Now that the Essential theme is out of Alpha and into formal release, this forum has been started to allow for open discussion of bugs and feature requests.
You can watch an overview of some of the major features of the theme here: The “Essential” #bootstrap based #moodle theme has been submitted to the plugins DB and can be downloaded from https://moodle.org/plugins/view.php?plugin=theme_essential.
Here is an overview of features: https://vimeo.com/channels/moodleman
WOW! Love it!
100% for presentation.
Hi Julian and Mary,
I hope you can assist me. I'm a very new Moodler and am using Essentials. I love this theme and have enjoyed working out how to set it up to present my offerings effectively. It's still very much a work in progress but you can take a peek here, if interested.
My problem is I need to make some small tweeks and have no idea how to go about this. I assume the changes need to be done via the code (as I have looked thoroughly in the edit options and can see nowhere that is relevant). I've not dabbled with Moodle code at all so far, and I don't want to break anything (eeek!), so I thought it was best to ask an expert.
The tweeks:
If you can help me or guide me to any Moodle instructions (for total noobs) I'd really appreciate it.
Many thanks
C
Looking great Julian. I've been playing with it for the last hour trying to set it up for our school how I'd like it to look.
One minor issue so far. The first slide in the slide show appears to barely load and then immediately fly away when the home page is first loaded. It would be nice if it hung around a bit longer when the page first loaded. The rest of the time it looks fine.
And a feature request. I really appreciated that in Rocket I could change the link color independently of the other colors. My school's colors are black and gold. For design reasons, I wish they were easier to work with. The gold is unsuitable for a general theme color which leaves black for the theme color. However that makes problems with telling what is linked and what isn't. In Rocket, I ended up making the link color blue just to keep it easy to see the random links like glossary entries and activity auto links. Having a place to set that independently of the theme color would be nice for me.
If you grab te latest version from github you will see I have added the ability to add custom css to the theme settings. This will allow you to change any particular nuance you like.
To change the link color you could add something like:
a, a:visited {
color: #000;
}
Dear Julian:
Hi I downloaded your theme and have installed but I try not block navigation appears, or administration, nor those of my courses, which can be??
regards
(ESCRIBO MAS O MENOS EL INGLES)
How do I create another menu lade my dashboard or a menu link to any page?
hello,
first, fantastic work.
I have a small problem, when I open a scorm activity in a new window, I can not stop the navigation display.
I modified the config.php file
'popup' => array(
'file' => 'columns1.php',
'regions' => array(),
'options' => array('nofooter'=>true, 'nonavbar'=>true, 'noheader'=>true),
But still not working, any idea.
Thank you.
Hi,
This sounds like a BUG so can you please check if this happens in Clean theme too because if it does it needs reporting in [Moodle Tracker].
Cheers
Mary
Indeed, Clean theme also appears.
Communicate the Bug
Thanks
> One minor issue so far. The first slide in the slide show appears to barely load and then immediately fly away when the home page is first loaded.
>
That what I feel too! Would be great if we could solve this one.
+1 !
+1
+1! Thanks.
One more little odd thing:
When I'm on any page outside of the site administration pages, the submenu for the Essential theme doesn't appear at all within the Administration block. Within any site admin page, the submenu for the essential theme appears just fine.
This is true when using Essential as well as a few other themes I tried (Clean, Leatherbound).
I think we have discovered a Moodle bug there. No themes (that I am aware of) have created their own category of settings before. This may mean it was not prepared to render such a request. If you are on any "Administration" page (i.e. notifications, theme settings, etc) the options will appear.
I have created MDL-40514 to log the issue. You might want to follow it to see the resolution.
If anyone else out there has ideas I would also love to hear them.
Update: Looks like this was a code issue. I have updated the version in the plugins DB and Github. It will now always show in the admin menu regardless of page you are on
Julian
Finally the UI i was waiting for. Would be up and running soon on our system! Thaanks Julian!
Its so sleek, simple and easy! Always what i wanted! Just a few things i would like to change if your up for it.
Like how could we make it have only two column, (Content and Blocks)
Also, is there a trick to make all blocks on the Right, so automaticly the content space gets more.
When using iframes, it gets really untidy. I would love a whole space for a Book/Lesson etc.
