Difference between revisions of "How does the JReviews Theme Engine work"

Revision as of 09:08, 20 August 2010

JReviews uses a php templating system. This means you can mix html with php code, which provides a lot of flexibility to create conditionals and add snippets of php code.

JReviews Themes

JReviews themes are located in this folder:

• /components/com_jreviews/jreviews/views/themes/
• the theme files have the .thtml extension.

In that folder you'll find several themes:

• /components/com_jreviews/jreviews/views/themes/default/
• /components/com_jreviews/jreviews/views/themes/default_02/
• /components/com_jreviews/jreviews/views/themes/default_dark/ - for using with dark joomla templates

You will notice that /default_02 and /default_dark theme folders contain less files than the /default theme folder.

The /default folder contains all the necessary theme, css and image files, while /default_02 and /default_dark are variations of the default theme and contain only "modified" files and images. Files that don't exist in those folders are used from the /default theme folder.

This is because the /default theme should always be intact to make JReviews upgrades easier.

You can create your own theme the same way, but instead of creating it in /components/com_jreviews/jreviews/views/themes/ folder, you should use the JReviews Code Overrides functionality to place your custom theme outside the /com_jreviews folder.

Modifying theme files

Creating your own theme is not necessary if you only want to modify several files from the default theme.

Instead, use the JReviews Code Overrides feature to create a copy of theme files you want to modify outside the /com_jreviews folder, and those files will be used instead of the ones in /themes/default folder.

For example, if you want to make modifications to the detail page theme file:

• /themes/default/listings/detail.thtml

Create a copy of the file into this folder:

• joomla_root/templates/jreviews_overrides/views/themes/default/listings/detail.thtml

and then make the modifications.

Do the same for any other theme file.

After copying the files into /jreviews_overrides folder, you need to click on 'Clear File Registry' link in JReviews Administration.