Themes 2.2 how to clone a Moodle 2.2 theme

Moodle 2.2 This document describes how to clone Afterburner theme so that you can build on this to create a theme of your own. It assumes you have some understanding of how themes work within Moodle 2.2, as well as a basic understanding of HTML and CSS. Also, because of the rapid development within Moodle, resulting in a number of versions available namely 2.0.x, 2.1.x, 2.2.x and soon to be announced Moodle 2.3.x it is important to understand that this tutorial is only valid for Moodle 2.2 themes.

Getting started

From your Moodle theme directory right click on afterburner and then copy and paste back into your Moodle theme directory. You should now have a folder called Copy of afterburner. If you right click this folder you are given the option to Rename it. So rename this folder to mytheme (or to whatever name you want to call your cloned theme).

If you open the mytheme directory you will find several directories, sub-directories and files within it.

These are:

config.php

Where all the theme configurations are made.

lib.php

Where all the functions for the themes settings are found.

renderers.php

Where all the renderers for this theme are found.

settings.php

Where all the setting for this theme are created.

version.php

Where the version number and plugin componant information is kept.

/lang/

This directory contains all language sub-directories for other languages if and when you want to add them.

/lang/en/

This sub-directory contains your language files, in this case English.

/lang/en/theme_afterburner.php

This file contains all the language strings for your theme.

/layout/

This directory contains all the layout files for this theme.

/layout/default.php

Layout file for front page.

/layout/embedded.php

Layout file for embedded pages.

/style/

This directory contains all the CSS files for this theme.

/pix/

This directory contains a screen shot of this theme as well as a favicon and any images used in the theme.

/pix_core/

/pix_plugins/

Renaming Elements

The problem when cloning a theme is that you need to rename all those instances where the old theme name occures, in this case afterburner. The first place to look is config.php, where you you need to define the name of your theme. So change $THEME->name = 'afterburner'; to the name of your new theme.

You will need to change the name of lang/en/theme_afterburner.php. This file, as well as needing to be renamed, also needs some of its content renaming too. So before you forget, right click on this file and rename it to the name of your new theme before you open it.

Language Strings

When you open theme_mytheme.php the first thing you will see are the credits for the theme. /**

* Strings for component 'theme_afterburner', language 'en'
*
* @package   theme_afterburner
* @copyright 2011
* @license   http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html GNU GPL v3 or later
*/

Here you will need to change the reference from afterburner to mytheme, you can leave the rest of this as it is.

The next things you will find in this file are what are known as the language strings. These are all the customised words or phrases used in this theme.

$string['configtitle'] = 'Afterburner Custom Settings'; $string['pluginname'] = 'Afterburner'; $string['region-side-post'] = 'Right'; $string['region-side-pre'] = 'Left'; ... ...

In the $string section above, you will need to change ALL instances of the old theme name Afterburner to your new theme name. In this next section alone you will find seven instances of the name Afterburner to rename.

The only section you may want to change completely is the choosereadme. You could write something like this instead.

$string['choosereadme'] = 'My theme is a customised Moodle theme based on the Moodle 2.2 Afterburner theme by Mary Evans.';

When you have finished all the changes in this file save it and close it.

Now that you know have had a chance to search for and change all the instances in the language file, checking the lib.php, settings.php and renderers.php you will be more familar for what you are looking for. But do be sure to rename ALL the instances in these three files, as there are quite a number of them.

The last file to change is version.php, here you will find the following...

{code} /**

* Theme version info
*
* @package    theme
* @subpackage afterburner
* @copyright  2011 Mary Evans
* @license    http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html GNU GPL v3 or later
*/

defined('MOODLE_INTERNAL') || die;

$plugin->version = 2011082400; // The current module version (Date: YYYYMMDDXX) $plugin->requires = 2011081700; // Requires this Moodle version $plugin->component = 'theme_afterburner'; // Full name of the plugin (used for diagnostics) {code}

Just as long as you change the instance of afterburner to your new theme's name you will be almost ready to try out this theme in your Moodle 2.2. instalation.

And basically that's it as far as this theme is concerned. If you are reading this and have run into problems, and need more help, then do please ask in the Themes Forum, [1] where you will find lots of help with your theme project. --Mary Evans 2 04:56, 7 April 2012 (WST)