Wallpapers and more

Published by Vlasta on July 26th.

Since the update of the website a couple of months ago, there was a group of people complaining about the removal of custom user-made backgrounds. Today, I am starting a test of a new system, that would allow people to customize the look and feel of rw-designer much more than by just adding a custom background.

How it was before

The old backgrounds were removed, because they were not compatible with the new look. The magma style was later re-introduced as a test. The main problem with the old system was that every time anyone made a custom background, they had to send it to me and I had to modify the website in multiple places and upload the files to the web server. The author of the background could not test it and in many cases, we ended with backgrounds that interfered with the content on the website and made it almost unusable. Sometimes, I had to adjust colors of various elements to keep things legible.

How it will work now

The new system for customization will give you much more power. You will be able to not just set up a custom background, but also change every other aspect of the website look. That said, you will need at least basic knowledge of html and css to be able to accomplish anything at all.

This system is now in testing phase and anyone with at least 25 karma can try to create their own background or style right now. If you are logged-in and have the karma, you can go to this page.

That page will let you create and edit a css file. That file is saved as would any other attachment - it will be accessible as /rsrc/<your chosen name>.css You can reference other uploaded images from the css file. For example, if you wanted to do a very basic custom background, you would first upload the image using the blog editor or from any comment or forum editor. Lets say it is called my-background.jpg. Then you would enter this code into the CSS box on the style modification page:

body { background:url(my-background.jpg) top repeat-y; }

And after hitting the Preview button, you should be able to see the background. If you wanted to save the style, you would also need to give it a display name and an unique filename for the .css file and click the Save button. That way, you can return to it later and modify it more.

Once you are happy with your style, just contact me and I can make it available for other users and they will be able to apply it to their pattern rollers.

Recent comments

Animelove_1105 on July 27th 0

Glad to see themes and backgrounds come back! Also nice to see that submitting new themes is easier now 😊

The Male Boss on July 27th 0

Is it possible to just use the style on your own account first and test it out there on a few different RW pages before sending it to the administrators

Are more basic styles create able and is HTML code usable when creating a new wallpaper. - by The Male Boss on July 27th

the linked page for style modification has a couple of different elements under the edit box for testing purposes, pressing Preview will apply the style to the page - by Vlasta on July 27th

and the Shiny Shadows style is far from completion, it will be changed in the future - by Vlasta on July 27th

and finally, you can get a empty pattern roller and apply your own unapproved style, but make sure you have the display name and filename set properly before you do that - by Vlasta on July 27th

Is it possible to create my own style for the page other than just the current 3 base styles being light, dark or shiny shadows. - by The Male Boss on July 27th

eventually yes, but that would be a lot of work - by Vlasta on July 27th