I installed a theme on my Magento instance, which I'd like to further customize. I imagine that similar to Magento's fallback hierarchy where my theme can fall-back on default packages, I should be able to structure my directories in such a way that I can make changes to particular parts of my theme by maintaining a similar structure and relying on a fall-back.
So here's my question: How can I develop a child-theme of another theme, with the fall-back setup this way? Is this performed by structuring directories a certain way, or is this performed some other way?
Thanks!
If you are using Magento EE 1.14 or CE 1.9 than you can utilize the method described here to make a child-theme: http://www.magentocommerce.com/knowledge-base/entry/ee114-ce19-rwd-dev-guide
http://alanstorm.com/magento_parent_child_themes
Important: It's very important you have a theme.xml in the
app/design/frontend/custompackage/customtheme/etc directory with
exactly the contents shown. Failure to configure theme.xml correctly
prevents Magento from loading your theme.
You must create your theme structure as noted and place a theme.xml file within it, containing the following code:
Magento CE:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<theme>
<parent>custom_package/custom_parent</parent>
</theme>
Magento EE:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<theme>
<parent>custom_package/custom_parent</parent>
</theme>
For versions EE v1.8+ or CE v1.4+, you should reference here:
http://www.magentocommerce.com/knowledge-base/entry/magentos-theme-hierarchy
Heirarchy is as follows:
- app/design/frontend/custom_package/custom_theme/ && skin/frontend/custom_package/custom_theme
If not found, then
- app/design/frontend/custom_package/default && skin/frontend/custom_package/default
If not found, then
- app/design/frontend/base/default && skin/frontend/base/default
If not found, then
- throw error
Based on this you could place your default theme at custom_package/default and your child-theme at custom_package/custom_theme, all files not found at custom_package/custom_theme would then fall-back to custom_package/default. Whatever is missing is sought at the next level of hierarchy.
Set your Package and Theme at Admin > System > Configuration > Design
Magento's fallback scheme is pretty simple to work with. You can select the package, theme, and default theme by navigating in your magento admin to System > Configuration > Design
Magento starts loading templates / layouts from
app/design/frontend/{SELECTED_PACKAGE}/{SELECTED_THEME}
if it cant find the file its looking for in there, it will look in
app/design/frontend/{SELECTED_PACKAGE}/{SELECTED_THEME_DEFAULT}
and failing that it will look in
app/design/frontend/base/default
So my recommendation to you is install your theme as the default theme, and put your customizations into your selected theme folder. Of course this fallback scheme can be used in a lot of different ways depending on what your needs are, but I've always felt this is the simplest and handles most use cases.
app/design/frontend/downloadedTheme/default <- Put your stock files in here
app/design/frontend/downloadedTheme/myCustominzations <- Put your changes in here
