XWiki Skins

How to create a new Skin

  To create a new Skin, you have to create a new direcory inside the webapps/xwiki/skins folder and then add Velocity templates,CSS stylesheets, Javascript files and images inside it. For example, if you want to remove the logo from the header of the pages, follow these steps:

1. Inside the webapps/xwiki/skins folder, create a folder named myskin. Copy all files from webapps/xwiki/skins/colibri folder into your new skin directory.
2. Change the Skin at global or instance level and set it as myskin ( see this page for more informations about how to change the Skin )
3. Open any page in view mode and you will notice that myskin layout is the same as the colibri layout (if the skin changes to albatross means that your theme wasn't used. Check the names of your skin directory. Note that skin names are case-sensitive)
4. Change the global template:
   • to remove the logo, modify the global.vm template under the new Skin and delete the line:
     <img src="$!logourl" alt="Wiki Logo"/>
5. Save the template

Open any page in view mode and you will notice that the XWiki logo is not displayed anymore. Congratulations! You have created a new minimal XWiki Skin.

How to override a Skin

  An alternative for creating a new Skin is the possibility to override an existing Skin. The advantage of overriding an existing Skin is the fact that you don't need access to the server filesystem in order to modify the files used by the current Skin.
  To override a Skin, you have to use the same document that is used to store the Skin.

A. Creating a Skin document

To create a new Skin document, follow these steps:

1. Create a new page. Name it MySkinPage

   

2. Edit the document's objects (Edit -> Objects)
3. Add an object of type XWiki.XWikiSkins to the document
4. Click on add
5. Set the base skin property to colibri. Now, you use colibri as a base skin. As you can see, no files were copied on the file system, but your skin uses colibri.

   

6. Save the document

B. Working with the XWiki.XWikiSkins class

The base element in overriding a Skin is the XWiki.XWikiSkins class ( http://localhost:8080/xwiki/bin/view/XWiki/XWikiSkins ). In order to modify the templates or the files used by a Skin, you have to work with the properties of this class. By default, the Skin class contains a set of properties that allows you to override some of the templates and files used by the Skin, and it also allows you to set the name of the logo displayed in the header of the interface.
To override other templates or files, you have to add new properties to the Skin class. For example, if you want to override myfile.vm ( or myfile.css, or myfile.js ), follow these steps:

1. Go to the XWiki.XWikiSkins document
2. Edit the document's class (Edit -> Class) or follow this link: http://localhost:8080/xwiki/bin/edit/XWiki/XWikiSkins?editor=class
3. Add a new property myfile.vm as TextArea type
4. Click on Add. The myfile.vm property should appear in the list

   

5. Save the document

C. Using a Skin document

  To use a Skin document, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Skin property from inside the Administration page, Presentation section
2. Set the value of the files as being the full name of the Skin document. For our skin page created above, we will type Main.MySkinPage
3. Save the preferences

D. Overriding the Skin components

  Let's add a "HELLO," before the username on the top right menu, not by modifying the menuview.vm template on the server, but overriding it inside the Skin document. Follow these steps:

Method 1: By editing the XWiki.XWikiSkins properties on the Skin document

1. Add a TextArea property named menuview.vm to the XWiki.XWikiSkins class
2. Edit your skin document's objects (Edit -> Objects) and open the properties of the object
3. Copy the original content of the menuview.vm template and paste it in the property field named menuview.vm. If you don't have access to the server filesystem, open the template by following http://localhost:8080/xwiki/templates/global/vmmenuview.vm

4. Replace the following code:
    #xwikitopmenuentrystart($xwiki.getURL($xcontext.user, 'view') "$msg.get('core.menu.type.profile')__SEPARATOR__$!xwiki.getUserName($xcontext.user, false)" 'tmUser' 'hasIcon')

   with(  #xwikitopmenuentrystart($xwiki.getURL($xcontext.user, 'view') "$msg.get('Hello')__SEPARATOR__$!xwiki.getUserName($xcontext.user, false)" 'tmUser' 'hasIcon')