![Attachment scree [800x600].jpg](https://moodle.org/pluginfile.php/115/mod_forum/attachment/1007680/scree%20%5B800x600%5D.jpg?forcedownload=1)
I will promise to work on a two column option in the next release. Couldn't quite figure out how to get the dynamically adjusting content dependant on columns working in bootstrap and wanted this version to be as stable as possible.
As for iframes I have a simpler response. Adjust the width of your iframe. I dont see how the theme would be directly impacting that.
Julian
Dear Julian,
The current versions of Clean and Shoelace have adjusting columns (for three column) layouts when 'side-pre' or 'side-post' have no content. They both just implement it in a slightly different way.
The key here is for the definition of 'span9' to have a 100% width when 'side-pre' or 'side-post' have no content.
Cheers,
Gareth
Hi Julian,
Building on what Gareth said in his last comment, it is planned MDL-39777 that Clean will "inherit" the layouts from Bootstrapbase theme this is to make future developments easier to maintain. So Clean will only carry a standard set of settings for Inverse top menu, header logo, footnote & custom CSS in the settings.php.
The way the blocks are loaded is all changed too. Lots of stuff is all done in core. Gareth know more about this side of things has he has been instrumental in getting the layouts to work.
Cheers
Mary
Ah great thanks! :D
No, actually iframe would be fixed when u do the two column thing, i am sure. It feels beautiful and the students will start using it from tomorow.
Thanks again for the beautiful design.
Estimado Julian
Yo tengo el moodle 2.5 y he instalado el theme essential pero al cargarlo me sale esto
QUE ES LO PASA????
SALUDOS
You have to upgrade to 2.5.1 to use this theme.
Regards
Julian
Hey Julian,
Can I say fantastic theme! I am very new to Moodle, so my opinion won't carry as much weight as the more experienced Moodlers out there, but after spending time looking over themes etcetera, yours came top of the list!
I have one problem though. I installed your theme and straight away I am greeted with: Coding error detected, it must be fixed by a programmer: Trying to reference an unknown block region side-post.
I am not experienced with Moodle, so any advice on how to remove this would be greatly appreciated.
That is an old BUG in bootstrapbase themes of which Essential is built upon.
I think Julian will be addressing this and other bugs in his new release.
The way round this is not to try and move blocks to the right hand column in that particular page. In actual fact it would be useful to know which layout type it is. So to help identify this layout can you enable the "Show page info" (or similar wording) in Site Administration > Development > Debugging
After saving the settings go back to the page you were having that error and tell me what the info in the footer says regarding the layout type?
Thanks
Mary
I have followed your instruction Mary, and all I have on the page now is what was there before:
[main content goes here -4pqm7h1j8f]
and coding error detected.
hOLA:
A mi tambien me da ese erro que puede ser???
Saludos
When I logged out as system administrator I was able to see this at the bottom of the page:
This page is: General type: frontpage. Context Front page (context id 2). Page type site-index.
Hello,
we have got the same problem under Moodle 2.5.2+ (Build: 20130913) with the latest Essential theme (Release 2.5.4 (Build: 20130904)).
We have got some older assignments (2.2) activities. If I go here: "Assignment upgrade helper / List assignments that have not been upgraded" and check some box to upgrade selected assignments (with using the button at the botttom of the page), I get the same error:
Coding error detected, it must be fixed by a programmer: Trying to reference an unknown block region side-post
[MAIN CONTENT GOES HERE - Jn1nvWUuCC]
But if I use the upgrade link which can be found all the rows of each older assignment name than the upgrade works perfectly.
I don't know what I must do with this information, who can I give it to the developer so I type it here.
I found that Essential is a fantastic theme! Great job, many thanks for it!
Bonjour,
ce thème est graphiquement génial ! Merci.
Cependant je rencontre une erreur lors de l'affichage des cohortes ou des notes.
"Trying to reference an unknown block region side-post"
Hello, this theme is graphically awesome ! Thank you !!
However, i encounter an error when displaying cohorts or grades.
moodle/grade/report/user/index.php?id=3 [MAIN CONTENT GOES HERE - t99XPScuMz]
moodle/cohort/index.php?contextid=3 [MAIN CONTENT GOES HERE - 91TpnVTrvu]
Thanks.
Didier
Hello Didier
Have you got the current version I have attached a screenshot of my site using this theme and the same URL and I cannot replicate your issue.
Julian
Hello,
Yes, i have got the current version...
