How to Build a Joomla Template Start to Finish

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Tutorial Details

Topic: Joomla Template CreationDifficulty: Basix

Estimated Completion Time: 2 Hours

How to Build a JoomlaTemplate: Start to FinishRyan Olson on Oct 21st 2010 with 121 comments

Tutorials \ PHP

Tweet

To begin, I am not even going to touch the inevitable flame war here. Joomla vs WordPress vs who cares?

And frankly, neither should you. You wouldnt hammer a nail with a saw, would you? So let s bear in mind

that every job requires the correct tool.

That being said, this tutorial will demonstrate how to proceed from design to deployment of a complete

Joomla template theme, including core override and template option parameters that you can use and

abuse to your hearts content.

Getting AroundThe PSD

The HTML

The CSS

The JavaScript

Joomla Conversion

Frontpage Override

Dynamic Parameters

Installation

My goal is to provide something useful not ammunition. There are so many wonderful WordPress

resources and so few for Joomla. This is my attempt to aid in the effort; I hope you find it useful. So lets

begin!

Download SOURCE FILES Demo VIEW IT ONLINE

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The PSD

Back Up

Here is the design I am starting with. I found a free PSD file online here, and modified it for this tut. The

easiest and fastest way I have found to get from PSD to HTML is how I will demonstrate here. Begin by

making sure a u t o s e l e c t l a y e r s is enabled in Photoshop, and then make note of which images you

need to grab. Concentrate on parts that either you cannot, or do not want to duplicate, via CSS. This

includes things, such as actual imagery, logo, and buttons (possibly). Shadows and gradients are your call,

considering the new CSS3 properties, and should be decided on a case by case basis. For this tut, we will

achieve those effects with CSS.

Start by clicking on the logo to highlight its corresponding layer in the layers panel. Now, move the cursor to

the thumbnail and o p t i o n + c l i c k it to auto select the entire layer; you should should see ants dancing

around it now.

Old browsers get solid colorsfine with me!

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Next, hit copy, create a new file, (cmd+c, cmd+n if you are rocking a Mac) and you will notice that the height

and width are automatically set; so simply hit e n t e r, then paste (cmd+v) and you have the logo. You may

not see it as the background blends with the text, so the next step, for all images you copy that have

transparency, is to turn off the background layer.

Next, save it as a . p n g file to preserve the pretty see-through-nessand name it something obvious like

logo or such. BAM! Image one is done. Rinse and repeat for all the images you need to grab.

A tricky one can be the button dots used for the slider navigation. The easiest way that I ve found to do this

is to copy the layer or group that makes up one of the dots, and then put it into a new file, bigger than its

actual size. Then turn off the background layer, go to t r i m in the edit menu,

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and get rid of the transparent pixels so that the size is precise.

Continuing on, edit the image canvas size to be 200% height, and simply copy, (o p t i o n + c l i c k) the layer or

group and drag it down to duplicate it. Make a change to this one and you now have an active state! Easy

as pie right? Save this new image and our buttons are now ready!

Once you have gathered the pics, drop them into a folder, called images, and now it is time to begin

building the HTML structure; lets dig into some HTML.

The HTML

Back Up

So we have our design and images; now its time to turn them into something usable. You can skip this step,

and very well may learn to as you become more adept at templating a site; however, I still find it helpful to

construct the static version before full conversion into a theme. Create a simple folder structure like so, and

then in i n d e x . h t m l, build a standard HTML skeleton with a structure.



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Joomla! Template Tutorial

This is the base HTML5 we are going to use to create this site. Its based on the HTML5 Boilerplate. You will

notice the inclusion of the Moderizr script, so be sure to download it there if you need it. Starting from the

top, lets go ahead and add in our logo and navigation sections, so inside the header_container, add the

following chunk:

Custom Template

Home

About

Sub Link

Sub Link

Sub Link

Sub Link

Sub Link

http://www.modernizr.com/http://html5boilerplate.com/


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Sub Link

Blog

Contact

This covers the logo link and a simple menu system, complete with dropdown goodness. I used the new tag,

na v, for the semantic HTML5 markup. Up next is our featured content slider area, so, inside of our wrapper

section, add the following to create an image list:

Testing Caption!

Testing Caption!

Testing Caption!

Testing Caption!

Feel free, obviously, to change the text and image links to suit your own setup, or simply follow along here.

Be sure that you are not hopping into a browser to check this out yet, because it will look dreadful!

