How does the JReviews Theme Engine work
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/compact/
- /components/com_jreviews/jreviews/views/themes/dark/ - for using with dark joomla templates
You will notice that /compact and /dark theme folders contain less files than the /default theme folder.
The default theme is a "fallback" theme which contains all the necessary files, while compact and dark themes are variations of the default theme and contain only "modified" files and images. If a theme doesn't contain a certain file, JReviews will load that file from the default theme. That makes updating themes easier.
If you want to make theme customizations, create a custom theme similar to compact or dark themes because files in default theme should never be modified.
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. That way you won't lose your custom theme when you upgrade JReviews.