HOW-TO: Customize OJS

[jmacgreg]

Expanded documentation on customizing OJS is now available:

[list]
http://pkp.sfu.ca/files/docs/customizingojs/index.html (HTML)



The Table of Contents is as follows:

Preface
Introduction
First Thing's First: The Look
-Modifying the Journal Homepage Header
-Adding Homepage Content
-Modifying the Journal Page Header
-The Journal Page Footer
-Adding a New Navigation Bar Item
-Packaged Themes and Layout
-Information for Librarians, Readers and Authors
-Lists
Stylesheet Modifications
-Stylesheet Locations
-Making Style Changes
Miscellany
-Adding a Unique Image for Each Issue
-Announcements
-Adding a Multilingual Interface
-Adding a Splash Screen
-Adding MP3 Support
Other Resources
-A. common.css

If you have any further tips, tricks or suggestions, please post them here. This is an evolving document, and comments are welcome.

Cheers,
James

[sigij]

How to add different banner images to each issue:

This is a quick work-around we used for Culture Machine. Upload a transparent gif in Journal Manager/Set up/The Look/5.1 (Journal Homepage Header-Journal Logo).

You can grab the gif off the CM site by right-clicking on any banner on:
http://www.culturemachine.net

Then include a background image to a custom style sheet which is uploaded at the issue level: (Editor/Back-Current-Future Issue/Issue Data). e.g.

#headerTitle {
margin: 0 auto;
padding: 0;
width: 800px;
background-image: url("http://your domain/banner-vol1.gif");
background-repeat: no-repeat;
background-position: left bottom;

[sigij]

I forgot to note in my previous post: you'll need to upload the transparent gif to both 5.1 *and* 5.3 in Customizing the Look - (otherwise OJS will automatically write the journal name in the header and it will interfere with the background image banner).

[morin]

Here's a question. I want to add a new page to my OJS installation. This is an instructions page for the section editors. It won't be linked to externally. Editors will get a link to it when they are assigned a paper to review. The contents are static but, for consistency, I'd like it to be formatted like the rest of the journal's pages. Is there an easy way to do this?

Thanks in advance,
Pat

[jmacgreg]

Hi Pat,

You can try out the Static Pages plugin (available in future versions of OJS/OCS as per http://pkp.sfu.ca/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=4474; currently available from viewtopic.php?f=28&t=3437). This will allow you to make custom static pages from within OJS; you can then link to them in prepared emails or elsewhere.

Cheers,
James

[morin]

Sounds like exactly what I'm looking for.

Thanks,
Pat

[morin]

By the way, this worked like a charm for me.

The only drawback is that the rendering engine removes most of the html markup in the displayed page, so only a few tags work. None of the header tags (h1, h2, h3,...) get rendered, which means you have to keep the page fairly simple.

Pat

[asmecher]

Hi Pat,

For most users, the set of HTML tags is limited for security reasons. You can define which tags are allowed by editing your config.inc.php (see allowed_html in the [security] section).

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

[morin]

Thanks Alec. That works perfectly for me.

[crlsgms]

thats awesome.. this guides were made for my issues... if i notice something different ill try to contribute, congratulations for the nice job.

[JohnGR]

Hello everyone!!

I read the customization wiki but I didn't find what I was looking for and I was hoping to find some help here.

I would like to add a container div that will hold the header, the content, the sidebar & the footer, so it's easier to create a fixed layout that is easy to manipulate and style. I was wondering if there is a way to do that.

Thanks in advance

[jmacgreg]

Hi JohnGR,

You'll have to edit the template file(s) directly -- templates are stored in the templates/ directory (and in OJS 2.3+, in lib/pkp/templates as well). There's plenty of information on the forum about customizing template files, and header files in particular.

Cheers,
James

[JohnGR]

Thank you very much James, I'll have a look in the template files then

[kol_jaf]

I design a new theme for my ojs journal. Yet I do not know where it should be placed. Would you please advice me? Thank you.

[jamief]

Hi James:

I tried to get to the PDF version but it jumps me directly to the wiki. Is the PDF not yet available? or is it a link problem?