The list of elements inside the slider u l will all start out hidden, except for the first one, which is why it has a

class assigned to it: f i r s t. This way, we keep all of the images from briefly displaying on page load,

bypassing that annoying flicker.

Next, we add some main content stuff; drop in these two sections. I am simply duplicating what was in the

PSD when we started.

Why Joomla?

Well it is pretty awesome. How about that? Also, the model - view - controller structure is a strong base for

Why Am I Writing This Stuff?

I don't know! I should just use some Lorem Ipsum and be done with it here, right? But hey, I thought this woul

Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Vestibulum torto



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I gave the first chunk an a s i d e tag as I feel it tangentially relates to the rest of the content, and the main

content gets the article tag as it would be the main area.

Now to incorporate our tri-column section:

Base Info

Did I design this?

Nope, not really.

It is based off a free PSDYou can find


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Some Links

PSD Base

thatryan.com

myappshelf.com

twitter.com/ryanolson

More Links

Lorem

Ipsum

Ipsum

Lorem

About This Template

So a few fun things should work in this bad boy. We will have a cool animated menu, some sweet popup lightbox imag

And finally, just outside of the closing section tag for the f o o t e r _ c o n t a i n e r, paste in our lower copyright

area that includes the link to jump back to top.

Go Up!

Copyright yo!

Notice how the h r e f points to the header ID; this will allow a click here to jump the page right back up to the

top-most section. Later, we will enhance this with some scrolling fun.

Onto some styling now; if you take a look in a browser, you will find something similar to this but dont

worry, we are about to rectify the situation!



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The CSS

Back Up

Lets work on the styling a bit. Inside your s t y l e . c s s file, begin by dropping in this base here. It contains a

reset and basic setup of the elements, and of course, the ubiquitous clearfix.

/*

*Reset

*/

html, body, div, span, object, iframe,

h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, p, blockquote, pre,abbr, address, cite, code,

del, dfn, em, img, ins, kbd, q, samp,

small, strong, sub, sup, var,

b, i,

dl, dt, dd, ol, ul, li,

fieldset, form, label, legend,

table, caption, tbody, tfoot, thead, tr, th, td,

article, aside, figure, footer, header,

hgroup, menu, nav, section, menu,

time, mark, audio, video {

margin:0;

padding:0;

border:0;

outline:0;

font-size:100%;

vertical-align:baseline;

background:transparent;

}

article, aside, figure, footer, header,

hgroup, nav, section { display:block; }

nav ul { list-style:none; }

blockquote, q { quotes:none; }

blockquote:before, blockquote:after,

q:before, q:after { content:''; content:none; }

a { margin:0; padding:0; font-size:100%; vertical-align:baseline; background:transparent; }

ins { background-color:#ff9; color:#000; text-decoration:none; }

mark { background-color:#ff9; color:#000; font-style:italic; font-weight:bold; }

del { text-decoration: line-through; }

abbr[title], dfn[title] { border-bottom:1px dotted #000; cursor:help; }

table { border-collapse:collapse; border-spacing:0; }

hr { display:block; height:1px; border:0; border-top:1px solid #ccc; margin:1em 0; padding:0; }

input, select { vertical-align:middle; }

body { font:14px sans-serif; *font-size:small; *font:x-small; line-height:1.22; }

table { font-size:inherit; font:100%; }

select, input, textarea { font:99% sans-serif; }

pre, code, kbd, samp { font-family: monospace, sans-serif; }



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h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { font-weight: lighter; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; }

html { -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; }

a:hover, a:active { outline: none; }

a, a:active, a:visited { color:#37592f;text-decoration:none; }

a:hover { color:#036; }

small { font-size:85%; }

strong, th { font-weight: bold; }

td, td img { vertical-align:top; }

sub { vertical-align: sub; font-size: smaller; }

sup { vertical-align: super; font-size: smaller; }

input[type="radio"] { vertical-align: text-bottom; }

input[type="checkbox"] { vertical-align: bottom; *vertical-align: baseline; }

.ie6 input { vertical-align: text-bottom; }

label, input[type=button], input[type=submit], button { cursor: pointer; }

::-moz-selection{ background: #FF5E99; color:#fff; text-shadow: none; }

::selection { background:#FF5E99; color:#fff; text-shadow: none; }

a:link { -webkit-tap-highlight-color: #FF5E99; }

html { overflow-y: scroll; }

button { width: auto; overflow: visible; }

.alignleft{float: left; margin: 0px 20px 10px 0px;}

.alignright{float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 20px;}

.clearfix:after { content: " "; display: block; height: 0; clear: both; visibility: hidden; }

.clearfix { display: inline-block; }* html .clearfix { zoom: 1; } /* IE6 */

*:first-child+html .clearfix { zoom: 1; } /* IE7 */

.clearfix { display: block; }

Ok, that part is done yay; now lets add in our own styling!

