[pmwiki-users] Skin Search - PM plz reply...

[Patrick R. Michaud]

On Tue, Sep 26, 2006 at 03:41:55PM -0500, JB wrote:
> The PMWiki SetSkin function in /scripts/skins.php
> abandons trying to load a skin after it finds one 
> directory named for the skin which does not contain 
> the skin .tmpl file.  It should keep trying the other 
> directories in the SkinLibDirs array.

The mental model I've been using for skins is that
a skin is a directory containing a .tmpl file along
with any other related files that may be needed for 
the skin.

In other words, the unit of "skinning" in PmWiki is
the directory, not the .tmpl file.  This is especially
true since it's possible for a single skin to make use
of more than one .tmpl file.

So, if PmWiki encounters a directory that matches
the name of a requested skin, then PmWiki considers the
skin to have been "found".  If PmWiki is then unable
to resolve the loading of a template from that directory,
then it considers the skin to contain an error and
reports back accordingly.

While "it should keep trying the other directories" is
a valid view of the way things could work, I've deliberately
chosen the current model in order to simplify troubleshooting 
and development of skins, especially in wikifarm environments.
It would be very annoying if PmWiki fails to report an error
in a local skin just because there happens to be a farm skin 
that works.  

Pm