How to I install a new theme on Drupal 6 (new Drupal user)
gerrexo - May 10, 2008 - 21:16
I can't seem to find any simple documentation for a non-tech, and I'd like to know how to install a new theme I recently downloaded from the themes page here on Drupal.org.
First, I'm having trouble opening the .gz file I downloaded, and even if I did I'm also not sure where to go from there.
Thanks for your help.
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tar.gz archives can be opened with an unarchiver program, investigate winrar for windows, and maybe winzip. Google is your friend in this case. There may even be a free program that will open these for you or a set up tutorials you would prefer to follow.
after the files are extracted you upload the entire theme folder to sites/all/themes (some will tell you to add yet another directory after themes, but this is not at all necessary. The object here is to keep core and contrib themes seperated to aid in updating and upgrading down the road.)
after the files are uploaded you visit administer -> themes to enable the theme
Unzip the .gz file and move the directory...
1. You will need to unzip the .gz file first. Details on how to do this depend on your operating system. You may need to go to http://www.gzip.org/ and download the file for your operating system from the Executables section of the page.
2. When you unzip the .gz file, you'll get a directory. You'll need to copy that directory into your drupal installation. Find the sites folder in your drupal installation, and then find or create the following directory path:
/sites/all/themes/drupal-contrib/
Then copy the folder into drupal-contrib. For example, if you downloaded the Ability theme, you'll have a directory called ability after you unzip the .gz file. You want this to end up as /sites/all/themes/drupal-contrib/ability/
3. Go to the admin page on your drupal installation. Under "Site Building," choose "Themes." You should see your new theme in the list there. Check the box and radio button to enable it and set it to default. Click "Save configuration" at the bottom.
I couldn't find it quickly either, but surely this is in the documentation somewhere. Does anyone know where?
There's a lot of things that
There's a lot of things that are hard to find, but i didnt think this was one of them, lol. I know it's not the drupal6 section yet, but it can be found at (and it works the same way):
Documentation --> Getting Started --> Drupal 5 --> Installing Modules & Themes --> Installing Themes
Also, typing "installing themes" in the search box above yields several useful links.
===
"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." -- Lao Tzu
"God helps those who help themselves." -- Benjamin Franklin
"Search is your best friend." -- Worldfallz
thanks..
Thank you everyone for the prompt & thorough responses. I'm still pretty confused though. How do I copy these files into my drupal installation? Is this done via cPanel? I have ANhosting.
I had searched for the topic here on drupal.org, but the information wasn't v6 specific so I wasn't too sure if the process was the same.
even more questions
This is getting a little more confusing. I downloaded both 7zip and gzip. 7zip turns the .gz into a .tar which I still can't open (doesn't appear as a directory). And the .exe file to install gzip doesn't work.
Is there an easier way to do this?
I use 7zip to unzip and
I use 7zip to unzip and untar theme and module folders. Then you need to ftp them to your host-- more than likely you want them in the /sites/all/themes folder (they will be able to your root drupal install and any multisites you set up). I use winscp for ftp and sftp. But any ftp program will work.
===
"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." -- Lao Tzu
"God helps those who help themselves." -- Benjamin Franklin
"Search is your best friend." -- Worldfallz
My Downloaded Theme wont work
Hi there!
I followed exactly your guide/instruction on how to install a new theme. I downloaded a theme from mydrupal.com, unzip it, and upload it to the exact location you instructed, but my new theme wont display in the theme list (under administer).
Please help me solve this problem.
Thanks
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As soon as I see questions about "how do I get the files into my drupal installation" it makes me worry.
A question like that tells me that the changes are great that you used a fantastico install through your host to install drupal. Is this the case ? If it is, you are heading down a road of headache when the next update is released.
Those using 1 click installs should learn to do it on their own, so that they get more familiar with the server side of their installations as well as don't get backed into a corner with a 3rd party install they can't get out of. Also note that if the 3rd party install didn't install Drupal 6.2, then you are already running an insecure installation.
installation
Ok, I'm making some progress. Last night, I downloaded SmartFTP and Winzip. Both are working well for unzipping the files and then copying them into my directories.
Yes, I used fantastico and they installed version 6.2. Should I uninstall that version and reinstall v6.2 from scratch? What are the advantages of doing so?
Also, when I copy themes and modules into 'sites --> all --> ...' I don't see them in my admin interface. I only see the themes & modules if I copy them into the same folder that the core modules/themes are in. Any ideas why this is happening?
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you are dependant on fantastico creating an update when Drupal releases 6.3. I suggest using an unadulterated version of Drupal right here from drupal.org. The other advantages have been mentioned in my last comment. Including but not limited to learning how installation is done. These days, installing Drupal on your own is as easy as a fantastico install. Use Fantastico as a search term here on drupal.org to learn of some of the horror stories. Fantastcio can be used to tests a script, I'd never deploy a production site using it.
Insure you are using Drupal 6.x themes, Drupal 5.x themes won't work on Drupal 6. Same holds true for modules.
thanks for the thorough
thanks for the thorough response.
I'm using drupal 6.x modules & themes. But I only see them in my admin when I add them to the core folder. When I add them to the sites - all - themes/modules folder, I don't see them.
Anyone else having this problem?
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I can't replicate this problem on a "true" drupal install.
What's the full path to the directory?
You don't want to add them to the core folders. Keeping everything you add to your installation in the sites folder will make it much easier to update to later versions of Drupal.
