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Pre Commo Theme version

This page documents the usage with the Common Theme, the pre-Common-Theme documentation is here: Visual Themes - How to

Deprecated, use AsciiDoc in source

The documentation below is deprecated since R17.12 branch. It's better to refer to themes/README.adoc in source


The documentation bloc below is the HTML import of the conversion of README.MD into HTML by Pandoc using this command line locally in root folder.

pandoc themes/README.md -s -o tools/wiki-files/themes/README.md.html




Apache OFBiz Themes

What is a theme

A Theme is an ofbiz component that defines all elements necessary to render all information generated by the screen engine through an embedded technology. Currently themes presents in Apache OFBiz use html5/jquery/css to do that.

To realize that, a theme can define some properties, among them some can be necessary. It can define its own ftl macro to render the different modelScreen elements and can define its own screen decorator to prepare the final user screen structure for the technology used by the theme.

How to define it

A theme is a standard component, present in the directory themes or plugins with a file definition present on widget/Theme.xml and support the widget-theme.xsd

To offer the possibility for end users to select the theme through the “Select Theme Screen”, the theme need to load the entity VisualTheme and one or more entries related to this theme.

Structure of Theme.xml

The theme definition file help OFBiz to know what specific rendering the Theme want to use. It’s composed by two definition elements and four optional blocks

Main definition

The First mandatory element is one or several visualThemeId related to the theme Defined like that

You need to define in the database an entry in VisualTheme Entity for each visual-theme id defined.

Note: a theme component can load one or more visual theme id. Usually only one is present.

The second important (but not mandatory) element is implements

This element indicates that your theme copies from the extend theme all information not present in its file definition. If this element isn’t present in your theme, you will need to define all information present in common-theme to be sure that OFBiz misses nothing for a correct run. Otherwise some functionnalities can be broken… >Note: It’s highly recommended to extend the common-theme to be sure that your theme works correctly and to surcharge only what you need.

The four following blocks are optionnal if you define an extends theme ## General properties This block contains all properties that the screen engine can use to prepare the rendering and that the theme can implement

Theme’s specific properties

This block contains all properties specific to this theme. In general these are some properties present on ftl template, that are initialized by the theme and can be surchaged by another theme through the extends elements.

Ftl macro library

This block defines for each technology implemented by the screen engine where it can find the macro library for each model (Screen, Form, Tree, Menu)

Note: If you want surcharge some macros, you can just create the desired macros and import the others from common-theme (at the top of file) like that : <#include "component://common-theme/template/macro/HtmlFormMacroLibrary.ftl"/>

Screen library

This block defines where OFBiz can find all official screens definitions in framework/common

Normally, you don’t need to change this file except if you need to define a default screen style that doesn’t exist OOTB. If you need to extend an existing one, you have to do it in the theme directory.

To define a new default screen style, you have to add it in this file, and point to the screen decorator in common-theme to define your default screen style as the default one.

Screens are separated in three types : * structural-decorator : contains all decorators that organise the screens structures * embed-decorator : decorator used only on sub screens * general-screen : list all generic inter applications screens # The common-theme This is the root theme that contains all information to ensure a good basic theme for OFBiz. Currently it keeps all old themes system for backward compatibility with ftl template managed by the entity VisualThemeResource

Create your own theme

As a theme is a component, you can create a new theme like a plugin.

After creating a component, you can add the two minimal information :

  • Theme.xml file in plugins/my-theme/widget/ with minimal information :
  • your data file to add your visual theme in plugins/my-theme/data/

The presence of VisualTheme entity helps to indicate which theme is available in your instance, specially helpful for tenant installations.

To display your theme in OFBiz theme library, you can complete the information on each visual theme like

<theme name="my-theme"
        xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
        xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="http://ofbiz.apache.org/dtds/widget-theme.xsd">
    <visual-themes>
        <visual-theme id="MY_THEME" display-name="My Theme">
            <description>My new funny theme under nice tecnno</description>
            <screenshot location="/mytheme/screenshot1.png"/>
            <screenshot location="/mytheme/screenshot2.png"/>
        </visual-theme>
    </visual-themes>
</theme>

Note: display-name and description support the flexibleStringExpander syntax

extends common-theme

This is a first step to understand how the theme system works. With your new theme, you can try to surchage different elements. To start, extends the common-theme :

Now your theme should be operational, but without particularity.

