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Learning Magento Theme Development
Learning Magento Theme Development

Learning Magento Theme Development: Create visually stunning and responsive themes to customize the appearance of your Magento store

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Learning Magento Theme Development

Chapter 2. Magento Theming Basics

Now that you've been introduced to the concepts behind Magento and Magento themes, the real work begins. This chapter covers the basics of getting up and running with a new Magento theme. This includes:

  • Creating a new Magento theme
  • Enabling the theme on your Magento store
  • Changing your store's logo
  • Changing the theme's favorites icon
  • Customizing Magento's product watermark images
  • Customizing Magento's product placeholder images
  • Developer tools: Template Path Hints

Creating a new Magento theme

As you saw in Chapter 1, Introduction to Magento and Magento Themes, a Magento theme can encompass very few files or a large number of files.

Firstly, create the new directories in your Magento installation to contain your new theme's files:

  • app/design/frontend/default/m18/template
  • app/design/frontend/default/m18/layout
  • app/design/frontend/default/m18/locale
  • app/design/frontend/default/m18/etc
  • skin/frontend/default/m18/css
  • skin/frontend/default/m18/images
  • skin/frontend/default/m18/js

Once you have created these directories, you can create a file called styles.css in the skin/frontend/default/m18/css directory. To be able to test that your new skin is enabled, add the following to your styles.css file:

body {
background: red;
}

Tip

Downloading the example code

You can download the example code files for all Packt books you have purchased from your account at http://www.packtpub.com. If you purchased this book elsewhere, you can visit http://www.packtpub.com/support...

Enabling a Magento theme

Now that you have the bare bones of your new Magento theme ready, you can enable your Magento theme. Log in to your Magento store's administration panel and navigate to the System | Configuration menu, as shown in the following screenshot:

Enabling a Magento theme

Tip

Magento's administration panel is located at example.com/admin if you have installed Magento at example.com.

Once there, select the Design tab that has appeared in the left-hand column of the screen, keeping the Current Configuration Scope drop-down menu's value set to Default Config:

Enabling a Magento theme

Next, expand the Themes section of the Design settings panel and enter the name of your Magento theme for the Default field here. In the following example, m18 is used as the name of the new Magento theme you are enabling:

Enabling a Magento theme

Once you have done this, you need to click on the Save Config button in the top-right of the screen, after which you will see the The configuration has been saved success message, as shown in the following screenshot...

Changing your Magento store's logo

The next task you will perform in order to customize your Magento store's look and feel is to change your Magento theme's logo. Firstly, you will need to upload your store's logo file to your store, in the /skin/frontend/default/m18/images directory of your Magento installation.

Now, log in to your Magento store's administration panel and navigate to System | Configuration, and then to the Design tab. Expand the Header panel as shown in the following screenshot, and enter the value of your logo file's name and your theme's image directory. In this case, the example uses images/logo.png because the theme's logo file is stored at /skin/frontend/default/m18/images/logo.png.

Changing your Magento store's logo

Click on the Save Config button in the top-right corner of the screen to save these changes. After refreshing your store, your new logo should appear in place of the default Magento logo:

Changing your Magento store's logo

Tip

If you haven't created your own categories in your store...

Customizing your store's favorites icon (favicon)

Alongside your logo, you can use your store's favorites icon (favicon) to help distinguish yourself from other websites. The favicon is typically displayed in your browser's address bar and tabs, as seen in the following screenshot in the top-left of the screenshot:

Customizing your store's favorites icon (favicon)

To change your store's favicon from the default Magento favicon, you will need to create a favicon.ico file.

Tip

You can create favicon.ico files using free online tools such as the one at http://tools.dynamicdrive.com/favicon/.

Once you have your favicon.ico file ready, upload it to your Magento installation's /skin/frontend/design/default/your-theme-name/ directory. In the example theme, this would be /skin/frontend/default/m18/. You will now be able to see your custom favicon appear for your store, as shown in the following screenshot:

Customizing your store's favorites icon (favicon)

Tip

It's also worth checking the guide on adding home icons and other mobile and handheld-device specific icons to...

Customizing Magento's product watermark image

Some stores like to watermark their images to promote brand consistency across their websites, or to protect their product photography from being used without permission on other websites.