Here we have some basic typography setup, colors and sizes.

body, select, input, textarea {font-family:"Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;color:#111; }

h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6{font-family:Garamond, "Hoefler Text", Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", serif;color:#37592f;margin:5px 0;}

h1{font-size:36px;}

h2{font-size:32px;}

h3{font-size:28px;}

h4{font-size:24px;}h5{font-size:18px;}

h6{font-size:14px;}

Now, give some styling to the top region.

body

{

background: #e8e8e8;

}

hr

{

border-top: 1px inset #37592f;

margin: 10px;

}

#header

{

background: #37592f;

width: 100%;



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}

#header_container

{

height: 220px;

margin: 0 auto;

position: relative;

width: 940px;

z-index: 5;

}

.logo

{

background: url(../images/logo.png) no-repeat;

float: left;

height: 49px;

margin-top: 40px;

width: 170px;

}

.logo a

{

display: block;

height: 100%;

text-indent: -9999px;

width: 100%;

}

Note the image in the logo styling; if you did not name yours the same, be sure to change it here.

The menu comes next. Here, we take care of positioning and text sizing, as well as handling multi-level lists!

#main_nav

{

float: right;

margin-top: 40px;

position: relative;

z-index: 6;

}

#main_nav ul

{

margin: 0;

padding: 0;

}

#main_nav ul li

{

float: left;

list-style: none;

margin-left: 10px;

position: relative;

}

#main_nav ul li a

{

color: #fff;font-size: 22px;

text-decoration: none;

text-shadow: 0px -1px 0px #37592f;

}

#main_nav ul li a:hover

{

color: #999;

}

#main_nav ul li ul

{

background: #37592f;

border-bottom: 1px solid #555;

border-left: 1px solid #555;

border-right: 1px solid #555;

display: none;

left: -10px;



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margin: 0;

moz-border-radius-bottomleft: 10px;

moz-border-radius-bottomright: 10px;

padding: 10px;

position: absolute;

top: 100%;

webkit-border-bottom-left-radius: 10px;

webkit-border-bottom-right-radius: 10px;

width: 140px;

z-index: 7;

}

#main_nav ul li:hover ul

{

display: block;

}

#main_nav ul li ul li

{

margin: 5px 0;

padding: 0;

}

#main_nav ul li ul li:hover

{

margin-left: 1px;

}

Theres some scary CSS3 in there, but it adds a pretty little curve to the bottom part of the drop down list, sotake it or leave it

Also, note how initially we start with the submenu ul as hidden, and only display it when we hover over its

parent list item. This ensures that the menu is still accessible for folks without JavaScript enabled, because

we will enhance this later on.

Well next add in more structure styles to handle the main wrapper and the uber fancy slider component we

are putting to use.

#wrapper

{

margin: 0px auto 20px auto;

position: relative;width: 940px;

z-index: 1;

}

#wrapper p

{

text-shadow: 0px -1px 0px #f1f1f1;

}

#wrapper h3

{

text-shadow: 0px -1px 0px #f9f9f9;

}

#columns h3, #images h3

{

margin-left: 10px;

}

#featured

{

background: #e8e8e8;

border: 1px solid #555;

box-shadow: 0px 5px 15px #666;

height: 280px;

margin-top: -100px;

moz-box-shadow: 0px 5px 15px #666;

position: relative;

webkit-box-shadow: 0px 5px 15px #666;

width: 940px;

z-index: 2;

}

.slider



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{

margin: 0;

padding: 0;

}

.slider li

{

display: none;

list-style: none;

position: relative;

}

.slider .first

{

display: block;

}

.slider li img

{

}

.slide_caption

{

background: rgba(0,0,0,.5);

bottom: 3px;

height: 40px;

left: 0;

position: absolute;

width: 940px;

}

.slide_caption p

{

color: #fff;

font-size: 24px;

margin: 5px 10px;

text-align: right;

text-shadow: none;

}

.slide_nav

{

bottom: 10px;left: 10px;

position: absolute;

width: 200px;

z-index: 9;

}

.slide_nav a

{

background: url(../images/dots.png) no-repeat;

float: left;

height: 17px;

margin: 0 2px;


width: 16px;

}

.slide_nav a:hover,.slide_nav a.activeSlide

{

background-position: 0px -18px;

}

Continuing, well configure the footer section.

