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Let's diving into the way a theme is organized: folders, files, where they belong and how to handle them correctly
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Table of Contents |
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Folders
The main folders of any PrestaShop theme are those:
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It can have any size – the default theme's is 180*445 pixels.
It must be a JPEG file.
CSS and Sass
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CSS
The theme's CSS files are located in the /css
folder.
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From there, you can generate the CSS files in the /css
folders from the Sass files in the /sass
folder!
Font
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The /font
folder is optional: it contains the fonts that you chose to use for your theme.
For instance, the default PrestaShop theme uses the FontAwesome Font Awesome font set (http://fortawesome.github.io/Font-Awesome/) for its responsive icons, and therefore has the following files in its /font
folder:
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If you do not build your theme with a specific font or icon set in mind, you can skip this folder.
Image
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Theme-related images are to be stored in the /img
folder.
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/icon
for simple icons (for instance, those not available in your chosen font set)./jquery
for for jQuery-specific images.
You can create more if needed.
JavaScript
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JavaScript files are to be stored in the /js
folder.
Unlike CSS files, we recommend you NOT to have a common/global JavaScript file, nor should you have a single file per controller.
Language
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All the translation files are to be stored in the /lang
folder.
Files should be named after their ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code in lowercase: for instance, fr.php
.
These files should be generated by PrestaShop integrated translation tool (located in the Localization / Translations menu).
The mobile theme
Info |
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The default theme in PrestaShop 1.6 is fully responsive, meaning that it adapts itself to any screen size. Your own theme should be responsive too! If not, then you should build an alternative theme targeted at smaller screen – or use/adapt the one available in PrestaShop 1.5's default theme. |
PrestaShop has a mobile theme option in its back-office: in the Preferences / Themes page, the "Mobile" tab in the "Your current theme" section give gives you the following choices: disable the option, or enable it for smartphones, tablets or both.
Once this option is enabled, the theme that is displayed to the mobile visitor is not the default desktop theme but the alternative theme that is located in the /mobile
folder: it is better suited for this formatsmall screen sizes, and therefore your customers will appreciate the difference.
In essence, the content of the /mobile
folder is another complete PrestaShop theme: it has the same overall file structure with its own /css
, /img
and /js
folders, and its own template files.
Files
Templates files
PrestaShop uses the Smarty template engine for its theme system. Smarty makes it possible to separate content (the information being presented) from presentation (the way the information is displayed). The template file mixes both in order to generate a fully-formed HTML file.
A template file is built with two types of block of code:
- Code that does not change throughout the HTML rendering process: mostly design sections, and some immutable content (logo, menu, links, etc.).
- Code that does change depending on the context of the rendered page: variables in the code are replaced with the actual content that is expected by the visitor in this context.
Note that you can generate more than just HTML pages with Smarty: XML files, text files, email file, etc.
See for instance the constant and variable blocks in 404.tpl, the template file displayed when PrestaShop needs to send a 404 File Not Found error message:
Code Block |
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<div>
<div>
<img src="{$img_dir}/img-404.jpg" alt="{l s='Page not found'}" />
</div>
<h1>{l s='This page is not available'}</h1>
<p>
{l s='We\'re sorry, but the Web address you\'ve entered is no longer available.'}
</p>
<h3>{l s='To find a product, please type its name in the field below.'}</h3>
<form action="{$link->getPageLink('search')}" method="post">
<div>
<label for="search_query">{l s='Search our product catalog:'}</label>
<input id="search_query" name="search_query" type="text" />
<button type="submit" name="Submit" value="OK">{l s='Ok'}</button>
</div>
</form>
<div>
<a href="{$base_dir}" title="{l s='Home'}">{l s='Home page'}</a>
</div>
</div>
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(this is a simplified version of the real template file, which you can find here: https://github.com/PrestaShop/PrestaShop/blob/1.6/themes/default-bootstrap/404.tpl)
People familiar with HTML (which you should be if you intend to build a PrestaShop theme) will immediately notice some {$tag_name}
tags in the regular HTML content. These are PrestaShop's Smarty variables.
There are already a few interesting variables here:
{$img_dir}
returns the absolute file path for the/img
folder.{l s='My text'}
is a special method for strings that need to be translated. Every string should be encapsulated in a{l s='...'}
tag.{$link->getPageLink('search')}
returns the absolute file path to another template file, in this case thesearch.tpl
file.{$base_dir}
returns the absolute file path to the root of PrestaShop's folder – and therefore, to the home page.
PrestaShop uses the Smarty 3 engine. You can learn more about Smarty and its syntax here: http://www.smarty.net/docs/en/smarty.for.designers.tpl.
Style sheets
Template files render into HTML files, with no styling (except for inline styles, if any), which means that the blocks of content are displayed as-is, bare bones, one block after the other. This is where style sheets (CSS files) are useful: they are here to redefine the way the blocks of content are displayed, sometimes even rearranging whole portions of the page in order to make it look better. Font, margin, columns and many other design aspects can be recomposed using CSS.
You can create and edit CSS files any way you want, making sure that they are stored in the /css
folder.
It is recommended to have a common style sheet for global CSS rules: global.css
.
Then, each of the controller should have its own CSS file: for instance, product.css
for the Product page.
If you are starting from the default theme's style sheet files, you should rather edit the corresponding Sass files in the /sass
folder, then generate the new CSS files and store it in the /css
folder. This ensures consistency between CSS and Sass files.
Here is an example of a Sass file:
Code Block | ||||
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.primary_block {
margin-bottom: 40px;
}
.top-hr{
background: $top-line-color;
height: 5px;
margin: 2px 0 31px;
} |
...which gets rendered into these CSS lines:
Code Block | ||||
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/* line 6, ../sass/product.scss */
.primary_block {
margin-bottom: 40px;
}
/* line 9, ../sass/product.scss */
.top-hr {
background: #c4c4c4;
height: 5px;
margin: 2px 0 31px;
} |
As you can see, the $top-line-color
variable in the Sass file turns into the #c4c4c4
value in the rendered CSS file. Sass variables in the default PrestaShop 1.6 theme are stored in the _theme_variables.scss
file.
Image files
The images used by the theme should be stored in its /img
folder (and subfolders for specific cases, for instance /img/icon
for Gif icons and /img/jquery
for jQuery-specific images).
You can use pretty much any kind of image you wish when creating your design.
In terms of icons, PrestaShop uses the Font Awesome font set, stores in the /font
folder. Using a font for icons has many advantages:
- A single file for many different icons.
- Many possible variations: size, color, shades, rotation, etc.
- Display equally great on all screen sizes and resolutions: PC, TV screen, Retina, etc.