Template installation module

Anybody else working on such a beast? I’ve had this idea, if it flies I’ll get to work on it.

Template packages must be:

Basic functionality only, use only default-installed snippets/chunks and js libraries (any custom snippets or chunks could conflict with already installed snippets and chunks with the same name.)

in this layout:

MyTemplate
|
---->
images (contains all images the template uses)
|
---->
style (contains all stylesheets the template uses)
|
---->
Install (contains the sql file of the template and text copy of same (in case zip is not supported or there are other reasons why the user would rather manually install), and a text file INSTALL.txt with manual installation instructions, any relevent notes, such as which snippets are required, and licensing information.

So the template_install module would:
0. check to make sure assets/templates folder is writable, database table is accessable, zip is supported, and required snippets are installed (should rarely be a problem if only default installed snippets are used). If problem, display detailed error page, if no problem...
1. have a "file upload" page to upload the zip file into the assets/templates folder.
2. unzip the zip file
3. display the INSTALL.txt file with an "OK" button to continue, or else a detailed error message
4. run the .sql file, report on results
5. check on TVs, generate a form with checkboxes of all installed TVs or report "No TVs Installed"
6. add the template to the TVs the user checks
7. show final installation results page, with "Upload Another" , "Edit Template" and "Done" buttons
8. return the user to the upload page, to the Manager template editing page with the new template loaded or to the Manager home page.

I don’t think anyone’s tackled that quite yet, but it sounds good to me. Victor’s working on the bootstrap installer, so we might leverage some of that code as it will do some similar things (and support uncompressing .zip files, too!).

Thanks for thinking it through!

Hi Susan,

A package installer in on the list of things to do but it’s not ready yet.

I believe we have posted a sample installer around here that can be used in the meanwhile. I think it’s the same installer that’s used for installing FCK, TinyMCE and Xinha.