5. Save the document
   )))

Method 2: By attaching files to the current Skin document

1. create a copy of the global.vm template; if you don't have access to the server filesystem, open the template by following one of these links:
   • http://localhost:8080/xwiki/skins/mybaseskin/global.vm ( where mybaseskin is the current Skin used in the Skin document ), or
   • if the previous link is not valid, go to http://localhost:8080/xwiki/templates/global.vm
2. replace the following code inside the copy of global.vm template:
   <a class="glink"
     href="$!xwiki.getURL($context.user, 'view')"
     id="headeruser">
         $!xwiki.getUserName($context.user, false)
   </a>
   with
   <a class="glink"
     href="$!xwiki.getURL($context.user, 'view')"
     id="headeruser">
         HELLO,
         $!xwiki.getUserName($context.user, false)
   </a>
3. attach the copy of global.vm template to the current Skin document page

  Now, open any document in view mode and you will notice the nice "HELLO," before your username.
  Follow the same process in order to override Javascript and CSS files ( http://localhost:8080/xwiki/skins/colibri/myfile.css ).

3. Overriding a skin resource

Just like templates, resource files such as images or css/js files can be overridden. To do that, the replacement must be attached to the Skin document, making sure it complies with the naming convention explained below. To find out the right name for your replacement resource, here is the trick:

1. find the path on the filesystem of the resource to replace (you can easily obtain that information using development tools such as Firebug); for instance, let's say this path is either
   /xwiki/resources/icons/silk/myicon.gif
   for a resource found in the general resource directry, or
   /xwiki/skins/colibri/myimage.png
   if the resource is specific to a certain skin, in this case 'colibri'.
2. strip from this path everything from the beginning until 'resources/' or the name of the skin, included; in the previous examples, you will obtain in the first case
   icons/silk/myicon.gif
   and in the second case simply
   myimage.png
3. in this path, replace '/' with '.'; after this operation, we will get icons.silk.myicon.gif for the first image example, while the second one remains unchanged. This is the name of the file corresponding to the resource that you need to attach to the Skin document in order to make the replacement.
4. create a file named as explained above and attach it to your Skin

E. Adding new components to the Skin

  If you want to add new files to the skin, like CSS  or Javascript files, you have two options:

• attach the files to the Skin document and reffer them by their URL, or
• add new properties to the XWiki.XWikiSkins object from inside the Skin document, and refer them by their name

  For example, if you want to add a new CSS  file to the Skin, named mynewfile.css, follow one of these set of steps:

  OR

  Open any document in view mode and you will notice that the stylesheet is now applied.
 
 

F. Using images in a Skin document

1. Changing the logo

    For example, if you want to add an image named myimage.jpg as being the logo for the current Skin, follow these steps:

1. attach the image to the Skin document
2. edit the document's objects ( use the top-left menu: EDIT -> OBJECTS )
3. use the XWiki.XWikiSkins object and set the Logo property as being the name of the attached myimage.jpg
4. save the document

    Open any page in view mode and you will notice that the logo is now changed.

2. Adding images to the Skin interface

    To add images to the interface, attach them to the Skin document and use them in the CSS  code. For example, if you want to use myimage.jpg as background image for the pages inside your XWiki Enterprise instance, follow these steps:

1. attach the image to the Skin document
2. choose one of these actions:
   • add a new CSS  component to the Skin, name it pagebackground.css and add a reference to it from the style.css component ( see the section E for more information about how to add new components to the Skin )
   • override the mybaseskin.css component ( where mybaseskin is the name of the current Skin - for example: albatross.css, toucan.css or colibri.css )
3. paste the following code inside the CSS  component:
   body{
    background-image: url($xwiki.getSkinFile("myimage.jpg"));
   }

  Open any page in view mode and you will notice that the the background of the page contains your image.      
  Have fun taking advantage of the power of XWiki Skins!

More about XWiki Skins

In order to find more about XWiki Skins, check the Skins Tutorial from inside the Admin Guide and the Skins Tutorial from inside the User Guide 

Further reading

• the XWiki Data Model
• using the Skin Editor Application
• edit only one object