2015-11-10, 22:14
Removing a '-->' would certainly explain the backgrounds - Skin Shortcuts won't load the skins overrides.xml if it isn't valid xml (and, with its debug-logging enabled, it will tell you if it isn't ), so the script won't know to load the skin helper backgrounds. That shouldn't affect the widgets quite so much - as the scripts own overrides.xml will be loaded instead for the widget-groupings if the skins can't be, which also contains widgets provided by the skin helper service.
Having said all that, if it's fixed that's fantastic (though I'd still be interested in seeing a debug log to see if it can be worked out exactly why it wasn't working...! I also might just be interpreting tmaru's post differently on your skin thread, but I read it as him still having trouble showing any but the skin-helper provided widgets - so still no extended info widgets, for example - but that he now knew how to correctly assign and show them via your customiser. I'm probably mis-understanding, though )
Having said all that, if it's fixed that's fantastic (though I'd still be interested in seeing a debug log to see if it can be worked out exactly why it wasn't working...! I also might just be interpreting tmaru's post differently on your skin thread, but I read it as him still having trouble showing any but the skin-helper provided widgets - so still no extended info widgets, for example - but that he now knew how to correctly assign and show them via your customiser. I'm probably mis-understanding, though )