Date of publication: 01/09/2016
Greetings, dear readers of the site! 🙂
With this article we continue the series of publications dedicated to self-creation.
As general information Let me just remind you that this product is one of the top 10 free engines for creating online stores and is one of best solutions For quick start small resources, without requiring any special skills and knowledge from the creators.
So, in my previous article, I helped you overcome the first stage of installing the engine. As a result, you already have ready-made online store, which remains to be configured so that the resource is more complete and attractive to customers.
And the first step on this path that we will overcome is installing an OpenCart template.
There are a huge variety of templates today – both paid and free. In this situation, as usual, there are pros and cons :) On the one hand, there is plenty to choose from, but on the other, your eyes run wild.
Adding to the difficulty of choosing is the fact that it is advisable to choose one template (aka “theme”), because Due to the installation specifics of the OpenCart template, it will be problematic to remove it from the store later. And when installing many themes, they can lead to errors appearing in the store window and conflicts in its operation.
How not to get confused in this variety and choose the one that really suits you?
To answer this question, I decided to compile a small list of criteria that will help you in your choice.
And in the second part of the publication we will talk about how to install the OpenCart template and activate it.
Choosing a resource for installing an OpenCart template - 5 options
Before considering the criteria for choosing a template for OpenCart, I want to say a few words about how to correctly select the resource from which you intend to download.
The choice of a resource for downloading must be approached no less responsibly than when choosing the template itself, because On some of them you can download files infected with a virus, or fragments may be introduced into the product code that allow their developers to hack or damage your resource.
These situations when installing OpenCart themes, modules and other extensions, unfortunately, are not uncommon and are especially common in the case of free products.
Therefore, be sure to search the Internet with an antivirus turned on, which will help you weed out potentially dangerous resources. When downloading files, pay attention to the size and extension.
If the size is suspiciously small (several bytes) or has a non-standard extension, then it is better to refuse such a file and look for something similar elsewhere. The modules themselves, in most cases, are packaged in rar or zip archives, so everything else - .exe, .xyz, .whatever - is potential virus software that must be removed immediately.
Well, it wouldn’t hurt to scan the downloaded files with an antivirus either.
However, even these measures will not help protect against malicious files 100%. Sometimes accidental or intentional errors in the code of the modules themselves can cause very serious consequences, including loss of information and control over the resource. The antivirus does not recognize this kind of danger.
However, you can also protect yourself from this by downloading OpenCart templates from resources where files undergo manual moderation. At the same time, add-ons can even be free :)
These resources have been personally verified by me, because... I have actively used and continue to use them, downloading and uploading my developments to them, so you can safely use them :)
This article shows the installation of a template on Joomla 3 step by step and with explanatory illustrations.
Installing a template on Joomla 3- this is probably the simplest thing you have to do when creating a website on CMS Joomla, well, maybe except for the CMS installation itself. But despite this, many beginner and prudent website builders still prefer to look for instructions on the Internet before performing such steps.
STEP 1.
This step assumes that you are already logged into the control panel of your site and are on its main page.
Now let's go to the "Extension Manager" section, since templates, like components, plugins and modules, are all considered extensions. (Fig. 1)
STEP 2.
In the third version of Joomla, there are three ways to install templates, which can be useful in one case or another.
The first of them is installing a template from a ZIP archive by downloading the archive file from the local computer (the "Download package file" tab), followed by its automatic unpacking directly on the server and installation. (Fig. 2)
The second way to install the template is to install it using a link from remote server("Install from URL" tab). You may need to store your extensions in the cloud. In this case, simply provide a link to required file archive and click "Install". (Fig. 3)
The third way to install a template is to install it from the TMP folder, which is located in the root of your site (the "Install from directory" tab). For this type of installation, you need to first unpack your template files and upload them via FTP to this folder, having first removed all garbage from it (absolutely everything that could remain from previous installations).
This method may be needed if the first two did not work for some technical reason.
STEP 3.
Let's look at installing the template using an example method No. 1. Click on the "Select file" button and select local computer archive of the template we are going to install.
