Essential

Themes ::: theme_essential
Maintained by Gareth J BarnardGareth J Barnard
Essential is a clean and customizable theme. Essential is tested and tried by thousands of users, and ranks number one by site usage for all available third party themes.
Latest release:
2485 sites
456 downloads
358 fans
Current versions available: 12

This plugin is up for adoption, please see 'Plugins adoption programme'.

The "Essential" Moodle Theme
=========================

Please note: Essential has reached 'End of life' at Moodle 3.6 - last version for.  Please read moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=385903.

Do not attempt to install the theme beyond Moodle 3.6, you will break your site!

With 2.5 now released Julian thought it time to take the opportunity to build a new theme that would push the new theme engine to it's limits a bit.  With that in mind he introduced the new "Essential" theme.  Now Julian has left us for Canvassian adventures, David and Gareth took over development and maintenance.  And now David has left for pastures new, Gareth continues to maintain and make improvements.

The idea of this theme is to make the site look as little like Moodle as possible. In this specific instance, it would be used on sites where Moodle would potentially serve as a company homepage rather than just a course list.

Cool things to know about the theme.

  • It attempts to load as many as possible icons from a font.
  • Most of what you think are "graphics" are actually the Font Awesome font (fontawesome.io).
  • The slider on the front page is completely customisable through theme settings.
  • I am really trying to push what Bootstrap (twitter.github.io/bootstrap/) Grids can do.  As such the theme is fully responsive.
  • The footer is all custom Moodle regions.  This means blocks can be added.
  • The theme can use Google web fonts (fonts.google.com) to give it that extra bit of shazam!
  • Social network icons appear at the top of the page dynamically based on theme settings.
  • The entire colour scheme can be modified with theme settings.

Support:

The theme comes with NO support.  Please see the 'Support' section in 'README.md' file that comes with the theme.  This is because the theme is complex and I regret that I don't have the time / resources to freely assist with questions pertaining to specific enhancements / changes / knowledge improvement.

I will investigate genuine bugs and issue fixes in a timescale set by myself.  I will only explain / report my findings at my own discretion.  You MUST state the Essential and Moodle versions as I'll only ask for them and that delays time - in software bug fixing there is no 'latest' version as your 'latest' could be different to my 'latest', so please don't use that word or similar like 'current'.

Reporting issues:

Please read the 'Reporting issues' section in 'README.md' file that comes with the theme before posting / contacting me.  If there is any missing information then I'll only ask for it which will delay you getting a solution to your problem.

Video Promo:


Properties:


In versions 2.9.1.22, 3.0.1.15, 3.1.1.7 and above.


Versions:

Please note that previously the version for Moodle 2.6 was 2.7.x as well, but since these versions are now separated we also lowered the displayed version number.
 

Moodle Version

Essential Version

Status

2.5 2.5.8 Last release for M2.5
2.6 2.6.11 Last release for M2.6
2.7 2.7.9.5.3 Last release for M2.7
2.8 2.8.1.11 Last release for M2.8
2.9 2.9.1.24
Last release for M2.9
3.0 3.0.1.17 Last release for M3.0
3.1 3.1.1.12 Last release for M3.1
3.2 3.2.1.5 Last release for M3.2
3.3 3.3.1.5 Last release for M3.3
3.4 3.4.1.5 Last release for M3.4
3.5 3.5.1.5 Last release for M3.5
3.6 3.6.1.0 Last release for M3.6
3.7+ End of life Please see: moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=385903
 

Potential privacy issues

Google CDN fonts can be set to be used.

Screenshots

Screenshot #0
Screenshot #1

Contributors

Gareth J Barnard
Gareth J Barnard (Lead maintainer)
Julian Ridden
Julian Ridden: Original author
David
David Bezemer: Contributor
Please login to view contributors details and/or to contact them

Comments RSS

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  • Gareth J Barnard
    Wed, 30 Jan 2019, 12:26 AM
    Dear Step ByStep,

    I'm sorry about the situation, but the theme works and I suspect you've done something wrong. Did you try on a test server first? However, the Essential theme comes with NO SUPPORT. Please see the Readme file for details.

    Kind regards,

    Gareth
  • Gareth J Barnard
    Thu, 31 Jan 2019, 9:06 PM
    Dear Akash,

    The Essential theme comes with NO SUPPORT. Please see the Readme file for details.

