Characteristics of a back-office theme

PrestaShop's administration area is completely customizable, as it uses the same template language as the front-office themes, Smarty.

Each employee can use a customized theme:

• if you are the employee: click the "My preferences" link at the top of every page, and select the theme using the "Theme" drop-down list.
• if you have to change any employee's back-office theme: go to the "Employees" page under the "Administration" menu, click the "Edit" button for the employee, and select the theme using the "Theme" drop-down list.

The theme's folders

A back-office theme share many characteristics with a front-office theme, but has obviously its own set too.

One of the main characteristics is that a back-office is tied to a front-office theme: the back-office files and folders are stored along those for the front-office.

The back-office theme is built using the following standard folders, within the main theme folder:

• /css: contains the style sheets. The back-office theme's CSS files are only two (see below).

• /img: contains the theme's images.

• /templates: this folder is specific to the back-office theme. It contains all the template files for the theme:

  • /templates/controllers: contains the templates used by the back-office controllers.

  • /templates/helpers: contains the templates used by the back-office helpers.

Note that there is no /js file: you should not fiddle with the back-office's JavaScript code. The JavaScript code used by the back-office are stored in the /js folder, under the root of PrestaShop's folder.

CSS and image files

The back-office theme uses only two CSS files:

• admin.css: the main CSS rules for the back-office.
• modules.css: the module-specific CSS rules, used for the module's back-office controllers. See AdminModulesControllerCore::initContent().

Image files for the back-office theme should mostly by in PNG format. This makes it possible to use transparency in order to work with the background color setting.

Controllers' view file

The back-office controllers (AdminController* classes) use View files that are located in the /themes/name_of_the_theme/template/controllers/name_of_the_controller folder.
You can override the View of a back-office controller by using the /override/controllers/admin/templates/name_of_the_controller folder.

The modules which have back-office controllers (ModuleAdminController* classes) use View files that are located in the /modules/name_of_the_module/views/templates/admin/name_of_the_controller folder.
You can override the View of a module's back-office controller by using  the /admin/themes/name_of_the_theme/template folder.

Helpers' view files

PrestaShop looks for View files in a specific order for each type of controller.

For a controller (AdminController), the order is thus:

• /override/controllers/admin/templates/name_of_the_controller/helpers/name_of_the_helper/list_content.tpl

• /admin/themes/name_of_the_theme/template/controllers/name_of_the_controller/helpers/name_of_the_helper/list_content.tpl

• /admin/themes/name_of_the_theme/helpers/name_of_the_helper

For a module (configuration page), the order is thus:

• /modules/nom_module/views/templates/admin/_configure/nom_module/helpers/name_of_the_helper/list_content.tpl

• /admin/themes/name_of_the_theme/helpers/name_of_the_helper

For a module's controller (ModuleAdminController), the order is thus:

• /modules/nom_module/views/templates/admin/name_of_the_controller/helpers/name_of_the_helper/list_content.tpl

• /admin/themes/name_of_the_theme/helpers/name_of_the_helper