This is insane

There is nothing easyabout elgg and nothing that even remotely makes sense unless you are a developer. Getting an answer is a matter of joining and posting on numerous groups and wishing and hoping for a response.

Take a look at e107 if you want a good idea as to how things should work on a open source successful program. Why make things so difficult? Since the program does not allow the admin to change the look of the site in a control panel I must ask, how the hell to you change the look of the site?

I began digging in the files and finaly found a css file that is actually a php file, but I went ahead and edited it anyways. Nothing happened until like an hour or so later and when I change it back to defualt, still no change. The php caches the page and then does what ever it does to confuse you.

How can I make instant changes to my site? This sucks bad. Any suggestions on a better script?

  • You have to understand the Magic

    Elgg 101

    Turn off simple cache when playing around with css files

  • How do I do that? I never did any editing out side xhtml and regular css.

  • Mostever- in your administration side of the program, click on Site Administration. you will see all of the original info you used to set up the site. under this will be some check boxes. uncheck the simple cache and the page file cache. Your site will run a little slower but things will happen just by refreshing the page. Leave this off while you are under developement.  The css file can be edited just like regular css, just make sure you save it as .php. The file for the site is located at yoursite/views/default/css.php.

    IF you install different widgets, some of them have there own css file and you will have to edit it to match your site also.. Or you could just plug in a theme form here and presto you are done. IF you do that your site look will not be effected by future upgrades.  

  • Thank you for you assistance. I don't like to figure these types of problems out so I used a software program to install the site automatically. It installed everything correctly, but unfortunately I must now get myself familiar with all the files.

    I will continue to play around. I am still disapointed in the overall progress of the site. After 5 years of development you would think that the elgg site would be better than what it is. I don't know php so I guess it must be more difficult then I was told.

  • the site is a little messy, but everything is here. Make sure and check out the themes and plugins in the drop down top tools menu. most of them have a readme file that will help you install and use them.   Also Find a member named Fusion and follow him. He is the god on this site.  

Beginning Developers

Beginning Developers

This space is for newcomers, who wish to build a new plugin or to customize an existing one to their liking