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2008-09 Joomla! Community Magazine

Joomla! Community Magazine - Learning

Migrating rhuk SolarFlare II into Joomla! 1.5

To Infinity and Beyond!

Written by Harry Reinhardt
Migrating rhuk SolarFlare II into Joomla! 1.5
index.php
templateDetails.xml
template_css.css
Conclusion
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Introduction

rhuk Solarflare II template
rhuk SolarFlare II

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.


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7 Comments

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  1. avatar David Craig makes this comment

    2008-10-13 08:30:08

    Great to see Solar Flare living on. As the top module position shows early on the source order its a good place to put the stuff you want search engines to see first. I have created my own version to suit my personal needs. based on info from Compass Design and this tempalate. It uses all div's and is only slightly fluid to suit most resolutions and most common browsers. Its not perfect but it suits the charity website I run. Its nearly ready for going public so I'll post it the forums with a download link if any one wants to to take it and improve on it. i'm no expert!

  2. avatar Matt Coblentz makes this comment

    2008-10-18 23:46:27

    Thanks for the work on this for us "noobs"; I'm trying to work out the migration activities and the template is challenging. I have a question on the mosLoadModules statement in the body - mine statement is a little different and goes like this: [code=][/code] in your example a -1 turned into a table statement; would a -2 be something different? Elsewhere in the index.php file I have a [code= <br />][/code] statement; I would think that would change to a "table", correct? Well, I'll play with this anyway but thanks in advance for any insights. I could not find a table that identifies if this value transcribes into something else or not. Matt

  3. avatar Leo Lammerink makes this comment

    2008-10-27 04:06:12

    Very nice Harry, very nice indeed! One question: In the past we wrote a tutorial how to collapse the left or right column if nothing published (since default Solar did not do that) Can you add that piece of instruction on how to make them (left/right) collapse to your tutorial? That would complete it fully! Great job!

  4. avatar HarryB makes this comment

    2008-10-28 12:58:19

    @Matt Coblenz Take a look here for mapping of 1.0 to 1.5 module styles http://docs.joomla.org/Tutorial:Upgrading_a_Joomla!_1.0.x_template

  5. avatar HarryB makes this comment

    2008-10-29 12:51:51

    @Leo... I think this version of SolarFlare already handles collapsing of left/right columns if no modules published there. Take a look at http://rc.hrpr.com for example.

  6. avatar Daniel Dimitrov makes this comment

    2008-11-09 15:45:14

    You have forgotten the closing tag for position it should be: and not cheers!

  7. avatar HarryB makes this comment

    2008-11-18 14:39:19

    @Daniel Dimitrov... thanks...maybe I'll actually get around to fixing it someday! ;)
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