Need explanation on relationship between "theme preset" dropdown and "additional theme preset files"

Need explanation on relationship between "theme preset" dropdown and "additional theme preset files"

by Glenn Pillsbury -
Number of replies: 2

Using Moodle 3.3.2 and any Boost-related theme.

Where is the documentation that explains the interrelations between the "theme preset" drop-down menu and the "additional theme preset files"?  I am completely in the dark about how to make minor customizations to Boost-related themes. 

For example, I am trying to tweak the Moove theme:

  1. If I figure out which part of the page controls the color of the footer, I then input that selector with my preferred color into an "additional theme preset file" I've called mytweak.scss and upload that. However, after saving, the new color does not display.
  2. If I choose mytweak.scss in the "theme preset" drop-down menu and then save, I get a totally un-styled Moodle page. When I revert to either "default.scss" or "plain.scss", the styling returns, but my preferred footer color is still not showing.

What am I missing?

Non-Boost themes typically have a "custom CSS" field in their settings that make these kinds of modifications trivially easy.  I'd appreciate any help in making similarly easy changes to Boost-related themes!

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In reply to Glenn Pillsbury

Re: Need explanation on relationship between "theme preset" dropdown and "additional theme preset files"

by Richard Oelmann -
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Presets are complete scss files - take a look at the default and plain ones in a text editor, or take a look at the range in waxed/handlebar (the bootswatch ones that go with bootstrap) or the ones like Mary's morecandy on the moodle.net site.

You can create your own by taking one of those and making changes to it, then uplaoding it to the additional theme preset file section AND selecting it from the drop down, but it wont work with just the couple of lines of change without the rest of the file content.

If you want to use one of the existing presets and only make a few changes to it, then you can use the Raw Initial SCSS or the Raw SCSS settings on Boost's 'Advanced settings' tab (you can also put plain css in these, as well as scss). Generally, I keep the Initial one for variables an the second one for overrides.

Some other boost based themes have a much wider range of settings to customise your theme too.

Richard

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In reply to Richard Oelmann

Re: Need explanation on relationship between "theme preset" dropdown and "additional theme preset files"

by Glenn Pillsbury -

Thank you, Richard!  The "Raw SCSS" field is indeed what I was looking for to make small modifications/customizations.

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