Available Skins
Reference
This page lists the skins an XWiki instance can use, the three kinds of skin, and how a skin is named in the configuration. To choose which skin a wiki, a page or a user gets, see Skin Levels; for the files each skin is built from, see Skin Files.
The skins shipped with XWiki
XWiki ships one skin, Flamingo, and one wiki skin page built on it, XWiki.DefaultSkin.
An out-of-the-box wiki does not use flamingo directly. Its Skin setting holds XWiki.DefaultSkin, a page shipped with the wiki whose Base Skin is flamingo. That is what the Customize button in the administration opens, and what the Skin field already contains before anyone changes it.
Other skins are distributed as extensions: the All Extensions listing on the Extensions wiki has a Category filter whose Skin value shows them. You may also Create a Skin Extension.
The three kinds of skin
| Kind | Where it lives | How it is named |
|---|---|---|
| Filesystem skin | One directory per skin, under webapps/xwiki/skins/ on the server | By its directory name, for example flamingo |
| Wiki skin | A wiki page holding an XWiki.XWikiSkins object | By its page reference, for example XWiki.DefaultSkin |
| Extension skin | A skins folder inside a JAR installed on the wiki, with one directory per skin | By its directory name |
A skin does not have to define everything. Its Base Skin names the skin it falls back to for every template, stylesheet or image it does not provide itself, which is how XWiki.DefaultSkin can consist of almost nothing and still render a complete interface.
A wiki skin reaches an instance the way any other pages do: by importing a XAR, or by installing it with the Extension Manager.
The settings of a wiki skin
A wiki skin holds the equivalent of skin.properties in the XWiki.XWikiSkins object on its page, shown as Skin Properties when the skin page is opened for editing:
| Setting | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Name | The name of the skin. It is the title the skin page is displayed under. |
| Base Skin | The skin this one falls back to. It holds flamingo on XWiki.DefaultSkin. |
| Logo | An attachment of the skin page to use as the logo, picked with the Choose an attachment button. |
| Output Syntax | The syntax the skin produces, either HTML 5 for a recent skin or XHTML 1.0 for an old one. XWiki reads it to pair the skin with the renderer that produces valid markup for it. |
Output Syntax is left unset on XWiki.DefaultSkin, and a skin that sets none takes the one its Base Skin declares.
The same object carries six more properties, listed under Deprecated properties on the skin page: an older way of replacing a template, which Customize a Skin explains why not to use.
How a skin is identified
The Skin field in the administration and the skin property of a user both take the same kind of value: either the directory name of a filesystem skin, such as flamingo, or the page reference of a wiki skin, such as XWiki.DefaultSkin.
