Edit the themes.dat File

After you have copied your custom templates and sample theme pages to the ShopSite server, the last step required to make your theme available to merchants is to edit the themes.dat file. This file controls the themes that merchants can select from on the Layout & Color Theme screen in the wizard, and in the Preferences section of ShopSite. Besides specifying a page template and color schemes for your theme, you can specify a product template and other page and product fields.

You can make your theme available to all stores in a mall, or to just one store:

To make the theme available to all stores in a mall, edit the themes.dat file in the ShopSite CGI directory.

To make the theme available to a single store, copy the themes.dat file from the ShopSite CGI directory to the store's data directory, then edit the copy in the data directory.

Follow these steps to add your theme to the themes.dat file.

Themes are presented to merchants in rows. Usually each row shows one theme in each of its available color schemes like this:

To add a new row, go to the end of the file and add a new line above the line that says "EndThemes." On the new line, type the word "Row" then a pipe symbol, then the name of your theme. For example:
EndTheme
EndRow
Row|MyTheme ¬ add this line
EndThemes
Create an entry for a theme in a specific color scheme. On a new line, type the following, separating each entry with a pipe symbol ( | ):
- The word "Theme"
- A unique number to identify this theme and color scheme
- A name for the theme in this color scheme
- A description of the theme
- The name and path of the thumbnail graphic for the theme. The path is relative to the ShopSite Images directory.
- The name of the sample page file for the theme (most likely a simple HTML page containing an <img> tag for a screenshot). You can include a partial path in this field if you want to put sample page files in subdirectories. ShopSite will automatically append ".html" to the file name, so only include the file name, not the extension. Note that the URL of the directory containing the sample pages is defined by the theme_thumbnail_url key in the global.aa file.
An example entry might look like this:
Theme|0|MyThemeBlue|My Theme in Blue|thumbs/mythemeblue.gif|mythemeblue
Begin specifying the page fields for the theme, including the page template. On a new line, type the word "Destination," a pipe symbol, and the word "Pages," like this:
Destination|Pages
Specify the page theme to use in the template. On a new line, type the word "Field," the word "Template," and the name of the page template for the theme, with a pipe symbol between each. If you want to use a standard ShopSite template, you can use just the first two digits in the template name. An example entry might look like this:
Field|Template|MyPageTemplate
Define a color scheme for this theme. On separate lines, list the colors for the various page attributes in this color scheme, using the sample format shown here. Notice that the field names contain spaces, unlike the field names used in the templates. Also notice that you must specify the colors with a color name followed by the hex value enclosed in parentheses.
Field|Background Color|Green-Blue_2 (#009999)
Field|Link Color|Purple_2 (#000066)
Field|Visited Link Color|Purple_2 (#000066)
Field|Text Color|Black-True (#000000)
Field|Active Link Color|Grey_2 (#999999)
Field|Background Image|none

If you specify a color other than an exact string from the ShopSite color list, it will still work. You can use just the hex value preceded by a pound sign. Any values that you enter will be added to the drop-down list of colors that merchants see.
Optionally specify any other page fields that you want to "preset" for this theme. For example, to have the same text appear in the Text 3 field on all pages, you could make an entry like this:
Field|Text 3|<small>All Sales Final</small>

Any values that you specify will be applied to existing pages when the theme is chosen and to new pages created after that, but the merchant can edit any pages to change the values.
Optionally begin specifying the product fields for the theme, including the product template. On a new line, type the word "Destination," a pipe symbol, and the word "Products," like this:
Destination|Products
If your theme uses a specific product template, specify that template on a new line, using the format shown here. You can specify one of the built-in ShopSite templates by using the two-digit number at the beginning of the template name.
Field|Template|MyProductTemplate

Note: The product template that you specify here will be applied to existing products and will be the default setting for new products, but the merchant can select other product templates.
Optionally specify any other product fields that you want to "preset" for this theme. For example, to have all products on sale by default, add this line:
Field|Sale On|checked
Optionally specify a color scheme to be used on product More Info pages, Search Results pages, and Shopping Cart pages:
Destination|Other
Field|Background Color|009999
Field|Link Color|000066
Field|Visited Link Color|000066
Field|Text Color|000000
Field|Active Link Color|999999
Field|Background Image|none
Field|Table Shade Color|000066

Note that for these pages, you enter colors as just the numeric value.
Close the entry for this template and color scheme by typing "EndTheme" on a line by itself.
Repeat steps 2 through 11 for each color scheme.
Close the row by typing "EndRow" on a line by itself.

A complete entry for a theme with only two color schemes might look like this:

ShopSite Help and Resource Center
February 13, 2004
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