My b2evolution Version: Not Entered
First off - thanks for providing such a great product!
I am trying to use b2evolution in a slightly different way than it was perhaps intended. Rather than individuals having blogs with varying looks/feels etc, I am using it to allow writers of articles to easily upload and manage their stories. As such these articles all have to appear in the exact same "framework" - same skin, same widgets in the same position, etc.
Currently i am setting up new users and having to modifiy the default configuration manually each time - click, click, click, click - you get the idea.
1. Is there a way to change the default configuration for when a new user and new blog is created? Or, alternatively, to have everyone use the exact same layout?
2. Where should I be look ing to remove certain options from the various menus in the Admin Panel. For example: The "Customize" link in the b2evolution bar at the top of the backend, or the Skins, or widgets tabs in the "Blog Settings" section. Does this have to be done via editing the PHP? If so, which files? The directory structure is a bit complex and I am having a hard time find the functions that handle these items.
Do you have any other tips, or alternate suggestions? Any help is appreciated. Thank you (et Merci!)
General Support
b2evolution CMS Support Forums
Part of this is reasonably easy. You can "force" a skin on all users by only having one skin available. The default situation is to use skin ID #1, which happens to be "evopress", but you can change that. Assuming you have the skin you want all users to use then look at your database via phpmyadmin and check out the evo_skins__skin table to see it's blog ID. Then go to your evo_blogs table and set the default value for blog_skin_ID to the ID you got from evo_skins__skin. Now delete all the other first from the installation (global settings->skins tab) then second from your actual server.
Exactly which widgets show up by default is something I haven't figure out yet, so I can't help you there. One thing I know is that once you have a blog with exactly the widgets you want you can see it in the evo_widgets table. In that table, wi_coll_ID is the blog ID. So if you export that table and trim it down to the bits for the blog you know is set up the way you want, it wouldn't be too hard to make a simple SQL statement to INSERT the same bits into a different blog ID. That is not as easy as changing what it thinks the defaults will be, but it's a bit nicer than click click clickety click click click yah?
And hey if you happen to figure out which files or database settings create the default widget selection please report back here so's we all can benefit from it.
Another thing to maybe look at is the permissions you give people. I have ZERO knowledge of how permissions work in the brave new world of 2.4.* but perhaps there is a nice answer there for stopping users from changing stuff? I would suggest creating a dummy account for yourself and logging in to that new account via a different browser. Then on your real browser you can be The Admin and tinker with permissions, using your alternate login/browser to see if the effect is what you want it to be.
Best of luck, and please do share what you learn!