wanting to develop my own TP theme..

[ladybronwyn]

i must not use the correct wording, as the search gave me little in way of what i am looking for..

I am wanting to develop my own TP theme, with my own graphics and layout.. but I dont know where to start.

Its easy to reskin the default SMF or TP theme. If I want to develop my own, where do I start? Im assuming in the index.template file. and each subsequent file would need to be updated as well, am I correct?

Any tips or hints or points to relevant posts Im missing?

[iwyen]

It's easier to work on TP theme than SMF so that you don't have to mod TP to your theme manually. But it'll be good to take a look at SMF theme so that you know what code in your theme belongs to which.

I started by drawing out on paper what I want then start working on the codes. You are right to say that you should start with index.template.php cos that is what that determines the overall structure. Once you're comfortable with that, you can go into smaller details which are in other template files.

But you don't really have to cos any "missing" file in your theme, SMF will read from the default theme, which is why you should never edit the default theme unless you are sure of what you are doing.

As for updating SMF and mods that you installed, you have to apply them to your theme if you have files that have been updated cos the packages will only look in default theme(s). For example, if the update updates display.template.php but you don't have this file in your theme (cos you are happy with how forum posts are displayed by default) then you don't have to update your theme. But if you do have a display.template.php, then you have to manually edit the codes.

Keep a record of what you modifed when skinning so that you know if any uodates are affecting your themes. If you want to be very sure, refresh your (test) site as an when you do a change, so that any parsing error can be detected easily. If you're not good with small details, make a big change to see the effect of the change. For example, add plenty of space
 to find out where the change actually is. Try to "switch on" most of the features so that you can see "everything", including what other users (they have different permission) actually see.

Lastly, have fun!!!

[ladybronwyn]

thanks