Thanks.
Didier
Hi, going on the Grades, i am getting the same error :/
Hi, i just copied the theme on github and updated on Moodle, as u said the newest update, i am facing these problems:
-- Secondly i want to ask how can i make the width of the Boxes a bit lesser then the original, (.rowfluid .span6 ??) and move it more to the right. So i get more "CONTENT SPACE"
Thanks.
Hi,
I resolved my problem with a new installation of Moodle (without Softtaculous !).
Grade and cohorts are now ok.
For information : Old version 2.5 (may 2013) with Softaculous
Didier
Checkout the layouts in Clean theme.
Issues with the HTML editor will be not be related to the Essential theme. Be sure to try other themes as well and to empty the theme cache.
There is a related discussion on this thread - https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=232182
Julian
Looks like some great changes have come in 2.5.1.
I have attached a screenshot showing that it goes to two columns now, not just three.
Best thing is, I have changed nothing in Essential to do this. As Essential inherits from Bootstrapbase and bootstrap base has had significant work done in 2.5.1, the magic has all happened behind the scenes.
If you upgrade to 2.5.1 please give feedback to let me know if you are having any issues using two rather than three columns.
Julian
Okay gonna try that Julian. Cheers.
Hi Julian, ive upgraded to 2.5.1, now how do i choose two column by default? or something like the screen u pasted.
Or did u mannually move them all on the right?
Also theres too much space on the right, can i move it right to the edge? Please :/
P.S: The Grades are working great after the update.
The default block locations are not set by the theme. So you will need to move them. Looks like your two blocks are in the "left" column. Just click and drag them to the right.
Julian
Sure yes, how can i make the blocks width a bit smaller?
To do that you will need to add additional CSS into the Essential theme settings. But this is not as easy as you think.
In bootstrap widths are now based on spans. The page contains 12 eque-distant spans that content is put within. In this case the blocks cover 3 spans each and the content covers 6 spans.
Understanding this is important as changing widths will have a greater impact.
The current CSS states.
Hi Julian,
I am in the same situation where I need to decrease the blocks width a bit. Right now it stands at 30% something , but hardcoding this in my inherited theme throws the responsiveness out of place. What would you suggest to start going deep a bit to see how the mechanisms work behind it ? LESS ? I'm not really that familiar with LESS ( apart from whats stated in the moodle docs), so any help will be really appreciated. I have inherited the CLEAN theme to suit our university theme.
Many thanks
Hittesh
I would recommend that you consider changing the z-index for the da-slider to a value such as -1.
As it is now, things such as glossary terms displayed on the front page appear under the slider text (see example 1). Simply changing the da-slider in the custom code area fixes the issue see example 2).
I don't see any reason why the z-index shouldn't be used to push the slider back. And in some instances it is a benefit to have it back. So, I hope you will consider the change.
Thanks,
Rod
Getting the same error as someone else. I am running the most current version of this theme and Moodle
Dear all,
I tried to replicate the issues with side-post and 'MAIN CONTENT GOES HERE' with the M2.5 from https://github.com/moodleman/moodle-theme_essential/tree/MOODLE_25 and the master branch and cannot. I worked on the recent 'side-post' issues in collaboration with Sam and Mary so thought I could help out.
Please see if you get the issues by using the latest code from GitHub.
Cheers,
Gareth
Thank you. Even with the latest version of this theme from github, I still get the error, "Coding error detected, it must be fixed by a programmer: Trying to reference an unknown block region side-post" .
Dear G K,
As I cannot replicate the issue, please could you turn on developer level debugging (http://docs.moodle.org/25/en/Debugging) as a stack trace would help.
Cheers,
Gareth
Thanks for your help in advance. Turning on debugging renders the following info:
I cannot replicate your issue either. Are you sure you have the most recent version of the codebase?
Julian
Hello
This is the BEST Theme
Thanks a lot Julian
I'm testing this theme in my site http://giselebrugger.com/moodle/
and today i installed this format course : https://moodle.org/plugins/view.php?plugin=format_tabtopics&sesskey=Ytmuyrempr and when a access administration to finish installation i had a error 
Thank you
Dear G K,
Odd as the logic is sound in 'general.php' with and without using an RTL language and with having no blocks in 'side-post' on a three column layout with editing on and off. I cannot replicate or see a coding fault by looking backwards from line 186.
