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Magento Ecommerce Theme: Understanding Components And Parts

Mar 12, 2014 1 min read 699 views
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Magento Ecommerce Theme: Understanding Components And Parts

We have described earlier how to change a template for Magento ®. Now we suggest learning the themes for Magento ® a bit deeper and investigating what the themes consist of and the general terms of a template and block layout.

Magento Ecommerce Theme Component Parts

The layout is a part of the theme which in its turn consists of:

  • Skins: These images and other documents define how a store in Magento ® will look;
  • Templates: This determines what will be in Magento ® store certain blocks;
  • Layouts: Magento ® determines what will be in the templates;
  • Languages: respectively, this parameter determines what language will be in your Magento ® store.

Change Layout of Magento ®

You should go to the admin panel and choose the CMS menu – > Manage Pages. Then find the page, to be more specific, its layout which you want to change. For instance, let’s take the “About Us” layout.

Let us assume that the layout displays three different blocks (columns) and if we change it, we will be able to change any page from the list or the layout. To do it you need to find the Custom Design item and after clicking on the button you will see a drop-down menu where you can change the configuration of any button. The next step is to save and check for updates. You need to go to the main page of Magento ® store and update this page, columns, and its content.

All the data about the columns are in different folders in Magento ®, because every column is fundamentally different from the other and you need to go to the path app/design/frontend/default/blank/layout/catalog.xml in order to check it.

Template Path

To find some template part quicker you can use special tips.

You can enable it in the administrator’s panel: System – Configuration and choose the appropriate Magento ® store that will be changed.

When the page is reloaded, you will see the Developer menu. You should find the Debug section there and select the work section. Please, save the changes. It will give you an opportunity to be transferred to Magento ® store parts. All the data for what this section is responsible for and what you can change will be displayed preliminarily. This will greatly facilitate orientation in the control panel.

Layouts Terminology

In Magento ® platform layout you can set up content blocks, which will be the main ones and where the structure blocks will be located. We are going to consider its components:

  1. Handles: This is the mean for determining a specific image in the Magento ® store;
  2. Blocks: this data determines the working principle of every element in Magento ®, its structure, and location;
  3. References: due to this block the remaining blocks can refer to other elements and other blocks are created with this block.

You can remake each of these templates as you want, but we advise you to select optimal parameters for the working proof copy of your store. So, you will be able to analyze the changes and protect your Magento ® site from damage.

If you have any additional questions connected with the blocks location and their role in Magento ®, you are welcome to contact our GoMage experts.

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