#footer

{

background: #393939;

margin-top: 40px;

padding-top: 20px;width: 100%;

}

#footer hr

{



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height: 16px;


width: 18px;

}

#copyright p

{

color: #fff;

float: right;

}

Finally, lets style some of the main text.

#main

{

margin: 40px 0 20px 0;

}

#why

{

float: left;

width: 30%;

}

#content

{

float: right;

width: 59%;

}#columns

{

clear: both;

margin: 40px 0;

width: 100%;

}

.col

{

float: left;

margin: 0 1%;

padding: 0;

width: 30%;

}

.left ul li

{

list-style-image: url(../images/info_bullet.png);

}

.center ul li

{

list-style-image: url(../images/more_bullet.png);

}

.right ul li

{

list-style-image: url(../images/warn_bullet.png);

}

#images

{

margin: 40px 0;

width: 100%;

}

#images figure

{

float: left;

margin: 0 10px;

position: relative;

width: width:290px;

z-index: 2;

}

#images figure a

{

text-decoration: none;



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}

.zoom_out

{

position: relative;

z-index: 3;

}

.zoom_in

{

background: url(../images/img_zoom.png) no-repeat;

display: block;

filter: alpha(opacity=0);

height: 141px;

left: 0;

moz-opacity: 0;

opacity: 0;

position: absolute;

top: 0;

width: 290px;

z-index: 9;

}

Take a note of the final classes in the code above, zoom_out and zoom_in. This is another enhancement

for the popup images, to add a little flare you will see soon enough!

At this point you should have something along the lines of this:

Hey, that isnt too bad, but note that some parts may not work as awesomlyyet, because the scripts to make

them function we have not yet been created! So, time to get on that.

The JavaScript



17/24

Back Up

This part should be a snap! Mostly, because we are going to use a couple of awesome plugins. First up is

the Cycle plugin, by @malsup. We will use this to build our slider, and also the PrettyPhoto plugin, by

@scaron will be used for our lightboxing. Enhancing this will be the easing plugin for some more spice, and

localscroll to handle our ups and downs. Each of the links above should link to the authors page where you

can find and download the script you wish. Once we have the plugins downloaded, we need to include them

within our code, like so:

Be sure to put this in the footer after we include the jQuery library, in order for this to all function. Bear in

mind we will be combining all of these shortly. Now to make these take effect, we have to write a small bit of

scripting.

$(document).ready(function(){

});

Firstly, drop in this line of code to handle the hash tag scrolling:

$.localScroll({duration:600});

This ensures that our back to top button will smoothly glide back up. Next, let s work with the slider core.

$('.slider')

.after('')

.cycle({

fx: 'scrollHorz',

timeout: 4000,

slideExpr:'li',

easing: 'bounceout',

pager: '.slide_nav'

});

This will add the bullet navigation for the slides, and setup the duration and easing parameters. Next, we

handle the lightbox with the p r e t t y p h o t o code, like so:

$("a[rel^='prettyPhoto']").prettyPhoto({animationSpeed:'slow',theme:'light_rounded'});

This instructs each image, that we assign the prettyPhoto r e l to, to behave in the proper manner. In order

to spruce up the images, add in the following,

$('#images figure').animate({'opacity' : 1}).hover(function() {

$(this).animate({'opacity' : 0.5}).find('span').addClass("zoom_in").animate({'opacity' : 1});

}, function() {

$(this).animate({'opacity' : 1}).find('span').removeClass("zoom_in");

});

This will add a nice hover in, fade out effect when we mouse over the images. Pretty!

