phplist templates

Here I will present you the way I create templates using phplist. You can use this way not only in phplist but also in any other situation you use FCKEditor!

***It is supposed that you have already coded your html newsletter! If not, you can read this post about how to code single column html newsletter!


1) First of all you have to check that the"template" button of FCKEditor is enabled. If it's not, you can config the FCKeditor toolbar in the lists/admin/fckphplist.php file. Just search for this piece of code:

FCKConfig.ToolbarSets["Default"] = [
  ['Source','DocProps','-','NewPage','Preview'],
  ['Cut','Copy','Paste','PasteText','PasteWord','-','Print','SpellCheck'],
  ['Undo','Redo','-','Find','Replace','-','SelectAll','RemoveFormat','Link','Unlink','Anchor'],
  ['Bold','Italic','Underline','StrikeThrough','-','Subscript','Superscript'],
  ['OrderedList','UnorderedList','-','Outdent','Indent'],
  ['JustifyLeft','JustifyCenter','JustifyRight','JustifyFull'],
  ['Image','Flash','Table','Rule','Smiley','SpecialChar',
'TextColor','BGColor'],
  '/',
  ['Style','FontFormat','FontName','FontSize'],
  ['About']
] ;

and insert the 'Templates', wherever you want. Usually, I paste it next to 'Preview'. You will find the above piece of code in 2 places, so repeat this step twice.


2) Open the fcktemplates.xml file under the fckeditor folder and copy there your html code for the template you created. In another post I will point out some important things you have to take into consideration when creating an html template.
It is not difficult to understand the structure of the fcktemplates.xml file.
It is important to clear cache everytime you make a change in the fcktemplates.xml file. I have installed webdeveloper tool in firefox for this purpose. 


3) Make sure that the path for the fcktemplates.xml file is correct. You can check it at line 161 of the fckconfig.js file:

FCKConfig.TemplatesXmlPath    = FCKConfig.EditorPath + 'fcktemplates.xml'

4)Take a print screen of your html template and paste the image in the following folder:  fckeditor/editor/dialog/fck_template/images.
Make sure that the name of your image is the same as in the fcktemplates.xml file.

All you have to do now is just click the 'Template' button in FCKEditor and choose the template you want!


Create your custom html newsletter
If you want to create your custom html template you can read this post about how to code single column html newsletter.