Joomla! 1.5 and the Million Dollar Wedding

Joomla!, quick, rapid, fast, speedy and custom

Written by Arno Zijlstra

Step one: Create your Template folder and the needed files

Before you can start building you need the minimum required files for a Joomla! template. I have a standard plain package that I can use over and over again and will offer a download link for the package at the end of this tutorial.

My package is called “joomla_base” and contains the following files and folders:

joomla_base/
	HTML/
		index.html
		pagination.php
		modules.php
		CSS/
				index.html
				reset.css
				pageframe.css
				pagestyle.css
		images/
				index.html
				logo.png
				a few other images 
		index.html
		index.php
		templateDetails.xml
		template_thumbnail.png
		favicon.ico

Those are the basics you need for a Joomla! template; everything else like template parameters or overrides you’ll find in some template packages is advanced stuff. Those are things you can play with after you understand the basics.

I code all my HTML and CSS by hand because I want full control over it, and don’t trust WYSIWYG software, But if you don’t have the knowledge to write HTML yourself these software packages will be something for you to use. Do take a look at the plain HTML from time to time so you can learn and understand what is happening under the hood.

Step 2: Place the Template where it needs to live

Put the “joomla_base” folder in Joomla! the templates directory, you’ll also find templates called “rhuk_milkyway” and “beez” in there.

Step 3: Name and Install your Template

Now you need to give your template a name, lets name it “my_template” for the rest of this tutorial.

The first thing you do is rename the template folder from “Joomla_base” to “my_template”

The second thing is opening the templateDetails.xml file and change this line:

<name>Joomla base</name> to <name>My template</name>, that way you can recognize the template in the Joomla! administrator template manager.

Note: Whenever you build a Joomla site and want to use one of the distributed templates just with some color changes or a new logo, MAKE A COPY AND RENAME IT! If you don’t make a copy and do a rename you are at great risk to loose the changes you made to the template when you run a Joomla update because that will replace your hacked core template with the original again.

Step 4: Activate your Template

Login to your Joomla administrator and go to Extensions -> Template manager. In the list you will see your template, check the radio box and press the “Default” button in the Joomla! toolbar.

Your template is the active template now and you can have a look at the Joomla! front-end, there’s not much there because you did an install without the Joomla! demo data, nice and clean just how we want it.

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