Export and import templates to individual files!

I'm releasing this as beta because:

• This has not been tested enough to prove it's working 100%.
• Your templates aren't something that can be compromised.

In short, what does this hack do:

• Can write all your templates into files, with any extension you'd like (.html is my favorite), having each template in its own file.
• Can read from existing template files and save them back to your forum system.
• Now with option to selectively choose what templates to import / export!

To install:

• Download the attached ZIP file, extract it and upload do_template.php to your forum admin folder.
• Go to the file in your browser.
• If you are not on a Windows server, make sure PHP has permission to write (CHMOD 0777) in the folder you specify.
• If the folder doesn't exist, PHP will attempt to create it, but you will need write permissions (CHMOD 0777) in the parent folder of it.

Please test this if you can.
If you're trying this out on your real board, it should be safe, but I highly recommend backing up your styles before using it.

This is the place to make suggestions, I expect some!

[snyx]

whoa, me likes this concept man!
I will install it on a dummy system asap, and get back to ya!

[Parker Clack]

Chen:

I just installed it on my server and it works like a champ at downloading them. I haven't try to upload any of them though. It would be cool if you could pick out which ones you would like to import instead of importing them all.

Parker

[SteveK]

I've just tried downloading once in text mode and it works great. Will try other file types and importing later.

How about the ability through the interface to delete previously saved directories of templates. Since the directory and files are written by www, you can't easily remove them via ftp.

Another idea would be the ability to save the templates in a user specified directory besides the forum/admin directory. Best would be below root but don't know if this is possible.

And one more idea would be a drop down box that would allow you to select just a few templates to download vs. a complete dump of all templates.

Okay, just one more idea.... how about being able to zip them up and send the downloaded templates out to us via email?? This is handy as many times I'm not on a system that I can FTP from (due to company proxy settings)

This is a great tool and will make template life much easier!

Steve

[Parker Clack]

When you import a template do you have to delete the other template first before importing or does it just write over the top of the old one?

I agree that a file that is created that you could download as one big file would be great. What if you wrote it so that all of the information is written to one file, like the style file is, and then you could just import that one file back in.

This is a great idea and I know it will be utilized a lot around the sites with vB.

Thanks again,
Parker

[Admin]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Parker Clack
Chen:

I just installed it on my server and it works like a champ at downloading them. I haven't try to upload any of them though. It would be cool if you could pick out which ones you would like to import instead of importing them all.

Parker

[Admin]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by SteveK
I've just tried downloading once in text mode and it works great. Will try other file types and importing later.
To clarify, selecting .zip as the extension won't actually make the files zipped! They will still be in text mode.

How about the ability through the interface to delete previously saved directories of templates. Since the directory and files are written by www, you can't easily remove them via ftp.
That would require either saving all templates folders to the database in a special table, or having a script to go through the server and letting you do stuff with folders.

Another idea would be the ability to save the templates in a user specified directory besides the forum/admin directory. Best would be below root but don't know if this is possible.
AFAIK, you can't CHMOD folders below your public folder. Because of that, PHP won't be able to write to these folders.
TBH I don't really see the need for specifying folders that deep. :stupid:

And one more idea would be a drop down box that would allow you to select just a few templates to download vs. a complete dump of all templates.
Ok, I think I will add some kind of select box you can select templates from. Altough it would be very hard for the user to select all templates he wants, if there are a lot of them.

Okay, just one more idea.... how about being able to zip them up and send the downloaded templates out to us via email?? This is handy as many times I'm not on a system that I can FTP from (due to company proxy settings)
I actually thought of that, and I was sure it's a great idea.
The problem is, not all servers can zip files/folders on the server, because a special module is needed. And most servers don't have this.

This is a great tool and will make template life much easier!

Steve [/B]

[Admin]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Parker Clack
When you import a template do you have to delete the other template first before importing or does it just write over the top of the old one?

I agree that a file that is created that you could download as one big file would be great. What if you wrote it so that all of the information is written to one file, like the style file is, and then you could just import that one file back in.

This is a great idea and I know it will be utilized a lot around the sites with vB.

Thanks again,
Parker

[Admin]

To demonstrate what the main intention of this hack is:
Let's say you upgrade from v2 to v3.
So you download your current (modified) v2 templates, and to another folder you download the original v3 templates.
Then you can use something like Beyond Compare or Araxis Merge to compare the two folders, on a file to file basis.
Then when you're done, you just upload the templates back to a folder, and import them back using this script.

[Admin]

Ok, so I worked this afternoon about this, and now you have an option to selectively choose which templates to import. (see screen shot)

I'm not working on the same thing for the export process. (which is a bit more complicated than I thought!)

Heh, it took me 20 minutes (and a Google search ) to realize I need to put [] next to the input name when doing:
<select name="blbla[]" multiple>