X-Cart forums

[tartaglia]

(none of the following is live yet)

I had a clean 4.5.0 installation, I followed Mike White's (Baby Monkey Studios) excellent video tutorial on how to create a custom skin directory so I wouldn't mess with the default skin files. I copied the /skin/ideal_comfort" skin folder to /skin/cnmc_ideal_comfort edited the altskin.ini and made very few changes - modified the logo, and it all worked fine. I could see the new skin in the Admin:General Settings:Appearance settings and I could change the skin for the site, it was beautiful.

In the past week I had QT upgrade from 4.5.0 to to 4.5.1. Because I know that they cleaned up some of the "ideal_comfort" skin files. I figured I'd start from scratch building my skin again (no big deal I had changed the logo and that was about it). I performed the same steps as before. Copied /skin/ideal_comfort folder to /skin/ideal_comfort_cnmc (notice I did not overwrite my previous custom skin folder). Edited the altskin.ini and the screenshot.png. Then went looking for my new skin in Admin:General Settings:Appearance BUT THE LATEST SKIN IS NOT IN THE DROPDOWN LIST. I've checked the folder and file permissions, and they are all the same as the default skin folders. Why doesn't it show up in the dropdown list of skins to select from? I've tried a different computer so I could be sure nothing on the computer or browser was cached. Is there a reason that the new skin wouldn't show up right away? Is there a XC cache that is driving the list of skins in the dropdown, if so can it be forced to refresh? Is there a limit to the number of skins that will show in the dropdown (so I have to get rid of a skin to make a new one)? Also I have the following General Settings:Optimization Settings DISABLED ..."Use speed up tool for Javascript" & " Use speed up tool for CSS"

I'm pulling my hair out because I know the solution is something simple (I hope)

Anyone got a clue?

[tartaglia]

Hope you had a good weekend all. Well I am still confused by the original problem I had (above), but it seems to have fixed itself (I love those, it just offends my sensibilities).

After creating the custom skin folder on Friday in the afternoon, I went looking for it on Saturday morning in the Admin dropdown and it still wasn't there. I went looking again Sunday night and BOOM, it was there. This hints to me that somehow the dropdown list of available skins is cached by X-cart and refreshed itself after around 24hrs. Anyone know how you can force a refresh if this is indeed the case?

Thanks for any response?

[pauldodman]

run /cleanup.php from your browser.

Also check the bottom of general settings for caching options.

[tartaglia]

Thanks Paul, what does cleanup.php do, is it executable from the Admin side? I hesitate to directly run php scripts, thinking that i fthey were meant to be run, the people at QT qould have put them in the maintenance section of the Admin side and said something like "run this to refresh your ?????".

Also there is an option "Generate X-Cart cache every N hour(s)" in General settings that I have set by default to 24. But I wasn't sure what was included in the "X-cart cache" and didn't want to shorten the increment without that knowledge cause I know regenerating caches more frequently than necessary is not a good idea. Thanks for your insight on this issue.

[cflsystems]

www.yourdomain.com/cleanup.php - it is XC internal script and you run it from the browser address bar. It deleted all files in the XC var/template_c directory so XC is forced to generate them again. It doesn't hurt anything or cause any problems

[tartaglia]

Steve,

I saw in another completely un-related post that someone (maybe you suggested that the person "clear the X-Cart cache" is this the same as cleanup.php?

Also does cleanup.php take a lot of time/resources is it something I should only do sparingly when our traffic is low?

(I read the forums now almost everyday, trying to keep up and you are very helpful thank you)

David

[cflsystems]

Yes the same. No, it doesn't take time, all it does it's deleting files. You don't have to do it all the time, only when you change template files or database structure

[tartaglia]

Well luckily I don't change DB structure, I leave that to you guys, the professionals and gladly pay for it. Thanks again. I will put that cleanup.php script in my "toolbox" next time I make a template change that doesn't "take" like it should. And give it a try.

[cherie]

Here's some more information on that tool:

http://help.x-cart.com/index.php?title=X-Cart:Advanced_Tools#Clear_Templates.2FX-Cart_Cache

[tartaglia]

Thanks cherie