FuelPHP Forums

Thanks, I've edited the answer

Have you read the documentation? Because there there is a complete example of theme... Never mind, follow these steps:

1) Setup main theme configuration in your theme.php file under the config folder. A complete list of variable is here (scroll down to Configuration topic).

2) Create a Controller that extends the base controller. Here is an example from documentation:

<span class="preprocessor">&lt;?php</span>
<span class="keyword">class</span> Homepage <span class="keyword">extends</span> \Controller
{
    <span class="comment">/**
     * load the theme template, set the page title and the menu's
     */</span>
    <span class="keyword">public</span> <span class="keyword">function</span> before()
    {
        <span class="comment">// load the theme template</span>
        <span class="variable">$this</span>-&gt;theme = \Theme::instance();

        <span class="comment">// set the page template</span>
        <span class="variable">$this</span>-&gt;theme-&gt;set_template(<span class="string">'layouts/homepage'</span>);

        <span class="comment">// set the page title (can be chained to set_template() too)</span>
        <span class="variable">$this</span>-&gt;theme-&gt;get_template()-&gt;set(<span class="string">'title'</span>, <span class="string">'My homepage'</span>);

        <span class="comment">// set the homepage navigation menu</span>
        <span class="variable">$this</span>-&gt;theme-&gt;set_partial(<span class="string">'navbar'</span>, <span class="string">'homepage/navbar'</span>);

        <span class="comment">// define chrome with rounded window borders for the sidebar section</span>
        <span class="variable">$this</span>-&gt;theme-&gt;set_chrome(<span class="string">'sidebar'</span>, <span class="string">'chrome/borders/rounded'</span>, <span class="string">'partial'</span>);

        <span class="comment">// set the partials for the homepage sidebar content</span>
        <span class="variable">$this</span>-&gt;theme-&gt;set_partial(<span class="string">'sidebar'</span>, <span class="string">'homepage/widgets/login'</span>);
        <span class="variable">$this</span>-&gt;theme-&gt;set_partial(<span class="string">'sidebar'</span>, <span class="string">'homepage/widgets/news'</span>)-&gt;set(<span class="string">'users'</span>, Model_News::latest(<span class="number">5</span>));

        <span class="comment">// call the user model to get the list of logged in users, pass that to the users sidebar partial</span>
        <span class="variable">$this</span>-&gt;theme-&gt;set_partial(<span class="string">'sidebar'</span>, <span class="string">'homepage/widgets/users'</span>)-&gt;set(<span class="string">'users'</span>, Model_User::logged_in_users());
    }

    <span class="comment">/**
     * A simple example. A normal action method would probably have code to
     * retrieve data from models and pass this to a partial view...
     */</span>
    <span class="keyword">public</span> <span class="keyword">function</span> action_index()
    {
        <span class="comment">// the homepage has a flash image banner</span>
        <span class="variable">$this</span>-&gt;theme-&gt;set_partial(<span class="string">'banner'</span>, <span class="string">'homepage/banner'</span>);

        <span class="comment">// a block of static content</span>
        <span class="variable">$this</span>-&gt;theme-&gt;set_partial(<span class="string">'banner'</span>, <span class="string">'homepage/content'</span>);

        <span class="comment">// and two link lists and a copyright block</span>
        <span class="variable">$this</span>-&gt;theme-&gt;set_partial(<span class="string">'footerleft'</span>, <span class="string">'homepage/shortcuts'</span>);
        <span class="variable">$this</span>-&gt;theme-&gt;set_partial(<span class="string">'footercenter'</span>, <span class="string">'homepage/links'</span>);
        <span class="variable">$this</span>-&gt;theme-&gt;set_partial(<span class="string">'footerright'</span>, <span class="string">'homepage/copyright'</span>);
    }

    <span class="comment">/**
     * keep the after() as standard as possible to allow custom responses from actions
     */</span>
    <span class="keyword">public</span> <span class="keyword">function</span> after(<span class="variable">$response</span>)
    {
        <span class="comment">// If no response object was returned by the action,</span>
        <span class="keyword">if</span> (<span class="keyword">empty</span>(<span class="variable">$response</span>) <span class="keyword">or</span>  ! <span class="variable">$response</span> instanceof Response)
        {
            <span class="comment">// render the defined template</span>
            <span class="variable">$response</span> = \Response::forge(\Theme::instance()-&gt;render());
        }

        <span class="keyword">return</span> <span class="keyword">parent</span>::after(<span class="variable">$response</span>);
    }
}

Don't change the after methods, you have to modify only the before and index method:

A) Put in your before method every "global" part of the template; for example, if you have a footer, set it as "partial" of the template, so it can be showed in the page.

B) In the index action get the data you need (from db, file or more) and use them as data of the view; for example, if you are creating a blog, here you can get the content and put them in a partial.

3) Print the view: create a view for every partial you setted up and put them in the folder you have specified at point 1): here in the views you can print and show the data you save in the index action.

I assume he means http://fuelphp.com/docs/classes/theme/introduction.html ?

As for your last question: a theme info file follows the same structure and rules as a config file. So if it's a .php file, it should return an array.

The Theme class itself doesn't use it at all. It's there to facilitate installable themes, so you can use it to store stuff like author, name, any optional configuration items (perhaps a color selection?), etc.

Yes, that's how the theme works.

But only if you use the Theme class, the View class is unware something like a theme exists, and will only load from the views folder. The Theme class will search the theme folder structure first, and will fall back to regular views if nothing could be found.

Have you enabled "use_modules" in the theme config? It is required to have the Theme class prefix the view path with the module name, so to change "main/index" to "main/main/index".

Note that this will not work if you do cross module calls (calling a controller in a module from app or another module instead of using HMVC). The Theme class uses the request context to determine the current module name (if any).

But Controller_Main is the one called from the URL (like http://yourhost/main/main/method)? Or is it called some other way?

Hmm, weird, I use it exactly like you, using 'main/index', and use_modules = true.

Perhaps it's time for some debugging to figure out where it goes wrong. Theme has a method called find_file() which does all the forensic work, figuring out which file to load.

Add some var_dumps or logging to see which paths are checked, perhaps that can point to where it goes wrong?

Glad you've found the issue.

You worry about conflicts with app views?

I've actually never thought of that, I don't have (user accessable) controllers in my app, so I've never bumped into that issue.

I've just commited this feature to 1.6/develop.

How to call theme from module controller?

My Module
/fuel/app/modules/blog

My Controller
/fuel/app/modules/blog/classes/controller/admin/index

My code in this controller.
$theme = \Theme::instance();
return $theme->view('admin/blog_v', $output, false);

my theme folder structure
/fuel/app/modules/blog/views/admin/blog_v.php << this one works!
/public/theme/system/modules/blog/admin/blog_v.php << this does not work! file not found.

How to make theme folder structure correctly or how to call theme from current module?

Oh Yes!

thank you Syntaxlb