1 Creating a New Skin: the Bare Minimum
2 =====================================
7 When you adopt the TPAC as your catalog, you must create a new skin. This
8 involves a combination of overriding template files and setting Apache
9 directives to control the look and feel of your customized TPAC.
13 There are a few Apache directives and environment variables of note for
14 customizing TPAC behavior. These directives should generally live within a
15 `<vhost>` section of your Apache configuration.
17 * `OILSWebDefaultLocale` specifies which locale to display when a user lands
18 on a page in the TPAC and has not chosen a different locale from the TPAC
19 locale picker. The following example shows the `fr_ca` locale being added
20 to the locale picker and being set as the default locale:
22 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
23 PerlAddVar OILSWebLocale "fr_ca"
24 PerlAddVar OILSWebLocale "/openils/var/data/locale/opac/fr-CA.po"
25 PerlAddVar OILSWebDefaultLocale "fr-CA"
26 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
28 * `physical_loc` is an Apache environment variable that sets the default
29 physical location, used for setting search scopes and determining the order
30 in which copies should be sorted. The following example demonstrates the
31 default physical location being set to library ID 104:
33 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
34 SetEnv physical_loc 104
35 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
39 When you install Evergreen, the TPAC templates include many placeholder images,
40 text, and links. You should override most of these to provide your users with a
41 custom experience that matches your library. Following is a list of templates
42 that include placeholder images, text, or links that you should override.
44 NOTE: All paths are relative to `/openils/var/templates/opac`
48 * `parts/config.tt2`: contains many configuration settings that affect the
49 behavior of the TPAC, including:
50 ** hiding the *Place Hold* button for available items
51 ** enabling RefWorks support for citation management
52 ** adding OpenURL resolution for electronic resources
53 ** enabling Google Analytics tracking for your TPAC
54 ** displaying the "Forgot your password?" prompt
55 ** controlling the size of cover art on the record details page
56 ** defining which facets to display, and in which order
57 ** controlling basic and advanced search options
58 ** controlling if the "Show More Details" button is visible or activated by
59 default in OPAC search results
60 ** hiding phone notification options (useful for libraries that do not do
62 ** disallowing password or e-mail changes (useful for libraries that use
63 centralized authentication or single sign-on systems)
64 ** displaying a maintenance message in the public catalog and KPAC (this is
65 controlled by the _ctx.maintenance_message_ variable)
66 ** displaying previews of books when available from Google Books. This is
67 controlled by the _ctx.google_books_preview_ variable, which is set to 0 by
68 default to protect the privacy of users who might not want to share their
69 browsing behavior with Google.
70 ** disabling the "Group Formats and Editions" search. This is controlled by
71 setting the metarecords.disabled variable to 1.
72 ** setting the default search to a 'Group Formats and Editions' search. This
73 is done by setting the search.metarecord_default variable to 1.
74 * `parts/footer.tt2` and `parts/topnav_links.tt2`: contains customizable
75 links. Defaults like 'Link 1' will not mean much to your users!
76 * `parts/homesearch.tt2`: holds the large Evergreen logo on the home page
77 of the TPAC. Substitute your library's logo, or if you are adventurous,
78 create a "most recently added items" carousel... and then share your
79 customization with the Evergreen community.
80 * `parts/topnav_logo.tt2`: holds the small Evergreen logo that appears on the
81 top left of every page in the TPAC. You will also want to remove or change
82 the target of the link that wraps the logo and leads to the
83 http://evergreen-ils.org[Evergreen site].
84 * `parts/login/form.tt2`: contains some assumptions about terminology and
85 examples that you might prefer to change to be more consistent with your own
86 site's existing practices. For example, you may not use 'PIN' at your library
87 because you want to encourage users to use a password that is more secure than
89 * `parts/login/help.tt2`: contains links that point to http://example.com,
90 images with text on them (which is not an acceptable practice for
91 accessibility reasons), and promises of answers to frequently asked questions
92 that might not exist at your site.
93 * \`parts/login/password_hint.tt2\`: contains a hint about your users' password
94 on first login that is misleading if your library does not set the initial
95 password for an account to the last four digits of the phone number associated
97 * `parts/myopac/main_refund_policy.tt2`: describes the policy for refunds for
99 * `parts/myopac/prefs_hints.tt2`: suggests that users should have a valid email
100 on file so they can receive courtesy and overdue notices. If your library
101 does not send out email notices, you should edit this to avoid misleading your
103 * `myopac/update_password_msg.tt2`: defines the password format that needs
104 to be used when setting a user password. If your Evergreen site has set
105 _Password format_ regex in the Library Settings Editor, you
106 should update the language to describe the format that should be used.
107 * `password_reset.tt2`: in the msg_map section, you might want to change the
108 NOT_STRONG text that appears when the user tries to set a password that
109 does not match the required format. Ideally, this message will tell the user
110 how they should format the password.
111 * \`parts/css/fonts.tt2\`: defines the font sizes for the TPAC in terms of one
112 base font size, and all other sizes derived from that in percentages. The
113 default is 12 pixels, but http://goo.gl/WfNkE[some design sites] strongly
114 suggest a base font size of 16 pixels. Perhaps you want to try '1em' as a
115 base to respect your users' preferences. You only need to change one number
116 in this file if you want to experiment with different options for your users.
117 * `parts/css/colors.tt2`: chances are your library's official colors do not
118 match Evergreen's wall of dark green. This file defines the colors in use in
119 the standard Evergreen template. In theory you should be able to change just
120 a few colors and everything will work, but in practice you will need to
121 experiment to avoid light-gray-on-white low-contrast combinations.
123 The following are templates that are less frequently overridden, but some
124 libraries benefit from the added customization options.
126 * `parts/advanced/numeric.tt2`: defines the search options of the Advanced
127 Search > Numeric search. If you wanted to add a bib call number search option,
128 which is different from the item copy call number; you would add the following
129 code to `numeric.tt2`.
131 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
132 <option value="identifier|bibcn">[% l('Bib Call Number') %]</option>
133 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------