Using custom template

[Guest]

Hi all,

 

I'm looking to use my own dreamwaever created templated. Am I right in thinking it's the index.php page I need to work with (and nothing else).

 

I looked into it a bit and there seems to be no centralised template management feature so I guess I'll just have to create from scratch, variables and all. Has anyone tried this successfully ? How did you go about it ?

 

Thanks a lot.

[Possum Blossom]

Hi all,

 

I'm looking to use my own dreamwaever created templated. Am I right in thinking it's the index.php page I need to work with (and nothing else).

 

I looked into it a bit and there seems to be no centralised template management feature so I guess I'll just have to create from scratch, variables and all. Has anyone tried this successfully ? How did you go about it ?

 

Thanks a lot.

[Possum Blossom]

Hi,

 

I'm pretty new at this - only about 6 weeks experience - but this is what I've learnt so far by trial and error.

 

- Start off by customising the header.php in the 'includes' folder. The header.php shows up on every page. Add your own graphics, move some links around, try various stuff. Remember to save an unchanged copy so that when you mess up the header.php you can start again with the unchanged copy.

- Customise the footer.php, also in the 'includes' folder.

- Have a good look through all the default images. Change some if you want, but use the same filenames so that when you upload them the replace the existing images. That way, you won't have to change the php stuff.

- Note that the header.php also contains the menus usually found on the left-hand side. So if you want to change something in that menu bar, do it in header.php.

- To change background colours, fonts, font sizes, text colours etc, customise the stylesheet.css. Maybe you already know how to do this - I didn't - and I spent a week trying to decipher it before I realised that I could find lots of information on the net about it and that there are programs to help you edit stylesheets. (As I said, I am very new at all this.)

- After you've customised your header, footer, side menus and maybe the stylesheet, then customise the rest of the page content, i.e. the stuff that changes depending on what type of page it is, e.g. customise index.php, contact_us.php, about_us.php, shopping_cart.php etc etc.

- Don't forget to have a good look at all the OS Commerce templates available on the net. No need to stick with the default template provided. I was getting nowhere until I found a template that was a similar layout to what I was looking for, and then it was easy to customise the images etc.

 

I hope this points you in the right direction. Then all the experts out there can lead you the rest of the way. I apologise if this is stuff that you already know - I found it hard to figure out because I didn't realise this forum was here until yesterday!

 

Good luck,

 

jo