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[pardus Friend pardusJoin date: February 2007Posts: 18Downloads:0Uploads:2 Thanks: 7 Thanked: 10 times in 1 posts]

#188742

Hi JA Team & Friends,

Which one is better for customization of T3 Blank temlpate (v3)?

First editing less and compiling or first compiling and then editing css file? In both methods new updates will override old less files, right?

With every update there are some improvements so I don’t want to miss the future improvements too…

On T3v2 that was easier I think 🙂

Thanks in advance!

[pardus Friend pardusJoin date: February 2007Posts: 18Downloads:0Uploads:2 Thanks: 7 Thanked: 10 times in 1 posts]

#498179

I think first compiling and then editing CSS file will be better because some Less files call styles from plug-in core Less styles too… Not every styles are in template Less files.

I mean when you compile Less to CSS, you have all styles together. You don’t need to edit T3 plug-in core Less styles if you do so, right?

[Scott Lavelle Friend Scott LavelleJoin date: November 2010Posts: 266Downloads:16Uploads:5 Thanks: 6 Thanked: 64 times in 27 posts]

#498183

The best in my experience is a combination of editing the LESS files and your custom.css file. Anything else and you risk overwriting if you switch in and out of development mode or compile LESS to CSS at any point. The custom.css file will always be there and is the last in the loading chain, so it will override all previous styles without having to provide !important for every style.

The LESS files also adjust things at a more macro level in many cases, so there are less changes to actually make to accomplish the same. for example, setting the base font size or the base font style, they carry through the css files in many places. The difficulty is getting to know which variables and which LESS files affect what things in the front end. But it’s worth the playing around with to figure it out.

Does that help?

Scott Lavelle - Technical Resource Solutions, LLC
Certified Joomla Administrator

1 user says Thank You to Scott Lavelle for this useful post

1. Saguaros

[Saguaros Moderator SaguarosJoin date: September 2014Posts: 31405Downloads:237Uploads:471 Thanks: 845 Thanked: 5346 times in 4964 posts]

#498218

Thanks Scott 🙂
@pardus: checkout this documentation for more info: http://t3-framework.org/documentation/customization.html

[ballyjames21 Friend ballyjames21Join date: June 2013Posts: 38Downloads:0Uploads:0 Thanks: 2 Thanked: 2 times in 1 posts]

#498244

first compiling and then editing CSS file will be better as compare to First editing less and compiling.

[Scott Lavelle Friend Scott LavelleJoin date: November 2010Posts: 266Downloads:16Uploads:5 Thanks: 6 Thanked: 64 times in 27 posts]

#498339

BallyJames21: If you compile the LESS files to css, then edit those css files and for whatever reason you compile the LESS files again (by clicking the compile button or by switching to development mode and then back out), the css files WILL get overwritten and changes made directly to them will be lost. The custom.css file is the exception to this.

If you get used to working with the LESS files instead (which is a bit of an effort to get used to but certainly not rocket science), you will not have to worry about losing your css changes and you’ll get the benefits of the LESS language.

Hope this helps.

Scott Lavelle - Technical Resource Solutions, LLC
Certified Joomla Administrator

[ballyjames21 Friend ballyjames21Join date: June 2013Posts: 38Downloads:0Uploads:0 Thanks: 2 Thanked: 2 times in 1 posts]

#498398

salvelle: As per me, first compile then edit. It is a better option. The reason is simple – compiling the codes earlier to coding is a time saving option. You don’t have to search here and there for codes. You have all codes compiled in front of you then you’re all set to edit them as per the custom requirements

[Scott Lavelle Friend Scott LavelleJoin date: November 2010Posts: 266Downloads:16Uploads:5 Thanks: 6 Thanked: 64 times in 27 posts]

#498727

BallyJames21,

I understand your thinking on this, but as I mentioned above, there are several possible downsides to handling it this way:

1. Your CSS has the definitely possibility of being overwritten by recompiling the CSS from the LESS files.
2. Your CSS will be overwritten by an upgrade to the template – maybe an upgrade to the framework as well. Of course, there are always things to look out for when doing these upgrades and making sure you have saved customizations you’ve’ made, but this is one more place that will surely get stomped.
3. Most importantly (to me), you have to create/modify a lot more rules in potentially more css files to accomplish the same thing. As an example, all of the places where sizes and colors of fonts get defined in those CSS files; many of them come from a single definition in a LESS file: for example, setting the base text size at 14px and then having all of the paragraphs and such set for you and the headings done as a calculation from that number. If you compile, you have to go to each definition of the headings and set their individual sizes, where if you change the base font size and compile the LESS, it’s a single change that is seen throughout the template in a number of places. Same goes for many of the color options. If you want to change your @red from #ff0000 to #800000 to get a darker red in all relavent places, you change one line in the Variables.less file and it happens across the board everywhere the @red variable is used rather than having to go into many different css files and individually change them, which is more of an effort as well as a place where you can miss something and end up with inconsistency.

We all work differently, of course, but in some cases, we have to adapt to new ways to enhance our abilities/work-flow, to protect the work we’ve done from being “undone”, and to evolve to take advantage of new technologies. If sticking with the old way of updating everything individually works for you, then by all means, do it the way that makes sense, but it’s always good to be aware of the “why” something was put in place to begin with.

I hope this explanation makes sense and helps someone to get more from the template creation process without seeming argumentative.

Scott Lavelle - Technical Resource Solutions, LLC
Certified Joomla Administrator

2 users say Thank You to Scott Lavelle for this useful post

1. JA Developer
2. pardus

[ballyjames21 Friend ballyjames21Join date: June 2013Posts: 38Downloads:0Uploads:0 Thanks: 2 Thanked: 2 times in 1 posts]

#499013

ok, I agree you slavelle. Thanks for explaining the whole process in such a way. many thanks again

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