What version of Moodle and Essential (with branch) are you using? Where did you get it from? Have you made any modifications?
I'm using Moodle 2.5.1 (Build: 20130708) 2013051401.00 with Essential theme from the MOODLE_25 branch on GitHub 2.5 (Build: 20130705) 2013070500.
Cheers,
Gareth
I am not sure what was happening either. I upgraded to the latest version of Moodle. I downloaded the latest version of the theme (again). I reinstalled it and the error messages are gone. Thanks again for your assistance.
Hi Julian
Just wanted to reitterate everyone's comments and say what a fantastic theme. Great work.
Quick question. Our site has 2 or 3 admin accounts. If we use the 'hide blocks for admin' feature at the bottom, do we get different views or the same?
Hi Dan,
Thanks for sharing the love. Glad you like it.
You all see the same It is hidden based on role. If you are all Admins, you will all see it.
Julian
Thanks Julian - makes sense.
Am testing out different modules and have noticed that the appearance of the Feedback activity looks a bit 'bleak'. There used to be styling templates in the old Questionnaire module - should Feedback look different or is this the standard layout?
This is just the standard bootstrap layout for feedback. Essential has added nothing to the formatting here.
Julian
I use the feedback module a lot and there are significant problems with formatting the feedback when using the essential theme compared to other standard themes
The formatting is generally poor (eg 2 lines for each multiple choice as in the screenshot shown above) - have never seen this in other themes - but more importantly settings I have adjusted (eg texbox width for long ansers) have no effect - ie all textboxes are the same width (about 50) whatever setting I select. This problem does not occur in other themes.
This is a serious issue for my use of the essential theme which I generally really like. I hope someone can come up with a solution.
It does happen in other thees. Any bootstrap theme to be precise.
Sadly until they fix this in core there is not much I can do.
Julian
Thanks Julian
I'm only just getting my head round the concept of the bootstrap theme.
Hi Ray,
I also like using the Feedback module. So I wanted to find out how it looks in Moodle 2.6dev (Build: 20130823) with Survey2 (a combination of Feedback, Survey, and Questionnaire) installed.
I am not sure whether Survey2 will be available in the next Moodle version, but the layout looks good to me. Of course, this doesn't help you for the current Moodle version, but may give you a perspective.
With kind regards,
Hartmut
Hartmut,
I think he is referring to the analysis display where you see the coloured bars when responses are submitted. Those look weird on my current essential theme as well.
Hi Hartmut
Yes, that layout does look a lot better .... does the text field give the correct design width - (currently in feedback it has a fixed width irrespective of the specified width).
Thanks
Ray
Hello!
Very nice theme and very easy to modify . I wanted another background-color, while the page-background (#page) stays white. So i changed body-background to a certain color and #page to white in custom.css.
This change of colors showed there is something wrong with the footer: Only on the frontpage it is part of the page-div (check with firebug).
Footer integrated on frontage
footer not integrated on other pages:
Is this "a bug" or am i wrong. I only modified custom.css.
Gehrt
Okay I'm sure that I'm being thick but how do you make the frontpage and coursepage layout 3 column with blocks on the left and right and the centre column for courses etc as per the clean theme?
I see that in the clean theme there are three different columns.php files how do I get essential to "choose" one of these?
Your not being thick Colin. In this theme you cannot.
Essential, like the Sky High theme in Moodle core is designed to put both columns of blocks on the right hand side of the page. This cannot be changed. Well, not without rewriting the theme.
Julian
Awesome theme...by far the best I've seen! I downloaded from github today.
I've got two minor problems.
1) When previewing a question it complains of coding error "Coding error detected, it must be fixed by a programmer: Trying to reference an unknown block region side-post". I switch back to "Clean" theme and all is fine.
2) Its seems the first slide in the slide show does not show when page is first loaded but rather starts on 2nd slide after a few seconds. Eventually it will cycle through and show the first slide.
Thanks for the great contrib!
Can yo provide me the url on your site where this breaks please.
I have just tried on my version and do not get the error when I preview a quiz question.
Julian
Sorry but I didn't see there was a newer moodle version (2.5.1). I upgraded and the question preview problem is fixed. Sorry to waste your time. I'm loving this theme.
I too still have the slideshow issue reported above by Carl.
Awesome theme and much thanks!!
This was a bug. Well spotted.
