In a WordPress world, I went with DasBlog. My choice was purely based on language needs – I have a Windows/.NET based website. I needed a blogging platform that seamlessly integrated with it. Enter DasBlog.
My one concern with DasBlog was the limited amount of themes. It was essential that my blog be similar to my Written Designs website and have a professional look-and-feel. On the DasBlog website there are only had handful of themes to choose from. However, the instructions for customizing a theme were readily available. After looking through the themes, I found elements from a couple I liked. Sweet – with these instructions, I’ll be able to create my custom theme in no time!
Well, no time turned into days (a phenomenon many developers are familiar with). While I figured out how to modify the homeTemplate, dayTemplate, and itemTemplate as well as each CSS sheet with ease, I could not figure out how to register my custom theme. The code that the DasBlog site says is in the web.config file is not there. (Grrr!) After doing a few Google searches, I discovered other people had similar issues with customization. “Well, ok,” I thought, “I'll just work around it.”
For the time being I settled with simply overwriting an existing theme to bypass not being able to add my own. The following day, on a whim, I started looking through the code in some of the other theme files. Low and behold, I discovered the problem!
Instead of the registry code being in the web.config file, it is contained within theme.manifest file within each theme folder. While this is noted on the customization page, the explanation is simply that the new version (1.9) now utilizes these new theme manifests. Scrolling down the page, you still find instructions for adding this info to the web.config file. Hmmm, so how does it really work then?
Once you update your specific theme manifest, the code gets referenced from the site.config file. Ta-da you have your theme registered! After thoroughly reading through each page on customizations on the DasBlog site, I found that this information is included, but it takes some looking (you have to read - not skim). So here’s a quick reference to register your new DasBlog theme (for those who are skimmers like me):
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Copy an existing theme folder down from your ftp server. Or create each file needed for your new theme.
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Copy the site.config file from your ftp server.
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Open the theme.manifest file. Update the theme name, title, templatedirectory, and imagedirectory items. Save the file.
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Open the site.config file. Update the Theme to the theme name indicated in the theme.manifest file. Save the file.
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Upload your new theme folder and the site.config file back to the live ftp server.
Presto! You’ve got your own DasBlog theme registered and ready to use. Now it’s time to start blogging. Go Write Now!