Pattern skin

PatternSkin is developed to provide a CSS based default look and feel for TWiki - flexible and W3C? -compliant. Its layout and color scheme are designed to provide a nice, clean and productive editing environment. For use in corporate or perhaps in personal websites it should be fairly easy to tune the looks or even create a PatternSkin-based new skin.

Screen Shot

Supported browsers

PatternSkin has been tested succesfully on the following browsers:

• Windows
  • Internet Explorer 6.0, 5.5 (note: Explorer 5.0 is not supported: will function but shows visual quirks)
  • Mozilla/Firefox
• Mac OS X
  • Safari 1.2
  • Mozilla/Firefox

Not tested, but will probably work (let me know):

• *nix
  • Mozilla/Firefox

Installation

Note: You do not need to install anything on the browser to use this skin. The following instructions are for the administrator who installs the skin on the server where TWiki is running.

Note 2: PatternSkin is included with TWiki by default. Use the following instructions only if you are upgrading PatternSkin.

• Download the ZIP file from the Skin Home page (see below)
• Unzip PatternSkin.zip in your twiki installation directory
• Test if installed: https://moglen.law.columbia.edu/twiki/bin/view/TWiki/PatternSkin?skin=pattern
• For skin activation see TWikiSkins

Troubleshooting

If you have set the SKIN variable setting to pattern and you still don't see the layout as on the screenshot, a few settings in may have been disabled.

Check these variables here:

• TWIKILAYOUTURL = /twiki/pub/TWiki/PatternSkin/layout.css
• TWIKISTYLEURL = /twiki/pub/TWiki/PatternSkin/style.css
• SKIN = gettysburg.nat,nat

If TWIKILAYOUTURL or TWIKISTYLEURL don't give a value or point to non-existing files, check in TWikiPreferences that the following variables do exist and that they are set to on:

   * %TWIKIWEB%.PatternSkin settings:
      * Set TWIKILAYOUTURL = %PUBURL%/%TWIKIWEB%/PatternSkin/layout.css
      * Set TWIKISTYLEURL = %PUBURL%/%TWIKIWEB%/PatternSkin/style.css

If this still does not work, contact the administrator who installs skins.

For further troubleshooting and feedback, go to TWiki:Plugins/PatternSkinDev.

Creating your own look

It is easy to tune the look and feel of PatternSkin by changing the color and space (margin, padding) settings in the Style Sheet files.

You may also choose to radically change the look and create a PatternSkin-based new skin. This is easier than to create a skin by writing new template files; you can concentrate on how things should look instead of what elements should get displayed.

You can eiter:

• Change the layout.css and style.css attachment files for this topic (upload updated versions)
• In TWikiPreferences, point the variables TWIKILAYOUTURL and TWIKISTYLEURL to other attachments, perhaps in another topic (your new skin topic?)

If you want to change colors and white space of screen elements, modify style.css.
If you want to change the positioning of screen elements, modify layout.css.

See for practical details: PatternSkinCustomization
The CSS classes that PatternSkin uses are documented in PatternSkinCss.

Customization

See: PatternSkinCustomization

Further reading

• PatternSkinCustomization - Practical information on how to change the looks of PatternSkin
• PatternSkinCss - A reference to used CSS classes
• TWiki:Plugins/PatternSkinDev - Development page, bug reports, solutions from users

Skin Info

Description:	Provides a CSS based default look and feel for TWiki - flexible and W3C? -compliant
Screenshot:
Base Name:	pattern
Skin Author:	TWiki:Main/ArthurClemens
Skin Version:	17 Aug 2004 (v1.0.6)
History:
17 Aug 2004:	v.1.0.6 - Support for twikiMoved css class
17 Aug 2004:	v.1.0.5 - Fix for not showing SEARCHSTRING
16 Aug 2004:	v.1.0.4 - Fixes search results layout with noheader="on"
14 Aug 2004:	v.1.0.3 - Update to attach template, css fix to edit template
14 Aug 2004:	v.1.0.2 - Fixes print template, table paddings in topics, minor changes to style.css
13 Aug 2004:	v.1.0.1 - Updated /data/TWiki/WebLeftBarPersonalTemplate and style.css
08 Aug 2004:	Initial version (v1.0.0)
Dependencies:	TablePlugin
Skin Home:	http://TWiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins/PatternSkin
Feedback:	http://TWiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins/PatternSkinDev
Download:	http://TWiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins/PatternSkin

Related topics

• TWikiCss
• WebBottomBar
• WebLeftBar
• WebLeftBarExample
• WebLeftBarPersonalTemplate
• WebLeftBarCookbook
• WebTopBar

See also Further reading on this page.

Other skins:

• TWikiSkins
• TWikiSkinBrowser

Feedback

Leave remarks, suggestions and other feedback in TWiki:Plugins.PatternSkinDev.

-- TWiki:Main/ArthurClemens - 17 Aug 2004