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<p><small>(see below for a list of <a href="#changes">theme changes</a> in
recent Geeklog versions)</small></p>


<h1>Creating a Theme for Geeklog</h1>

<p>Creating a theme for Geeklog is easy and quite fast. If you can
manipulate HTML files then you can create a theme! There's no need to learn
PHP.

<h2>Creating a theme</h2>

<p>First, copy an existing theme that is most similar to what you want to
implement (if one exists). If what you will do is radically different (and
we hope so!) then copying any one will do. Copy the existing theme to the
name you want your theme to have (please, <em>no</em> spaces in the theme name):

<p><kbd>cp -R /path/to/geeklog/public_html/layout/Yahoo /path/to/geeklog/public_html/layout/My_Theme_Name_No_Spaces</kbd>

<p>Change into your new theme directory:

<p><kbd>cd /path/to/geeklog/public_html/layout/My_Theme_Name_No_Spaces</kbd>

<p>Now edit the templates to suit your needs. Keep in mind that templates,
generally are partial HTML files. The directory you just created holds ALL
templates Geeklog needs but you will only need to modify a small few to
make a huge impact on the look.

<p>In particular these are the templates you will undoubtedly want to
change:

<ul>
<li>header.thtml
<li>footer.thtml
<li>blockheader.thtml
<li>blockfooter.thtml
<li>storybody.thtml
<li>storybodytext.thtml
<li>featuredstorybody.thtml
<li>featuredstorybodytext.thtml
<li>archivestorybody.thtml
<li>archivestorybodytext.thtml
<li>style.css
</ul>

<h3><a name="how-themes-work">How themes work</a></h3>

<p>When rendering a theme, Geeklog starts with <tt>header.thtml</tt> which
builds the site's header and then goes on to include the left column of blocks
(look for the variable {left_blocks} and the <tt>leftblocks.thtml</tt> file).
The middle part of a site consists of the stories which are built using the
<tt>storytext.thtml</tt> and <tt>storybodytext.thtml</tt> (for normal stories)
and <tt>featuredstorytext.thtml</tt> and <tt>featuredstorybodytext.thtml</tt>
(for featured stories) template files. The <tt>footer.thtml</tt> file then
builds the right column of blocks (variable {right_blocks}, file
<tt>right_blocks.thtml</tt>) and the site's footer. Blocks themselves consist
of the <tt>blockheader.thtml</tt> and <tt>blockfooter.thtml</tt> files.

<p>The above only describes how Geeklog's main page and stories are rendered.
More templates exist for the various editors and lists you will see in Geeklog,
as well as for the calendar and almost every other part of Geeklog.</p>

<p>There is currently no complete list available that explains which template
file is used for which part of Geeklog. However, in most cases the use should
be obvious when you have a look at the file and directory names in your theme's
layout directory. If you're unsure which template file is used to render a
certain part of Geeklog, have a look at the URL. You will notice the name of
a PHP file there, e.g. the <tt>users.php</tt> file when you view a user's
profile. Open that file and search for '<kbd>.thtml</kbd>'. For the profile
you will find these lines (in <code>function userprofile()</code>):</p>
<blockquote><code>
    $user_templates = new Template ($_CONF['path_layout'] . 'users');<br>
    $user_templates->set_file (array ('profile'=>'profile.thtml', 'row'=>'commentrow.thtml', 'strow'=>'storyrow.thtml'));
</code></blockquote>
<p>You don't need to understand PHP code to see that this uses the template
files <tt>profile.thtml</tt>, <tt>commentrow.thtml</tt>, and
<tt>storyrow.thtml</tt>. The first line also indicates that these are taken
from the <tt>users</tt> directory within the theme's layout directory.</p>

<p>An <a href="themevars.html">incomplete list of variables</a> that can be
used in templates files is also included.</p>

<h3><a name="testing">Testing a theme and further information</a></h3>

<p>After you have edited your themes, you are now ready to test it out.
Simply go to http://mygeeklogsite/usersettings.php?mode=preferences - in the
theme drop-down select your newly created theme (note the name of your theme is
the <em>same</em> name as the directory for your theme).

<p>Finally, you may want to update the logo and other images in your
theme's images directory.

<p>For the template system we are using PHPLib's template class (<a
href="http://phplib.sourceforge.net/">http://phplib.sourceforge.net/</a>).
Read their documentation and, optionally, look at
/path/to/geeklog/system/classes/template.class.php to see how it is
implemented. Even with this knowledge it may not be clear which templates
are used in conjunction with one another (i.e. <tt>storybody.thtml</tt> and
<tt>storybodytext.thtml</tt> together make up the complete format of a
<em>single</em>
story). If you have questions join our mailing list at <a
href="http://lists.geeklog.net/listinfo/geeklog-users">http://lists.geeklog.net/listinfo/geeklog-users</a>
or check us out in IRC at irc.freenode.net in #geeklog.</p>

<h3><a name="tips">Tips and tricks</a></h3>

<p><strong><a name="wysiwyg">Themes and WYSIWYG editors:</a></strong>
The template files used by Geeklog are not complete HTML files - they contain
only parts of the HTML that Geeklog puts together to build a proper HTML
document. This, however, seems to confuse some WYSIWYG HTML editors and some of
them tend to add the HTML which they think is missing from the file, thus
making it unusable for Geeklog.<br>
We suggest you use a simple text editor to edit your themes.</p>