And finally the menu; add the following snippet, still in between the document ready tags.

var mainLi = $('#main_nav ul li');

mainLi

.find('ul')

.hide()

.end()

.hover(function () {

Note that, at the time of production, try to group these scripts

into one file, in order to limit the number of HTTP requests.

http://flesler.blogspot.com/2007/10/jquerylocalscroll-10.htmlhttp://gsgd.co.uk/sandbox/jquery/easing/http://twitter.com/scaronhttp://www.no-margin-for-errors.com/projects/prettyphoto-jquery-lightbox-clone/http://twitter.com/malsuphttp://jquery.malsup.com/cycle/


18/24

$(this).find('> ul').stop(true, true).slideDown('slow');

}, function() {

$(this).find('> ul').stop(true, true).fadeOut('fast');

});

This simply makes sure that the submenu is hidden on page load, and then sets up the animations to take

place when we hover over the corresponding menu items. Simple and fun!

Okay, now check the page and make sure that all the functions and JavaScripts are working as expected.

We are now going to combine these multiple files. Go ahead and open the file named plugins.js and inside

paste the following:

// remap jQuery to $

(function($){

})(window.jQuery);

We will pass all of the plugin source code in between this function. Granted, these plugins are by good

developers and have been created the right anyway, but this is a good habit to prevent potential conflicts

with the jQuery namespace. Grab the source for cycle, easing, localscroll, scrollto and prettyphoto and

paste each one in, one at a time, in between the remap function in p l u g i n s . j s. Once that is done, save

the file and open up s c r i p t . j s. Here, we will take all the code in between the s c r i p t tags in our f o o t e r

and paste it in, inside one document ready function.

Now, we only need to import these two files and are good to go. Once done, be sure to recheck and make

sure that everything still works correctly on the page.

So we installed the PrettyPhoto plugin and its script, but we also need to grab its default images and styling.So grab the folder named prettyPhoto from the plugin file you downloaded; it will be in the images folder.

Simply copy that folder in its entirety to your templates images folder. While you are there, copy the

p r e t t y P h o t o . c s s into your templates c ss folder as well. At this point, your file structure should look

something close to:

Now, hey, guess what? Refresh your h t m l page to see some pretty sweet stuff going on! Hopefully, you

have a functional menu, slider, and scrollable and lightbox imagery. Take a moment to revel in the fact that

you just made some awesomeness happen.



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Back? Okay, now its time to tear this boy apart and templatize it for the homestretch of our Joomla Templatetutorial!

Joomla Construct

Back Up

We now have a fully functional static HTML site, and it is time to templatize this monster. Joomla has a

standard file structure that we need to adhere to. Create a folder structure like so, and be sure to include all

the files I will explain what each of them do shortly.

Starting with component.php ; this file is a structure template that Joomla uses to display content called with

the component parameter. Essentially, when you want to see part of the site that is just its content, and not

the header/footer etc. For now, you will simply be copying mine for the default usage. The CSS folder will

hold, you know, CSS and the same with the images. I n d e x . h t m l is simply a generic page that display

nothing, and it is a good practice to keep one of these empty index files in the root of each folder you create

to keep prying eyes away.



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I n d e x. p h p will be the main file; nearly everything will take place in here. Template_thumbnail.png is, you

guessed it, an image of the template itself that will show in the admin section of Joomla, and

t e m p l a t e _ d e t a i l s . x m l is the main control file that Joomla reads to install your template. It contains basic

information about the file structure of your theme, as well as template parameters and module position

names.

The P a r a m s. i n i file needs to be here and can remain blank for now. This will be a writeable file that stores

the template parameter data that Joomla can access later on.

Finally, the HTML folder is where we will store files to override the default Joomla behavior for certain display

types, such as the frontpage. So inside, you will find another folder named f r o n t p a g e, which itself holds a

few more files. Each one will take precedence over the default core files that would be used to display the

frontpage content. The benefit of this is that we can alter the structure here completely, or simply remove aline we dont want or need. Be sure to copy over your CSS and Images folders into this directory for your

template as well.

SidestepTo gain an idea of where the files and folders inside the HTML folder come from, head to your root

installation of Joomla and look in the a d m i n i s t r a t o r folder, then in the components folder and finally open

the com_content folder. You will find a nice list of core components components being the way Joomla

displays information in an abstract way from logic. This is only an overview; you can override just about

every aspect of Joomla output by adding a folder to the HTML folder in your theme root and creating a new

vi e w file. For example, to override the main menu output, you would create a path such as

[YOUR_TEMPLATE_NAME]/html/mod_mainmenu/default.php where mod_mainmenu is the name of the

core module you wish to override.

Breaking Into Pieces

So, easiest thing first; take a snapshot of your HTML page and save it as template_thumbnail.png. This

should be placed in the root of the template folder. For i n d e x . h t m l, simply open it up and paste the

following inside:

Make a few copies of this file and put them in the root of each folder.

