Setting Up the Theme's Directory Structure

Your theme’s directory structure should reflect the one below when it is complete:

  • lunar-resort-theme/
    • docroot/
      • _diffs/ (subfolders not created by default)
        • css/
        • images/
        • templates/
      • css/ - aui - (many directories) - _aui_custom.scss - _aui_variables.scss - _liferay_custom.scss
        • application.css
        • aui.css
        • base.css
        • custom.css
        • dockbar.css
        • extras.css
        • layout.css
        • main.css
        • navigation.css
        • portlet.css
      • images/
        • (many directories)
      • js/
        • main.js
      • templates/
        • init_custom.ftl
        • navigation.ftl
        • portal_normal.ftl
        • portal_pop_up.ftl
        • portlet.ftl
      • WEB-INF/ - liferay-look-and-feel.xml
        • liferay-plugin-package.properties

Themes are based on differences from the themes they are based on. When you created the project, you selected the _styled theme. A copy of this theme’s code, therefore, exists in most of these folders. This ensures that you have default styling for all elements of the page. As you write your theme, you’ll define only the differences between what you want and what the underlying theme already provides.

Your edits should be made to the files in the _diffs directory, which then transfer to the files in the parent directory. For this reason, the directory in the _diffs folder must mirror the parent directory. If the structures do not match, the changes you make will not be applied. To keep the base files unaltered, you should only add the files you want to edit to the _diffs directory.

As a best practice, all of your CSS styling should go in a custom.css file in the _diffs/css/ directory. Because it is loaded last, all the styles placed in custom.css override styles in the parent base theme. By keeping all your styles in one file, maintenance becomes an easier process.

Now that you’re familiar with the theme structure and development workflow, you can begin working on your theme.

  1. Right-click the _diffs folder in the Package Explorer and select NewFolder.

  2. With the _diffs folder selected, enter css for the Folder name and click Finish.

  3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 to create the remaining images, and templates directories.

  4. Copy the custom.css file from the docroot/css/ directory to your _diffs/css directory. All the changes you make to the custom.css file in your _diffs directory get applied to the mirrored file.

  5. Copy the _aui_variables.scss to the diffs/css directory.

  6. Copy init_custom.ftl, navigation.ftl, and portal_normal.ftl from the docroot/templates directory to the diffs/templates directory.

You now have the starting point for your theme. There are a few additional housekeeping items to take care of before you move on to the next section.

  1. Open _aui_variables.scss and add the following variables to the top:

    $bkColor: #FFF;
    $themeMainColor: #DF5946;
    
  2. Copy the lunar-resort-logo.png from the /images directory of the code folder into the _diffs/images directory of the theme.

  3. Finally, install the guestbook-portlet.war file developed in the MVC Learning Path by copying it into your Liferay bundle’s /deploy directory. You can download this WAR file from this directory in GitHub.

If you haven’t gone through the MVC Learning Path, you should check it out if you are interested in developing applications for Liferay.

Now that the housekeeping is finished, you can examine the HTML for portal_normal.ftl next.

« Creating a Theme ProjectThe HTML Structure of portal_normal.ftl »
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