<p><strong><a name="php">PHP in themes:</a></strong>
You can use PHP in the <em>header</em> of a theme, i.e. in the
<tt>header.thtml</tt> file. If you want to use custom PHP functions, you can
put them in the file <tt>functions.php</tt> within your themes directory.</p>

<p><strong><a name="different-look">Different look for left and right blocks:</a></strong>
You can give the blocks on the left and right a different look. See
<a href="http://www.geeklog.net/forum/viewtopic.php?showtopic=21070">this story on the Geeklog homepage</a> for details.</p>

<p><strong><a name="polls">Polls:</a></strong>
To use multi-colored bars in the graphical display of poll results, you can use
the <code>{answer_counter}</code> and <code>{answer_odd}</code> variables in
the <tt>pollbooth/pollvotes_bar.thtml</tt> template file.
<code>{answer_counter}</code> will be replaced with a running number for each
answer, hence <code>bar{answer_counter}.gif</code> would result in
<tt>bar1.gif</tt>, <tt>bar2.gif</tt>, etc. Giving each of those GIFs a different
color would give you a different color for each answer.<br>
<code>{answer_odd}</code> will alternate between 0 and 1 for every answer, hence
<code>bar{answer_odd}.gif</code> will result in <tt>bar0.gif</tt> for the first,
third, fifth, etc. answer and <tt>bar1.gif</tt> for the second, fourth, etc.
answer.</p>

<p><strong><a name="left-blocks">Left blocks in the right column:</a></strong>
<code>$_CONF['left_blocks_in_footer']</code> (in <tt>config.php</tt>) is a
rather curious option. It makes the <code>{left_blocks}</code> variable
available in the site's footer (i.e. <tt>footer.thtml</tt>) while at the same
time disabling it in the header (<tt>header.thtml</tt>).<br>
The idea is that this can be used for two-column layouts (one column for the
blocks and one column for the content) but when you want to have the blocks
on the right side. Simply moving all blocks to the right will not work as
expected, as you'd end up with <em>no blocks</em> at all on those pages that
normally only display the left blocks (e.g. <tt>article.php</tt> or the
admin pages). Setting <code>$_CONF['left_blocks_in_footer'] = 1</code> will
fix this, so that the blocks, while internally still treated as <em>left</em>
blocks, will actually be displayed on the <em>right</em>.<br>
The theme's <tt>header.thtml</tt>, <tt>footer.thtml</tt>, and
<tt>leftblocks.thtml</tt> will probably need some adjustments. It is also
recommended to leave the <code>$_CONF</code> variable unchanged in
<tt>config.php</tt> and overwrite it in the theme's <tt>functions.php</tt>
instead. That way, you can even leave your users a choice between, for example,
a "normal" theme and one with the blocks on the right.</p>

<p><strong><a name="error-message">Error Message:</a></strong>
Since Geeklog 1.4.1 it is possible to control what HTML is displayed to
non-root users in the event of an error occurring (a crash bug). To do
so, you need to change the function <code>CUSTOM_handleError</code> in
lib-custom.php to output any HTML you like.</p>

<h2><a name="changes">Theme changes in Geeklog 1.4.1</a></h2>

<p>The css in 1.4.1 has been changed to a wider extent. More and more layout
components are beeing moved to the stylesheet so more change in looks can be
achieved with less change in the files. There is a reduction of tables and DIV,
and a stronger focus on semantics and consistency. Please also notice that the
styles.css includes additional documentation on the use of classes now.</p>

<p>As usual, any missing new theme files can simply be copied over from the
default theme (Professional) that ships with Geeklog.</p>

<h3>Header-Tags</h3>

<p>From now on, all headlines in blocks & stories are made with header-tags. The
biggest title in a story is always h1, in a block always h2.</p>

<h3>Story layout</h3>
<p>The blocks for stories have no more tables, and the classes have been renamed
for consistency. There is a box now around the story called class "story" or
"story-featured". The components inside that box are story-icons,
story-information, story-body and story-footer. The title is a h1-tag. For
featured stories, only the outer box has a different class, the rest has to be
cascaded for changes.</p>

<h3>Blocks</h3>
<p>The blocks changed in the same way as the stories. There are no more tables,
only one div-tag as a frame around called block-box, block-box-left or
block-box-right. The title is a h2-tag and the help icon for the block is a span
 with a class called block-helpicon. Sub-titles in blocks have the h3-tag (such
 such as in the What's new or Older Stories block). The changes affect (next to
 styles.css) the follwing files:</p>
<ul>
<li>blockfooter-left.thtml</li>
<li>blockfooter-related.thtml</li>
<li>blockfooter-right.thtml</li>
<li>blockfooter.thtml</li>
<li>blockheader-left.thtml</li>
<li>blockheader-message.thtml</li>
<li>blockheader-related.thtml</li>
<li>blockheader-right.thtml</li>
<li>blockheader.thtml</li>
</ul>

