h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Erm, this is embarassing...

I've managed to lock myself out of my usual account through beggaring around with the new stylesheet section in plain skin 'Preferences'.

Wondered if the preferences on said account can be reset, or something...I really have no idea what I'm talking about.

Possibly you've selected a stylesheet that displays text in the background colour. Try going to <./>/dna/h2g2/plain/UserDetails</.> using the original account, deleting any text in the "Stylesheet" section and clicking "Update details". If you can't see enough text to do so, try highlighting areas on the page.

RhoMuNuQ

Thanks for the suggestion RhoMuNuQ.

The problem is, every time I try to get into the account I get an error in XML page. I think I've managed to put an error in my ID details. In fact, if you go to U217899 you might see what I mean. I can't even access my old Uspace from _this_ account.

I feel a right idiot.

I see ... it's a completely different problem to the one I thought it was.

What happens if you log in to the account then go to this URL: <./>/dna/h2g2/plain/UserDetails</.> (ignoring for now the XML error).

RhoMuNuQ

Going to plain/UserDetails just takes me to the XML error again unfortunately. The closest I've got is logging in through the hub. Can't even seem to force it by going through classic/UserDetails. I am pretty hopeless though, that's how I managed to make the error in the first place.

It's not your fault - normally updates are performed first on the live site, but the plain skin is already experimental so it was performed here.

I'm afraid there's nothing that I can do to help, but I'll ask someone who can help to do so as soon as possible.


RhoMuNuQ

Thanks for your help anyway.

At least I feel a little less moronic!

Err ... "first on the live site" is meant to say "first on the dev site"!

RhoMuNuQ

OK. Not very nice.

What happened was you typed in garbage into the stylesheet field. It should only contain a valid URL (or nothing). You managed to type in something which caused the resulting XML to break. Since this is an untested feature, that's not entirely surprising. Unfortunately, this bit of XML is used on every page you look at, so breaking the entire site for you.

I've managed to fix it now, but there is (now) a way to fix it yourself.

If you go to <./>/dna/dev/devplain/UserDetails</.> and just hit 'update details' it will reset the offending fields.

You might want to bookmark that...

Jim

RhoMuNuQ

Thank you Jim.

I have learned my lesson...never play with something you don't understand in the early hours of the morning when slightly intoxicated. Sorry for all the trouble.

And I will bookmark it...but I'll make damn sure I'll never need it.

Thanks again...

Hmm. How do I find out about updates like this? I read on the Gurus' Code of Conduct page that we get told about new testing features, but I didn't know about this new stylesheet thingi. Is there some forum I shoudl be subscribed to, that I'm not? Or a y!group other than h2g2gurus?

Just interested...

~

This was just something that I decided to add on the spur of the moment, during a conversation on another thread (F19585?thread=260369). It's not an official release (plain itself isn't official, really) and I certainly didn't want to go around announcing it to all and sundry - especially now that it's clear you can kill your account if you mess up.

If you ever need any *Owl* budding HTML developers *Owl* to help *Owl* you with the plain skin, Jim, I might know where you can *Owl* find one...

Site design is something very close to my heart, as you may have guessed now (I keep going on about it in all the support threads). Take a look at http://owlsound.co.uk/me/ for a nice-looking, yet XHTML1.1-compliant, example of my work (and a very DNA-like CMS on the way).

Feel free to knock up a css stylesheet for the plain skin...

Ooh. Can I do a purple Owl (tm) stylesheet? *gets to work* ...

~

As long as you follow the format of the current stylesheets, yes

RhoMuNuQ

Here goes (a very quickly knocked-together one, just editing Jim's jobby):

http://owlsound.co.uk/h2css/

Obviously, it'd need a lot of work, but it's got that Owl touch...

~

*tests out using Plain with http://owlsound.co.uk/h2css/index_files/style.css *

It's very ... purple!

RhoMuNuQ

Well, of course! It wouldn't be very Owl if it wasn't.

~