Moodle in English: Recommendations for Theme modification (Fordson)

Recommendations for Theme modification (Fordson)

by Gaurav Shinde - Tuesday, March 2, 2021, 7:23 PM

Moodle version: - 3.9.1+ Theme:- Fordson Theme version:- Moodle 3.9 Fordson v3.9 release 1.1 (2020061800)

I wanted to know about the recommended or the correct way to customize the UI of Fordson theme from VS Code. They have provided mustache files for customization, however if I want to customize the Course Page(i.e the LIST OF COURSES page which is displayed after login) , there are no such classes or elemens in the mustache files which will help me in customizing it, however there is a course_renderer.php file which is located in the core folder of Fordson theme in which the required classes and methods are present, Also , when I modify that file, changes are being reflected on the site. Therefore, I wanted to know if this is the correct way of customizing or is there any other way of doing it as I am modifying the php file directly? Will there be any complications if there is an upgrade in the Fordson theme version?

Gaurav

Re: Recommendations for Theme modification (Fordson)

by Richard Oelmann - Tuesday, March 2, 2021, 9:14 PM

It very much depends what exactly you are trying to modify.
Some changes are best in the mustache templates, however if the changes impact the logic or the data that gets fed to the mustache templates, then yes you will need to look deeper at the layout files and renderer classes, as you have already found.
Please note that changes to Fordson files themselves may be overwritten if/when you next upgrade the theme, so either create a child theme of Fordson for your changes (recommended) or ensure those changes are backed up so you can reapply them to an updated version at some point.

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Re: Recommendations for Theme modification (Fordson)

by Gaurav Shinde - Tuesday, March 2, 2021, 10:38 PM

Thank you so much Richard, helped me a lot!

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Re: Recommendations for Theme modification (Fordson)

by Gaurav Shinde - Friday, March 26, 2021, 1:22 PM

When I create a child theme, how do I change the core files of the parent theme through the child theme? Example:- My parent theme Fordson has a course_renderer.php file in the classes/output/core folder of Fordson which I have modified. However, it is always recommended to create a child theme and make any changes. So, how do I make those core changes or php changes through the child theme as CSS changes are easy to make through the child theme?

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Re: Recommendations for Theme modification (Fordson)

by Gareth J Barnard - Friday, March 26, 2021, 7:31 PM

The child theme course renderer should extend Fordson's course renderer which extends the core course renderer = OO principles. With the CSS, your CSS should come after Fordson's has been generated (look at the theme to see how it does this), then yours (if correctly done) will override Fordson's as required.

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Recommendations for Theme modification (Fordson)