customization
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A general remark: the theme is marked as "beginner" but how does this customization through "body classes" work? I am not an absolute beginner when it comes to C5 but no programmer and therefore avoid code. So I don't really understand what body classes are, and how would I use them - for which cases? which code? how/where to insert?
Theme builders don't have to provide complete tutorials, some search and self study can be expected from users. But a minimum of guidance (2-3 paragraphs) and/or a couple of references would have been in order with a theme for beginners.
In any case I do not have a clue where to start.
Theme builders don't have to provide complete tutorials, some search and self study can be expected from users. But a minimum of guidance (2-3 paragraphs) and/or a couple of references would have been in order with a theme for beginners.
In any case I do not have a clue where to start.
| Type: | Discussion |
|---|---|
| Status: | Resolved |
Thank you for your prompt reply, much appreciated!
First, to clear up: I do know the basics of HTML/CSS etc, but I'm not an expert. So when you write "Easy to use theming via body-classes" I do not immediately understand what to do.
If the theme can be customized the usual way, great! I can handle that, no problem. The 'body-classes' confused me.
However: at the moment I cannot customize the theme at all: nothing happens, I don't get the panel with choices.
I'm beginning to suspect something is wrong with the C5 installation. Messing around these past days, for some reason (I forget which) I deleted the Elemental theme (the folder is still there but it doesn't show up in the list of themes anymore). I guess that was a mistake (although it did not affect another theme I was playing around with).
There is only one post on the forum on how to re-install Elemental, something to do with code in databases -this has led me astray no end. So I guess I'd better go for the brutish big solution and do a complete re-install of C5 . Maybe that will solve the problem.
First, to clear up: I do know the basics of HTML/CSS etc, but I'm not an expert. So when you write "Easy to use theming via body-classes" I do not immediately understand what to do.
If the theme can be customized the usual way, great! I can handle that, no problem. The 'body-classes' confused me.
However: at the moment I cannot customize the theme at all: nothing happens, I don't get the panel with choices.
I'm beginning to suspect something is wrong with the C5 installation. Messing around these past days, for some reason (I forget which) I deleted the Elemental theme (the folder is still there but it doesn't show up in the list of themes anymore). I guess that was a mistake (although it did not affect another theme I was playing around with).
There is only one post on the forum on how to re-install Elemental, something to do with code in databases -this has led me astray no end. So I guess I'd better go for the brutish big solution and do a complete re-install of C5 . Maybe that will solve the problem.
With "body classes" I mean that the body-html tag has convenient classes:
- each page-type has it's own class
- user logged in or not class
- if it is the home page or not
- if it is a top-level page or not
- page-id class
- if you are in editmode
So you can use conditional css, like these examples:
- each page-type has it's own class
- user logged in or not class
- if it is the home page or not
- if it is a top-level page or not
- page-id class
- if you are in editmode
So you can use conditional css, like these examples:
.page-type-news #main { float: none; } .user-logged-in .some-register-from { display:none; } .is-home .nav { top: 49px; } .top-level .breadcrumb { float: right; } .page-id-4 .sidebar { display: none; } .editmode .slideshow { display: none; }
Thank you for the explanation. I'm not sure I understand properly. How would I know (if you had not told me now) which classes the html-tag has? Where can I check such things? And where do I put the conditional CSS?
Anyway: I did not do a complete re-install of C5 but got my Elemental theme back anyway. Then uninstalled the WM theme (not just removed, but moved to trash on the server), re-installed it - but no luck. Also cleared cache a few times.
When I go to 'design' in the left column there is an image of the theme but on mouseover it does NOT say 'customize', like the others, and though it is clickable, nothing happens when I click.
So there is nowhere to do the usual customizations of colours etc.
(And: without access to the theme-customize-panel, I don't have a field for 'custom css' either, but would have to edit the files directly)
Any suggestions?
Anyway: I did not do a complete re-install of C5 but got my Elemental theme back anyway. Then uninstalled the WM theme (not just removed, but moved to trash on the server), re-installed it - but no luck. Also cleared cache a few times.
When I go to 'design' in the left column there is an image of the theme but on mouseover it does NOT say 'customize', like the others, and though it is clickable, nothing happens when I click.
So there is nowhere to do the usual customizations of colours etc.
(And: without access to the theme-customize-panel, I don't have a field for 'custom css' either, but would have to edit the files directly)
Any suggestions?
Hi Yola,
I am afraid I am mistaken about customization. I thought this support-ticket was for our (concrete 5.6) Schoolbus theme, which has customization.
This theme does not have that kind of customization. (sorry!)
Front end developers use often the inspector of their browser to check the HTML code of the webpage. There you can see the classes of each element.
You can create your own css file in the theme-folder and link it in the header.php
(please use my hints after you done some basic html and css learning, then most of it becomes clear ;-)
Good luck and have fun developping!
I am afraid I am mistaken about customization. I thought this support-ticket was for our (concrete 5.6) Schoolbus theme, which has customization.
This theme does not have that kind of customization. (sorry!)
Front end developers use often the inspector of their browser to check the HTML code of the webpage. There you can see the classes of each element.
You can create your own css file in the theme-folder and link it in the header.php
(please use my hints after you done some basic html and css learning, then most of it becomes clear ;-)
Good luck and have fun developping!
Okay, I'll regard my efforts to get it to do what it can't do it as a learning experience then :-))
I still think you need to adapt your description of the theme though. Although it may be a good starting-point for more or less experienced developers, it is certainly not a beginner's theme (assuming the beginner is not necessarily a programmer).
I've built quite a few websites with C5 and can usually achieve what I want by tweaking existing CSS. It's not so hard to adapt a well-organized and commented stylesheet. Writing your own CSS is a lot trickier.
A bit of documentation wouldn't be amiss either - what you explained to me above should be part of the documentation of the theme.
Thank you for the additional info, I'm beginning to get the idea, may dive into that one day. But for the time being I'm back to Elemental.
I still think you need to adapt your description of the theme though. Although it may be a good starting-point for more or less experienced developers, it is certainly not a beginner's theme (assuming the beginner is not necessarily a programmer).
I've built quite a few websites with C5 and can usually achieve what I want by tweaking existing CSS. It's not so hard to adapt a well-organized and commented stylesheet. Writing your own CSS is a lot trickier.
A bit of documentation wouldn't be amiss either - what you explained to me above should be part of the documentation of the theme.
Thank you for the additional info, I'm beginning to get the idea, may dive into that one day. But for the time being I'm back to Elemental.
BTW, Learnable looks very attractive, thanks for the tip. Just yesterday I bought a couple of e-books they offer as part of subscription :-( but even so their offer looks very attractive.
Most of the website building with this theme can be done with standard Concrete5 functionality, ie: adding blocks, adding pages, etc.
You can even change a lot of colors and fonts in the theme-administration page of your Concrete installation.
When that's not good enough you might want to change the looks of the theme by using CSS. That is not easy for someone without CSS skills, and does not belong to the "beginner" part. All of the above does.
If you want to dive into the world of front-end developing (HTML, Javascript & CSS), I recommend looking into tutorials online. I think this is a good one:
https://learnable.com/courses/build-your-first-website-html-css-2891...
Let me know if you have any question, I'd like to help