| Basic
Customization: Creating Custom Buttons and Icons
Finding
the Images Directory
List of Buttons and Icons
Button Sizes and File Formats
Installing New Buttons
Troubleshooting
Resources
Remember,
you can go back at any time to choose new buttons in the Quick
Configure page, but some people making cosmetic changes to
Web Crossing want to replace the built-in buttons altogether with
buttons or icons that match their own site.
Finding
the Images Directory
The
buttons and icon images are stored in the images directory, which
you specified during installation,
and which may or may not be actually called "images," depending
on how you set it up at installation. If you've forgotten where
they are, you can look in the Control Panel
> General Settings.
The images
directory itself actually has several subdirectories in it, and
the path to each is listed in the General
Settings panel as well. These settings reflect the choices
you made on the Quick
Configure page.
- b1
through b12 (button options)
- i
1 through 5 (icon options)
- m
(miscellaneous images)
- docs
(administrative documentation)
- help
(user help documentation)
- WBChat
(the chat applet files)
The
Buttons/Icons List
There
is a list of the buttons you'll need, including the text on them
and their functions, in your sysop
documentation.
Button
Sizes and File Formats
Buttons
come in two basic sizes:
- The
size of the buttons in the button bar at the bottom of most
Web Crossing pages.
- The
size of the smaller buttons that appear next to each message.
There are about a dozen of these. They are described in the
sysop
documentation list as "small buttons."
You
can create your new buttons in any size you want, as long as all
the larger ones are the same size, and all the smaller ones are
the same size. Take note of the size you created, because you'll
need to tell Web Crossing about it later when you're ready to
use them. If you want to know the sizes of the default buttons,
you can find the sizes in the Control Panel
> Custom buttons & icons.
For
the other small icons, it's not essential that they're all the
same size. You'll be able to specify the size when you're ready
to use them.
Be sure
you create your new buttons and icons with the same names
as the default images, or Web Crossing won't find them later.
They'll all need to be .gif files as well.
Installing
New Buttons
You
can replace the contents any of the 12 button directories with
your new images, and any of the 5 icon directories with your new
icons. Or you can add a new subdirectory within /images. If, however,
you want to be able to use your buttons with the Quick Configure
page, you'll need to edit the webxButtons.cfg file in the
webx directory. Study what's there, and follow the pattern established
to indicate image sizes, and then when you next use the Quick
Configure page, your new buttons will be there.
When
you're ready to install the new buttons, upload them to the correct
directory using your FTP program. Be sure to save backup copies
of the old files if you're replacing any old images, because they'll
be overwritten and deleted when you upload your new buttons with
the same names as the old ones. After they're installed, go to
the Control Panel > General Settings
and indicate the directory you've chosen.
If you're
running in Direct Web Service mode,
you'll have to reset the file cache (Control
Panel > Reset file cache for HTML files and webx.tpl templates)
to see your new buttons. After you've done all of this, return
to the Control Panel >
Custom buttons & icons.
Your new buttons should show up next to the form fields if you've
put them in the proper places and named them correctly, but the
sizes may be distorted if you've used different sizes than the
defaults and you didn't edit the webxButtons.cfg file. This is
OK for the moment. If there are distortions, you will need to
fill in the height and width of your new buttons - you're going
to tell Web Crossing to display them at the new sizes when you
click the Update Sizes button on that page.
Figure
1 - Screenshot of Sysop Control Panel with default buttons displayed
Troubleshooting
I'm
getting a broken image icon in my browser where the image is supposed
to be.
- Check
that the images are the right place
- Check
that the file names are correct
- Check
that they are .gif files
- You
can check your page source in your browser to see the URL that
Web Crossing thinks the images will be and where your
browser is looking for them. If that's not where you put them,
either adjust the location in the Control Panel, or move the
images to the proper directory.
I uploaded
my new buttons, but I still see the old ones.
- Try
clearing your browser's cache. It may have the old ones cached.
- If
you're running in Direct Web Service mode, reset your file cache.
- Did
you upload them to the proper directory?
My images
display, but the shape is distorted.
- Recheck
the height and width settings in the Control Panel.
Note:
If you can't log in because there is no Login image to click
on, use this trick from the syosp
documentation: Log in using:
http://your.site/webx?59@@
where
http://your.site/webx? is your usual path to your Web Crossing
installation. You'll be asked to log in as sysop with a regular
non-image form button, and can then correct the Images directory
in the Control Panel. |
Resources
See Folder
Customization Chart.
Web Crossing
FAQ:
Sysop
Control Panel
- Customizing
- General
Settings (fifth item down shows location of images directory)
- Custom
buttons & icons
- Quick
Configure
Sysop
Documentation
|
