Create a theme-scoped skin

We can create a custom skin scoped to a specific theme. There are three ready-use choices to use as the base: Hidden, Standard, and NoSkin.

After the skin is assigned to the theme, we can apply the skin to specific portlets or use it as the theme default.

1. Mount the /fs-type1/ WebDAV entry point with the WebDAV client:

   /wps/mycontenthandler/dav/fs-type1/
   

   If you changed the wps folder, replace it with the WpsContextRoot value.

2. Locate the custom theme under the themes folder.

3. Under the theme root folder, find the skins folder. If it is not there, then create it.

4. Copy a skin to use as the base to the local system. If the skins folder did not exist previously and createdd it, go to the skins folder in the global scope, dav:fs-type1/skins. Copy a skin from that location to use as the base.

5. After copying the base skin folder to the local system, rename the folder.

6. Copy the new folder to the skins folder under the custom theme, dav:fs-type1/themes/custom_theme/skins.

7. Use the following code snippet as a template for the xmlaccess skin definition to import. This template creates a title only in English but we can add more locales. Replace the text in bold:

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
   <request
       xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" build="wp80" version="8.0"
       xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="PortalConfig_8.0.0.xsd"
       type="update" create-oids="true">
       <portal action="locate">
           <skin action="update" active="true" context-root="theme_context" default="false" domain="rel" 
             resourceroot="skin_folder_name" type="default" uniquename="skin_unique_name">
           <localedata locale="en">
               <title><skin_title></title>
           </localedata>
               <parameter name="com.ibm.portal.skintype" type="string" update="set"><![CDATA[template]]></parameter>
               <parameter name="com.ibm.portal.skin.template.file.name.html" type="string" update="set"><![CDATA[skin.html]]></parameter>
               <parameter name="com.ibm.portal.skin.template.ref" 
                 type="string" update="set"><![CDATA[dav:fs-type1/themes/theme_folder/skins/skin_folder_name/]]></parameter>
           </skin>
       </portal></request>
   

8. Import the xmlaccess skin definition using the command line or the Import XML portlet.

9. Assign the skin to the custom theme using xmlaccess or the Themes and Skins portlet.

Parent: Create skins