You can surcharge a ftl macro, to do this create your own ftl macro file in plugins/my-theme/templates/macro/HtmlFormMacroLibrary.ftl with

<#include "component://common-theme/template/macro/HtmlFormMacroLibrary.ftl"/>

<#macro renderDisplayField type imageLocation idName description title class alert inPlaceEditorUrl="" inPlaceEditorParams="">
    <#if description?has_content>
    *###*${description?replace("\n", "<br />")}**<#t/>
    <#else>
        *#&nbsp;#*<#t/>
    </#if>
</#macro>

Now indicate to your theme that you want use this library

and check the result when you select your theme. The result isn’t really interesting but it’s to understand how it works.

create from scratch

TODO…

Backware compatibility with OFBiz 16.11 and above

How themes worked before

Before the theme management by model definition, all configurations have been present in the database through entity VisualTheme and VisualThemeRessource. These ressources were loaded in a layoutProperties variable and used directly by decorator screens and ftl templates.

Now with the common-theme

All this logic is still present in the common-theme template to keep backward compatibility, but the VisualThemeRessource is now useless and properties have been migrated to the Theme definition in the part theme-properties ### Example with BlueLight The blue light theme has been these properties in VisualThemeRessource :

    <VisualTheme visualThemeId="BLUELIGHT" visualThemeSetId="BACKOFFICE" description="BlueLight Theme: breadcrumbs, drop-down menus and rounded corners"/>
    <VisualThemeResource visualThemeId="BLUELIGHT" resourceTypeEnumId="VT_NAME" resourceValue="BLUELIGHT" sequenceId="01"/>
    <VisualThemeResource visualThemeId="BLUELIGHT" resourceTypeEnumId="VT_HDR_IMAGE_URL" resourceValue="/images/ofbiz_logo.png" sequenceId="01"/>
    <VisualThemeResource visualThemeId="BLUELIGHT" resourceTypeEnumId="VT_SHORTCUT_ICON" resourceValue="/images/ofbiz.ico" sequenceId="01"/>
    <VisualThemeResource visualThemeId="BLUELIGHT" resourceTypeEnumId="VT_SCREENSHOT" resourceValue="/bluelight/screenshot.jpg" sequenceId="01"/>

    <!-- CSS references -->
    <VisualThemeResource visualThemeId="BLUELIGHT" resourceTypeEnumId="VT_STYLESHEET" resourceValue="/bluelight/style.css" sequenceId="01"/>
    <VisualThemeResource visualThemeId="BLUELIGHT" resourceTypeEnumId="VT_HELPSTYLESHEET" resourceValue="/bluelight/help.css" sequenceId="01"/>
    <VisualThemeResource visualThemeId="BLUELIGHT" resourceTypeEnumId="VT_DOCBOOKSTYLESHEET" resourceValue="/bluelight/webapp/bluelight/docbook.css" sequenceId="01"/>
    <VisualThemeResource visualThemeId="BLUELIGHT" resourceTypeEnumId="VT_STYLESHEET" resourceValue="/common/js/jquery/plugins/asmselect/jquery.asmselect-1.0.4a-beta.css" sequenceId="02"/>