<h3>Admin templates</h3>

<p>Many of the admin template files have had minor changes to tweak appearance
or functionality. If you didn't modify the admin templates in your theme, the
easiest way to upgrade your theme's admin templates is to simply replace the
entire 'admin' directory with the one from Geeklog's Professional theme.</p>

<ul>
<li>All the "delete" buttons in the admin's editors (story editor, etc.) now
    pop up a JavaScript confirmation box as a simple measure against
    accidental deletion. If you'd rather not have that confirmation box,
    replace the <code>{delete_option}</code> variable with
    <code>{delete_option_no_confirmation}</code> in the admin templates.</li>
<li>The order of the save / cancel / delete buttons is now consistent across
    all admin template files (changed <tt>group/groupeditor.thtml</tt> and
    <tt>user/edituser.thtml</tt>).</li>
<li>Changed the top links in <tt>lists/topmenu_nosearch.thtml</tt> and
    <tt>topic/topiclist.thtml</tt> to be consistent with the other admin areas
    (i.e. the links are no longer enclosed in square brackets).</li>
<li>To enable changing the group ownership of "gldefault" blocks, the
    <tt>defaultblockeditor.thtml</tt> has to be changed to include a
    <code>{group_dropdown}</code> variable.
</ul>

<h3>Other theme changes</h3>

<ul>
<li>There was a div for spreading the with of the blocks to a minimum in the
    files leftblocks.thtml and rightblocks.thtml. The format of those has been
    transferred to the stylesheet with the class name block-bg-spreader</li>
<li>The template for the Polls-plugin has renamed classes block-vote-results to
    poll-vote-results and block-vote to poll-vote to avoid confustion with
    block-related classes.</li>
<li>The template files used by the Calendar plugin are now located in the
    plugin's directory, (<tt>/path/to/geeklog/plugins/calendar/templates</tt>),
    so the entire 'calendar' directory can be removed from the theme
    directory.<br>
    The <tt>submitevent.thtml</tt>, <tt>editpersonalevent.thtml</tt>,
    <tt>admin/eventeditor.thtml</tt>, and <tt>dayview/quickaddform.thtml</tt>
    have also been changed to (optionally) support entering the time in <a
    href="calendar.html#desc_hour_mode">24 hour mode</a>: A hidden input field
    "hour_mode" is now required, the am/pm dropdowns are available as variables
    <code>{startampm_selection}</code>, <code>{endampm_selection}</code>,
    <code>{ampm_selection}</code>, depending on the template file), and the
    dropdowns for the minutes are available as variables
    (<code>{startminute_options}</code>, <code>{endminute_options}</code>,
    <code>{minute_options}</code>, depending on the template file).</li>
<li>The variables <code>{author}</code> and <code>{owner}</code> are now
    available in every template where an object's author (e.g. story or
    comment author) or owner (e.g. owner of a block) name can be displayed.
    They will also respect the <a
    href="config.html#desc_show_fullname">$_CONF['show_fullname']</a> setting,
    i.e. display either the user's full name or username.</li>
<li>The Article Author's tag in <tt>storytext.thtml</tt> and
    <tt>featuredstorytext.thtml</tt> is now called
    <code>{contributedby_author}.</code></li>
<li>To enable a remarks field in the answer to polls, the
    <tt>pollvotes_bar.thtml</tt>, <tt>pollansweroption.thtml</tt> and
    <tt>polleditor.thtml</tt> were changed. The
    <tt>pollvotes_bar.thtml</tt> is now colored and has two lines, a class
    for color coding each line and the <code>{answer_text}</code>. The
    <tt>polleditor.thtml</tt> has an aditional field to enter the remarks,
    same as the <tt>pollansweroption.thtml</tt>.
<li>A user's Account Information page has been redesigned. While there were no
    technical changes (i.e. template files from earlier versions will still
    work), some options have been rearranged and a note has been added to tell
    the user that the current password is required to change those. Affected
    files in the <tt>preferences</tt> directory: <tt>profile.thtml</tt>,
    <tt>username.thtml</tt>, and <tt>userphoto.thtml</tt>.</li>
<li>The <tt>navbar</tt> directory now contains four files,
    <tt>menuitem.thtml</tt>,<tt>navbar.thtml</tt>,<tt>breadcrumbs.thtml</tt>,<tt>breadcrumb_link</tt> as well as two images,
    <tt>button.gif</tt> and <tt>button_over.gif</tt>.</li>
<li>A <a name="captcha"><code>{captcha}</code></a> variable has been added to
    the following files:
    <ul>
    <li><tt>comment/commentform.thtml</tt></li>
    <li><tt>comment/commentform_advanced.thtml</tt></li>
    <li><tt>profiles/contactauthorform.thtml</tt></li>
    <li><tt>profiles/contactuserform.thtml</tt></li>
    <li><tt>submit/submitstory.thtml</tt></li>
    <li><tt>submit/submitstory_advanced.thtml</tt></li>
    <li><tt>users/registrationform.thtml</tt></li>
    </ul>
    This variable is supposed to be used by a plugin that implements <a
    href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captcha">CAPTCHA</a>s and will simply be
    empty when no such plugin is installed.</li>
</ul>