Can you give us the complete path to the theme's .info file (e.g., ability.info) inside the sites folder?
I'm having the same problem,
I'm having the same problem, the themes I downloaded don't show up in in the admin > site building > themes page.
I'm unzipping them from the .gz, then untar'ing them from the .tar and copying them to mysite.com/sites/all/themes/
I had to make the "themes" directory, it wasn't already there...
Is there some kind of caching going on or something?
btw: path to one of the .info files:
mysite.com/sites/all/themes/ad_the-morning-after/ad_the-morning-after.info
the .info file has this inside:
name = AD The Morning After
description = Tabless multi-column theme.
core = 6.x
engine = phptemplate
; Information added by drupal.org packaging script on 2008-06-09
version = "6.x-1.2"
core = "6.x"
project = "ad_the-morning-after"
datestamp = "1213052702"
thanks,
~Danny
This is very bizarre-- i
This is very bizarre-- i just downloaded this theme, copied it to my d6.2 test site in the sites/all/themes folder, visited admin/build/themes and there it was-- enabled it and it works fine.
===
"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." -- Lao Tzu
"God helps those who help themselves." -- Benjamin Franklin
"Search is your best friend." -- Worldfallz
I have the same, or similar problem
I installed Drupal 6.3 and uploaded the files for art4_green theme in the www.example.com/sites/all/themes/art4_green/
After that I was expecting to see the theme in www.example.com/admin/build/themes as it was working in Drupal 5.x.
Unfortunately it's not there.
Any hints?
P.S. I read the related documentation
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try going to administer -> performance and clearing the cache using the tool provided.
if that don't work, insure that your .info file is correctly uploaded and not corrupted.
If you don't have a .info file insure that you have the Drupal 6.x version of the theme. 5.x themes don't show in 6.3
The cash cleanup didn't
The cash cleanup didn't help.
Where should I find the .info file? If it should be somewhere in the theme folder, there's no file with such extension.
The theme should be 6.x, as it states here - http://drupal.org/node/178910, also the file name is art4_green-6.x-1.0.tar.gz.
So I don't have another prove, but it looks pretty much as 6.x
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I checked both download and neither package includes a .info file. So I went and checked the issue que for this theme and http://drupal.org/project/issues/art4_green?categories=bug there are 4 similar reports and a confirmation that the .info is missing. That said, the port to 6.x may not be complete.
Bad luck for me. Thanks a
Bad luck for me.
Thanks a lot!
What kind of information holds this file?
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info about the theme. Check another theme from another download of a different theme for 6.x core and you can see what information is used.
Installing a theme locally in MAMP
Is there a difference as to how to install a theme if have drupal installed locally as opposed to remotely? I have my theme currently installed in the themes directory as such and everything works as you would expect. But after doing more reading I have found more documentation that says a theme should be installed in the sites/all/themes. It doesn't work if I do this.
current install: MAMP/drupal/htdocs/themes ------this works
recommended install: MAMP/drupal/sites/all/themes ---------this doesn't work
any help or clarification would be great!! Thanks
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doesn't matter whether on MAMP, WAMP or any other variation.
putting contrib and custom modules and themes in sites/all/themes and sites/all/modules respectively makes it much easier to update and upgrade by keeping core and contrib separate.
That said, disable your them before moving it or be more descriptive about "what don't work" when you move it.
The only other thing I notice about your issue, is that you have two different paths going on in your example. One is using htdocs in the path and the other isn't.
Yikes sorry!
VM Thanks for the reply!
I'm on Drupal 6, and all of the standard themes ie; bluemarine, chameleon, garland are already set within the root/themes directory. I understand that is the core and shouldn't be messed with. Problem I get when I install a new theme into the sites/all/themes directory is when I refresh the browser page on the my sites admin page to see the new theme(as a selection) it doesn't show but does show if it is installed into the root/themes directory.
If I install zen theme into sites/all/themes:
To test: I then plug the url into the browser, http://localhost:8888/drupal/sites/all/themes/zen, I get a 403 forbidden error(You don't have permission to access /drupal/sites/all/themes/ on this server.)
You say disable. Could you tell me little more as to how to do that. Thanks!
MAMP/htdocs/drupal/themes ------works
MAMP/htdocs/drupal/sites/all/themes -------doesn't work
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folder permissions on both the same?
I don't have a mac so MAMP is unfamiliar to me as well as its nuances.
to disable a theme go to adminsiter -> themes and set a core theme as the defult
move the contrib theme and reset it as the default
however, if no themes are showing ..... you may not be able to do this either.
thanks!
VM thanks for your help! I'll try that. I was thinking that maybe there was setting I needed to change so Drupal knows which directory to grab from.
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there is no setting, drupal is built to know where it can use themes and modules from.
Weird but it worked
I just moved the zen folder to the sites/all/ themes and deleted the other and it worked. Thanks for helping me out VM!
:)
Cache problem in firefox perhaps?
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or possibly having 2 uploads of the same theme in both folders?
I think that's what happened
Yep. That is what had happened. So lesson is to not put any theme in that directory and if by some mistake that happens...delete it. Jeesh! Thanks for the help though. I just started using this and am extremely pleased with how easy it has been to get it up and running. Mistakes will happen but that's how you learn and plus having great support!!!! thanks again. I'm sure I'll be back :)