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:
2435 sites
477 downloads
357 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

Comments

  • Reece Jones
    Fri, 2 June 2017, 8:01 AM
    Another nav question - forgive me if the answer is obvious, but I can't find my way to the advanced grading settings - to edit rubrics etc.
  • Gareth J Barnard
    Fri, 2 June 2017, 5:26 PM
  • michell mejia
    Tue, 6 June 2017, 10:35 PM
    Anybody can help me please... I Add ATTO more colors plugins and now i upload a new media (video) and dont run... only show a MEDIA SQUARE but i cant put play.
  • Aaron Metz
    Thu, 8 June 2017, 12:07 AM
    Hi Gareth,

    Similar to Reece I cannot see the "Gear" icon in the Nav Bar in order to Admin courses.

    I have the latest version installed 3.3 on a 3.3 server.

    Appreciate any pointers and thanks for maintaining.
  • Gareth J Barnard
    Thu, 8 June 2017, 1:30 AM
    Hi Aaron,

    Latest version?

    Kind regards,

    Gareth
  • David Duba
    Tue, 13 June 2017, 11:41 PM
    How can I download this theme if I have a macbook? Is there an installer for OS X software?
  • Gareth J Barnard
    Wed, 14 June 2017, 12:26 AM
  • Peter Müller
    Fri, 30 June 2017, 6:35 AM
    Hi Gareth,

    I remember there was an option for a 2-column-layout. I cant find it in 3.3.0.2 (Build: 2017040301). Is it gone?
  • Gareth J Barnard
    Sat, 1 July 2017, 1:47 AM
    Hi Peter,

    No. Just depends what page you're on.

    Gareth
  • i an
    Tue, 4 July 2017, 7:20 PM
    Anyone know how to turn this off? (- NEW: Display block region names when editing.) without hacking it out of the code?

    Have installed this theme for a couple of clients and both thought this was a bug which I spent time tracking down but it's actually a new "feature"?
  • Gareth J Barnard
    Wed, 5 July 2017, 12:27 AM
    Its a new 'feature' because people were getting lost as to what region was what. Please read the 'Support' section of the README.txt file for details of such.
  • Miguel Méndez Liébana
    Wed, 12 July 2017, 2:40 AM
    How can I change the default size of the content area in the personal area?I want it to be narrower
  • Gareth J Barnard
    Wed, 12 July 2017, 7:07 PM
    Dear Miguel,

    As stated in the README.txt file the theme comes with NO support. Please read the readme for further details. If the question is easy or pertains to a bug then I'll reply with more detail.

    Kind regards,

    Gareth
  • Dan Bell
    Fri, 28 July 2017, 8:00 PM
    Hello,
    Is there a way to increase the character limit on the course summary in the course overview block? It appears to truncate at approximately 300 characters.
    Thanks,
    Dan
  • Gareth J Barnard
    Fri, 28 July 2017, 10:52 PM
    Hi Dan,

    That's not actually a theme thing. I don't know the answer without spending time on it and I'm not sure how long it would take to find out. Time is money or you could find a suitable forum and ask.

    Kind regards,

    Gareth
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