Cutumizing a shop by modifying the codebase

[jjack]

Hi,

I'm currently taking over a project for an existing web shop built with prestashop. The previous webmaster/PHP dev customized the shop to answer the owner's need by modifying prestashop's PHP code base.

He basically randomly removed and added pieces of code everywhere in the code to get the result he wanted (without documenting any of it obviously). He also added a bunch of SQL tables to suit his needs. This seems to make the site almost impossible to upgrade (the thought of upgrading to prestashop 1.3 with all the modification he made is kinda scary at this point).

I'm wondering what's the standard way of customizing PrestaShop and how common it is to modify the PHP code outside of custom templates and modules.

Thanks,

[rocky]

The best way to customise is to copy module TPL files into the theme directory. For example, copy modules/blockuserinfo/blockuserinfo.tpl to themes/yourtheme/modules/blockuserinfo/blockuserinfo.tpl. That way, you don't have to worry about overwriting your changes to the modules when you upgrade. You should avoid modifying any PHP files if possible. If you must, document every change you make so that you can easily re-make the changes when you upgrade.