HELP: Theme Newbie Here! :)

HELP: Theme Newbie Here! :)

by Stephanie Ferguson -
Number of replies: 16

Hi there. I need some help. I've been working in Moodle for a long time but the site has always been hosted by someone else, and I didn't have access to change the site themes.  I always worked with the developers to get it branded how I wanted. I'm in a new role where I do have these privileges and would like to customize our site a little bit at least with the branding of colours of the background, navbars, buttons, etc. I don't know CSS so obviously I need one that I can customize pretty easily but also need one that is well supported. Does that exist? smile

We currently have Moodle 3.7.2 and are running the Boost theme. I like the clean layout of Boost, but it seems you need to know code in order to customize it at all. I also like Adaptable, but since it's not core...it is well supported or would that be opening a dangerous can of worms? Adaptable seems to have a lot more areas that are easily customizable with all of the submenus under it. Boost is not showing any of the same submenus. Again, I apologize for the basic question. I spent my aft searching YouTube and these forums but with no luck for the straightforward answer I need. Thanks in advance!


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In reply to Stephanie Ferguson

Re: HELP: Theme Newbie Here! :)

by Gareth J Barnard -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers
Having a theme that allows you to change it without CSS depends on what changes you want to make and if it has existing code to support that.

Boost is based on the Bootstrap V4 framework (BS4). This does not support sub-menu's. Adaptable is a child theme of Boost, however, it has implemented sub-menus as there are 'sub menu' code fixes for BS4 but will have (I suspect) implemented its own.
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In reply to Gareth J Barnard

Re: HELP: Theme Newbie Here! :)

by Stephanie Ferguson -
I'm not really sure what is meant by "child theme". Does that mean even though it isn't a "built-in" theme, that because it's based on Boost, it is supported?
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In reply to Stephanie Ferguson

Re: HELP: Theme Newbie Here! :)

by Gareth J Barnard -
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A child theme has another theme as a parent. It means that it extends / builds upon / depends on another theme. Its a technical concept, whilst support is a human one.
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In reply to Stephanie Ferguson

Re: HELP: Theme Newbie Here! :)

by Rick Jerz -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers

I am not at all an expert in themes and CSS, but I did give a presentation at a MoodleMoot two years ago about how I do this.  Below is a link to my resources web page.  Consider this as a way to get some background to customizing themes.  Incidentally, I use the standard Boost and simply add CSS to make it look as I want it to look.

MoodleMoot2017 (US and Mountain), "Making Boost do MORE"


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In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: HELP: Theme Newbie Here! :)

by Stephanie Ferguson -
Hi Rick, yeah, I did actually watch your talk. But it did feel a bit over my head at the moment. I don't have a ton of time to play around, so I was hoping for a quicker way. I have bookmarked your talk for future reference though when I have time to play around. Thanks!
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In reply to Stephanie Ferguson

Re: HELP: Theme Newbie Here! :)

by Rick Jerz -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers
I learned the basics of CSS by reading a chapter from the "Adobe Dreamweaver in a Book" book. It might have been chapter 4 or 5. Dreamweaver (and probably many web page editors) provides CSS. By using CSS, I make all my web pages look consistent.
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In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: HELP: Theme Newbie Here! :)

by Stephanie Ferguson -
Thanks, Rick! Good information to have. I want to learn more about this once I have an opportunity!
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In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: HELP: Theme Newbie Here! :)

by web dev -

very nicely done Rick.

only one thing i would add to your brilliant website is to have the links open in a new page so people dont get lost or shutdown the page itself.

maybe use target="_blank" for the links.

other than that its an excellent resource and hope to reach your level on day.

wd

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In reply to web dev

Re: HELP: Theme Newbie Here! :)

by Rick Jerz -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers
In my Moodle, every "URL resource" does open on a new page. However, quizzes, assignments, and forums do not.
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In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: HELP: Theme Newbie Here! :)

by Rick Jerz -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers

Actually, I should have said "every URL resource CAN open on a new page."  This depends upon how you set it up.


Attachment URL Appearance.png
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In reply to Stephanie Ferguson

Re: HELP: Theme Newbie Here! :)

by Emma Richardson -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers
So, you ask good questions. Using a third party theme allows you to make a lot of changes right in the GUI. Themes like Fordson and Adaptable are well supported with very active developers and make it a lot easier to manage your site theme without knowledge of css and coding. When using a third party theme, you always want to look at how many versions there, how recent they are and if the posts on the forum are getting responses from the developers. You also want to see what the theme you want to use is based on. For example, Adaptable just recently upgraded to a Boost based theme - this is a good thing as Boost is the core theme for Moodle. Some other themes are still based on older Moodle Themes and do not take advantage of some of the newer Moodle features. I hope this helps.
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In reply to Emma Richardson

Re: HELP: Theme Newbie Here! :)

by Stephanie Ferguson -
Thank you, Emma!!! First for the reassurance that they weren't totally ridiculous questions because I do stress about that a bit before/after posting them! And secondly for the straightforward answer!! That's exactly the kind of information I was seeking. It gives me more confidence to take the leap and play around with Adaptable!! Thanks again. smile
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In reply to Stephanie Ferguson

Re: HELP: Theme Newbie Here! :)

by Emma Richardson -
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I should add that Gareth's themes are also excellent and well supported!!
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In reply to Emma Richardson

Re: HELP: Theme Newbie Here! :)

by Stephanie Ferguson -
Thanks for the info! Unfortunately, I'm not familiar with whose themes are whose just yet, but I'm glad to know that!
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In reply to Stephanie Ferguson

Re: HELP: Theme Newbie Here! :)

by Mary Evans -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers 
Hi Stephanie,
 If you have access as an Admin, then you could try creating a preset
 which can be added to the Boost theme, via the Settings page within the theme.
 You can then modify the colour scheme For the site.
Help for this is available here...
 https://docs.moodle.org/dev/Boost_Presets

Cheers

   Mary

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