The Joomla Template documentation chapter of the Art of Joomla Developer Reference is now complete.  This is a unique and insightful online technical reference on the various options available to designers to customise Joomla's output.  Presented in a PHP-novice friendly way, the chapter looks at the inner workings of the Joomla template, the significance of the built-in System Template and the often forgotten Print View.  The chapter then looks at Joomla Template Parameters, Component and Module layout overrides, Module chrome and pagination customisation.  Finally, there is a detailed explanation about how to create your own error and offline pages.

This reference is excellent if you are just easing into Template design or customisation.  No prior knowledge of PHP is required.  The chapter is especially written for people with little to no experience in the PHP programming language.  It is also an excellent reference for experienced designers due to the thoroughness by which it covers the technical aspects of Joomla template construction.  Extension developers will also come away with an appreciation of the capabilities available to designers as well as ways they can customise their own extensions.

Terms & Conditions

Access to the Joomla Template documentation chapter via paid subscription at the very affordable price of AU$50 for 12 months of access.  Not only do you received advice from one of the master developers that actually contributed to the Joomla templating engine, but you also receive access to the whole Art of Joomla Developer Reference.  This is a growing resource that seeks to teach you not only how to develop all types of Joomla extensions, but also why things are done in the Joomla Way.  Anyone can show you how to copy and paste, but not every knows the theory behind why things are done as well as master Joomla developer Andrew Eddie.

Read the sample chapter about the Print View which is sorely neglected by many template developers.  For the full table of contents, see the Art of Joomla Developer Reference main page.

Please note that the Template documentation does not include details about artistic or graphic design such as what CSS styles to use.

The Template documentation chapter covers Joomla Version 1.5 templates only.  If you are converting Joomla 1.0 templates, then you will also be interested in perusing Converting Old Extensions which covers some of the syntax changes between version 1.0 and version 1.5 templates.  The Art of Joomla web site also covers many other topics that will be of interest to designers and developers alike.