Wow, two files down already!

Now, for component.php, I suggest you use the one from the accompanying download, as it is too much to

paste in here, and it is just default behavior we are not going to touch, but is helpful to have in your theme,

depending on usage. Again, for the HTML folder, use the provided download and drop the entire folder and

contents into your template root.

I like to break things up a bit more, so create a folder called i n c l u d e s, and, inside two more folders, one

named s e c t i o n s, and the other named s c r i p t s. You guessed correctly: inside the s c r i p t s folder, copy

all of the contents of your HTML folder versions j s folder. Now, head into the s e c t i o n s folder and create a

few new files:

head.php

header.php

footer.php

scripts.php

setup.php

It seems like a lot, but it is really not. This is simply a good method to separate content and keep things as

modularized as possible. Well start with se t u p . p h p, so open that one up and paste the following in:

This is really a personal preference, but, for the sake of ease, I suggest you follow along with it. First, we



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instruct Joomla to include the hook for its head, thus enabling core functions access. Following that, I

manually unset the mootools that is loaded by default.

Save and done! For now, we are finished with the set up, so open head.php and add:


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You already know whats happening in here now. Again, we simply create our sections and close out the

site. We also do a few more checks for module positions so we can append their contents when needed.

And here, we come to i n d e x. p h p, the main attraction. Add the following code:

Yup, it is everything that was left over! Now top to bottom: we start by declaring the new Doctype in HTML5

fashion. Next, weve added the no- j s class to the h t m l tag if you are using Modernizr. We immediately

include two of the files we already setup: our head.php and se t u p . p h p. This time, note how we use a new

variable,jPATH_ROOT to concatenate our way into our template. Once again, we re keeping things as

dynamic as possible so that we can transport this code across multiple templates. After we include the top

section, we close out the head and start building our page. Including the header.php kicks that off and

brings in the top section of our soon to be awesome website.

Now, open the main section and drop in another Joomla call:

This call to component essentially tells Joomla to output right here exactly what is put into the WYSIWYG

editor for the page currently being viewed.

Next we include the f o o t e r . p h p file to end things up, and then the last file we created in the s e c t i o n s

folder, s c r i p t s . p h p.

What? Yes I know that file is empty still! So, let s go fill it up. Open s c r i p t s . p h p and paste in the following:


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$("a[rel^='prettyPhoto']").prettyPhoto({animationSpeed:'slow',theme:'light_rounded'});

$.localScroll({duration:600});

$('.slider')

.after('')

.cycle({

fx: 'scrollHorz',

timeout: 4000,

slideExpr:'li',

easing: 'bounceout',

pager: '.slide_nav'

});

$(document).ready(function() {

$('.zoom_out').animate({'opacity' : 1}).hover(function() {

$(this).animate({'opacity' : 0.5}).find('span').addClass("zoom_in").animate({'opacity' : 1});

}, function() {

$(this).animate({'opacity' : 1}).find('span').removeClass("zoom_in");

});

$('#main_nav ul li ul').hide();

$('#main_nav ul li').hover(function () {

$(this).find('> ul').stop(true, true).slideDown('slow');

}, function() {

$(this).find('> ul').stop(true, true).fadeOut('fast');

});

});

});

And we are good to go. Moving on!

The Frontpage

Back Up

You may have noticed that i n d e x. p h p seems to be quite lacking in, stuff like everything that we built into

i n d e x . h t m l for the first version. Why is that? Well, because that is for our homepage. Now, we are going to

override Joomlas frontpage to show our custom homepage. Head into the h t m l folder, and then into

com_contentand the f r o n t p a g e directory. Inside should be two PHP files; make one called d e f a u l t . p h p

and one called d e f a u l t _ i t e m . p h p. We are going to rip 95% of the guts from these to make our own, so

open up d e f a u l t _ i t e m . p h p. If anything is there, delete it and replace it with:

Nice, right? This is setting up the output for whatever text was entered into the homepage component. Now

open d e f a u l t . p h p and again, delete all that may be there and paste in:


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$image2 = $slider->get( 'image2' );

$caption2 = $slider->get( 'caption2' );





$document = &JFactory::getDocument();

$renderer = $document->loadRenderer('modules');

$options = array('style' => 'xhtml');$columns = 'columns';

$images = 'images';

?>

Documents

How to Build a Joomla Template Start to Finish