Next, click the “Download and Install” button and watch the installation process. (Fig. 5)
If everything went well, the result will be a message, the contents of which are shown in Figure 6.
STEP 4.
The next step is to enable the installed template. To do this, go to the template manager. (Fig. 7)
On the template manager page, find the template that we installed by name, and click on the asterisk next to its name. (Fig. 8)
When the template is used in the system as the default template, we will receive the following message: “The style has been assigned as the default” (Fig. 9)
Why style? If you noticed, when we go to the “Template Manager” page, we initially end up on the “Styles” tab, this can be seen on the left side of the page. But there is also a “Templates” tab.
On the "Templates" tab we can:
- view the list of installed templates
- view thumbnail images of templates
- see what your website will look like with the selected templates, without including it
- edit template files
- create overrides for modules and components in these templates folders
but this is a topic for a separate article and is not directly related to the installation of the template.
On the Styles tab we can:
- set the template style to be used by default (Fig. 8)
- duplicate and change template styles according to our desires (Fig. 9)
- bind template styles to the desired menu items, etc. (Fig. 11)
You can duplicate the styles of existing templates and add your own CSS styles for each copy. This may be necessary if, for example, the main page of your site is slightly different from the internal pages. (Fig. 10)
You can get to this page by clicking on the “Template Manager” page (Fig. 9) on the name of the desired style and selecting the “Custom CSS” tab
The figure below shows the tab for linking a template style to specific menu items. Menu Link Tab
just by clicking on in the right place on the page
If you have any questions, write them in the comments to the article, I will try to answer if possible.
author:Before moving on to the installation process, you need to find a suitable design. I would recommend using templates only from trusted sources, such as the official store from uCoz or on sites that specialize in this area.
In this case, you can be sure of the quality of the template and its performance. Of course, you can google or use various Varezniks - but very often they come across rips, non-working designs, or even worse, files with viruses. Therefore, approach the issue of choosing a source with all seriousness, since not only the success of the operation, but also the security of your site depends on it. For the purposes of this article I will be installing free template DesktopChaos from uTemplate.pro.
Uploading a template file
So, download the archive with the template:
Inside the archive there are several subfolders:
- folder with images (images, img);
- folder with scripts (js);
- folder with styles (css);
- folders with codes for Global blocks, Informers, etc.
Also in the archive, as a rule, there are:
- instructions.txt (ReadMe.txt) - I strongly recommend that you read it;
- template designer.txt (tmpl.txt) - general framework code;
- stylesheet.txt (css.txt, style.txt) - file with a set of styles;
- type of materials.txt - contains the code of the type of materials;
- etc. text files with the codes needed for complete installation template.
Note: The contents of your archive may differ from my template (this depends on the type, structure, complexity of the template and other factors).
Making a backup copy of the current template
Before you start installing a new template, I recommend making a backup of the current template (just in case)
To do this, go to the "Control Panel" of your site - "Design" - " Backup templates":
Click the “Create” button in the upper right corner backup copy", after which you will see a backup archive appear with your current template like "1372338464.zip" with the creation date in brackets:
And, one more thing: before installing a new template I recommend activating all the necessary modules: those you are in at the moment want to use and those that you might want to use in the future. This is done so that your new template installed correctly and was displayed in all modules.
Step-by-step instructions for installing the template on uCoz:
Installation of the template is done according to the instructions that are inside your archive with the template. As I already said in this article I will show the installation of the template DesktopChaos.
Step-1.
Upload the folder with images images to your server. This can be done in two ways.
First way - via an FTP client, for example FileZilla. Download and install the program: http://filezilla.ru/get/.
After that, on the main page of the Control Panel, click and set a new password:
After that, open the FileZilla ftp manager, enter Host, Username and Password at the very top, click “Quick connection”:
On the left side of the manager, find the folder with pictures of your template, click on it right click mouse, in the menu that appears, click “Upload to server”. Ready. Now the pictures are on our server.
This method is convenient to use if you need to upload a lot of images or other files.
