Using CSS to Create a Tableless Layout. The changes to the template system in Joomla 1.5 can be. This basic template shows some of the fundamental principles of creating a Joomla template.Creating a basic Joomla! If version split is not obvious, please allow split request to remain for 1 week pending discussions. Proposed since 2 months ago. Introduction. The purpose of this tutorial is to serve as an introduction to creating Joomla! It will cover the essential files and code needed to create a basic template. The code is presented so it can be copy and pasted with very little modification needed.
Setting up a directory structure. To make the most basic template, create a new folder in the templates folder. Name this folder after your template i. Creating Joomla templates with Artisteer. Overview; Demo; Screenshots. Here is how to create and apply great looking Joomla! Creating a Template for Joomla 2.5.!DOCTYPE install PUBLIC “-//Joomla! 1.6//DTD template 1.0//EN” “http. To keep things organized, make 2 new folders called images and css. Inside the css folder create a file called template. Although it is fine to place all your CSS code directly in your index. CSS code in a separate file that can be linked from multiple pages using the link tag. This may also shorten the loading time of your pages, since the separate file can be cached. This is the most basic practical setup. Outline of folder and file structure. Details. xml. Creating a basic template. Details. xml file. The template. Details. Without it, your template won't be seen by Joomla! The file holds key metadata about the template. The syntax of the file is different for each Joomla version. For , use the following: < ? DTD template 1. 0//EN. Your best approach is to copy and paste this into your template. Details. xml file and change the relevant bits (such as < name> and < author> ). The < files> part should contain all the files that you use - you possibly don't know what they are called yet - don't worry, update it later. The < folder> element can be used to define an entire folder at once. Leave the positions as they are - these are a common set so you will be able to switch easily from the standard templates. Creating a basic index. The index. php file becomes the core of every page that Joomla! Essentially, you make a page (like any HTML page) but place PHP code where the content of your site should go. The template works by adding Joomla code into module positions and the component section in your template. Anything added to the template will appear on all pages unless it is added to one of these sections via the Joomla CMS (or customised code). This page will show the bare- bones code ready for you to cut and paste into your own design. Begin. A Joomla template begins with the following lines: < ? The doctype used above is HTML5, a newer version of HTML that is largely backwards compatible, but contains many new features. You should be aware that this will not work well in Internet Explorer 8 or earlier without a hack. You might want to investigate this situation and your clients' wishes before deciding on which doctype you want to use. However this is used in Joomla and higher. The third line begins our HTML document and describes what language the website is in. A html document is divided into two parts, head and body. The head will contain the information about the document and the body will contain the website code which controls the layout. Head. < jdoc: include type=. This includes the page title, meta information as well as system Java. Script. The rest creates links to two system style sheets and to your own style sheet (if it's named template. So if your template is in http: //www. Yes, it's a very basic layout, but it will do the job. Everything else will be done by Joomla! These lines, usually called jdoc statements, tell Joomla to include output from certain parts of the Joomla system. Note: you will need to ensure your menu is set to go into the . It goes in the centre of the template. Note: You can add your own module lines anywhere you want in the body, but you have to add a corresponding line to the template. Details. xml file which sits alongside the index. End. Finish it off - one last bit: Custom Images. If you want to add any images to the template you can do so like this. Template Manager, accessible via Extensions - > Template Manager.+ In the Joomla! Joomla! This feature is called Discover Extensions and can be accessed via Extensions - > Extension Manager - > Discover (i. Now your template should show up in the Template Manager (Styles), accessible via Extensions - > Template Manager. Note you can create your template outside of Joomla and simply install it like any regular extension. HINT: there are a couple of ways you can preview your index page as you put it together, either insert the styles into the head of the index page or directly link it to the style sheet you will be using temporarily. You can remove these links before packaging the file. Packaging the template for installation. A directory with several loose files is not a convenient package for distribution. So the final step is to make a package. This is a compressed archive containing the directory structure and all the files. The package can be in ZIP format (with a . TAR- gzip format (with a . TAR- bz. 2 format (with a . If your template is in a directory mytemplate/ then to make the package you can connect to that directory and use commands like: tar cvvzf ./mytemplate. Note to Mac OS X users. Note to template developers using Mac OS X systems: the Finder's . It stores the files in Apple. Double format, adding extra files with names beginning with . Thus it adds a file named . The symptom is an error message, . Error 4: Empty document. The workaround is to compress from the command line, and set a shell environment variable . See the Apple. Double article for more information. To set an environment variable on a Mac, open a terminal window and type. COPYFILE. For instance, if your template files have been built in a folder in your personal directory called my. Template, then you would do the following. Template. zip *. Conclusion. You should now have created a template that works. It won't look like much yet. The best thing to do now is start experimenting with the layout. Template from Scratch. If you want to create your own Joomla! There are a few reasons to do this. First, you need to have Joomla! When you design your template files you won't be able to test them by simply opening an HTML test page. You will need to run the template files through Joomla! This also means that you won't be creating your template files through a WYSIWYG tool like Dreamweaver. If you're accustomed to using web development software to create your sites, and now you want to start developing for Joomla!, you will need to get back to basics and learn how to code by hand. I've always been a purist when it comes to developing by hand, especially after my initial experiences working with Front. Page and not getting it to do exactly what I wanted. Because of that frustration, I picked up an HTML 4 book and taught myself how to hand code. Through that experience, I never bothered to learn Dreamweaver or any other software. Instead, I turned to Chami's HTML- kit, which is a free download and an excellent HTML editor. From that tool, I perfected my craft of hand coding HTML, which lead nicely to hand coding CSS; if your coding background is anything like mine, you're in a prime situation to start coding for Joomla! It's time to get back in the trenches and design your code by hand. Now that you've come to terms with hand coding your Joomla! If you haven't already read my article, . That article covers where to find the CSS and template folders and files and provides some basic Joomla! The templates folder is the same folder in which you'll save your brand new template. There are only two files that you need to create your own Joomla! The first is the index. The index. php file includes the markup for the Joomla! For example, the php file is used with modules, etc. The second file is the template. Details. XML. After those two files are set up and working, you then create the CSS. All three files will work together to produce the content that appears in your Joomla! Inside that folder create one plain text file as index. Details. XML. Open the XML file and copy and paste in: < ? XML version=! 1. 5//DTD template 1. EN. This is the furthest extent of PHP that you will need to know. This code also includes the left module that you defined in your template. Details. XML file. Go ahead and save and close both of these files if you have them open. Now go into the backend of Joomla! Click Preview and you should see your new article. What you don't see yet is the new template you just created. To add in your new template, go to the Template Manager. You should see your personally- named template in the list of available templates. Click the radio button next to your template and then click the yellow star to make it the default. Now click Preview again and you should see your recently added article, your header information and title. You should also see a Home menu item at the bottom of your article. This appeared in the left module position because during the basic Joomla! If you did not include the left include in your php file, the main menu would not have appeared, because there would have been no call to it. Congratulations on creating your first Joomla! You now need to link your CSS file to your index. You also need to add div tags for each of your modules. Here's the code for linking your CSS file: < link rel=. The following map for default module positions was taken from the Joomla! Here is some starter code for the CSS file: * ! To summarize, the XML file is used to define to your template's personal information and to list the module positions. The PHP file is used to further define the modules and connect them to the CSS file. Finally, the CSS file completes the definition of the modules by adding in the decoration and alignment.
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