I have fixed this up now and updated the github version. Grab the latest from there and you will see it has been repaired.
Julian
Hello Julian, there are no changes to the github version. Latest changes where 5 days ago ...
You are probably looking at the wrong branch
No, i looked at both branches.
I think it could be interesting why there are two branches and what is the difference between them!
Hi Julian,
You may well have fixed this, but did you PUSH the fix to your GitHub?
I think not!!! 
Sorry everyone. I swore I aded the commit. Serves me right for swearing.
Today I updated GIT and the plugins DB with Essential 2.5.1.
In this release I have:
Grab the latest now and be sure to leave your feedback
Julian
Well done, Julian!
The theme looks really good. I will try it next week in a sandbox environment to make sure that it suits our needs.
In mean time, as we are using the Grid layout in our courses, is Essential compatible with it?
Hello, Can anyone help me adding these content.
I was trying on this theme I could not add content to Center portion of the home page and the Banner of Sponsor.
Please Please Please help me how can I add this. Please.
Hi there
Love this theme - so very easy to use thank you.
I have come across a problem/error can you help please. see attached.
I was using magazine upgraded to essentials. using moodle 2.5 this area is relating to the 'topic' I added on the front page as a welcome message
Sarah x
The best thing to do is go to Site Administration > Plugins > Add-ons > Un-install the Essential theme.
Then go and checkout the latest version. It should be time stamped with yesterday's date.
Hello Mary
Thank you I will do as you say and re-install the essentials and see what happens.
Many thanks Sarah x
I am with Mary here,
This theme has now been installed on dozens of sites. So you should not see major errors like that.
How did you go with the reinstall?
Julian
Hi julian
I deleted the essential version I was using - then tested with another theme - everything worked well - I then uploaded the latest version of essential and again I have this error
"Trying to reference an unknown block region side-post"
ALSO with new version having a huge problem selecting the Change Theme button - when I hover over the "clear theme caches" I see the changes. But when I hover over the 'change theme' I can't do anything.
----- following on from the error code, I deleted the essential theme, selected a new theme 'clear' removed edited the topic - all ok. I then removed the topic.
I uploaded the latest version then selected the essential theme, front page settings add topic > edit topic >ERROR .
Sarah
Hi Sarah
Did you add the theme under Administration > Plugins > Install Add-on?
Or did you upload it yourself to the server?
Also after you click the "Clear Theme caches" button, you need to make sure that the Theme selector is the Default one and NOT the one for Tablet as it seems to default to that page. So please just test it.
Also can you test that the Coding error is in the Clean theme as it could well be associated to a bug I have just fixed.
Cheers
Mary
@Mary Evans
Ad mentioned above, I encountered the same problems of being unable to change the theme, even if I cleared caches and switched back to default theme.
Also mentioned above, I did not encounter this problem with the Clean theme.
I'm somewhat flummoxed about your asking whether the theme was uploaded or installed via Administration->Plugins->Add-on... is there a difference in the outcomes of each?1
Some times how a theme is uploaded does make a difference.
Hi,
You would need to go to the Essential custom settings pages. Log in as Admin and then go to Administration > Site Administration > Appearance > Themes > > Then CLICK on the link for 'Essential' which should be listed at that point in the side block. This will open a list of setting pages.
Hope this helps?
Mary
Hi Ankit,
What you saw there was hardcoded into the theme for iMoot. Of course 90% of sites on't want this so it has been removed from the Essential theme.
As mentioned earlier, the code for sponsors is still in the frontage layout but commented out. You can reactivate these if you know your way around code.
The top part of the page was just a label with nice formatting added.
Regards
Julian
Hello,
nice job ! Thank a lot.
I need add a other social network. I can use a not-used in the make a link in the social networking admin page. But I have't the right icon on the top page.
could you give me a process ? (I'm not a programer but I can cut/past on html table )
thank you for help.
(xuse my english)
Regards
jm
Hi Jean, at essential/layout/header.php add the following line of code after line 93 before </ul>
<li><a href="YOUR-SOCIAL-PAGE-URL"><i class="icon-theicon"></i></a></li>
Where you can get theicon from http://fortawesome.github.io/Font-Awesome/cheatsheet/
E.G: if i want to play instagram icon on the header:
<li><a href="http://instagram.com"><i class="icon-instagram"></i></a></li>
</ul>
</div>
Read through this whole thread so my remarks wouldn't be redundant. I have tested with fresh unadulterated clones of Moodle 2.5.1 (20130712) and 2.5+ (20130630) and experienced the same results while working with essential version 2013070300:
All of these work fine using the Clean theme (which I had to select by going into mdl_config table.
