Frustration with Themes

[benwiggy]

I've been trying to create a custom theme for my shop, but I'm getting exceedingly frustrated. Can anyone check that my understanding is correct?

• The files for a theme are stored in the "themes" folder, but actually, you also need to modify stuff in the modules folder as well, possibly over-writing settings that work well for other themes. And if you update Prestashop, the modules will also get over-written.
  
• Themes don't transfer between versions of Prestashop, so after you've spent ages tweaking hundreds of little css, tpl and php files, you've got to do it all again when there's an upgrade.
  
• You either start from scratch, trying to work out which of the hundreds of little files you need, and then what to put in them; or you adapt an existing free layout; or you buy one, for a couple of hundred dollars.
  

Is there another way? Some kind of "theme builder"? I just want a list of categories and a list of items, no pictures, and a shopping cart. All the free themes are geared towards displays with lavish photos.

I'm quite happy to pay someone a small bit of money to create one, but I can see why people are charging hundreds of dollars, if it takes as long as I've spent fiddling around with all the various files, trying to work out which one may be responsible for the grey boxes around everything.

Some of the free themes I've tried don't load, due to the lack of a config.xml file.

 

I'm hoping someone can prove me wrong. ;-)

Edited December 21, 2012 by benwiggy (see edit history)

[Dh42]

Right, the theme files are in the theme directory. As for the modules the template files are stored in the modules directory inside each module. But because of the way Prestashop is designed you can override these files by creating a modules directory inside your theme. Then say you change the cart block, since you have the template file inside your theme, it won't effect your cart block if you run another theme. you can start from scratch with your theme, but because of all of the smarty logic and the vast number of selectors it is easier to just modify the default theme.

 

It takes quite a while to make a custom theme, but it is worth it in the end. What my clients tend to do is make mock ups in photoshop and then I cut them into the theme files.

[benwiggy]

Do I need to install Smarty to make templates easily, or is Smarty something that Prestashop uses itself?

[benwiggy]

4 days, and I still can't get rid of the bloody iPhone demo photos on the Home page. Arrgh.

 

Does anyone make templates for cash? I've wasted enough time on this.

[Dh42]

Smarty is installed with Prestashop. If you want to send me a pm with what you are looking for I can give you a quote on a template.