I don't understand why themes are made the way they are...

[o2G2o]

I have several sites running on Prestashop, but all are running the default theme. The reason for that is, as soon as I load a third party theme I'm completely lost. For one thing, I have no idea how to make categories appear in the top menu other than adding them one by one and spending hours deleting all the demo content. Most themes use their own menu module, which is fine, but if I have 20 categories and each one has 10 subs, I have to sit there all day constructing the menu. I feel like I have to be doing something terribly wrong.

 

Do any themes simply change the look of the site without creating 75 new modules? I wish I could switch back and forth from theme to theme without having to spend 30 hours fixing everything and trying to locate obscure settings buried 5 subs deep in menus I'm not familiar with. It's driving me insane, and the vast majority of instruction manuals I've seen for installing themes don't say anything about importing current data for categories and products, etc.

 

What do you guys usually do if you install a theme over an existing site?

 

Thanks for any guidance. I feel very stupid, like I'm missing some huge, obvious step.

 

Jeff

[modprestashop]

Like your long question i have long answer too, but i am lazy so i will try to answer in minimum words. Unlike Wordpress, menu is not part of PrestaShop. Almost all third party theme has its own topmenu structure and module. Yes, module is the best and worst thing of PrestaShop. Modular structure of PrestaShop give freedom to extend, modify and update PrestaShop and other hand it have some loss statements too. Like you mentioned when you change theme, it disable the modules for existing theme and enable modules for your new theme, apart from this enable/disable process each and every theme has its own template files for each module. Theme A and Theme B can have different template file for same module because in prestashop menu is not native part, it is just extended facility or simply piece of HTML code. While in Wordpress there is separate classes for menu generation and manipulation.

[o2G2o]

Thanks for the reply! So am I correct in assuming that the only way to have product categories in the main menu of the 3rd party theme is to add them one by one? Are there any themes you've seen out there which use the use the structure of the default bootstrap theme but with CSS changes, banner size changes, etc?

[modprestashop]

May be you are not clear what i said, menu is depends on module. If your Theme A has blocktopmenuX and now you want to install Theme B which have blocktopmenuY, then you can disabled blocktopmenuY and while changing theme don't disable blocktopmenuX. What i am trying to say is just change theme, don't change module.

[o2G2o]

Oh no I understood that, I've actually done that before but the look of the default menu didn't look good with the new theme (I may next try to edit CSS of a duplicate of the bootstrap theme to match the look of a third party template as a last resort).

What I mean is, is there a way in any of the third party "megamenus" to import the desired menu items from a list, as is possible with the default Horizontal Top Menu module? It seems odd that a module calling itself "mega" doesn't even have base functionality like picking possible menu items from a list of existing pages, categories, etc.

[modprestashop]

In this case i suggest you this megamenu module, which remain same over any PrestaShop theme, any.

https://www.kahanit.com/product/awe-menu-prestashop-top-mega-menu-module

[o2G2o]

Very good suggestion, thank you.

[PrestaHeroes USA]

upgrading native PS anyone can do.

 

but install/configure of theme is not for most shop managers.

 

1) don't use default theme

2) buy paid quality  theme,  like Leo Theme that  has  all tools already included,  mega menu is 'old' technology.....compared to leo mega menu..well belive me now thank me later.

 

if you can budget it,  have your fo theme installed/configured by pro....then you have turnkey shop with best 'above the fold' visitor experieince, then you can then manage your catalog.  You will 'never ever' scare competition  doing  it on your own.

 

happy day, el