Second way - upload images via File manager . Let's go to home page PU and click on “File Manager”:
In the upper right corner, click Create folder, enter the name images and press Enter:
Let's go to this folder. To upload pictures to it, click “Select file”, select a picture and click Upload file. The green plus sign can be used to add fields for multiple files.
Thus, we upload all the pictures from the images folder to the server.
Step-2.
Set (if necessary) the tag value . Go to "CP (Control Panel)" - "Settings" - " General settings" and paste the code into the appropriate field:
Step-3.
Install the Style Sheet. To do this, find the file "Style Sheet.txt" in the archive, open and copy all the code from it (Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C) and paste it instead of the old code into "PU" - "Design" - "Design Management (CSS )" - "Style sheet (CSS)":
Step-4.
Install the code from the "Template Builder" file. Open the file from the archive "Template Designer.txt", copy all the contents and paste it into "PU" - "Design" - "Template Designer", click the "Create Templates" button:
Step-5.
Now, in a similar way transfer the contents of the file "Type of materials.txt" in the form of module materials: “Site News”, “Blog”, “File Catalog”, “Article Catalog”. Go to "PU" - "Design" - "Design Management (templates)":
The code from the file “Type of comments.txt” is similarly copied into “Comments” - “Type of comments”.
Step-6.
We create a Global block. Go to "PU" - "Design" - "Design management (templates)" - "Global blocks":
In the upper right corner, click “Add block”, in the field that appears, write the name of the INFO block and click “Add”:
Find the “Global blocks” folder in the archive and open the “INFO.txt” file, copy the contents of the file and paste it into the newly created global INFO block, save:
Step-7.
Set the required values:
- Informer name: Latest news;
- Section: Site News (either “Blog”, or “File Directory”, or “Article Directory”);
- Data Type: Materials;
- Sorting method: Date of addition of material D;
- Number of materials: 5;
- Number of columns: 1.
Click "Create".
After this, a block with the informer we created appears just below, on the right in it we see icons, select the first of them “Informer Design Management” and in the window that appears, paste the contents of the “Latest News” file from the “Informers” folder, save:
Code for this informer $MYINF_1$ insert it into the global block we created earlier INFO.
An informer for a forum is created in a similar way.
This completes the installation of the DesktopChaos template.
By the way, if you still haven’t figured out how to install a new template on your website, then you can order a template installation service in the official uTemplate.pro store.
After installing the Joomla management system on local or virtual server, we are faced with the question: how to install the template and where to download it? In this lesson we will look at how to install a template in Joomla and what methods of installing templates exist. Selecting and installing a template is an important step that should be given special attention. I will also give examples and solutions to problems that may arise during the installation of the template.
- go to view
For instructions on installing a template in Joomla version 3, see the link above!
There are two ways to install a template in Joomla: using the standard Joomla installations install/uninstall manually by copying template files to the templates folder.
Method one. We install the template in Joomla using the standard installer.
First, download the template we want to install. After the archive with the template has been downloaded, you need to make sure that the downloaded archive contains exactly the template, and not the archive with templates, or, as very often happens, the archive contains several more archives. The Joomla Template archive must have a zip extension, and the archive must contain the following files:
- templateDetails.xml - used to install the template in the administrative interface;
- index.php - contains the entire structure (code) of the template.
- params.ini - required by Joomla to save your settings
Also make sure that the archive contains the following folders:
- css - contains style sheets
- images - this folder contains images used in the template
- js - JavaScript script files (jquery.js, mootools.js, scripts.js)
In the example, not all files and folders are in the Joomla template. The number of files and folders depends on the template itself, I have only listed those that are generally found in all joomla templates and without which the template will not work.
For example, if you downloaded a template, and the archive contains several more archives, then based on these signs you can easily determine which archive is the template and install it.
It should be noted that when choosing a template, you need to pay attention to its release date and how consistent it is with the version of Joomla you are working with.
For example, some of the templates from an earlier release no longer work in Joomla 1.5 or display incorrectly.
Note: The archive with the template for installation via the standard installer, install/uninstall, must have the extension .zip or .tar.gz
In the administrative panel, select "Extensions" - "install/uninstall" Next, select the archive with your template on your computer and click the " Upload File & Install". If the template matches your version of Joomla, after a few seconds the template is downloaded and installed, you will see a message that the template was installed successfully.
