How to properly create a new theme

[duimstra]

Hi!

I designed my own theme for Prestashop. The design is based on the default theme with minor changes.

The problem now is merging the new look with the old. FOOTER section is a perfect example of what's bothering me:
a) The original footer only lists a couple of inline links;
My new footer contains a whole bunch of SEO links to different product categories.

Now my problem - do I change the footer in
a) /themes/themename/footer.tpl or in
/modules/blockvariouslinks/blockvariouslinks.tpl?

Will I break anything if I modify files in /modules/... ?
I'd like to create a theme that will not break if I update Prestashop.

[Steppo]

Hi!

I designed my own theme for Prestashop. The design is based on the default theme with minor changes.

The problem now is merging the new look with the old. FOOTER section is a perfect example of what's bothering me:
a) The original footer only lists a couple of inline links;
My new footer contains a whole bunch of SEO links to different product categories.

Now my problem - do I change the footer in
a) /themes/themename/footer.tpl or in
/modules/blockvariouslinks/blockvariouslinks.tpl?

Will I break anything if I modify files in /modules/... ?
I'd like to create a theme that will not break if I update Prestashop.

The best way to develop a template is to only edit the template files in your themes folder. These you can transfer when you do an update of prestashop. Although if you do some changes in php you can keep track of what is done and move them also.

quiz a: Sometimes you edit the footer.tpl, I have done that to exclude the right cloumn in some pages.
b: Yes the footer links are edited there.

The good thing with prestashop as i see it, is that it sniffs the, if created, modules folder in your themes folder. There you can keep you edited modules template.(tpl) files - prestashop reads those first if they are there - if they are not it uses hte on in the original module folder.

I have recently moved all my changes in a 1.2.5 template files to the latest version of Presta - it is possible but nice when done. I use textwrangler on mac to see what is changed.

I am not a pro but there are a lot of skilled ppl here in the forum:) Ill hope you get something out of this.

//stefan

Cheers

[duimstra]

Thanks for the reply Steppo!

So, if I understand correctly, I could have a module for my own template like this:

/themes/themename/modules/blockvariouslinks/blockvariouslinks.tpl

and just edit the module right there?

EDIT: I just tested this real quick and it works. Thanks!

[Steppo]

yep exactly. Just make a copy of the original tpl.file and edit it for a test - then youll be sure!

Stefan