2008-09 Joomla! Community Magazine
Joomla! Community Magazine - Learning
Migrating rhuk SolarFlare II into Joomla! 1.5
To Infinity and Beyond!
Introduction
This tutorial provides instructions for converting a Joomla! 1.0.x template to run in Joomla! 1.5 native mode. The classic rhuk Solarflare II template is used to illustrate the steps one must take to accomplish this task.
Rhuk's Solarflare II is one of the most popular templates ever for Joomla! and before that for Mambo. It was included in the initial Joomla! 1.0.0 release and before that with various releases of Mambo. I do not recall when the initial version of Solarflare II appeared. The version I used as baseline for conversion to Joomla 1.5 is dated November 2, 2004.
A very telling tribute to its success is the many sites that still use it to this day and the number of "forks," or variations that one sees powering a ubiquitous and diverse set of sites. The last time I did a Google search on "rhuk Solarflare," I got about 78.5K hits. Pretty impressive!
Andy Miller is rhuk, and he was a member of the team that initiated the Joomla! Project and a major contributor to the Joomla! 1.5 development effort. He is also the founder of RocketTheme.
Scope
This tutorial covers the steps one must take to allow the following Solarflare II files to operate in Joomla! 1.5 native mode:
- index.php
- templateDetails.xml
- template_css.css
Terminology
The terminology used throughout this tutorial may not be as precise as one would like. For examples all of template-related code snippets are referred to as "template constructs," or simply as "constructs." This is done in hopes of enhancing readability and understanding, and keeping the focus on the subject at hand.
Getting started
Template conversion can be accomplished by common folk. One really does not have to be a 32nd Degree PHP Wizard or be up close and personal with each and every Joomla! 1.5 API . However, if you have little or no prior experience working with Joomla! templates, you may want to take a quick look at this and use it as a reference as you work your way through the tutorial. To see a list of in-depth template-related documentation, take a look here.