Great Extension for Theme Designers!!!

Reality · Post by **Reality** » July 22nd, 2004, 11:01 am

Right; it doesn't show up in the theme manager. It works as a jar. Tried creating a new profile; it didn't work.

e|vo · Post by **e|vo** » July 27th, 2004, 9:34 am

Hi,
I would appreciate using this technique, but I did not succeed.
A theme which should be integrated that way must not be installed before, or?
So if I'm working on my theme, I have to uninstall it first and then go through the instructions provided by mhiaz. Or do I have to install it first and then replace the .jar by the folders, otherwise it would not be in the theme manager?
There is another thing: I read somewhere that you only can use a folder within the chrome folder of your profile, is that correct? Or could I perhaps put the theme on another disc?

Thanks a lot, this extension if it get it to work, will help me that much.

Sailfish · Post by **Sailfish** » July 27th, 2004, 11:32 am

There is a bug in Pike's 0.1.6 version of Show Old Extensions which prevents the themes from displaying in the Theme Manager. If you can get access to the 0.1.5 version (or wait until Pike fixes the latest version, expected later this week) then this should work for you.

There is no limitation as to where the theme library files need to reside. In fact, I have mine well outside of the browser installation and/or chrome folders altogether.

Old miahz · Post by **Old miahz** » July 27th, 2004, 7:26 pm

Ahh - thanks for that bug info, Sailfish. I have been using version 0.1.4 of SOE with no major problems. To expand on Sailfish's answer to e|vo, you can define pretty much any folder in your file system. The only difference is the installed-chrome.txt entry. If it's in your chrome folder, you would use something like:
skin,install,url,resource:/chrome/mytheme/

To use a file anywhere in your file system you would use:
skin,install,url,file:///C:/My%20Files/Themes/mytheme/

Also to e|vo:
as i mentioned before, installing the same theme twice can result in some weird problems, so if you already installed the theme from a .JAR file, then you should probably uninstall it before attempting to install it using this method. Or, you could change the chrome:name and em:internalName and GUID, which should prevent conflicts with already installed themes, but no guarantees. I still have slight problems with installing similar themes, which may be due to the hackish nature of this method, bugs in the extension, or any other number of variables.

To all of you who are having problems, if you've read this thread, you saw that it took me many attempts to get it set up right, so the only advice i can give is to keep trying different things. And if you do get it to work, please share your experience with us so we can further refine the process.

mattias73 · Post by **mattias73** » October 27th, 2004, 1:31 am

miahz wrote:ahhh yes. i got it.
in all my back-and-forth editing of install.rdf and contents.rdf the em:internalName and chrome:name got mismatched. fixed, and now it's working. the funny thing is - i had that problem before when i first stumbled into 0.9 so i knew to look out for it. but in my frustration, i started changing too many things at once. i probably would have had it working a little sooner, if i would have caught that.

thanks again, Sailfish, for your help.

ok, summary of what we've learned today:<ol><li>install Show Old Extensions</li><li>enable old theme support by adding the pref "showoldexts.enable_theme_support" set to "true" in about:config, prefs.js, etc.</li><li>in installed-chrome.txt, add an install entry which points to the dir containing contents.rdf (same as before 0.9)</li><li>make sure both contents.rdf and install.rdf follow the proper format.</li><li>make sure the chrome:name in contents.rdf and the em:internalName in install.rdf match, or else you won't be able to use the theme even if it appears in the manager</li><li>you'll need to update your theme with the new mozapps content to prevent the GSOD, ensuring the Themes manager displays properly, allowing you to switch back to other themes</ol><ul><li>in the Themes manager, the information displayed is from contents.rdf not install.rdf. so there is no icon or version number; but it you right-click>About [theme]... you'll get a dialog with all the info from contents.rdf that was displayed in the old themes options panel</li><li>the Update (obviously) and Uninstall buttons do not work for themes installed in this manner</ul>

ok, so if this helped you, it might also help me. but I dont undestand all of what you are saying above.
2.
enable old theme support by adding the pref "showoldexts.enable_theme_support" set to "true" in about:config, prefs.js, etc.

please explain further. where do I find about:config, prefs.js... and what is etc? ie. where to edit?

make sure both contents.rdf and install.rdf follow the proper format.

what are the proper formats?

make sure the chrome:name in contents.rdf and the em:internalName in install.rdf match,

what do you mean my match? they should be the same?

well, my point here is that it was not as easy as installing the SOE and then it would work again (sight)

I need further instructions!

thanks!
Mattias

Sailfish · Post by **Sailfish** » October 27th, 2004, 5:50 am

mattias73 wrote:enable old theme support by adding the pref "showoldexts.enable_theme_support" set to "true" in about:config, prefs.js, etc.

please explain further. where do I find about:config, prefs.js... and what is etc? ie. where to edit?

about:config is entered into the URLBar. Information about manually setting prefs can be found here.

mattias73 wrote:make sure both contents.rdf and install.rdf follow the proper format.

what are the proper formats?

make sure the chrome:name in contents.rdf and the em:internalName in install.rdf match,

what do you mean my match? they should be the same?

This is rather complicated but is explained here and includes links for further information. However, if you're simply modifying an already working theme then you needn't worry about it as long as you unpack the theme's entire jar file and leave the folder structure intact, e.g. browser/... global/... etc.

mattias73 wrote:well, my point here is that it was not as easy as installing the SOE and then it would work again (sight)

Agreed but this method is the only way I know of to do it anymore.

gl

mattias73 · Post by **mattias73** » October 28th, 2004, 9:06 am

thanks!

I actually now managed to get things working the way I want to.

cheers!
Mattias

Reality · Post by **Reality** » June 30th, 2005, 11:27 am

OK, I finally got his method to work, currently with version 1.5 of the extension (thanks again, Sailfish). It's been somewhat strange, however. First, when I switch from Qute to my theme, it keeps the padding around Qute (probably a dynamic theme switching issue) and makes all the pages shake, which eventually stops. Opening a new window fixes these, but the UI becomes mostly unresponsive. Buttons show the button over effect, but don't do anything when clicked. I can type in the address bar, but not go to a page from there. Keyboard shortcuts to open tab, etc.. don't work. The menubar, while initially working, becomes deactivated and unclickable. While it's working, bookmarks don't work, but the Go links do. The update icon works and can update extension/themes.

My theme is based on Noia (lite) 2.80. Anyone know what is causing this?

Reality · Post by **Reality** » June 30th, 2005, 11:51 am

Could be my theme, I'm recreating it from Noia 2.81.

Sailfish · Post by **Sailfish** » June 30th, 2005, 12:09 pm

Reality, starting with Deer Park, that extension is no longer needed. The same capability can be achieved via these instructions.

gl

Reality · Post by **Reality** » June 30th, 2005, 12:19 pm

Cool. I probably won't go to Deerpark until the beta, but thanks for letting me know.

Great Extension for Theme Designers!!!

Has this happened to anyone?