Dummy Page

It's a little annoying to have to upload our modified files to the server often, and also we don't want users to possibly see a broken, or half styled website. So, we will make a Dummy Page. This allows us to make changes, that don't involve running the scripts, locally, then only when we are satisfied with the results will we upload the custom css file. A dummy page is a static page that uses the elements of Wikka. Since it's a static representation of your Wikka page, you can save it on your own machine, make changes to the css, and view the changes without having to run the script on a server.

Your dummy page should include all the different things you want to changes the styling of. That is, if all you want to change are the colors in the header and footer, any page will do, since the header and footer will be the same for every page. If you want to change the style of headings H1 through H5, you will need to add them to a page first. You can, of course make more than one dummy page. FormattingRules would be a good choice to make a dummy page from, because of the wide variety of stuff on the page. You should also make one from the login page and the admin pages, in order to make sure that all your changes work in all of your pages. Some of the actions use their own css files, it's up to you whether or not to restyle them also, but you will want to make sure the actions style still works with any changes you make elsewhere.

To make your dummy page, open the page you've selected to copy from in your browser. Then just save the page as a complete web page. In FireFox, just right click on the page, IE7 in the tool-bar there is a drop-down under 'Page'. Every browser should have similar functionality, if it's not a right click, perhaps it's under 'File'. You should save the page to a folder, the browser will make a sub folder for the css and image files. Save it as .html. Open the .html file with your browser. Look at the url in your browser, make sure it is pointing to the folder you made for your dummy page, and not your wiki on the net. Your dummy page should look just like the one in your wiki. Now, you can make changes to 'wikka.css', (the one in the sub folder your browser just made) save the file, and refresh your browser to see the changes.

Test your dummy page in various browsers. When you are satisfied with the changes you have made, upload the css file to your server.

Remember to refresh your browser to see any changes you have made!

If you want to make more complex changes to Wikka, and need to alter files other than the css file, you will want to have a working wiki on your local machine. To get a working wiki on a windows machine, you can use EasyPHP.

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Go to EasyPHP next.
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WikkaStyle