SKIN is an advanced configuration template. When entering any section of the Web interface, this template is processed before anything else is rendered on the page. The majority of SKIN should not be edited by users. It contains default settings for the Web interface, URLs used by the navigational system, and other internal variables required for proper functioning of the Web interface. Some options can be customized by the site administrator. These include whether or not login cookies should expire, whether or not mail-merge features should be made available, and whether or not list owners should have a support link available on their dashboards. All icons are also defined in SKIN, which can be customized if desired.
In addition, the Global Skins (SKIN) template now contains an option to force the browser to use a specific character set for cases where the browser’s auto-detect feature fails to use the correct character set. This variable, DEFAULTCHARSET, can be defined for the site as a whole or for particular lists that are known to use a specific character set. To set, simply change the default setting of 0 to the appropriate charset, such as ISO-8859-5.
STYLESHEET-GLOBAL contains the CSS used by the Web interface. This template can be customized by the site administrator, and is where fonts, colors, backgrounds, and other non-graphical site-wide elements can be changed.
The entry pages (usually named –MAIN, which are often used to contain the template code for the entire section in previous versions of LISTSERV) are now used to only set variables that instruct WA which components to use when rendering the page. These pages should not be edited for customization purposes.
The layout templates, which begin with the prefix LAYOUT-, are global templates that determine the makeup of every section of the Web interface. They are high-level templates that define where to insert various components, such as headers, trailers, navigation bars, and list selectors.
See Section 3.1 Global Layout Templates for more information on these templates.
The body templates, which begin with the prefix BODY-, can be either global or section-specific. They determine the appearance and makeup of components used throughout the Web interface. Some of the BODY templates are highly relevant for customization, particularly the global ones. Virtually all customization can be done in LAYOUT and BODY templates, combined with the stylesheet. Examples of useful BODY templates are BODY-GLOBAL-HEADER (contains the LISTSERV top banner), BODY-GLOBAL-TRAILER (contains the bottom banner) and BODY-GLOBAL-NAV-MAIN (contains the main navigation bar).
The object templates, which begin with the prefix OBJECT-, can be either global or section-specific. They are advanced templates and contain components that allow users to interact with WA. Examples include checkboxes, pull-down menus, buttons, links, and table-rendering code. Many OBJECT templates contain advanced processing logic and conditions. OBJECT templates should not be edited for customization purposes.
The text templates, which begin with the prefix TEXT-, contain virtually all the text used throughout the Web interface. Unlike previous versions of LISTSERV where text was interspersed with the HTML code, LISTSERV has now separated all text from the design, allowing site administrators and list owners to translate pages in one place, without having to search for the text among HTML code. TEXT-GLOBAL contains text variables used throughout the Web interface. These variables include the text in the navigation bar, the list selector, error messages, and other common phrases and words. In addition, each section has its own section-specific text template, which contains only the text used by that section.
The login templates are global templates that can be customized by the site administrator. They contain the text, fonts, colors, and other formats that can be changed for the login and password pages of the Web Interface.
The help templates, which begin with the prefix HELP-, instruct WA which helptext to display for each section. They don't contain the text itself and should not be edited.
The helptext templates, which begin with the prefix HELPTEXT-, contain the actual text that is shown when the user clicks on the
Help icon for a section/page or for a specific field. Each section of the Web interface has its own helptext template. If customization or translation of helptext is desired, then these are the templates where it can be done.
