Kryptronic Software Support Forum

Hi markp17.

Thanks for the question.  Coding the displays for version 8 was a real balancing act due to the fact that we had so much design functionality that needed to go into the new software, but still had to support upgrading version 7 display skins to the platform.

The short answer to your question is 'yes, you can continue to use your current skin'.  The upgrade instructions will include a section detailing what changes need to be made to your skin in order for it to work properly with version 8.  There were a lot of changes to the skins, but by following those instructions, you will be able to use your current design with a few changes to your files, following instructions that we'll publish next week.

The main changes you'll need to make are as follows:

(1) Remove the print.php file (that's it's own skin now).

(2) Replace your skinfunc.php file with the on provided in our default skin (that's changed quite a bit).

(3) Change the DOCTYPE and html tags at the top of your skin to match those in the new Default skin, and delete all of the meta tags (the meta tags are now auto-generated by the software).  Also remove the robotstag() function call and, move the call to the jslib namespace above your css file inclusion.

(4) Include our system css file (media/skins/css/all.css) right above your skin's css file inclusion.

(5) Change your calls to the skinwidgets namespace replacing the parameters LEFT and RIGHT to the new parameters HEADER, NAVMENU, SIDEMENU and FOOTER (or optionally change the designations in the management interface for the skinwidget parameters to LEFT and RIGHT - or a combination of both methods).

(6) In your all.css file, remove all elements in the 'General XHTML Elements' section except the body, a and a:hover elements.  Also remove all other elements from all other sections except the 'Skin Specific Divs' section.  Basically you'll be using your skin's all.css file only for presentation of the elements contained in your skin.php file.

(7) In your all.css file, using the new Default skin's all.css file as a guide, optionally include styling from the sections beginning with 'System Required Classes' and 'Required Classes' sections, restyling as you see fit.  This will allow you to restyle items like your skin widgets and forms using CSS to override what is provided by the system's CSS file.

(8) If you were using a ZipSkin, remove any calls to the include_skinfile() function.  These should probably be replaced with calls to skinwidgets.

That list may sound daunting to some, but the end result is a skin that's much easier to manage because it's much lighter weight that what we were using in version 7.  Please wait for full instructions with more detail prior to starting to change your skin.  These are just a rough guideline to show you changing the skin is fairly simple and can be done following step-by-step instructions.  The instructions should be easy enough to follow for even the most novice HTML coders.

We have removed the skin import function from the version 6 and version 5.1 importers for version 8.  The changes between version 8 and those versions are so drastic that we're recommending users start with the new Default skin and modify from there.

The new management interface gives you the ability to upload logos and change color schemes for the new Default skin.  From what we've seen in the past for a majority of the users, we expect most people to go that route to achieve their custom look and feel (especially now that the new Default skin is so nice looking).

Don't worry - the instructions we provide will give illustrations as to exactly what to do.  The list above is simply a quick and dirty reference for you - as I am still working on the detailed instructions.

no butt it makes you look like a chicken lol

I totally agree.  A main focus of the v8 release was to make upgrading from v7 much, much easier than upgrading from 5.1 or 6 to v7.

The upgrade price will be $129 beginning August 17.  You can always pre-order it now and wait to do the upgrade until you're ready, if cost is a concern.