Magento allows you to specify a watermark image to overlay product photographs in your store. To change this, you can navigate to System | Configuration in your Magento store's administration panel. From there, navigate to the Design tab on the left-hand side, and then expand the Product Image Watermarks panel, as shown in the following screenshot:

Customizing Magento's product watermark image

Firstly, upload a watermark image you wish to be displayed across product images using the Base Image Watermark field, and click on the Save Config button in the top-right corner of your screen. If you now view a product on your Magento store front, you will see the product image appear with the watermark image superimposed over it. It's wise to make the watermark as faint as you can and try to position...

Creating a new Magento theme


As you saw in Chapter 1, Introduction to Magento and Magento Themes, a Magento theme can encompass very few files or a large number of files.

Firstly, create the new directories in your Magento installation to contain your new theme's files:

  • app/design/frontend/default/m18/template

  • app/design/frontend/default/m18/layout

  • app/design/frontend/default/m18/locale

  • app/design/frontend/default/m18/etc

  • skin/frontend/default/m18/css

  • skin/frontend/default/m18/images

  • skin/frontend/default/m18/js

Once you have created these directories, you can create a file called styles.css in the skin/frontend/default/m18/css directory. To be able to test that your new skin is enabled, add the following to your styles.css file:

body {
background: red;
}

Tip

Downloading the example code

You can download the example code files for all Packt books you have purchased from your account at http://www.packtpub.com. If you purchased this book elsewhere, you can visit http://www.packtpub.com...

Enabling a Magento theme


Now that you have the bare bones of your new Magento theme ready, you can enable your Magento theme. Log in to your Magento store's administration panel and navigate to the System | Configuration menu, as shown in the following screenshot:

Tip

Magento's administration panel is located at example.com/admin if you have installed Magento at example.com.

Once there, select the Design tab that has appeared in the left-hand column of the screen, keeping the Current Configuration Scope drop-down menu's value set to Default Config:

Next, expand the Themes section of the Design settings panel and enter the name of your Magento theme for the Default field here. In the following example, m18 is used as the name of the new Magento theme you are enabling:

Once you have done this, you need to click on the Save Config button in the top-right of the screen, after which you will see the The configuration has been saved success message, as shown in the following screenshot:

That's it! Your...

Changing your Magento store's logo


The next task you will perform in order to customize your Magento store's look and feel is to change your Magento theme's logo. Firstly, you will need to upload your store's logo file to your store, in the /skin/frontend/default/m18/images directory of your Magento installation.

Now, log in to your Magento store's administration panel and navigate to System | Configuration, and then to the Design tab. Expand the Header panel as shown in the following screenshot, and enter the value of your logo file's name and your theme's image directory. In this case, the example uses images/logo.png because the theme's logo file is stored at /skin/frontend/default/m18/images/logo.png.

Click on the Save Config button in the top-right corner of the screen to save these changes. After refreshing your store, your new logo should appear in place of the default Magento logo:

Tip

If you haven't created your own categories in your store yet, you may see Magento's sample category...

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Description

This book is for web designers and developers with existing knowledge of CSS, HTML, and XML, who wish to learn more about Magento-specific theming techniques. Some knowledge of PHP may be useful, but is not necessary.

Product Details

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Publication date, Length, Edition, Language, ISBN-13
Publication date : Aug 20, 2014
Length: 182 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781783280629
Vendor :
Magento
Languages :
Concepts :
Tools :

What do you get with eBook?

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Product Details

Publication date : Aug 20, 2014
Length: 182 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781783280629
Vendor :
Magento
Languages :
Concepts :
Tools :

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Table of Contents

9 Chapters
1. Introduction to Magento and Magento Themes Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
2. Magento Theming Basics Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
3. Magento Templates Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
4. Magento Layout Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
5. Social Media and Magento Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
6. Advanced Magento Theming Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
7. Magento Theming for Mobile and Tablet Devices Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
8. Magento E-mail Templates Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Index Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 3
(2 Ratings)
5 star 50%
4 star 0%
3 star 0%
2 star 0%
1 star 50%
Jason William Alls Apr 10, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
I have the ebook, and it is in full colour, and this makes a big difference. The author does a very good job of explaining to a complete novice what Magento themes are, and provides a very detailed but simple to follow procedure with examples on how to customise your own themes. If you have never had any experience of creating your own Magento theme, I guarantee that by the time you have worked through this book, you will be fully armed with all the knowledge you need to create and customise your own commercial quality themes.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Amazon Customer Mar 12, 2016
Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 1
not very useful
Amazon Verified review Amazon
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