frustrated trying to change theme

Permalink
I'm new to C5 and not very familiar with code, but I'm careful, I watched the tutorials, I read the forums and I try to keep a good attitude. But I'm very frustrated at the moment.

So I'm making a very simple site using the default Plain Yogurt theme:
http://www.jodeurbrouck.com/

As I built the site, I made some simple changes to footer, and I customized the theme a little (e.g. text and link colors) from the dashboard. After about 2 weeks of work, I then updated C5 to the latest version and found that all my customization was wiped out and I had to start over. Grrr.

Reading the forums, I discovered that this is expected behavior because the default theme is installed in the /concrete/themes folder, which is overwritten on updates, and that if I want to preserve customization I should install themes I create/edit in the higher level /themes folder. Would have been nice to know that before I started any editing of the theme, but this wasn't mentioned anywhere in the tutorials.

Anyway, I thought I could duplicate the entire /concrete/themes/default folder over to the higher directory, rename it, install it from the dashboard, and then I'd be fine. I did this, but as soon as I switch to the themes in this location, everything on the site gets screwed up. Not only is it not like the version I last had before copying, but it doesn't even look like the original default version of Plain Yogurt before I started editing it. What gives? What am I supposed to do? All I I want to do is make a copy of the current version of the currently used theme and edit it going forward in a way that prevents me from losing my customization. Please help.

Thanks.

 
Ekko replied on at Permalink Reply
Ekko
3.Themes

You can not override a theme by copying the theme from its packaged directory up to the themes/ folder. If you modify a theme's description.txt you can install it as a new theme from your dashboard. Also, a page within your active theme will take precedence over one within your site's page_types/ folder. So for example, putting something in page_types/default.php will have no effect on your site

Fromhttp://www.concrete5.org/documentation/how-tos/developers/change-th...

So rename the description text, and upload the theme as greek2, than you can make the edits you want, and on updating your now custom theme should not be touched. When you updated c5 also updates the default themes, so now that its not a default anymore it should be safe.

As for not having the info you want to go to the How To section of the site, as this is fully explained there in multiple areas.

http://www.concrete5.org/documentation/how-tos/...
brabin replied on at Permalink Reply
OK, so I followed your instructions and renamed the description text in the default theme located in concrete5/themes/. I thought I'd be able to now install it from the dashboard, as you say, but when I return to the dashboard not only doesn't it show any new themes available to be installed but I get an error message at the top of the page that says "invalid theme".
ConcreteOwl replied on at Permalink Reply
ConcreteOwl
Text Removed
Ekko replied on at Permalink Reply
Ekko
I think you may have skipped the make a copy of theme rename, and then reupload part. I was hoping you would read the how to, and then incorporate it with the greek2 instructions, and I should have or could have been clearer. I sent you a pm, and will take you through it.