Repenting for not starting with overrides

[igofresh]

I have to admit it. I started with Classic and played to see if I could do what I wanted and now (8 mos later) I'm pretty happy with what Ive got. Then I finally get around to reading the Overrides tutorial.
Ooops...
My question is can I copy all 'classic' folders and rename them to 'CUSTOM' so I don't have to fear losing all on an upgrade?
Ive read about setting things up right from the start, but have not found a good answer on creating overrides after the fact.

[afo]

Yes, you can do that. You might want to weed through the files in each folder and only copy over the files that have changed. You should be able to tell by the dates. Copying all the files will be confusing when you upgrade.

[igofresh]

Could I just rename all folders called 'classic' to 'CUSTOM'?

[afo]

You can, but you'll complicate upgrading later. You're better off creating folders for your custom template and copying the files you changed into them.

Don't forget to create an includes/templates/YOUR_TEMPLATE/template_info.php to give your template identifying information so you'll recognize it in the admin under tools->template selection.

[gjh42]

All files that are in /classic/ need to be in any custom template based on it as well, as they are all changed from /template_default/, whether or not they are changed from the original /classic/ version.. So yes, you can copy or rename all /classic/ folders.

[igofresh]

Good advise as usual. Thanks All!!

[DrByte]

Well ... if the file has *not* been customized, you are advised to *not* copy it to your custom template folder. The only exception here would be any CSS and JS files.

[gjh42]

But if you are making a template based on Classic, you need all /classic/ files, whether you change them from the /classic/ version or not, right?

Unchanged versions of /template_default/ files should definitely not go in a custom folder.

[DrByte]

Hmmm ... ya ... sorry, I read thru the thread too quickly. You're right. "classic" is a pretty bare-bones example of a good starting point.

[scuggler]

Hi there, I know this thread is pretty old but I made the same mistake with the over ride system and I believe I have created my custom template the right way so far. My only problem is that I am missing all sideboxes and my search bar. I didn't modify these files so I have not copied them to my template but they are no longer displaying when I select my template. The search bar is just the site search and the sideboxes are categories, information, important links, and such. I'm working on a site that is not online yet so I can't post a link, I know it's helpful but I don't have one. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. I am still learning the over ride system so thank you for any help in advance.