<h3>Professional theme</h3>

<p>The following changes are specific to the Professional theme. There is
probably no need to port them over to other themes.</p>

<ul>
<li>The theme now uses CSS everywhere for spacing and dividers instead of
    relying on a 1x1 pixel transparent GIF image (<tt>speck.gif</tt>).</li>
<li>The amount of nested tables has been reduced, e.g. in the block
    headers.</li>
<li>Two unused template files, <tt>customlogin-header.thtml</tt> and
    <tt>customlogin-footer.thtml</tt>, have been removed.</li>
</ul>


<h2><a name="changes140">Theme changes in Geeklog 1.4.0</a></h2>

<p>As usual, any missing new theme files can simply be copied over from the
default theme (Professional) that ships with Geeklog.</p>

<h3>Admin templates</h3>

<p>Geeklog 1.4.0 comes with revamped Admin sections which required a lot of
theme changes. We therefore suggest that you simply replace the entire
<tt>admin</tt> directory of your theme with the <tt>admin</tt> directory
from Geeklog's default theme (Professional) as it ships with Geeklog 1.4.0
and apply any modfications you may have made to your Admin templates again
afterwards.</p>

<p><strong>Note:</strong> The new icons for "Command and Control"
(<tt>moderation.php</tt>) in the Professional theme use a white background.
For themes with a dark (or other non-white) background, you can <a
href="http://www.geeklog.net/filemgmt/singlefile.php?lid=623">download</a> these
icons as PNGs with alpha transparency (note that Internet Explorer can not
display images with alpha transparency unless you include a JavaScript "<a
href="http://homepage.ntlworld.com/bobosola/">hack</a>" into your theme, so you
may want to convert those icons to normal transparency or simply set the
background to that of your theme).</p>


<h3>Advanced editor</h3>

<p>To use the included advanced editor (FCKeditor) you will need the following
new template files:</p>
<ul>
<li><tt>comment/commentform_advanced.thtml</tt> (for comments)</li>
<li><tt>submit/submitstory_advanced.thtml</tt> (for story submissions)</li>
<li><tt>admin/story/storyeditor_advanced.thtml</tt> (Admin's story editor)</li>
<li><tt>staticpages/templates/admin/editor_advanced.thtml</tt> (for the Static
    Pages editor, located in <tt>/path/to/geeklog/plugins</tt>)</li>
<li><tt>advanced_editor_header.thtml</tt> (included by all of the above)</li>
</ul>
<p>You also have to add <code>{advanced_editor}</code> to the <code>&lt;head&gt;</code> section of your theme's <tt>header.thtml</tt> file.</p>

<h3>Other changes</h3>

<ul>
<li>The comment templates <tt>commentbar.thtml</tt> and <tt>thread.thtml</tt>
    have changed due to changes in the comment handling.</li>
<li>New directories <tt>trackback</tt> and <tt>admin/trackback</tt> containing
    several new template files have been added for the trackback support.</li>
<li>New variables <code>{send_trackback_link}</code>,
    <code>{send_trackback_url}</code>, and
    <code>{lang_send_trackback_text}</code> are available in the story and
    article template files. They provide a complete link as well as the URL and
    link text allowing you to send a trackback comment for the current
    story.</li>
<li>The <tt>links</tt> and <tt>admin/link</tt> directories have been
    removed. Links are now a plugin and the plugin's templates can be found in
    <tt>/path/to/geeklog/plugins/links/templates</tt>.</li>
<li>The <tt>pollbooth</tt> and <tt>admin/poll</tt> directories have been
    removed. Polls are now a plugin and the plugin's templates can be found in
    <tt>/path/to/geeklog/plugins/polls/templates</tt>.</li>
<li>The <tt>preferences/profile.thtml</tt> template now has additional fields
    for the password change (old password, confirmation field for the new
    password).</li>
<li>The search form, <tt>search/searchform.thtml</tt> has a new option for the
    number of search results per page, while the hard-coded option to search
    for links has been removed (since Links are in plugin now, it will show up
    as part of the <code>{plugin_types}</code> option).</li>
<li>An additional variable, <code>{services}</code>, has to be added to the
    <tt>loginform.thtml</tt> template file if you plan to allow users to log in
    to your site using remote authentication.</li>
<li>If you plan to enable Trackbacks on your site, you may want to add links to
    a story's trackbacks section to your story template files, e.g.
    <code>{start_trackbacks_anchortag}{trackbacks_with_count}{end_trackbacks_anchortag}</code>. See the Professional theme's story template files for
    examples.</li>
<li>For the site statistics, the file <tt>stats/sitestatistics.thtml</tt> has
    changed (entries for the links and poll have been removed and a new entry
    for the number of active users has been added). There is also a new file,
    <tt>stats/singlesummary.thtml</tt>, that is used for plugin entries.</li>
<li>The <tt>navbar</tt> directory is now part of a Geeklog theme (previously
    used by some plugins, e.g. the Forum plugin). It contains two files,
    <tt>menuitem.thtml</tt> and <tt>navbar.thtml</tt>, as well as two images,
    <tt>button.gif</tt> and <tt>button_over.gif</tt>.</li>
</ul>


