I have copied the design for the ISPConfig control panel layout and set the copy to be the default design used. However, everytime I login to the control [panel, the default design 'default' is used. I need to manually select the alternative design each time in order for it to be activated. Is this a known issue?
Sounds like a bug not writing the user's chosen design into the database or not reading the value when logging in and then defaulting to the default design. Can't test it myself as I customized the default design (still being the only design).
That's not a bug; the reason for switching back to the default theme is that your new theme lacks version information. Create a file named 'ispconfig_version' in your theme folder, which must contain the current ISPConfig version number, e.g., 3.3.0p2 at the moment. If ISPConfig is unable to verify that your theme is compatible with the current ISPConfig version, then it will use the default theme instead.
Ah ok, compatibility check. Seems fair, though symlinking the necessary file from the default design (what a lot of people will do I reccon, to make ISPC updates less of a hassle) makes it a bit obsolete.
This file does not exist in the default template, so you can not symlink it from there. We had to introduce a version check as you can also override the actual form template files using a theme and people did that in the past, then users which used these themes were not aware that overriding the actual form files will also mean that their system will fail after an update unless the theme is adapted as suddenly input fields were missing which caused all kinds of malfunctions. We had a lot of support requests where people claimed ISPConfig is not working or our update is broken due to the use of such incompatible themes. The themes simply lacked compatibility with a new ISPConfig version; therefore, we introduced a requirement that a theme must prove ISPConfig to be compatible with the current version by providing the version information, and if not, ISPConfig will fall back to the working default theme.
Oh wow, a lot of thought put into that. And for good reasons. Still fairly easy scriptable but that's for others to decide for themselves. I don't need it.
Of course, it is easy to create such a script. However, doing so should at least have made the users aware that they must keep an eye on their theme when performing updates.
