Guides about templating?

**Giu** · 08/10/2012, 18:53

Hi all,

I discoverd today Contao and I'm lovin' it (it's very similar to Typo3 but more easy).

As far as I know, there are 2 ways to template/theme a site.
- Directly from the Backend.
- With html template.

There are some site (not in deutch) where explain in deep this 2 options?

We have to start some projects soon, one of them a local digital newspaper similar to this and could be great to do it in Contao

Regards.

**foxservia** · 08/11/2012, 00:36

Since the free templates are very rare (I haven't find any), I recommend to create it yourself from the back end. And it is more interesting when you design something from a scratch. In same time you could learn more about Contao framework and CSS.

If you have a vision and basic knowledge, you could make an awesome designs. The book from Peter Muller - Websites erstellen mit Contao has been proved as very useful for me, since I was beginner in this CMS. It is on German, though...

But, that is just my opinion, and I am not experienced Contao developer. You should use the approach that fits your work style best.

**geung** · 08/11/2012, 01:02

Since the free templates are very rare (I haven't find any)

Did I hear free themes?

Contao had free themes month in 2010, look half way down the linked page.

More free themes can be found here (or rather the same ones): contao-theme.de

**foxservia** · 08/11/2012, 01:44

Originally Posted by geung

Since the free templates are very rare (I haven't find any)

Did I hear free themes?

Contao had free themes month in 2010, look half way down the linked page.

More free themes can be found here (or rather the same ones): contao-theme.de

Oh, It seems I have to apologize.

ops: I completely forgot for those ones, although I did check that site, but it was months ago. :|

**Giu** · 08/11/2012, 11:03

Originally Posted by foxservia

Since the free templates are very rare (I haven't find any), I recommend to create it yourself from the back end. And it is more interesting when you design something from a scratch. In same time you could learn more about Contao framework and CSS.

If you have a vision and basic knowledge, you could make an awesome designs. The book from Peter Muller - Websites erstellen mit Contao proved very useful for me, since I was beginner in this CMS. It is on German, though...

I don't speak german

But How? I looked to User Guide, and Templateing/Theming is not explained in deep, and I don't know from where Start. I don't find in the guide, how to template from the backend, or with external htmls.

Regards.

**foxservia** · 08/11/2012, 13:42

If you have Contao template/theme you could import it from the back end? Themes -> Theme import...

Do you want to make a website from "zero", or you want to use existing solution?

User guide on Contao.org just shows some basic things, I guess.

If you know CSS it is the best to start with an empty project, and then to develop your own product. Define body, wrapper, container, elements, step by step. For every element you could define your own CSS class to override defaults...

If you have some html template with CSS, you could use its' CSS properties for your project.

Still, I am not experienced programmer, so I had to use that book to understand website development step by step. Without it, I doubt that I would make some significant progress, or it would be very frustrating way of learning. But, I think that is better to hear some other opinions, don't refer to much on my posts.

**septentrio** · 08/18/2012, 14:59

Hello,

Well, the first step is to create a theme in the backend,
Edit your theme : add a blank stylesheet and import the basic.css stylesheet (this will reset default browser's style configuration)

Set a folder for your theme, and subfolders for images, medias, scripts....

Place your sliced images into your image folder

Create a page layout where you define if you want columns, the height of the header and footer, your page centered, where to display articles etc.... and link your stylesheets.

Create at least one root page + one sub page : edit the article within it (by adding a dummy text for exemple "Lorem ipsum...") and of course publish it

and have fun with your css

This is the way i do it

**Andreas** · 08/20/2012, 02:23

The rudimentals are: Templates you find in the Backend are responsible for the HTML-Output only. Try to alter as less templates as possible. Best ist, you don't use own templates, although working with own templates in contao is very easy, so you get a clean valid HTML-Frontend. Try to not think graphical but semantical, when building up your HTML, except when planing the overall structure header, columns, footer ...

Design is done via CSS, there are different ways to put your CSS on your HTML, I prefer my own CSS files which I edit with my own editor and bring them into contao with extension theme_plus.

Templates you can import during or with install tool is a complete different thing. These templates just fill the db with values of a Contao side someone has build up. Here you will not find any files in tl_files/ e.g. images. Music Academy e.g. only works, as necessary files are included in the install package.

I don't use themeing, but I think a theme consists of files in tl_files/ necessary for the project, own modified html templates, page layouts, modules and css files that where build with contao. (If you save a theme, are the pages and articles exported? don't know).