Missing subdirectories within Standard theme directory

Missing subdirectories within Standard theme directory

by Emma-Lee Yarwood -
Number of replies: 11

Hi there

So I've finally found the courage from somewhere to attempt to create a custom theme (for Moodle 1.9.10+) using Standard as my parent theme.

I'm following the tutorial on creating a custom theme, and everything was going swimmingly (!!) until I hit the section Theme Display Information. Here it says that I need to go into my theme's lang/ subdirectory. However, this is missing. It turns out I'm missing a number of these subdirectories - all bar pix/. That's no javascript/, lang/, layout/ and style/.

I have all the CSS/PHP/HTML files etc that aren't in these subdirectories.

Does anyone know why this might be and how I can resolve the issue?

(Does anyone actually understand what I'm trying to say?! lol)

Thanks

Emma-Lee mixed

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In reply to Emma-Lee Yarwood

Re: Missing subdirectories within Standard theme directory

by Mary Evans -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers

Hi Emma

If the tutorial you are doing is the one which you are wanting to do, then the Moodle Version you are using is wrong. The tutorial is for Moodle 2.0 and is completley different to Moodle 1.9 themes.

If you want to follow a Moodle 1.9 tutorial you will find them HERE.

HTH

Mary

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In reply to Mary Evans

Re: Missing subdirectories within Standard theme directory

by Emma-Lee Yarwood -

Hi Mary

That's actually exactly the same guidance. I don't know why the version I linked to has "2.0" at the top, because in the requirements etc it says I'd need Moodle 1.9 or greater and in the very first paragraph it says it's "based on the default Moodle theme which comes with version 1.9 of Moodle".

So I'm still at a loss sad

Thanks for getting back to me though

Emma-Lee

 

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In reply to Mary Evans

Re: Missing subdirectories within Standard theme directory

by Richard Oelmann -
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Hi Emma, Mary

Mary, as Emma says, the text of the tutorial is identical and as you say refers to 2.0 themes - even though the tutorial says that it is for Moodle1.9 or greater (which as we both know can't be the case because of all the differences between 2.0 and 1.9 themes big grin)

So there would appear to be a fairly major mixup in the moodledocs here. I know you are moderating the themes forum now, Mary, but who do we go to to put right this problem with the docs?

Emma, the good thing is that in 1.9, you don't need all those extra folders.

I would recommend starting off by making a copy of one of the themes such as formal_white (which should already be in your moodle1.9 download) or another 1.9 theme from the database and try your hand first at adapting that theme experimenting with the css, the images and the header and footer html files which are already there. The way I started was by looking at a few themes, making small changes, then getting more ambitious with some of the changes I wanted to make - and asking for specific help from the people who inhabit these forums smile

Hope that helps - and if not, come back and ask some more and we'll do our best to help (In the meantime we'll also try and persuade someone to sort out that 1.9 tutorial! lol!)

 

Richard

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In reply to Richard Oelmann

Re: Missing subdirectories within Standard theme directory

by Emma-Lee Yarwood -

Hi Richard

Thanks so much! I thought I was going crazy for a mo! lol

I wasn't going to write the theme from scratch, but use the Standard theme from Moodle 1.9. That tutorial does say that I would need to rename a file called _THEMENAME.php to the name of my theme. Do I not have to do this then with 1.9?

I'm a little confused as the "missing" files are listed in the directory on the Moodle download page but we don't have them in the directory on our server sad

Sorry...can you tell I'm a newbie to this techy malarkey?!?!

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In reply to Emma-Lee Yarwood

Re: Missing subdirectories within Standard theme directory

by Richard Oelmann -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers

Hi Emma,

Where on the tutorial that I gave you the link for does it ask you to rename _THEMENAME.php? I can't find that.

If you are working on a 1.9 theme, you need to ignore the other tutorial completely - Moodle2 themes are constructed in a very different way.

I'm also a little confused as to why these folders have been included in the cvs download lists on the downloads page of moodle1.9.12 as if you actually look into those folders (apart from pix) they are actually empty. It also seems to contain all the folders for moodle2 themes but no files in them - maybe this is the way cvs works, I have to admit to not being familiar with the cvs download methods. I would concentrate on the files and folders that are actually on your server.

Richard

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In reply to Richard Oelmann

Re: Missing subdirectories within Standard theme directory

by Emma-Lee Yarwood -

Hi Richard

The renaming of _THEMENAME.php is mentioned in the Theme Display Information section of that tutorial.

I'm so glad that it's not my lack of experience that's causing (all of) my confusion!

Thanks

Emma-Lee

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In reply to Richard Oelmann

Re: Missing subdirectories within Standard theme directory

by Mary Evans -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers

Hi Richard,

I think the Moodle Docs have been hijacked

Where does it refer to Moodle 2.0 theme in the tutorial I left for Emma?

 

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In reply to Mary Evans

Re: Missing subdirectories within Standard theme directory

by Richard Oelmann -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers

Hi Mary,

The heading says its for 1.9 and so does the introduction (on both tutorials) and neither actually state that they are for 2.0. But the one you pointed to (and that I was going to point to initially, but you got there first) has identical content to the original one Emma said she had been looking at.

The content of the introduction suggests that they (it?) are for Moodle1.9 onwards, but if you read on through, as Emma said about the first one, it goes on to say about renaming the language file in the 'Theme Display Information' section, although compounding the issue - as the content is the same in both - the 'Adding a logo' section refers to altering the header.html file, which obviosuly not appropriate in moodle2 themes, but does apply to moodle1.9. I haven't read them through especially carefully to spot any other inconsistencies (or should that be incorrect consistencies lol!) but those were the ones that jumped out at me.

Summary:

The 1.9 and 2.0 versions of the Creating a Custom theme document are identical with a mixture of information relating in part to moodle1.9 and in part to moodle2.

This renders the document confusing to say the least and, for all intents and purposes, unusable as a reference for either given the differences in the way themes are constructed between the 2 versions.

Rich

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In reply to Richard Oelmann

Re: Missing subdirectories within Standard theme directory

by Mary Evans -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers

Looks like kids are out of highschool and nothing better to do. I am not sure but two contributors to the changes are no longer Moodle users.

I need to talk to Frank about this as he wrote the doc in the first place.

Thanks

Mary

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In reply to Mary Evans

Re: Missing subdirectories within Standard theme directory

by Emma-Lee Yarwood -

Thank you both! I was really starting to worry that this was beyond me! I really appreciate you helping me out

big grin

Emma-Lee

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