Good morning, When you click to view the note, gives error:
When clicked into gear to set up a resource or tool main page gives an error:
Hi..gr8 wrk...Awsmme theme...I am using Essential theme version 2.5.1...Actually on clicking the create new account button for the creation of new accounts by users its giving the coding error detected..I am not able to fix it..Plz reply asap..Thank u..
I finally have a theory why this is happening and only to some users. Can you please grab the latest version from Github by clicking here and let me know if that fixes your issue. Please test and if this fixes it I will ad it to the main release asap.
I tried with the link that you posted but still it was not able to rectify it.The problem still persists...can u tell me how to fix it..thank u..
Please see my previous message above in answer to your reply. Still seeing the error.
Sarah
While I do not want to take away from the fact it is happening on your site, I have tested now on three different sites (one 2.5 and the others 2.5.1) and cannot replicate your error while visiting the same respective URLs.
My last hope for a solution is to get you to enable Theme Designer mode which will also force oodles to not use the cached version.
Julian
Just stayed up so I can catch up with you!
Essential is a beautiful theme, and one that I personally would like adding to Moodle core.
I've just been testing your latest updates and all seem to be working OK.
Just one point I would like to make for those wanting to download the newest version. You need to click on the Branch link in https://github.com/moodleman/moodle-theme_essential.git and choose moodle_25 as the updates are in that branch.
I don't know if that was your intention Julian, but I figured if people know how to use GIT then it's easy enough to clone https://github.com/moodleman/moodle-theme_essential.git into a localhost/moodle25/theme/essential then checkout MOODLE_25 branch. I did just that and then deleted the master branch.
Like I said all is working OK and no errors (as yet)
Cheers and thanks.
Mary
Thanks Mary. i keep forgetting to switch before committing which has been a pain.
The production version will be the MOODLE_25 branch. The master is where I commit things before I am sure they will work. I only merge after significant testing.
If you are using GIT, please be sure to take Mary's advice and grab the MOODLE_25 branch to ensure you get the best experience possible.
Julian
Hi Mary..can u plz elaborate... like i said i m not able to fix the issue.On clicking the add new account and forgot new password there is an error..I m struggling with the problem since last week nd not able to find my way out..Thank u.
The quickest thing for you to do is remove the Essential theme from your server.
Then once back in to the site, you can try installing the zip file using the Administration > Plugins > Install Add-ons
Care must be taken as to which version of the Essential theme you add back as there are two different ones floating about. As far as I know the following link is the correct one. This is the one I am using and as yet is working OK.
This is the link to the zip file it was updated on the 14/july/2013
https://github.com/moodleman/moodle-theme_essential/archive/MOODLE_25.zip
Cheers
Mary
Estimada MAry
Descargue la version que vos me diste pero tidavia me sale el error:
Saludos
Hello,
Thank you for this great theme.
I'd like to know how to change the breadcrumb separator from "/" to this ">" or using the icon-caret-right on "http://fortawesome.github.io/Font-Awesome/cheatsheet/".
I'd tried adding $THEME->rarrow = '>'; to config.php but I couldn't make it work.
Thank you.
Philippe
Merci Monsieur David.
Here's what I've discovered though its been such a mixed up mess I could be in error on some things:
I think its rather a pita to have to check out a theme especially given that the published links to the theme are always for the zip which will not get you the most updated version.
After finally successfully upgrading to 20130715 I still see the issues with being unable to change theme selected even after I've cleared theme cache, purged all caches, cleared browser cache and run CSS Cachebuster. I have no themes listed in "Theme list" and I am in Theme designer mode. I do however have access to the Essential configuration links now which I didn't before this version. Again, clean 2.5.1 install.
EDIT: I cannot click on add an activity for my topic section on the front page, still unresponsive.
I can do all of these things with the clean theme.