<h2><a name="changes1311">Theme changes in Geeklog 1.3.11</a></h2>

<p>There are no mandatory theme changes in Geeklog 1.3.11, so themes made for Geeklog 1.3.10 will work just fine without any modifications.</p>

<p>A few minor additions / new options have been introduced:</p>
<ul>
<li>A new variable, <code>{camera_icon}</code>, can now be used in the story
    and comment template files to display the small camera icon (the same as in
    the Who's Online block) to link to the author's user profile (only if they
    uploaded a userphoto).</li>
<li>The <code>{layout_url}</code> variable is now available in the templates
    for the story, link, and event submission forms.</li>
<li>Also in the submission forms, a variable <code>{separator}</code> is now
    available in addition to the misspelled <code>{seperator}</code>
    variable.</li>
<li>A new variable, <code>{calendar_mode}</code>, can be used in the
    <tt>calendar/events.thtml</tt> template file to ensure that the "add event"
    link will take the user to the proper event submission form for either the
    site calendar or the personal calendar.</li>
</ul>

<h2><a name="changes1310">Theme changes in Geeklog 1.3.10</a></h2>

<p>General note: To upgrade your custom theme for use with Geeklog 1.3.10, you can simply copy over any new template files from the Geeklog default theme.</p>

<p>The biggest change in Geeklog 1.3.10 is that we now ship it with only one
default theme (the Professional theme, kindly provided by Victor B. Gonzalez)
and that the previously included themes are now available as a separate
download.</p>

<h3>Admin templates</h3>

<p>Most themes don't change the template files in the theme's <tt>admin</tt>
directory, so you can often save yourself a bit of work by simply replacing
the entire <tt>admin</tt> directory with the one from the Geeklog 1.3.10
distribution.</p>

<ul>
<li>The story editor, <tt>admin/story/storyeditor.thtml</tt> includes new
    options for the story archiving and for editable story IDs. <em>It is
    recommended to make a copy of this file and re-apply any changes you may
    have made to your copy again afterwards!</em></li>
<li>The list of polls, <tt>admin/poll/polllist.thtml</tt> now supports
    paging, i.e. uses the {google_paging} variable.</li>
<li>The list of events uses paging and a row number now (files affected:
    <tt>admin/event/eventlist.thtml</tt> and
    <tt>admin/event/listitem.thtml</tt>).</li>
<li>The plugin editor, <tt>admin/plugins/editor.thml</tt>, now displays 2
    version numbers for the plugin: The installed version and the (possibly
    differing) version of the actual code.  In the latter case, it will also
    display an update button.<br>
    The list of plugins, <tt>admin/plugins/pluginlist.thtml</tt> and
    <tt>admin/plugins/listitem.thtml</tt>, also displays the 2 version numbers
    and now supports paging when more than 25 plugins are installed.</li>
<li>The topic editor, <tt>admin/topic/topiceditor.thtml</tt>, contained a
    hard-coded "10" for the default number of stories per pages. The new
    variable {default_limit} provides the actual default value now.</li>
<li><tt>admin/mail/mailform.thtml</tt> has been changed to look slightly less
    ugly ...</li>
</ul>

<h3>Other templates</h3>

<ul>
<li>Added two new templates for the new story archive feature. This allows you
    to theme olderstories differently. By default Geeklog 1.3.10 ships with
    these template files not themed and the same as a standard story. The new
    template files are <ul><li>archivestorytext.thtml</li>
    <li>archivestorybodytext.thtml</li></ul></li>
<li>Due to various changes in the comment engine, it is recommended that you
    copy over all the comment template files from the <tt>comment</tt> directory
    (<tt>comment/reportcomment.thtml</tt> is actually a new file).</li>
<li>In <tt>calendar/dayview/dayview.thtml</tt>, i.e. in the calendar's day
    view, the hard-coded am/pm times have been replaced by variables of the
    form {xx_hour} (where 'xx' is 0-23).</li>
<li>In the event details template, i.e. in <tt>calendar/eventdetails.thtml</tt>,
    the event type and an edit icon were added (this change was only made in
    Geeklog 1.3.10rc3).</li>
<li>A "location" field was added in the user's profile: Added {lang_location}
    and {user_location} in <tt>users/profile.thtml</tt> and {lang_location},
    {lang_location_text}, and {location_value} in
    <tt>preferences/profile.thtml</tt>.</li>
</ul>

<h3>Optional changes</h3>

<p>The following is a list of optional changes (mostly new variables that are
now available). This information is mostly of interest for those who want to
develop their own themes.</p>

