1 Creating a New Skin: the Bare Minimum
2 =====================================
4 When you adopt the TPAC as your catalog, you must create a new skin. This
5 involves a combination of overriding template files and setting Apache
6 directives to control the look and feel of your customized TPAC.
10 There are a few Apache directives and environment variables of note for
11 customizing TPAC behavior. These directives should generally live within a
12 `<vhost>` section of your Apache configuration.
14 * `OILSWebDefaultLocale` specifies which locale to display when a user lands
15 on a page in the TPAC and has not chosen a different locale from the TPAC
16 locale picker. The following example shows the `fr_ca` locale being added
17 to the locale picker and being set as the default locale:
19 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
20 PerlAddVar OILSWebLocale "fr_ca"
21 PerlAddVar OILSWebLocale "/openils/var/data/locale/opac/fr-CA.po"
22 PerlAddVar OILSWebDefaultLocale "fr-CA"
23 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
25 * `physical_loc` is an Apache environment variable that sets the default
26 physical location, used for setting search scopes and determining the order
27 in which copies should be sorted. The following example demonstrates the
28 default physical location being set to library ID 104:
30 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
31 SetEnv physical_loc 104
32 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
36 When you install Evergreen, the TPAC templates include many placeholder images,
37 text, and links. You should override most of these to provide your users with a
38 custom experience that matches your library. Following is a list of templates
39 that include placeholder images, text, or links that you should override.
41 NOTE: All paths are relative to `/openils/var/templates/opac`
45 * `parts/config.tt2`: contains many configuration settings that affect the
46 behavior of the TPAC, including:
47 ** hiding the *Place Hold* button for available items
48 ** enabling RefWorks support for citation management
49 ** adding OpenURL resolution for electronic resources
50 ** enabling Google Analytics tracking for your TPAC
51 ** displaying the "Forgot your password?" prompt
52 ** controlling the size of cover art on the record details page
53 ** defining which facets to display, and in which order
54 ** controlling basic and advanced search options
55 ** controlling if the "Show More Details" button is visible or activated by
56 default in OPAC search results
57 ** hiding phone notification options (useful for libraries that do not do
59 ** disallowing password or e-mail changes (useful for libraries that use
60 centralized authentication or single sign-on systems)
61 ** displaying a maintenance message in the public catalog and KPAC (this is
62 controlled by the _ctx.maintenance_message_ variable)
63 ** displaying previews of books when available from Google Books. This is
64 controlled by the _ctx.google_books_preview_ variable, which is set to 0 by
65 default to protect the privacy of users who might not want to share their
66 browsing behavior with Google.
67 ** disabling the "Group Formats and Editions" search. This is controlled by
68 setting the metarecords.disabled variable to 1.
69 ** setting the default search to a 'Group Formats and Editions' search. This
70 is done by setting the search.metarecord_default variable to 1.
71 * `parts/footer.tt2` and `parts/topnav_links.tt2`: contains customizable
72 links. Defaults like 'Link 1' will not mean much to your users!
73 * `parts/homesearch.tt2`: holds the large Evergreen logo on the home page
74 of the TPAC. Substitute your library's logo, or if you are adventurous,
75 create a "most recently added items" carousel... and then share your
76 customization with the Evergreen community.
77 * `parts/topnav_logo.tt2`: holds the small Evergreen logo that appears on the
78 top left of every page in the TPAC. You will also want to remove or change
79 the target of the link that wraps the logo and leads to the
80 http://evergreen-ils.org[Evergreen site].
81 * `parts/login/form.tt2`: contains some assumptions about terminology and
82 examples that you might prefer to change to be more consistent with your own
83 site's existing practices. For example, you may not use 'PIN' at your library
84 because you want to encourage users to use a password that is more secure than
86 * `parts/login/help.tt2`: contains links that point to http://example.com,
87 images with text on them (which is not an acceptable practice for
88 accessibility reasons), and promises of answers to frequently asked questions
89 that might not exist at your site.
90 * \`parts/login/password_hint.tt2\`: contains a hint about your users' password
91 on first login that is misleading if your library does not set the initial
92 password for an account to the last four digits of the phone number associated
94 * `parts/myopac/main_refund_policy.tt2`: describes the policy for refunds for
96 * `parts/myopac/prefs_hints.tt2`: suggests that users should have a valid email
97 on file so they can receive courtesy and overdue notices. If your library
98 does not send out email notices, you should edit this to avoid misleading your
100 * `myopac/update_password_msg.tt2`: defines the password format that needs
101 to be used when setting a user password. If your Evergreen site has set
102 _Password format_ regex in the <<lse-global, Library Settings Editor>>, you
103 should update the language to describe the format that should be used.
104 * `password_reset.tt2`: in the msg_map section, you might want to change the
105 NOT_STRONG text that appears when the user tries to set a password that
106 does not match the required format. Ideally, this message will tell the user
107 how they should format the password.
108 * \`parts/css/fonts.tt2\`: defines the font sizes for the TPAC in terms of one
109 base font size, and all other sizes derived from that in percentages. The
110 default is 12 pixels, but http://goo.gl/WfNkE[some design sites] strongly
111 suggest a base font size of 16 pixels. Perhaps you want to try '1em' as a
112 base to respect your users' preferences. You only need to change one number
113 in this file if you want to experiment with different options for your users.
114 * `parts/css/colors.tt2`: chances are your library's official colors do not
115 match Evergreen's wall of dark green. This file defines the colors in use in
116 the standard Evergreen template. In theory you should be able to change just
117 a few colors and everything will work, but in practice you will need to
118 experiment to avoid light-gray-on-white low-contrast combinations.
120 The following are templates that are less frequently overridden, but some
121 libraries benefit from the added customization options.
123 * `parts/advanced/numeric.tt2`: defines the search options of the Advanced
124 Search > Numeric search. If you wanted to add a bib call number search option,
125 which is different from the item copy call number; you would add the following
126 code to `numeric.tt2`.
128 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
129 <option value="identifier|bibcn">[% l('Bib Call Number') %]</option>
130 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------