Skip to main content

Uploading Kit-based Themes

After you customized your theme, you can upload it back to the Theme Resource Kit from the Theming Tool or upload custom theme files directly to your instance via the Admin Console.

warning

We strongly recommend that you use the out-of-the-box Theming Tool whenever possible due to upgrade risks when using Soy or FreeMarker themes. Alternatively, you can engage our professional service team to help you develop a custom theme if you don't want to do it yourself. Ask your Jive Software account representative about this service. For more information about the Theming Tool, see Theming community.

Fastpath:

  • Theming Tool: User interface: Your avatar > Themes
  • Admin Console: Admin Console: System > Settings > Themes

Remember: Themes you develop based on the resource kit are applied as the global theme. Therefore, we recommend thoroughly testing your themes on a test instance before deploying them on your production instance.

You must have administrator access rights to the instance.

Uploading a Customized Kit-based Theme via Theming Tool​

To upload a customized Kit-based theme:

  1. Compress the files in the theme you created under sampleTheme/ into a ZIP file.

  2. In the user interface, click your avatar and select Themes.

  3. Click Advanced > Advanced Theming > Resource Kit Theme.

    This opens the Themes (Advanced) page.

  4. To upload your theme, click Browse, select the ZIP file, and then click Upload.

    It may take a few minutes for the upload to complete.

  5. If you have already uploaded a theme kit this way before, the application runs a diff for you so that you can see which files have changed. Confirm the changes to preview them.

  6. Preview the changes under Preview.

  7. Click Apply Custom Design to publish your theme.

    Every time you upload a new theme based on the resource kit files via the Themes interface, the newly uploaded theme overwrites any existing themes you uploaded this way.

In the Admin Console, on the Themes page (System > Settings > Themes), you can see this new theme listed in the Available Themes menu as generated_advanced_skin_global. You cannot change this name.

Uploading Custom Themes via the Admin Console​

When you're finished developing your theme files, you should also consider uploading them directly through the Admin Console:

To upload a custom theme:

  1. Compress your custom theme files into a ZIP file.
  2. In the Admin Console, go to System > Settings > Themes and click Create New Theme.
  3. Enter a name and description for this theme, and then click Create Theme.
  4. Upload your theme as a ZIP file.

Note: New themes are applied immediately, so we strongly recommend testing them thoroughly on a test instance before deploying them on your production instance.

Note: If you upgrade your site, you need to upgrade your themes, as described in Upgrading custom themes and templates.

Related