After the template is installed, select "Extensions" - "Template Manager". In the Template Manager you will see all installed templates and the template you just installed. (By default, two standard templates are already installed in Joomla: rhuk_milkyway and JA_Purity) Select the desired template by checking the radio button next to the template and click the "Default" button.
The second way to install a template in Joomla
This method can be used when you need to install a large number of templates or there are simply cases when a template is not installed in a standard way install/uninstall.
To install the template using this method, you need to unpack the archive with the template into a folder (the folder name can be anything, the main thing is in English letters). Next, launch the FTP client and open the /templates folder on the site for which we are installing the template and upload our template folder into it.
If your site is on local server, then you just need to copy our folder to the /templates/ folder. If you want to change the name of the template, then in the template folder you need to find the templateDetails.xml file, open it with notepad or any text editor and find the line with the tag
As I already said, by default, Joomla already has two, sometimes three standard templates installed: rhuk_milkyway and JA_Purity, which you can safely use when creating your project.
Today, the choice of templates for a website is very large, and developers even divide them by topic: templates for business websites, for entertainment portals, holidays, real estate, music, social media, cinema, video, sports, tourism and many others.
It is worth noting that some of the templates are commercially created and you must pay the developer before using them, otherwise it will be considered copyright infringement. Therefore, before installing this or that template on your site, check the author, they are now huge amount, and under what conditions it makes the template available for use.
If a large number of templates have been downloaded and you don’t remember the name the desired template, then when you hover over the link with the name of each of the lists, you can view its thumbnail.
When choosing a template, you also need to pay attention to its structure, blocks and positions that it includes. After all, before creating a website, you probably already planned what and where it will be located on it: will there be a header (usually this is a picture placed on top, it is also called a site header), a logo, a top or vertical menu, the number of blocks on the page and etc.
In order to check the positions in a particular template, you can type in address bar browser http://your website/?tp=1 and all possible positions of the template and their names will appear in front of you.
Hi all!!! In today's article we will look at installing a template on the Joomla 3 engine. We will also talk about the most common mistake that beginners make when installing a template on Joomla 3.
After installing joomla 3 in Denver , the work on creating the site is just beginning. And one of the first steps is to install a template. I would like to say honestly that there is nothing complicated about the installation. But finding a template that is suitable in design and functionality can take more than one day. Before you start searching, you need to learn how to install a template. To immediately check it in operation.
Installing a joomla 3 template. The downloaded template is in most cases archived. And it looks like this. Frequent The mistake of beginners is that they immediately try to install this template. Naturally, nothing comes of it :(The whole point is that there are several more archives in this archive. And first you need to unzip it into a separate folder.
Now we see these four archives, there may be more or less of them. It all depends on what the developer provides with the template.
The first two archives contain a template with demo data for joomla 2.5 and 3.1. Ask how I found out, everything is simple from the name: "yoo_square_demo_package_j25" where " demo_package" means demo package, and " j25" means for version joomla 2.5. But the third and fourth archives are clean templates. For joomla version 3, the latter with "j31" at the end is required. Also pay attention to the weight of the archive, the first two weigh about fifteen megabytes, since the entire site is packed in it. And the third and fourth are only one megabyte each, which means that they are clean.
So, we have the necessary archive with the template, I have highlighted it in a green frame. Now let's go to the admin panel.
1. Extensions > Extension Manager: 
2. Next, click “select file” and find an archive on your computer with the required template.
3. After you have selected the archive with the template, you must click “download and install”. 
If everything was done correctly, a message should appear: Template installation completed successfully.
4. After installation, the template must be activated. That is, make it the default template. To do this, in the admin panel, go to: Extensions > Template Manager. 
5. Here you will see the template you installed. To make it default, just click on an asterisk opposite it.
Now you can open your website and see what your new template looks like!
As you can see, there is nothing complicated about installing a template on Joomla 3. It's time to end the article here. Read also: editing a joomla 3 template. I wish you all a good mood and success in creating your website.