    Gareth
  • Valesa Clouse
    Fri, 29 Mar 2019, 12:00 AM
    Hello Gareth,
    Do you plan to update the theme to work with the new Moodle 3.7 update to newer bootstrap?
  • Gareth J Barnard
    Fri, 29 Mar 2019, 12:04 AM
    Dear Valesa,

    I'll be making an announcement about this in the future.

    Gareth
  • Jimmy Tellez Sandoval
    Tue, 21 May 2019, 10:01 PM
    I'm using Essential Release 3.1.1.12 (Build: 2016061721) with Moodle 3.1.4 (Build: 20170109). I have a logo image that is 587px wide by 63px high. The logo setting in Essential is 587px x 63px. The problem is that the logo image is not responsive. When a mobile device is used the logo container seems to resize, but the image does not. Also no resizing takes place when I change my browser size here is the link: capacitaciones.sinartdigital . com
  • Gareth J Barnard
    Tue, 21 May 2019, 11:21 PM
    Dear Jimmy,

    I can no longer run Moodle 3.1 as I've upgraded my Moodle's and as a consequence had to update the underlying PHP version which is not supported. Therefore I'm not in a position to easily help you, sorry.

    You could always ask on the theme's forum if others are still running Essential on M3.1 and they can help.

    Kind regards,

    Gareth
  • A Guy
    Tue, 13 Aug 2019, 7:03 AM
    We have had Essential for a while. But we just upgraded the site to Moodle 3.7. I upgraded Essential to the latest that you have (3.6). But the upgrade terminates without completing as Moodle says it cannot find the dependency--theme_bootstrapbase--which is true given Moodle 3.7 does not include bootstrapbase. I cannot find it in the plugins directory. I tried using a version of theme_bootstrapbase from last Fall but it still didn't work. Moodle/Essential wants "theme_bootstrapbase (2018120300)". So what does one do? Just not use Essential beyond 3.6? Thanks
  • A Guy
    Tue, 13 Aug 2019, 7:05 AM
    We have had Essential for a while. But we just upgraded the site to Moodle 3.7. I upgraded Essential to the latest that you have (3.6). But the upgrade terminates without completing as Moodle says it cannot find the dependency--theme_bootstrapbase--which is true given Moodle 3.7 does not include bootstrapbase. I cannot find it in the Plugins directory. I tried using a version of theme_bootstrapbase from last Fall but it still didn't work. Moodle/Essential wants "theme_bootstrapbase (2018120300)". So what does one do? Just not use Essential beyond 3.6? Thanks
  • Gareth J Barnard
    Tue, 13 Aug 2019, 4:29 PM
    Hi A Guy,

    In essence, yes. Osvaldo has made it work by updating Bootstrapbase from M3.6. So for more information about that and why I've discontinued the theme, please see: https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=385903.

    Gareth
  • Luis Manuel Espinoza Estrada
    Fri, 6 Mar 2020, 5:51 AM
    Hello,

    I have a problem:

    Essential 2017102907 2018121704 Moodle 2018120301 additional
    / theme / essential theme_bootstrapbase (2018120300) Missing Not available to be updated

    I try to install a new version of essential, but it does not leave me because it says that this theme_bootstrapbase add-on is needed (2018120300)

    In advance thanks for the help.
  • Gareth J Barnard
    Fri, 6 Mar 2020, 6:49 AM
    That's because either you've removed Bootstrap base from the themes folder or you have a broken installation because you did not extract all of the files. The theme is a standard core theme in Moodle 3.6.8+ (Build: 20200124) - 2018120308.01. Get it from here: https://github.com/moodle/moodle/tree/MOODLE_36_STABLE/theme/bootstrapbase if you need to.
  • Gareth J Barnard
    Wed, 21 Oct 2020, 6:25 PM
    Dear Mohammad,

    Essential has now reached 'End of life' and I no longer support the theme unless remunerated for my time.

    Kind regards,

    Gareth
  • Mohammad Yaseen
    Mon, 26 Oct 2020, 8:53 PM
    Thank you, Gareth.
  • Wazza
    Sat, 31 Jul 2021, 10:58 PM
    I know there's no more support for this, but I hope someone can answer this last question... I have upgraded Moodle to latest version and switched themes. Is there any way that I can retrieve the information from Essential theme, like marketing spots and slider? I hoped it would be still in the database. Can't find it there. Is it really gone now?
  • Gareth J Barnard
    Sat, 31 Jul 2021, 11:30 PM
    If the theme is still installed then the settings are stored in the 'config_plugins' table (bar the files, which are referenced by the setting value in said table).
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