All RocketTheme templates have various configurable options to make template customisation a much easier process, other developers will do the same. In general, the configurable settings are set between the <head>...</head> tags in the top of the file. The most common file that contains these values is the template's index.php but on occasion, you may find an additional file called templateConfig.inc.php. Therefore, if you cannot find the settings, search the template's root for other files which seem to be for configuration.
These will differ from template to template, but there are a range of standard options which you will see available. Below is an example of some standard configurable settings.
$default_style = "style1"; // style1...style2...style3
$menu_type = "suckerfish"; // module | suckerfish | supersucker | splitmenu
$menu_name = "mainmenu"; // mainmenu by default, can be any Joomla menu name
$default_font = "default"; // smaller | default | larger
$show_pathway = "true"; // true | false
$search_text = "keywords..."; // text to use in search box
We will now describe each option with a definition of what it does. You may not see any of these options, but these are more common than most and have a versatile purpose
You will find that templates come with varying styles, mainly focused around colour. The setting allows you to easily switch to another style variant with just a swift edit of the index.php. In our example, we use $default_style as our opening prefix, but there could be other names along the same line such as $template_style. The name between the " " tags is what the option actual loads so if we changed "style1" to "style2" in our example, our website would now load style2. Another signpost for the setting is the comments to the right, initiated with //.
$default_style = "style1"; // style1...style2...style3
A common feature of templates are multiple menu systems, which again can be activated in few, easy steps. For our example, we use the prefix $menu_type which shows that the option loads a menu system. The text between the " " tags is the menu system which actually loads onto your Joomla! site. The various options are shown in the commented section to the right, simply change the name between the " " tags with a name from the commented section to change the menu system
$menu_type = "suckerfish"; // module | suckerfish | supersucker | splitmenu
A partner with the menu type options is the menu name setting. This allows you to select which Joomla! menu is loaded for the menu system you have selected, for example, we may want the menu name "dropdown" if we use suckerfish. You must ensure that the menu exists within Joomla!. The intiator usually starts with $menu_name followed by the Joomla! menu name between the quotation marks.
$menu_name = "mainmenu"; // mainmenu by default, can be any Joomla menu name
Accessibility plays an important role in template development, therefore, you may seen an option to switch between 3 font sizes. These normally take the form of "smaller | default | larger". A common tag is $default_font but you may find something similar such as $font_size. Then just alter the text between the quote tags in reference to the commented section to change font size in your site.
$default_font = "default"; // smaller | default | larger
The pathway is also know as breadcrumbs, this shows were you are in respects to the home page. For example, if I was in the Example FAQ content item as part of the default Joomla! install, it would say Home > FAQ > Example FAQs > Example FAQ 1. With the following option, you can disable it by changing true to false.
$show_pathway = "true"; // true | false
Certain templates have inbuilt search boxes which are usually styled. The option shown allows you to change the text which appears when the site is loaded. Simply change the text between the "" tags to edit the phrase. A similar setting is the ability to switch the inbuilt search off so always check the commented section after the // opening tags for information
$search_text = "keywords..."; // text to use in search box
Those are the main options that you will normally find with your template configuration files/sections. However, you will find many other options as well, but these differ from template to template. These settings are usually variants of the standard options.
For example, the $default_style option is usually first but the template developer may allow you to change styles of blocks of the site as well. The main $default_style may determine the overall style but maybe an extra subsidiary option for $footer_style which controls the footer style. These are usually place together in the configuration section for ease.
With all configuration, you must look for the following
- Search for a templateConfig.inc.php file, if not present, open index.php
- Search for the settings between the <head>...</head> tags
- Locate the sections which begin with $ which signpost an option
- Read the prefix tag which starts with $
- Only make your changes between the " " tags
- Read the descriptions after the comment tags //
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