Template Layout Overrides - a beginner's guide

Template overrides and the “MVC” concept Ruth Cheesley Suffolk Computer Services [email_address]

WHAT IS MVC?

What is MVC?
M ODEL
Manages the behaviour and the data
V IEW
Manages the graphical and/or textual output
Article, Category Blog, Section list
C ONTROLLER
Interprets mouse/keyboard inputs

Request for a section blog layout content page is sent (by user browsing to the page) Controller analyses the request and passes to appropriate component (com_content) Appropriate data (from the section ID) is pulled from the database and passed to the view View (section) and layout (blog) applied, overrides applied, content is displayed to user

WHY USE TEMPLATE OVERRIDES?

Why use Template Overrides?
Avoid editing the core
Change how an extension is displayed
Greater flexibility
If Component/module is 1.5 Native & uses MVC structure (has views/tmpl folder)

TEMPLATES, VIEWS AND LAYOUTS

Views and Layouts
Components display information in different ways (“views”)
Most components will have many views
com_content
Single article
Category/Section
Archive
Front Page
The view does not display the output – this is done by a “layout” (e.g. blog, html, RSS feed, PDF)

Run that by me again?!
Components can have multiple views
Each view assembles a fixed set of information (e.g. The Category view in Articles component assembles a number of articles)
Each view can have multiple layouts
Each layout can display the information in different ways (e.g. The Category view in Articles component can be laid out in blog or list layout)

What about modules?
Generally only display one thing, one way
Don’t really have views, but do support a layout

Templates and Layouts
Templates set up a structural framework for the page of the website
Positions for modules & components to display
What gets displayed is controlled by
Module layout
Combination of view & layout in the case of a component

Typical layout (rhuk_milkyway) Append ?tp=1 to show module positions over your template E.G. index.php?tp=1

Component Structure
Components/  High level folder (contains all components)
com_content/  Individual component folder
views/  The different views available for that specific component
articles/  For when displaying a single article view.html.php (this is the view that outputs the html)
view.pdf.php (this is the view that outputs the PDF)
tmpl/  Template folder
default.php (this is a layout)
form.php (this is a layout)
category/  For when displaying articles in category view
view.html.php (this is the view that outputs the html)
view.feed.php (this is the view that outputs RSS feed )
tmpl/  Template folder
blog.php (this is a layout)
blog_items.php (this is a sub-layout)

HOW TO OVERRIDE

How to override components?
Templates/  High level folder (contains all templates)
MyTemplate/  My Template folder
html/  The template overrides folder
com_content /  The component to be overridden
articles/  Overrides to apply to single article view
form.php (this is a layout)
category/  Overrides to apply to category view
blog.php (this is a layout)
blog_items.php (this is a sub-layout)
Note:
There are three other views for com_content:
Archive
Section
Frontpage
It is not possible to customise the PDF or RSS feeds currently

How to override components?
Copy / components / com_content / views / article / tmpl /default.php
To
/ templates / rhuk_milkyway / html/com_content / article /default.php
Make changes to file in template folder (not in the core)
Joomla will check for overrides – if there’s a file in the html folder for this component and this view, use it. Else, use default file .

What about modules?
Modules/  High level folder (contains all modules)
mod_latestnews/  Individual module folder
helper.php (helper file containing data logic)
mod_latest_news.php (main module file)
mod_latest_news.xml (module installation XML file)
tmpl/  The templates for that module (usually only one, but can be more)

How to override modules?
Copy
/ modules / mod_latestnews / tmpl /default.php
To
/ templates / rhuk_milkyway / html/mod_latestnews /default.php
Make changes to file in template folder (not the core)

What else can I override?
Module Chrome
Pagination
Check out http://docs.joomla.org/Understanding_Output_Overrides
for some examples

THINGS TO CONSIDER

Things to consider
Only override 1.5 NATIVE MVC enabled components/modules (with views/tmpl folder)
Can’t override PDF/RSS Feeds (you have to edit the core)
File path is essential – get it right!

Ruth Cheesley Suffolk Computer Services [email_address]

References
Joomla Docs:
http://docs.joomla.org/MVC
http://docs.joomla.org/Understanding_Output_Overrides
http://docs.joomla.org/Category:Templates
http://docs.joomla.org/How_to_override_the_output_from_the_Joomla!_core
Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model-view-controller

http://www.suffolkcomputerservices.co.uk	31
http://www.slideshare.net	31
http://viet4777.vatlieu.us	4
http://localhost	3
http://viet4777.luyenkim.org	2
http://vatlieu.us	1
http://viet4777.xahoihoctap.net	1
http://vicoltd.biz	1
http://kythuatvatlieu.org	1

Template Layout Overrides - a beginner's guide

by Virya Technologies Ltd. on Oct 05, 2009

Accessibility

Categories

Tags

Upload Details

Usage Rights

9 Embeds 75

Statistics

Template Layout Overrides - a beginner’s guide — Presentation Transcript