In this article, we're going to walk through how to work with a third-party designer to implement a custom site design.

TIP: If you haven't already chosen a designer, check out our recommended experts.

Listed below are our best-practice recommendations:

Step 1 - Create a sandbox site

1. If you're licensed for microsites, access your Site List and copy your main site (name it "[site name] sandbox" or something similar). This microsite will function as your sandbox, which gives your third-party designer the perfect environment to work and test "behind the scenes" without affecting your live site.

NOTE: If you're not licensed for microsites, create a case to request one. Higher Logic will provide one to you free of charge.

Step 2 - Give your designers access

1. Give your designers access. Your third-party designer will need an account on your sandbox site in order to access and edit it.

1. If you have an AMS-managed community (i.e., integrated), create an account for them in your membership database.
2. If you have an HL-managed community (i.e., standalone), create an account for them in the Admin interface as described in Add Users.

2. Your designer will need Site Administrator access in order to complete their work. Refer to the Manage Site Admins section of Manage Site, Community, and Super Admins to learn how to give them this permission.

Step 3 - Show your designer where to add custom code

There are two main places where your designer can add custom CSS code on your site, both of which are located in the Theme Editor. This is where you apply and edit Themes, which control several aspects of a site's design aesthetic.

To access the Theme Editor, click Site Options > Themes.

1. On the Theme Editor page, Edit the Theme you want your designer to update.

NOTE: If you already have an existing Theme you want to use for your sandbox, go ahead and edit that. In most cases, however, we recommend making a copy of your live site's Theme and using that as your baseline.

2. On the resulting page, they can add and modify code on the Import Theme CSS and Override CSS sections.

• Import Theme CSS - This is the main location where your designer will insert their custom CSS. They have two options to import their CSS: Copy/paste it or upload a CSS file.  
• Override CSS - Your designer will primarily use this section to make small tweaks to their CSS to further adjust certain design elements, especially during the testing phase.

Step 4 - Plan the transition

The most common way for us implement these design updates to your live site is to redirect the main site URL to your sandbox site. This will avoid having to redo a lot of your designers' coding on your live site, and making sure that there the transition is as seamless as possible. When the site URLs are redirected, all of the other URLs will be updated.

NOTE: Any URLs that have been manually coded into HTML content items will NOT automatically update. We recommend auditing your site for links like this so you can swap them out when the time comes.

Our best practice recommendation is to set a date for the new site launch. Once you've chosen a date, email support@higherlogic.com and let us know your desired date. Please include a set of login credentials with your request - we'll be using those to ensure that users can still go through the SSO process seamlessly.