<ul>
<li>{article_url}, i.e. the full URL to an article, is now also available in
    <tt>article/printable.thtml</tt>.</li>
<li>In <tt>links/linkdetails.thtml</tt> the new variable {link_actual_url} now
    contains the actual link URL (instead of a link to Geeklog's
    <tt>portal.php</tt>).</li>
<li>The following variables are now available in <tt>calendar/eventdetails.thtml</tt>:
    {event_state_name} (full name of the state), {event_state_only} and
    {event_state_name_only} (abbreviated and full state name without the comma),
    {event_edit} (link to edit the event, if allowed for the current user),
    {edit_icon} (same, but with the edit icon instead of a text link),
    {lang_event_type} and {event_type} for the event type
<li>The topic image is now available through the {topic_image} variable in
    <tt>topicoption.thtml</tt> and <tt>topicoption_off.thtml</tt></li>
<li>Several class names have been introduced so that the various lists that
    Geeklog uses can now be styled individually: list-feed, list-new-comments,
    list-new-links, list-new-plugins, list-older-stories, list-personal-events,
    list-site-events, list-story-options, list-whats-related (the names should
    be self-explanatory).<br>
    Use {list_class_name} to get the actual class name, and {list_class} to get
    class="classname".</li>
<li>Several class names have been introduced so that the 2 small calendars
    in the calendar's month view can be styled: .smallcal, .smallcal-headline,
    .smallcal-week-even, .smallcal-week-odd, .smallcal-week-empty,
    .smallcal-day-even, .smallcal-day-odd, and .smallcal-day-empty</li>
</ul>


<h2><a name="changes139">Theme changes in Geeklog 1.3.9</a></h2>

<ul>
<li>In <tt>header.thtml</tt>, you can now use the new variable
    <code>{allowed_menu_elements}</code> as an alternative to using
    <code>{menu_elements}</code>. The new variable takes the
    <code>$_CONF['<i>XXX</i>loginrequired']</code> settings into account, i.e.
    it will only list those entries that the current user has access to.</li>
<li>The <tt>admin/syndication</tt> directory, containing
    <tt>feededitor.thtml</tt>, <tt>listfeeds.thtml</tt>,
    <tt>listitem.thtml</tt>, and <tt>selecttype.thtml</tt> has been added.</li>
<li>Template files <tt>comment/comment.thtml</tt> and
    <tt>comment/thread.thtml</tt> have been added and
    <tt>comment/startcomment.thtml</tt> has been changed to implement
    template-driven comments.<br>
    Please note that <tt>comment/comment.thtml</tt> was changed <em>again</em>
    in Geeklog 1.3.9rc2.</li>
<li>A <code>{link_edit}</code> variable has been added to
    <tt>links/linkdetails.thtml</tt> so that admins can edit links directly
    from the links section.</li>
<li>An "edit" icon has been added: <tt>images/edit.gif</tt>. The new variable
    <code>{edit_icon}</code> can be used as an alternative to
    <code>{edit_link}</code> in the story template files and in
    <tt>links/linkdetails.thtml</tt>.</li>
<li>In the <tt>calendar/calendar.thtml</tt> file, the "mode" parameter has been
    added to the &lt;&lt; and &gt;&gt; buttons, so that users stay in their
    personal calendar when browsing through months.</li>
<li>A new file, <tt>admin/group/groupmembers.thtml</tt>, has been added and
    <tt>admin/group/listitem.thtml</tt> has been changed for the new
    alternative option to add users to groups.</li>
<li>A new file, <tt>admin/block/listside.thtml</tt>, has been added and
    <tt>admin/block/listitem.thtml</tt> and <tt>admin/block/listblocks.thtml</tt>
    have been changed for the enhanced block list.</li>
<li>A <code>{google_paging}</code> variable has been added to
    <tt>admin/link/linklist.thtml</tt>. Also added a column number to
    <tt>linklist.thtml</tt> and <tt>admin/link/listitem.thtml</tt>.</li>
<li>All template files where the user can enter a URL are now using a new
    variable, <code>{max_url_length}</code>, instead of a hard-coded number of
    characters for the max. length of the URL. Files affected:
    <tt>admin/block/blockeditor.thtml</tt>,
    <tt>admin/event/eventeditor.thtml</tt>,
    <tt>admin/link/linkeditor.thtml</tt>,
    <tt>admin/topic/topiceditor.thtml</tt>,
    <tt>submit/submitevent.thtml</tt>, <tt>submit/submitlink.thtml</tt>.</li>
<li>The hard-coded <code>&amp;nbsp;</code> has been removed from the
    <code>{welcome_msg}</code> variable. The blank was then added to the
    <tt>header.thtml</tt> of the Classic, XSilver, and Yahoo themes (the other
    themes either look fine without it or didn't use <code>{welcome_msg}</code>
    in the first place).</li>
<li>An extra <code>table</code> has been removed from the
    <tt>users/profile.thtml</tt> file of the XSilver theme so that the
    username now lines up properly with the other entries.</li>
</ul>

<h2><a name="changes138">Theme changes in Geeklog 1.3.8</a></h2>

<p>Theme changes in Geeklog 1.3.8 were mostly aimed at moving as much of the
hard-coded HTML into template files as possible. Other changes were made to
give theme authors better control over the layout and a small portion of changes
were done to incorporate new Geeklog features.</p>

<h3>New template files</h3>

<p>This is a list of the new files. You can safely copy these over from one of
the standard themes that ship with Geeklog (most of these files contain HTML
that was previously hard-coded into Geeklog).</p>

