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Using Web Templates to Skin Software |
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Written by Administrator
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Page 1 of 3 Web templates have a lot of different uses. Aside from just being able to create a simple html website, you can also use web templates to skin software. What is skinning software? Skinning software with web templates is simply creating the look and feel for the software...that's it. The examples I will be discussing are Open Source examples of software that are widely used.
First let's talk about OS Commerce an Open Source shopping cart that is very powerful, but not much to look at with the basic install. See for yourself...Demo Site. This is how OS Commerce looks when you first install it. I know, not very pretty. Let's fix it.
The first thing to do when you install OSC is to get the Simple Template System (STS). This contribution allows you to place a few snippets of code into a basic HTML template to skin the software. Let's see some examples
These are just a few examples of what is possible with using a simple HTML web template. When using the STS system by default you will get a basic template with the snippets of code built into it. The file is "sts_template.html", and it will be located in the "includes" folder. The first thing I do is make a copy of this file (this way if you boo boo you have a point of reference). Next take your web template and save a copy of it as "sts_template.html". Open it in your favorite HTML editor as well as the copy of the "sts_template.html". Now place the snippets of code into your web OS Commerce shopping cart with a custom look.
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eCommerce Templates
