Documentation

The template contents document will give you a good idea of whats required to create a zen grid framework compatible template and as an example template we have two blank templates available for you to use as a base template.

The Zen Blank and Zen Default are the perfect starter template to use with the framework as they contain all of the files required to use the Zen Grid Framework but come with only a minimal amount of styling. This means that you get almost a blank slate to start with without sacrificing the power and the flexibility of the core Framework. Put simply you can create a powerful joomla template by only editing css without the need to get your hands dirty with needing to know php and even html.

You can download these two templates from the Zen Grid Framework download page.

If you are familiar with Jooml atemplates then the files and folders included in Zen Grid Framework compatible templates wont be a surprise to you. Since the core processing of the framework is done via the framework itself (eg via templates/zengridframework) compatible templates mostly consist of css files, images, extra javascript and layout override files.

The contents of each zen grid framework compatible template is as follows:

• component.php - overrides the component view
• css - contains the core theme.css and k2.css files and the hilite folder
• css/hilite - This folder contains the highlight files for the theme. eg style1.css The hilite files usually contain only css related to images and colours that are not a part of the core template.
• favicon.ico - the favicon for your site
• html - contains the html overrides for the template.
• images - contains images used int he template
• includes - normally includes the templateVariables.php which can be used as an adjunct to the core framework vars.php file. If your template does not have a templateVariables.php file then it means that it does not rely on any external php processing other than the variables used in the core framework. If you want to add some php to your template and you do not want to hack the core than you can create a templateVariables.php file and it will automatically be referenced in the template.
• index.php - interfaces with the core framework and checks that it is installed.
• index.html
• js - this folder contains any template related javascript. If your template utilises template specific javascript then it will have a template.js file located in this folder. If you need to create specific javascript for the template and this file does not exist then by simply creating the template.js file any javascript posted to this file will be included in your template.
• layout - this folder contains any layout overrides required by the template. The core template layout override reference files are located in the templates/zengridframework/assets/klayout folder. If you would like to override the layout of a particular row int he template then doing so is as simple as copying the file located in this directory to the templates[your template]/layout folder and then enabling it in the template parameters. Once you have done this you can edit the override file and it will automatically override the layout of your template.
• params.ini - this file stores the parameters you set in the template when you hit or apply in the template admin
• template_thumbnail.png - this is the image that appears when you hover over the template name in the template manager
• templateDetails.xml - this file stores all of the parameters available in the template. This file is unique to each template and is used to create specific functionality for the specific template you are using.
• templateTeaser.jpg - this is the image that appears in the template overview tab in the template parameters of the compatible template.