Ted Steele Posted November 30, 2018 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2018 HELP! I just uploaded index.php as you suggested and my home page is now a blank. Nothing. Nada. Zip. SteeleFamilyHistory.net is gone... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XerxX Posted November 30, 2018 Report Share Posted November 30, 2018 Did you upload index.php into the templates/template10 folder? Attach it to your next reply. Erik Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ted Steele Posted November 30, 2018 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2018 I added it into the public_html folder, which is where I thought my homepage info was stored. Attached is the file that I uploaded, which was in the template 10 folder that I originally received. Ted index.php Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XerxX Posted November 30, 2018 Report Share Posted November 30, 2018 No your template index.php is in your template folder templates/template10 as I've said from the beginning. Upload the attached file (also named index.php but is a system-file you shall never touch) to your public_html folder. Note! public_html and nowhere else! Now your TNG site will work again. Next: Upload the original templates/template10/index.php (the one you attached above) to your templates/template10 folder. Note! templates/template10 and nowhere else! Now you shall be able to use Modmanager. Follow the instructions above please. I don't know how I can be more clear in my instructions. To change and expand TNG, you have first to understand how TNG works. And to understand how TNG works, you are encouraged to read the articles Ken pointed to above. Erik index.php Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kare Posted November 30, 2018 Report Share Posted November 30, 2018 ... and to understand and use TNG you should invest time in more basic data knowledge, including php, html and how to use a ftp program... And start reading and follow the advice your helpers are posting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ted Steele Posted November 30, 2018 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2018 Hey guys... I really do appreciate the guidance, but just FYI. - I worked for a fortune 500 company in IT for 30 years, in both application development and managing a team of DBAs designing relational databases. - I have built numerous web pages (using an HTML editor), so I do know and understand HTML and how it works. - I have worked with TNG before (for a client) so I came in understanding the admin tools, etc. But I did not make any major "tweeks" to that site. - I am brand new to cascading style sheets and PHP, so please forgive me that. (But I can learn.) - I had no idea what the internal structure of TNG was until two days ago. It unfolded for me gradually, thanks to posts from this Forum. - As a result, I have read various documents from the Wiki about TNG's structures and media. - I have printed and read and re-read the Wiki article on uploading media. I have done EXECTLY what it says to do, and I still cannot get my photos to link to the people in my trees. I have also followed the (differing) advice of several posts,with negative results. I am one frustrated doobie, but I am going to hang in there until I (finally) get it right. TNG ain't easy, but I think it'll be worth the effort. But the devil is in the damn details. Ted Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ted Steele Posted November 30, 2018 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2018 XerxX, Yay!!!!! Not only do I have my home page back (thank you, thank you), but I now even have a floating caption. Color me smiling for the first time in three days. Now if I can only get my photo images to link... But I am going to take a break and worry about that another day. Whew! And thank you for hanging in there with me. Ted (the newbie, but learning by doing) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XerxX Posted November 30, 2018 Report Share Posted November 30, 2018 Great that it finally worked out, Ted! Just remember now: Whatever change you want to do to a Mod: UN-install it first! F.ex. change the caption-text... When you click the text "Installed" for your .cfg-file in Modmanager you will find a button "Uninstall". Click it. The text will change to "Okay to install" and the button will read "Install". Now you can f.ex. upload a new version (another caption-text). Good Luck! Erik Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Newfloridian Posted December 1, 2018 Report Share Posted December 1, 2018 Glad to see that Ted got his lengthy caption installed. However, I would ask one further question on this issue. What if I want to add a second "tooltipped" group photograph to the index page? Surely not beyond the bounds of possibility as template 10 (and several others) is designed to encompass "His Side" and "Her Side" families. What if I want to add a third - or a fourth? Surely there must be a simpler way of adding title="" than having to create an individual mod for each photograph. It's a matter of knowing where the relevant line of code appears in the relevant index.php file in the first place to be able to construct the .cfg file for the mod. Why not just go direct? I would also raise one other point associated with this issue - and that is the use of the alt attribute. I was told when I first started my own website that each image required an alt attribute for two main reasons - it displays text if the image itself couldn't display, and screen readers could vocalise the image. For this reason the attribute should not be blank (ie don't use alt="") as is the case in this mod. Reading on this subject again recently has shown that the alt attribute has gained even more importance in good website design in the context of Image SEO. Take this specimen article as an example: Image SEO: Does Alt Text Still Matter in 2018? Just my twopennyworth! Alan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XerxX Posted December 1, 2018 Report Share Posted December 1, 2018 (edited) Hi Alan, and all. 1 hour ago, Newfloridian said: Surely there must be a simpler way of adding title="" than having to create an individual mod for each photograph. It seems like in template #10, the "Main image (home page):" is not prepared for a caption of any kind. The only thing you can enter in the box is a path to an image. So, in this case, the only two ways I can see are a) a mod like the one I wrote - which will support the dynamics of the TNG system b) hard-code it in index.php - which will ruin the dynamics Should the photo be stored as a Media item you can add caption/text(s) to it but it seems like it will not show when displayed like this (inside an <img> tag). Regarding 1 hour ago, Newfloridian said: should not be blank (ie don't use alt="") as is the case in this mod. I just want to point out that the empty alt is not "in this mod" but "in this index.php"; I didn't put it there. It is quite possible to add input boxes for captions (both as text below the image and to hover as title="") and for alt attributes to any or all images on index.php. But none of them can be generated automatically - you have to enter the values some way. However; there are 18 template dialogs to re-design and a lot of code "behind the scenes" to add to each one... I suspect that there are things with higher