Look! I can change ANY Joomla! 1.0 site's template!

Written by Peter Martin Thursday, 30 October 2008

How's that... I can change anyone's Joomla! 1.0 template!
Just by visiting some website! And I do not have to log in!

First of all, don't be afraid! No one is going to change your website's template for another one.
This "trick" will work only in the visitor's own browser ;-)

Now, are you still interested in changing a template of any Joomla 1.0 website in your own browser?

Add index.php?jos_change_template=some_template_name behind the URL of a Joomla 1.0.x site to switch the template in your browser.

Limitations:

the template will only be changed in your own browser
it works only in Joomla! 1.0.x
you'll need to know the exact name of the template.

But hey:

it can be fun anyway. Especially as you are friends with the site owner and do it in their presence: "Hey, what's wrong with your site ?!?" ;-)
not everyone made the switch to 1.5; there are still a lot of Joomla! 1.0 websites around.
Joomla! 1.0.x is shipped with two default templates: rhuk_solarflare_ii and madeyourweb, hence you'll know two exact names ;-)

To switch to alternative versions of a Joomla! 1.0 website at www.example.com:

rhuk_solarflare_ii: http://www.example.com/index.php?jos_change_template=rhuk_solarflare_ii
madeyourweb: http://www.example.com/index.php?jos_change_template=madeyourweb
back in the original Joomla layout:
http://www.example.com/index.php?jos_change_template=name_of_the_original_template

Before switching, you'd better check the HTML source to know the name_of_the_original_template otherwise you will have to delete the website's cookie on your computer to change it back.

Background info: the jos_change_template information is stored as a cookie on your local PC.
Restarting your browser or emptying your browser cache won't restore the "original" template in your browser;
you'll need to delete the site's cookie or use "jos_change_template" + the original template name to revert back to the original template.

This functionality can be found as "TemplateChooser Start" in /includes/joomla.php (Joomla! 1.0.15, line 1270).

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ian.maclennan makes this comment

2009-01-31 03:42:53

If you have the Firefox Web Developer toolbar, you can also do the same thing in Joomla! 1.5 by adding a Session cookie called 'template' and set it to the name of the template that you want. It is still subject to the other two limitations as noted above.
ross makes this comment

2009-03-23 19:35:00
this can also be accomplished with Joomla! 1.5:
```
http://www.joomla.org?template=template-name
```
where template-name is the name of the template (e.g. beez)
faizulamin makes this comment

2009-08-10 04:07:23

testing power.. just wanna ask, what is name of this commenting system?

i want one!

Look! I can change ANY Joomla! 1.0 site's template!

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