<pre>
adminoption_off.thtml
loginform.thtml
topicoption.thtml
topicoption_off.thtml
useroption_off.thtml
admin/database/listbackups.thtml
admin/database/listitem.thtml
admin/user/edituser.thtml
admin/user/plainlist.thtml
comment/commentbar.thtml
comment/startcomment.thtml
pollbooth/pollanswer.thtml
pollbooth/pollblock.thtml
pollbooth/pollcomments.thtml
pollbooth/pollresult.thtml
pollbooth/pollvotes_bar.thtml
pollbooth/pollvotes_num.thtml
preferences/boxesblock.thtml
preferences/commentblock.thtml
preferences/deleteaccount.thtml
preferences/digestblock.thtml
preferences/displayblock.thtml
preferences/displayprefs.thtml
preferences/excludeblock.thtml
preferences/language.thtml
preferences/privacyblock.thtml
preferences/profile.thtml
preferences/theme.thtml
preferences/username.thtml
preferences/userphoto.thtml
search/resultauthdatehits.thtml
search/resultrowenhanced.thtml
search/resultsummary.thtml
search/resulttitle.thtml
users/newpassword.thtml
</pre>

<p>Note: <tt>preferences</tt> and <tt>admin/database</tt> are new directores.</p>


<h3>Changed / updated template files</h3>

<p>These files have changed since Geeklog 1.3.7, i.e. they may contain new
variables, table columns, etc. If you haven't changed these files in your
existing theme, it is probably best to simply copy them over from one of the
themes that ship with Geeklog (with the exception of <tt>style.css</tt> and
<tt>header.thtml</tt>, see below).</p>

<pre>
style.css <em>(see below)</em>
header.thtml <em>(see below)</em>
admin/block/blockeditor.thtml
admin/block/listblocks.thtml
admin/block/listitem.thtml
admin/event/eventeditor.thtml
admin/event/eventlist.thtml
admin/event/listitem.thtml
admin/group/grouplist.thtml
admin/group/listitem.thtml
admin/story/liststories.thtml
admin/topic/listitem.thtml
admin/topic/topiceditor.thtml
admin/topic/topiclist.thtml
calendar/editpersonalevent.thtml
calendar/eventdetails.thtml
search/searchform.thtml
search/searchresults.thtml
submit/submitevent.thtml
users/getpasswordform.thtml
</pre>

<p>In <tt>style.css</tt>, four classes have been added that are used in the
new search code of Geeklog 1.3.8. Instead of copying over the entire file, you
will probably only want to copy over the code for those four classes:
<tt>searchAuth</tt>, <tt>searchDate</tt>, <tt>searchHits</tt>,
<tt>highlight</tt>.</p>

<p>If the <tt>header.thtml</tt> of your theme is using the
<tt>{menu_elements}</tt> variable, then you do <em>not</em> need to make any
changes to it. If it is not using that variable, then you will need to make one
change to it. In that case, search your <tt>header.thtml</tt> for the link
to the story submission form, i.e. something like</p>
<pre>
    &lt;a href="{site_url}/submit.php?type=story"&gt;
</pre>
<p>and change it to read</p>
<pre>
    &lt;a href="{site_url}/submit.php?type=story{current_topic}"&gt;
</pre>


<h3>Removed template files</h3>

<p>If you have a file named <tt>commentheader.thtml</tt> in your theme
directory, you can safely remove it. It isn't used at all.</p>


<h2><a name="changes137">Theme changes in Geeklog 1.3.7</a></h2>

<p>Please note that all the following changes are <em>optional</em>. Themes
made for Geeklog 1.3.6 will work just fine with Geeklog 1.3.7 - no changes
are necessary.</p>

<h3>New features and improvements</h3>

<ul>
  <li>Theme-based topic icons are now supported by setting <tt>$_THEME_URL</tt>
    in the theme's <tt>functions.php</tt> file. The variable should point to
    a directory that has the same hierarchy as Geeklog's images directory
    (note that the path to topic images is stored relative to Geeklog's
    public_html directory).<br>
    <strong>Example:</strong>
    <code>$_THEME_URL = $_CONF['layout_url'];</code></li>
  <li>The <code>$_BLOCK_TEMPLATE</code> "hack" can now be applied to the
    What's Related and Story Options blocks, as well. Use
    <tt>whats_related_block</tt> and <tt>story_options_block</tt> as the block
    names.</li>
  <li>The What's Related and Story Options blocks are now available as
    separate variables using <tt>{whats_related}</tt> and
    <tt>{story_options}</tt>, respectively
    (the <tt>{whats_related_story_options}</tt> variable for both blocks is
    still available).</li>
  <li>Several new variables can now be used in the story templates, e.g.
    <tt>{contributedby_fullname}</tt> for the full name of a story author and
    <tt>{contributedby_photo}</tt> for his/her user photo.</li>
  <li>When the new config variable <tt>$_CONF['showfirstasfeatured']</tt> is set
    to 1, then the first story on <em>every</em> page is rendered using the
    template files for featured stories, even when the story is not marked as
    featured.</li>
</ul>