Firefox 22 on Mountain Lion
Dear Bob,
It is standard practice to publish stable versions / tagged beta versions as zip files on the plugin's DB and have branches on GitHub that are newer as they contain the very latest code that is more often than not is unready for release. But this theme is in the process of being developed which is why requests are being made to use the branches on GitHub. The 'head' branch is an internal local branch so I'm not sure why that is showing up. The 'master' branch is traditionally the main development branch for the next version of Moodle (i.e. M2.6) and 'MOODLE_25' is for Moodle 2.5
I do not know exactly what is causing the issue with the theme not showing up and causing the issues etc. as it works fine for me. My gut says that there is an installation issue. So, please could you post a screen shot of the '/theme/essential' folder just to be sure that it looks ok .
Cheers,
Gareth
Its easy to miss some of the nuances of this discussion because its so long so I'd like to point out the salient points I'm making in my previous post:
Here is my screenshot of the repo created when I cloned to my desktop:
Here is my theme/essential folder of my working branch:
First of all Bob, you will need to rename the theme from moodle-theme_essential to essential
After that it should work.
If you also enable Debugging (Administration > Development > Debugging) then you would have had notifications of missing strings and such
I'm sorry if I'm getting a little cautious here but I feel as though people are talking to me like I am an idiot or else they're just not reading. I've posted two screenshots, the repo "moodle-theme_essential" and my working copy which is theme/essential.
I don't know if I'm supposed to get debug information for buttons and links that simply don't work when using a particular theme but I'm not getting any and I have my debug set to Development.
EDIT: I'm very interested in seeing this theme get into STABLE condition. guess I'll include pictures and maybe that will result in better understanding:
DEAD CHANGE THEME BUTTON (no notices or errors)
Sorry Bob, but being partially sighted does have it drawbacks. I just failed to see the delineation of the two images I just took it as one after seeing the name at the top of the list. I just assumed you were thick...which was wrong on me of course. You obviously can't be so think if you can use GIT.
love the animation
Dear Mary,
Just testing for Bob now - not finished yet - but occurs to me that this might be the dreaded Byte Order Mark?
Cheers,
Gareth
Ok, using the version cloned from https://github.com/moodleman/moodle-theme_essential/tree/MOODLE_25 (screen shot e1.png) this is what I have found:
Cheers,
Gareth
Screen shot e2.png...
Screen shot e3.png...
Screen shot e4.png...
Screen shot e5.png...
You've made more headway than I have however I'm not having trouble with the course add and activity, I'm having trouble with the front page, topic section add an activity.
Dear Bob,
There is a bug in 'layout/frontpage.php' - to fix move line 367 containing '<div id="page-content" class="row-fluid">' to line 363.
Edit: Pull request https://github.com/moodleman/moodle-theme_essential/pull/13 added.
Cheers,
Gareth
Thanks Gareth -- that fixed that problem. Can't change themes with FF but can with Chrome. Did you give FF a go? OS X Mountain Lion here.
Also, unless I can figure out a way to get "Enrolled courses" displayed front-and-center without all the extra instructor and pending items info, this will be a deal killer. Ideally what would be looked for is cascading categories for only those courses in which you're enrolled (same thing one gets from NAV->My courses... except NAV is now quite a ways down the page without apparent remedy.
Dear Bob,
I cannot replicate the theme selector issue in FF 22.0.
I thought the 'extra instructor...' was a display option issue not related to the theme - I'm sure there is a setting somewhere, just cannot remember where.
I think the category cascade would also be a Moodle improvement outside of the remit of themes.
Cheers,
Gareth
Okay... fair enough, I've not found where I can remove extra info under each course listed on the center (with essential, "total") column but will continue to hunt.
Hope I'm not becoming too pesky but I think I read that this forum was setup so we could debug the theme and give feedback. To that end I'm wondering why the marketing blocks will only take a URL for a picture contained in the information section and not take an uploaded file?
That's because we are restricted in how things are set up in a setting page. We really could do with a form that would allow such things as a file picker, but then we get into Database territory and this can in turn cause overload and slow everything down.
I think it is time that every Moodle site front page should be a stylish web page that uses only HTML5 and nothing else. Moodle could then begin on the general page that the front page links to via a login portal.
Definitely cannot get beyond why the front page is the way it is, i.e., anything displayed (news items, courses, topic section) take up the entire width with all blocks on the page in one straight line down the left side and unable to be moved. My home does not provide an alternative because it suffers from the same things its always suffered from, inability to customize the critical things (how courses are displayed), ability to add or take away blocks -- nobody at the schools I know wants to use it.
