Custom Theme Development in OpenCart
In this article we are going to concentrate on how we can build custom themes with open source carts. We are going to deal with every nuance of the development in detail. Let’s start with the basic introduction.
As a tutor, I here assume you to be a user of OpenCart and I believe that you must be having an OpenCart on your system. You can always find OpenCart documents of installation on Internet and you make its optimum use for personal benefits. Now that you have an OpenCart, you are ready to start with the development.
An OpenCart is developed with the immaculate use of MVC design patterns. These design patterns are known to allow the separation of the innocuous data from the exquisite presentation on the site. As a developer you need not to be scared while doing the separation. You can make use of requisite application logic along with the template code to do so or you can also use them together for the development of a new theme.
OpenCart is known for leveraging the developers with the exquisite structure for the development of themes. Files and the important documents placed on the backend of the theme automatically get stored in admin directory. Catalog directory is the address where the files dealing with the front end are placed. We will be concentrating more on catalog directory because our matter of concern is theme development.
Elements Overview: –
Controller: – It has the control of all the application logics, you will need to make optimum use of this element for developing a control oriented themes.
Language: – Language is going to play major role. You will need to make proper selection of languages if you are planning to develop multilingual site.
Model: – This is going to responsible for the export of data from one end of the theme to the other.
View: – This comes at the last; you will need to make sure that you provide the theme with an exquisite view.
Default Theme Structure
Images: –You will need to hire a professional photographer or you can simply download it from net but you will need to have some relatable images so that your site looks good and attractive.
Stylesheet: – All the codes that are going to come on d-hoc basis will be stored here.
Template: - As the name goes, all the important files related to the development of website will be found here. You will need to keep this more than safe. You will have to spend special amount of time for keeping it clean and safe.
You can always observe the surroundings to see an example; the most important directory in our computer is going to be the cleanest.
Templates happens to be one of the most important part of any theme development, you will need to work out with a designer to develop a template for your theme and you will also need to work with your client and collect all the details so that you can develop a theme that is being required by the client.