder of files. That is the template folder and the files within it.
Before you delve into modifying your site, you should do a few things first. Backup! I can’t stress this enough. I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve seen postings from people that have changed things and completely screwed up their site. They can’t put it back the way it was, because they didn’t make a backup.
Here’s what I recommend for a backup strategy. Once you have downloaded and unzipped your 68 Classifieds script, make a copy of it and ONLY use the copy! This way you will always have your original download that is unmolested by anyone. Secondly, if you are going to make any changes which you WILL make a complete copy of the default template folder. This folder is located here:
your68site/templates/default (you can use the “purple” folder if you like that one better)
Name your copy of the default template folder accordingly and keep it in the templates folder. For the purpose of these articles I will call this template folder “custom”. You should now have these folders in your templates folder:
default, purple, custom
Once you have custom folder in the templates folder on your server, you can select that template from your admin. Log in to your admin and go to your settings/settings/main settings. In that window, scroll down a little over half way and select custom (or whatever you named your custom template folder) from the pull down menu for Site Template. (These instructions are for the 4.0.x versions of 68 Classifieds).
Now your 68 Classifieds website is set to use “custom” and you are ready to go to work on customizing your template to your heart’s desire.
-Mike-N-Tosh™
To go to the next part click here: Part 2