priority on Darrins list. Best regards, Erik EDIT! A third way: Of course you can do like Ken suggested above: Add the caption to the text-box "Welcome paragraph" within a separate <p>paragraph</p> explaining that "The photo at the left is..." Edited December 1, 2018 by XerxX See edit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ted Steele Posted December 3, 2018 Author Report Share Posted December 3, 2018 Erik, This note may have been best in a new thread, but I want to double-check what I did last week before launching into my next change. I want to add the third tree to the menu bar in template 10 (I have been married twice and I want the trees for each wife). I received emails from Darrin on how to do this: editing templateconfig.php in the root directory, and also editing index.php and topmenu.php in the template 10 folder. I started to do this this morning but as I opened my FTP program I noted that the template 10 index.php file on the server is larger than the index.php file on my PC. I know that you provided my with that modfor the hovering caption (thanks again) but I seem to recall that you also had me change the index.php file in my template 10 folder -- because I first erroneously uploaded that into the root directory. [Gasp!] I have reviewed my postings from you, but I don't see where you had me edit index.php and what it was that I added. Can you please remind me what we did there, as I don't want to wipe it out by uploading an older version. Thanks much, Ted Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XerxX Posted December 3, 2018 Report Share Posted December 3, 2018 Ted 28 minutes ago, Ted Steele said: Can you please remind me what we did there You can take notes, you know, for future needs... "Learn by noting while doing" is a good approach. I didn't had you to edit your index.php. The mod edited your template index.php in your templates/template10 directory. The "system file" index.php in your TNG root ("publichtml"?) should be the same in your PC TNG root and live server TNG root. You uploaded the one I attached above and your site came back to life. That file was the TNG root index.php from TNG 12.0 Erik Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ted Steele Posted December 3, 2018 Author Report Share Posted December 3, 2018 So if the mod edited/updated my index.php in the server template 10 directory (which would explain the difference in file size from the index.php file that I have on my PC), and I then edit the (unmodified) index.php file on my PC (which has not been effected by said mod) and upload it, will the mod re-edit it? (I would doubt it.) Or should I first download the edited index.php from the server to my PC and then edit that for my new changes? I do note that the index.php file on my PC is nicely formatted (so that it's readable) while the file on the server has all of the cost strung together, which will make it a lot more awkward to add the new code in for my third family. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XerxX Posted December 3, 2018 Report Share Posted December 3, 2018 Ted, Of course everything you upload will overwrite what's already there... Therefore you have to uninstall the mods (=reverse the changes) first. Then update the mods and then install them. You shall change the mods - not the original scripts. If you want to make new changes to a file, you should make a new mod for that. So you have to learn how to write a .cfg-file (a mod), write it, test it in your test-TNG (on your PC?) and when it works you upload it and install it. Your test-TNG and live site will work the same way in all situations, which is quite important when you're hunting errors. Also: Using mods, you can always add those changes to the next update of TNG without having to edit a lot of files "by hand". That's why we use mods. /Erik Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ted Steele Posted December 3, 2018 Author Report Share Posted December 3, 2018 Erik, OK, for starters you just said something very important that I was wondering about: " test it in your test-TNG (on your PC?) and when it works you upload it and install it. " I have wanted to test my previous changes on my PC, but I don't see how. I have all of the downloaded (and altered) TNG files in a folder called "TNG Website" on my PC. But I have never seen how to "launch" my PC version in my web browser. And I guess I thought I wouldn't be able to do that because (as I understand it) TNG uses a MySQL database on the server as part of its infrastructure to dynamically build the web pages. And I don't have that database on my PC... When I emailed Darrin about adding this third tree to my template he wrote, "Just copy one of those <li></li> blocks and paste it right below, then edit the link to point to the new location. To do that, edit both the index.php and topmenu.php files in the folder of whichever template you're using." In a later email he added, "To add items to the settings menu, you just have to create the vars in the templateconfig.php file and enter the new display message in the cust_text.php file in your language folder(s)." He didn't mention anything about changing a mod. I feel like a first year resident needing to make open-heart surgery. I really don't want to screw up what I've already done, but I sure do want to add that third family to my menu bar. Ted Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XerxX Posted December 3, 2018 Report Share Posted December 3, 2018 As I don't use a template with a horizontal bar at the top I don't know anything about those "His side", "Her side", "Third limk" and "Fourth link". Nothing whatsoever. As well as TNG is run "live" on a webserver, you need one on your PC. In this very forum "Configuration and Installation" there is a thread that may help you: /Erik Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Lloyd Posted December 3, 2018 Report Share Posted December 3, 2018 2 hours ago, Ted Steele said: I have wanted to test my previous changes on my PC, but I don't see how. I have all of the downloaded (and altered) TNG files in a folder called "TNG Website" on my PC. But I have never seen how to "launch" my PC version in my web browser. And I guess I thought I wouldn't be able to do that because (as I understand it) TNG uses a MySQL database on the server as part of its infrastructure to dynamically build the web pages. And I don't have that database on my PC... Have you installed a server on your PC? the most commonly used ones are XAMMP and WAMP - these let you install TNG to the local server, open php files and run the database that supports TNG. There are other server options for home use including using a NAS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ted Steele Posted December 3, 2018 Author Report Share Posted December 3, 2018 Chris, When I found out about doing that I went to UniServer (I just picked one) and downloaded it. But after all of the fuss to do that, the @#%$@ exe file won't even open. To I'm tempted to undo that and try another one. Do you have a preference between the two you mentioned? Thanks, Ted Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Lloyd Posted December 4, 2018 Report Share Posted December 4, 2018 I have used both Wamp and Xampp but currently use Ampps to test things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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