<h3>Other changes</h3>

<ul>
  <li>The template file <tt>admin/plugins/installform.thtml</tt> has been
    removed since it isn't used any more.</li>
  <li>Two new <em>optional</em> template files,
    <tt>admin/plugins/newpluginlist.thtml</tt> and
    <tt>admin/plugins/newlistitem.thml</tt>, have been added to support
    formatting of the list of plugins which haven't been installed yet. If
    these files do not exist, hard-coded HTML is used to present the list.</li>
  <li>The template file <tt>admin/link/listitem.thtml</tt> has been changed
    so that all the links are clickable.</li>
  <li><code>COM_pollResults()</code> doesn't use the side block templates any
    more when called from <tt>pollbooth.php</tt>. Therefore, you can now use
    different layouts whether the poll results are displayed in a side block
    or on the separate poll results and comments page.</li>
  <li>Removed the Normal / Archive / Refreshing drop down menus from the admin
    story and poll editors of the themes that ship with Geeklog. The setting
    of this dropdown isn't used in Geeklog anyway and has just confused users
    in the past ... (files <tt>admin/story/storyeditor.thtml</tt> and
    <tt>admin/poll/polleditor.thtml</tt>)</li>
</ul>


<h2><a name="changes136">Theme changes in Geeklog 1.3.6</a></h2>

<p>There have been a lot of changes in the themes for 1.3.6 to get rid of the
last pieces of hard-coded english texts so as to make localisation easier.
Most of these changes have been made in the Admin editors (<tt>admin</tt>
directory) and the calendar (<tt>calendar</tt> directory). If you created
your own theme for an earlier version of Geeklog, we recommend that you copy
over these two directories from one of the themes that come with Geeklog
(choose one that is similar to your own theme or which it was originally based
on). It seems like most Geeklog themes didn't change these files anyway, so
this shouldn't be too much of a hassle ...</p>

<h3>Other changes</h3>
<ul>
  <li>The template file <tt>admin/mail/mailform.thtml</tt> has been added.
    This form for sending emails to other users of the site was previously
    hard-coded into Geeklog.<br>
    If you followed the above advice and copied over the <tt>admin</tt>
    directory to your theme, you got this file already.</li>
  <li>Two new files <tt>menuitem_last.thtml</tt> and
    <tt>menuitem_none.thtml</tt> have been added to give theme authors better
    control over the items in menu bars ({menu_elements} and {plg_menu_elements}
    variables in <tt>header.thtml</tt>). The template file
    <tt>menuitem.thtml</tt> is now used to render the first and any following
    menu items - with the exception of the last menu item, which is rendered
    using <tt>menuitem_last.thtml</tt>. If there are no menu elements for a
    menu bar, <tt>menuitem_none.thtml</tt> is used.</li>
  <li>New files have been added and the existing files have been changed for
    the links section (<tt>links</tt> directory). Again, we recommend to just
    copy over those files from one of the themes that ship with Geeklog.<br>
    The new files are: <tt>categoryactivecol.thtml</tt>,
    <tt>categorycol.thtml</tt>, <tt>categorynavigation.thtml</tt>,
    <tt>categoryrow.thtml</tt>, <tt>pagenavigation.thtml</tt></li>
  <li>The user profile has been extended to include a list of the last 10
    stories as well as the total numbers of stories and comments posted by that
    user. Have a look at the file <tt>users/profile.thtml</tt> to see the
    changes or just copy that file over from one of the themes that ship with
    Geeklog. You should also copy over the file <tt>users/storyrow.thtml</tt>
    which describes the block for the last 1o stories.</li>
  <li>The Classic theme has been updated to have an "Edit" link (for
    StoryAdmins) in every story now.<br>
    Files changed: <tt>storybodytext.thtml</tt>,
    <tt>featuredstorybodytext.thtml</tt></li>
  <li>In the Classic and Digital Monochrome themes the "contact" link now
    points to the form to send an email to the admin user instead of using a
    <code>mailto:</code> link with the site's email address from
    <tt>config.php</tt>.</li>
</ul>

<h3>CSS changes</h3>
<ul>
<li>The underscore '_' is not a valid character in CSS. Therefore, some class names used by the Geeklog calendar have been changed to use the dash '-' instead. You may need to change your stylesheet accordingly.<br>
Names that changed: <b>cal-oldday</b>, <b>cal-today</b>,
<b>cal-futureday</b>, <b>cal-nullday</b>, <b>weekview-curday</b>,
<b>weekview-offday</b></li>
<li>A new class named <b>pagenav</b> can be used to format the paged
  navigation.<br>
  Please note that this change was made <em>after</em> the release of Geeklog
  1.3.6rc1 and affects the use of the paged navigation in
  <tt>admin/user/userslist.thtml</tt> and <tt>links/links.thtml</tt>: In
  1.3.6rc1, the navigation was wrapped in &lt;p&gt; tags in those files. As
  of Geeklog 1.3.6 however, the function producing the navigation will wrap
  it in a &lt;div&gt; automatically.</li>
</ul>

<p><strong>Note:</strong> Theme authors are encouraged to specify a character
set in the <tt>header.thtml</tt> of their themes like this:</p>
<blockquote><code>
&lt;meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset={charset}"&gt;
</code></blockquote>
<p>Geeklog will replace the <code>{charset}</code> variable with the proper
character set based on the currently used language file. Also make sure that
you put the above line <em>before</em> the <code>&lt;title&gt;</code> tag in
the <code>&lt;head&gt;</code> section of your <tt>header.thtml</tt> file.</p>

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