    <!-- Javascript references -->
    <VisualThemeResource visualThemeId="BLUELIGHT" resourceTypeEnumId="VT_HDR_JAVASCRIPT" resourceValue="/common/js/jquery/jquery-1.11.0.min.js" sequenceId="01"/>
    <VisualThemeResource visualThemeId="BLUELIGHT" resourceTypeEnumId="VT_HDR_JAVASCRIPT" resourceValue="/common/js/jquery/jquery-migrate-1.2.1.js" sequenceId="02"/>
    <VisualThemeResource visualThemeId="BLUELIGHT" resourceTypeEnumId="VT_HDR_JAVASCRIPT" resourceValue="/common/js/jquery/ui/js/jquery-ui-1.10.3.min.js" sequenceId="03"/>
    <VisualThemeResource visualThemeId="BLUELIGHT" resourceTypeEnumId="VT_HDR_JAVASCRIPT" resourceValue="/common/js/jquery/plugins/asmselect/jquery.asmselect-1.0.4a-beta.js" sequenceId="05"/>
    <VisualThemeResource visualThemeId="BLUELIGHT" resourceTypeEnumId="VT_HDR_JAVASCRIPT" resourceValue="/common/js/jquery/plugins/datetimepicker/jquery-ui-timepicker-addon.min-1.4.3.js" sequenceId="07"/>
    <VisualThemeResource visualThemeId="BLUELIGHT" resourceTypeEnumId="VT_HDR_JAVASCRIPT" resourceValue="/common/js/jquery/plugins/fjTimer/jquerytimer-min.js" sequenceId="09"/>
    <VisualThemeResource visualThemeId="BLUELIGHT" resourceTypeEnumId="VT_HDR_JAVASCRIPT" resourceValue="/common/js/jquery/plugins/mask/jquery.mask-1.14.13.min.js" sequenceId="10"/>
    <VisualThemeResource visualThemeId="BLUELIGHT" resourceTypeEnumId="VT_HDR_JAVASCRIPT" resourceValue="/common/js/jquery/plugins/jeditable/jquery.jeditable-1.7.3.js" sequenceId="11"/>
    <VisualThemeResource visualThemeId="BLUELIGHT" resourceTypeEnumId="VT_HDR_JAVASCRIPT" resourceValue="/common/js/jquery/plugins/validate/jquery.validate.min.js" sequenceId="12"/>
    <VisualThemeResource visualThemeId="BLUELIGHT" resourceTypeEnumId="VT_HDR_JAVASCRIPT" resourceValue="/common/js/plugins/OpenLayers-2.13.1.js" sequenceId="13"/>
    <VisualThemeResource visualThemeId="BLUELIGHT" resourceTypeEnumId="VT_HDR_JAVASCRIPT" resourceValue="/common/js/util/OfbizUtil.js" sequenceId="15"/>
    <VisualThemeResource visualThemeId="BLUELIGHT" resourceTypeEnumId="VT_HDR_JAVASCRIPT" resourceValue="/common/js/util/fieldlookup.js" sequenceId="16"/>
    <VisualThemeResource visualThemeId="BLUELIGHT" resourceTypeEnumId="VT_HDR_JAVASCRIPT" resourceValue="/common/js/plugins/date/date.format-1.2.3-min.js" sequenceId="17"/>
    <VisualThemeResource visualThemeId="BLUELIGHT" resourceTypeEnumId="VT_HDR_JAVASCRIPT" resourceValue="/common/js/plugins/date/date.timezone-min.js" sequenceId="18"/>
    <VisualThemeResource visualThemeId="BLUELIGHT" resourceTypeEnumId="VT_HDR_JAVASCRIPT" resourceValue="/common/js/util/miscAjaxFunctions.js" sequenceId="19"/>
    <VisualThemeResource visualThemeId="BLUELIGHT" resourceTypeEnumId="VT_HDR_JAVASCRIPT" resourceValue="/common/js/util/selectMultipleRelatedValues.js" sequenceId="20"/>
    <VisualThemeResource visualThemeId="BLUELIGHT" resourceTypeEnumId="VT_HDR_JAVASCRIPT" resourceValue="/common/js/util/util.js" sequenceId="21"/>
    <VisualThemeResource visualThemeId="BLUELIGHT" resourceTypeEnumId="VT_HDR_JAVASCRIPT" resourceValue="/common/js/plugins/date/FromThruDateCheck.js" sequenceId="22"/>
    <VisualThemeResource visualThemeId="BLUELIGHT" resourceTypeEnumId="VT_HDR_JAVASCRIPT" resourceValue="/bluelight/dropdown.js" sequenceId="30"/>

    <!-- ftl references -->
    <VisualThemeResource visualThemeId="BLUELIGHT" resourceTypeEnumId="VT_HDR_TMPLT_LOC" resourceValue="component://bluelight/template/Header.ftl" sequenceId="01"/>
    <VisualThemeResource visualThemeId="BLUELIGHT" resourceTypeEnumId="VT_FTR_TMPLT_LOC" resourceValue="component://bluelight/template/Footer.ftl" sequenceId="01"/>
    <VisualThemeResource visualThemeId="BLUELIGHT" resourceTypeEnumId="VT_NAV_OPEN_TMPLT" resourceValue="component://bluelight/template/AppBarOpen.ftl" sequenceId="01"/>
    <VisualThemeResource visualThemeId="BLUELIGHT" resourceTypeEnumId="VT_NAV_CLOSE_TMPLT" resourceValue="component://bluelight/template/AppBarClose.ftl" sequenceId="01"/>
    <VisualThemeResource visualThemeId="BLUELIGHT" resourceTypeEnumId="VT_MSG_TMPLT_LOC" resourceValue="component://bluelight/template/Messages.ftl" sequenceId="01"/>

Now it’s just

And on theme definition

Values with /images/… have been moved to the common-theme that bluelight extends, the theme definition keeps only what the theme adds to the extended theme.

Note property name supports the FlexibleMapAccessor syntax, so you can continue to populate a list (VT_STYLESHEET[‘add’]), reset a list (VT_STYLESHEET[]) or add an element on the top list (VT_STYLESHEET[+0]) because some time the order libraries loading is important

Migrate you own theme

Easily, create you Theme.xml and move your VisualThemeResource in theme-properties like in the BlueLight example above. Maybe you will need to update your template because the modelTheme return ressources not always as list. So : <property name="VT_HDR_TMPLT_LOC" value="component://bluelight/template/Header.ftl"/> -> return a String with component://bluelight/template/Header.ftl <property name="VT_STYLESHEET['add'] value="..." -> return a List

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1 Comment

  1. Jacques Le Roux

    Adrian suggested in user ML:

    When the Visual Theme feature was first introduced, it was suggested that OFBiz should have an application where you can create a new visual theme easily. The application would provide a means to upload CSS & JS files, templates, etc.