Theme settings
Location: Administration > Appearance > Themes > Theme settings
Theme settings
themelist
This lists the themes available for course and user themes. Leave this blank to allow any valid theme to be used. If you want to shorten the theme menu, you may specify a comma-separated list of names, though don't use spaces (e.g. standard,orangewhite).
- Site themes which are listed can be previewed and chosen via Site Administration block> Appearance > Themes >Themes selector.
- Older versions will find the available site themes via Site Administration block > Configuration > Themes.
allowuserthemes
If enabled, then users will be allowed to set their own themes through their Edit Profile page. User themes override site themes but not if the course setting is Force theme.
- If the option allowuserthemes is enabled, each user may select their preferred theme on the Edit profile page. All Moodle pages will be displayed in the user's theme, apart from courses where a course theme has been set.
allowcoursethemes
If you enable this, then teachers will be able to set their own course themes. Course themes override all other theme choices (site, user, or session themes).
- If the option allowcoursethemes is enabled, each editing teacher may select their course theme via the Force theme option on the Course settings page. The course will always be displayed in the theme specified in the course setting, with user and the site themes being overwritten.
allowcategorythemes
Template:Moodle 1.9When enabled, themes can be set at the category level. This will affect all child categories and courses unless they have specifically set their own theme. WARNING: Enabling category themes may affect performance.
- In Moodle 1.9 onwards, category themes may be set. There is an admin setting to turn this feature on/off under "Site Administration/Appearance/Themes/Theme settings". It is off by default as it does take a bit of processing overhead. If it is switched on then you will be able to select a theme when editing categories. The theme will then apply to all courses in that category or child categories and the category page itself.
allowuserstohideblocks
Allows users to display and hide blocks
showblocksonmodulepage
If activity module allows blocks, this will enable a pulldown list.
Will allow the teacher to hide an activity type in the navigation bar.
- Template:Moodle 1.9In Moodle 1.9, it is possible for the teacher to hide an activity type, for example Quiz crumb, in the navigation bar from students or all users. This would prevent the user from seeing a list of other activities.
This setting has been removed in Moodle 2.0 (see MDL-22427).
New settings for Moodle 2.0
Template:Moodle 2.0*Theme designer modethemedesignermode
- Allow theme changes in the URL allowthemechangeonu
- Allow blocks to use the dock allowblockstodock
- Custom menu items custommenuitems - see Using Moodle forum discussion Moodle 2.0: Custom menu in core
Special themes
Session themes
Moodle offers an additional way to set a theme - the session theme. This is set with the URL and lasts until you log out. When you next login, the site/course/user themes are active again. This option is great for theme testing and works perfectly when you want to enable different themes for different situations.
For example you can offer a special link for PDA users and integrate the session theme orangewhitepda in that link. Nobody needs to change any settings, you just click on that link. The session theme is called by the URL parameter &theme=orangewhitepda. The whole URL without the session theme could look like http://mymoodlesite.org/course/view.php?id=18 and with the parameter for the PDA theme like "http://mymoodlesite.org/course/view.php?id=18&theme=orangewhitepda".
In a standard Moodle installation, session themes are not active. To activate them the administrator must add the parameter $CFG->allowthemechangeonurl = true; to the Moodle config.php file in the Moodle base directory.
Page theme
A page theme is for special page-only themes set by code.
Theme hierarchy
Here is the usual order that themes are considered by the Moodle interface.
| Theme type | Overwrites | Display | Setting type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Site | - | all pages* | saved in theme profile |
| User | Site theme | all pages* | saved in user profile |
| Course | Site, user and session themes | one course | saved in course profile |
| Session | Site and user themes | all pages* | temporary until logout |
(* except courses with the course theme set)
Change default hierarchy
In Moodle 1.9 onwards, the priority of themes can be set via the /moodle/config.php file. The order defines which theme wins when there are several set at different levels. You can set a variable called $CFG->themeorder (see config-dist.php for more details). By default it is set to:
$CFG->themeorder = array('page', 'course', 'category', 'session', 'user', 'site');
See also
- How to change Header logo
- Theme scrapbook has more information about themes
- Video demonstrating how to set a category theme in Moodle 1.9
