PrestaShop is one of the most popular platforms for creating online stores, and one of its key features is the flexibility in customizing the appearance through themes. In this article, we will explore the concept of child themes in PrestaShop, their advantages, and the process of creating your own child theme.
What are Child Themes?
A child theme in PrestaShop is a theme that inherits the functionality and design of a main (parent) theme but can be modified and extended without directly altering the files of the parent theme. This ensures convenience during updates and prevents the loss of custom settings when the parent theme is updated.
Advantages of Using Child Themes
- Safety during updates: Since changes are made in the child theme, updates to the parent theme do not affect custom settings and modifications.
- Ease of management: All changes are stored in one place, making them easier to manage and find.
- Flexibility in customization: Only the necessary files and parts can be modified, leaving the rest of the parent theme unchanged.
How to Create a Child Theme
Creating a child theme in PrestaShop is a process that can be broken down into several steps. Let's go through them in detail.
Step 1: Creating the Folder Structure
First, you need to create a folder for your child theme. In the themes directory of your PrestaShop, create a new folder with the name of your child theme, for example, my-child-theme.
Step 2: Creating the config/theme.yml File
Inside the my-child-theme folder, create a config/theme.yml file, which will contain the main configuration of your theme. Example content of the file:
display_name: 'My Child Theme'
author:
name: 'Your Name'
email: 'your-email@example.com'
url: 'https://yourwebsite.com'
parent: classic
version: 1.0.0
Here, parent indicates the parent theme, in this case, classic.
Step 3: Creating Necessary Files
Create the minimal set of files and folders needed for your child theme to function. For example, create a preview.png file for the theme preview and an empty assets folder for styles and scripts.
Step 4: Inheriting and Overriding Templates
You can now override templates from the parent theme. For instance, to change the header.tpl file, create the folder structure templates/_partials inside my-child-theme and place your modified header.tpl there.
Step 5: Adding Styles and Scripts
You can add your styles and scripts by creating files in the assets/css and assets/js folders and linking them in the config/theme.yml file.
Example of adding styles and scripts:
assets:
css:
all:
- id: theme-style
path: assets/css/custom.css
js: all:
- id: theme-script
path: assets/js/custom.js
Step 6: Activating the Child Theme
Once all necessary files are created and configured, activate the child theme through the PrestaShop admin panel. Go to the “Design” -> “Theme & Logo” section, select your child theme, and activate it.
Conclusion
Using child themes in PrestaShop is a powerful tool for customizing your online store. It allows you to keep changes isolated from parent theme updates, simplifying the process of maintaining and updating your store. By following the steps outlined above, you can create your own child theme and configure it according to your needs.
For more detailed information and additional features, we recommend referring to the official PrestaShop documentation.
We hope this article has helped you understand the basics of creating and using child themes in PrestaShop. Good luck with your development!
