Trac Layout Recipe

This is a recipe explaining how to reproduce the official edgewall.org site layout and design using SiteHtml and SiteStyleCss.

The layout described below is ideal for Trac setups where one organization (e.g. Edgewall Software) offers multiple projects (e.g. Trac, Bitten, Genshi, etc.).

Prepare site.html Template

The first step is to prepare a site.html template that will be used by all projects.

There are two ways to specify a site.html template for an environment:

1. Set the templates_dir in the [inherit] section of each trac.ini to a shared directory (e.g. /path/to/common/templates), and save the site.html file in that directory. The templates_dir may also be specified in a global configuration that is included in each environment's configuration through the file option in the [inherit] section of trac.ini.
2. Copy the site.html file to the templates directory of all environments (or better yet, create symlink in all directories to a single common location).

A reference site.html template may be found in the templates directory of the zip archive​ attached to this page. The reference file is documented inline, so I will just give a short overview of the template:

• It begins by adding a CSS file to the head — make sure to update the URL if needed for your setup.
• It includes a list of topnav items as quick-jumps between projects — make sure to modify it to your specific project-list, as it is hardcoded.
• It includes a left box and right box that will appear on the left-hand side and right-hand side of each page. You can use these boxes for whatever you want (e.g. quick links, Google ads, etc.).
  An example for a left box is included in templates/site_leftbox.html in the zip archive​.
  There is no right box in the example…
• There's also a footer section for contact & copyrights information (or anything else you'd like to put there).

Adjust the Site Style Sheet

A reference projects.css stylesheet is included in the attached zip archive​ (under the css directory), with the styles of the edgewall.org site. As with the site template, the stylesheet must also be accessible by each project environment. It may be placed in the directory specified by the htdocs_dir option in the [inherit] section of trac.ini, or in the project environment's htdocs directory.

You may modify and adjust the style sheet to meet your artistic taste.

One important thing to notice with respect to the projects.css file is that it refers to various images (used for backgrounds, gradients, etc.).

The images are found in the gfx directory of the attached zip archive​, but the projects.css file assumes that the images are available under the ../gfx directory, where .. refers to one level up relative to the directory in which the projects.css is located.

You must make sure that one of the following is met:

1. The gfx directory is visible, and is one level up relative to the css directory.
2. All references to ../gfx in projects.css are replaced with a correct URL.

Note that the paths in this context are URLs, not filesystem paths.

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See also: TracInterfaceCustomization, SiteHtml, SiteStyleCss, #9629 (discussion that led to creation of this page)