Otherwise this theme works quite well for courses, if people just didn't have to visit the Home page (where they want to see only categories of the courses in which they are enrolled -- again in the NAV block, WAAAAYYY down the page).
Dear Bob,
If you want to customise the way a course is displayed then use a course format, there are lots of different ones available. Edit: Just re-read your comment to realise it pertains to 'My Home'.
'My Home' was once 'My Moodle' and I can remember Martin D saying that it has not turned out to be what he imagined. Perhaps its time to change that and specify out what we would like it to be such that software engineers can make it happen.
Cheers,
Gareth
I have tried to add font awesome capability to clean theme, by copying the fonts folder, custom css, font awesome css files across and amending config.php to add the font awesome style sheet. However the icons for blocks appear as blank squares. Anyone got any ideas what I am missing?
Dear Colin,
You are missing the 'at font-face' style code in the layout files.
Cheers,
Gareth
I have a related problem to what Colin has described. I have just installed the latest version as of July 16th (2.5.2 - Build: 20130717). Everything appears to work as it should, except for the icons are all missing from all the blocks and header. The course icons appear as they should. I am not sure what to adjust here.
The layout folder contains the following files:
course.php; essential.php; footer.php; frontpage.php; general.php; header.php; standard.php
The style folder contains:
custom.css; font-awesome.css; slides.css
Any ideas what might cause the icons to not show?
Okay, I think I have an idea of what you mean. I am assuming that you mean
<!-- Google web fonts -->
<link href='http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Oswald:400,700' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'>
<link href='http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=PT+Sans:400,700,400italic' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'>
needs to be put into the relevant section on the clean layout files, column1.php etc.
Am I on the right lines?
Okay I need to correct my above post. I have added the following to custom.css
@font-face {
font-family: 'FontAwesome';
font-weight: normal;
font-style: normal;
src: url('setting:fontwwwfontawesome-webfont.eot?v=3.2.1');
src: url('setting:fontwwwfontawesome-webfont.eot?#iefix&v=3.2.1') format('embedded-opentype'),
url('setting:fontwwwfontawesome-webfont.woff?v=3.2.1') format('woff'),
url('setting:fontwwwfontawesome-webfont.ttf?v=3.2.1') format('truetype'),
url('setting:fontwwwfontawesome-webfont.svg#fontawesomeregular?v=3.2.1') format('svg');
}
but I see no change after caches are purged etc. I am clearly missing something.
Dear Colin,
The AT font-face just defines the font and where it exists. Where are you using the font-family name in the CSS selectors?
E.g:
h1 {
font-family:"FontAwesome","Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;
text-align: center;
}
Cheers,
Gareth
Please grab a new clean copy from GitHub or the plugins DB and you will see this has been rectified. All icons now appear as they should.
Julian
Good day ...
I found these errors:
1) When you click to view note:
http://prntscr.com/1fu8bk
2) When we click edit summary on the main page of Moodle (you must enable editing):
http://prntscr.com/1fu8mr
Anyone know how to fix or is to provide the theme fixed?
thank you
@Julian -- design question... why so much wasted space near the top of the front page with News items, or Courses, or Combo list all taking up the full width of the screen?
Hi
If you look at
http://vle.ashs.norfolk.sch.uk/?theme=essential
The pic for Street Snooker fills the entire width of the News section in IE10 - but in Chrome it doesn't.
is it possible to add a feature that disable frontpage slideshow and marketing spots after login. Maybe it can go the settings under frontpage setting when login show slideshow and marketting spots etc.
Mesut, you may use the option of the users seeing "My Home" after logging in, this way they dont see the marketing spots or Slideshow.
Under Adminstration > Appearance > Navigation (
/admin/settings.php?section=navigation
)
Choose the first open.
hello everybody,
some stranges things...
1) I can't remove a logo in general settings. 
2) my site don't use full width of screen
Thanks for help
jm
Yup - we've lost full site width too.
It looks like a space for blocks but nothing moves when dragging in.
Unless I'm missing something...
Although this discussion has already gathered many replies, I'd like to point out that I find the wording of its title "Essential Theme Discussions" not quite clear, especially to non-English speakers.
Joseph
Master Joseph talked.
You've earned a famous french distinction - the Capelo's badge.
Philippe
