Not sure if this is the correct thread to ask this.
Where can I find Magento Templates? I have google searched magento templates / magento themes and honestly through two pages on google none of the templates of any of the sites I looked at were what I was looking for.
Here is an example of what I am looking for www dot halocigs dot com
I have searched and searched and have to find anything that I was really interested in.
Anyone have any thoughts? How hard is it to create my own template? I know HTML and CSS but that’s it.
With Magento, it’s a good idea to be able to work with HTML/PHTML and CSS even if you find a theme you like and install it, because nothing is ever exactly perfect for your biz right out of the box.
Maybe you can explain a little more about Magento and templates to me.
I know oscommerce and zen cart templates are PHP base, how does it work for Magento?
Can I build an html template and incorporate my store into my html template? How does that work, am I limited to Magento Templates or can I use strictly an html/css/images template and just put my store in the template kind of like Joomla and Virtuemart.
With Magento, it’s a good idea to be able to work with HTML/PHTML and CSS even if you find a theme you like and install it, because nothing is ever exactly perfect for your biz right out of the box.
Yeah. It’s tricky. Magento does not use straight up HTML and CSS. It’s PHP based like some of the other systems you’ve mentioned. But there’s an additional layer that’s unique to Magento--it’s the layout system. The layouts are a set of XML files that describe the hierarchy of structural and content blocks that make up any page on a Magento website.
Rather than trying to describe it all here, we recently updated the Designers Guide. It’s at http://www.magentocommerce.com/design_guide.
It includes images, screenshots and file structure info that might make the whole layout/theming system in Magento a wee bit clearer. If you haven’t already seen that, try it as a starting point and I’ll watch for follow ups here.
Quick question, I fell in love with a template on themeforest, however it says it’s for Magento 1.4
I have Magento 1.5 installed, will I not be able to use this template for my version? If not, will it be a bad idea to go to Magento 1.4.0:0 so I can use the template? Here is a link to the template,
http://themeforest.net/item/akihabara-magento-commerce-theme/118485
Thanks for the help!
Jon
kara - 19 April 2011 03:26 PM
Yeah. It’s tricky. Magento does not use straight up HTML and CSS. It’s PHP based like some of the other systems you’ve mentioned. But there’s an additional layer that’s unique to Magento--it’s the layout system. The layouts are a set of XML files that describe the hierarchy of structural and content blocks that make up any page on a Magento website.
Rather than trying to describe it all here, we recently updated the Designers Guide. It’s at http://www.magentocommerce.com/design_guide.
It includes images, screenshots and file structure info that might make the whole layout/theming system in Magento a wee bit clearer. If you haven’t already seen that, try it as a starting point and I’ll watch for follow ups here.
Quick question, I fell in love with a template on themeforest, however it says it’s for Magento 1.4
I have Magento 1.5 installed, will I not be able to use this template for my version? If not, will it be a bad idea to go to Magento 1.4.0:0 so I can use the template? Here is a link to the template,
http://themeforest.net/item/akihabara-magento-commerce-theme/118485
It is possible to use 1.4 themes with 1.5, however theme should be adjusted for the new version.
I recommend to contact theme developer regarding this adjustment.
I have, 2 days ago and haven’t heard anything back.
I really want to get things rolling, although I have site up that’s taking orders, the shopping cart “Virtuemart” is horrible.
Hopefully I hear from them soon!
Thanks,
Jon
Turnkeye.com - 19 April 2011 11:37 PM
jrp1 - 19 April 2011 08:04 PM
Wonderful thanks for that!
Quick question, I fell in love with a template on themeforest, however it says it’s for Magento 1.4
I have Magento 1.5 installed, will I not be able to use this template for my version? If not, will it be a bad idea to go to Magento 1.4.0:0 so I can use the template? Here is a link to the template,
http://themeforest.net/item/akihabara-magento-commerce-theme/118485
It is possible to use 1.4 themes with 1.5, however theme should be adjusted for the new version.
I recommend to contact theme developer regarding this adjustment.
In general, there are very few theming implications in the move from 1.4 to 1.5. This is just a personal, not an official, statement. But I’d feel pretty comfortable installing a 1.4 theme in a 1.5 environment. Still, it’s good karma to get the developer involved, as it sounds like you have, so that they’re prepared to provide some support if necessary. I can’t remember if Theme Forest has a refund policy or not, but if they do, all you’d be out is a little time.
So, I’m a little leery of offering specific advise because the answer really always is “it depends.” But I think this set of version changes probably won’t effect the themes too much. If it was v1.3 to v1.4, all bets would be off and the theme would have had to be re-factored. But this set of changes is likely ok. Still, keep pinging the developer (’cause they should do the upgrade anyway) but v1.5 doesn’t represent huge frontend changes.
Thank you for that!
I’m worried about buying another template it not working and not being able to return it, as it is I bought a $140.00 template from Templatemonster, I am unable to use it because it slows down my website to where you can hardly navigate through it. They are giving me a hassle on trying to get a refund.
I’m trying to see if they will convert it to a version 1.5 template for me.
Thanks again for the advice, hopefully goThemeTeam responds to me soon!
kara - 20 April 2011 02:06 PM
In general, there are very few theming implications in the move from 1.4 to 1.5. This is just a personal, not an official, statement. But I’d feel pretty comfortable installing a 1.4 theme in a 1.5 environment. Still, it’s good karma to get the developer involved, as it sounds like you have, so that they’re prepared to provide some support if necessary. I can’t remember if Theme Forest has a refund policy or not, but if they do, all you’d be out is a little time.
So, I’m a little leery of offering specific advise because the answer really always is “it depends.” But I think this set of version changes probably won’t effect the themes too much. If it was v1.3 to v1.4, all bets would be off and the theme would have had to be re-factored. But this set of changes is likely ok. Still, keep pinging the developer (’cause they should do the upgrade anyway) but v1.5 doesn’t represent huge frontend changes.
When we put 2.0 in place—we attempted to convert all the previous extensions, thus giving them a 2.0 (or magento 1.5+) extension as well. In many cases, and especially in themes—they seem to work well.
You should just grab the 2.0 extension key and try it out in a test environment. If it works great, if not you can uninstall it, and if has serious dependency issues, it would hopefully error as intended
When in doubt, contact the developer! There’s a developer profile link on each extension profile page. You can always contact me if you have any questions.
My thing is I don’t want to buy a template with the possibility of not being able to use it. I already made that mistake ones on $140.00 template. :/
I’m going to play it safe and wait till the development team hopefully responds to my question.
Thanks for the help!
Jon
rrondata - 20 April 2011 05:26 PM
When we put 2.0 in place—we attempted to convert all the previous extensions, thus giving them a 2.0 (or magento 1.5+) extension as well. In many cases, and especially in themes—they seem to work well.
You should just grab the 2.0 extension key and try it out in a test environment. If it works great, if not you can uninstall it, and if has serious dependency issues, it would hopefully error as intended
When in doubt, contact the developer! There’s a developer profile link on each extension profile page. You can always contact me if you have any questions.
Still have yet to hear from the developers, I really need to get this going, it seems everyday Virtuemart has a new problem.
Today it charged someone twice when they ordered only once, totaling their order to over $100.00 when it was only suppose to be $59.85
That’s a horrible mistake for a shopping cart to make.
Any suggestions on what to do so I can get things rolling with Magento and my new site?
It’s better to find some Magento Solution Partners : http://www.magentocommerce.com/partners/solution to get your magento themes, because of magento’s zend structure, all freelance designers can’t do well.
