IC5: Theme Tools

Real-world example:
for my many Pages databases, the output of the database relationship field as comma-separated list is usually insufficient, so I would replace what’s in cms -> front -> global -> basicRelationship and add record images, grid views and so on. How would I do that now? From what I understand from the article, I would only be able to add stuff at dedicated locations, not replace anything. 

Edited October 19, 20232 yr by opentype

A few questions at the top of my mind, I'll probably have some later too. 

Currently I've made a shared core theme where all our customizations for five different forum installations are. So the HTML, Javascript and CSS is kept the same, but some different output, logic and elements are displayed or utilized based on logic that depends on the value in custom theme variables. 

• I assume there is still some tool to export and import/upgrade custom templates and template hooks? Having to log in to each admin panel and define all these custom templates and hooks would be a pain.
   
• Is custom theme variables still a thing and accessible within these templates? And will theme variables that have been modified on the installation be reset or kept upon upgrade/import of a theme?
   
• Will the same variables and functions we have available to us when making a template hook today be available to us from these new custom templates and hooks? I realize the names of methods, how you may invoke them, template logic etc., will be different, but my point is; will all the variables and functions that can be used in the template we hook into be available to us? 

So how does this affect how and where we place custom ads? The docs explicitly call for editing templates. 

Yeah, I have to say I'm also worried about ad placement. We need a lot of control over how and where they are included. For example we have some ads which should display as a "horseshoe" around the content. To achieve this currently we have our own wrapper class around the necessary elements etc. 

Also, from looking in the video from Ehren there is a lot of settings to control and clicking into all sorts of menus with settings. Will there be some way to control it by editing a json file instead for example? That would make it easier and faster for many of us frontend and backend programmers to copy theme settings between different installations etc. Essentially what I'm asking for would be a "source mode" for the theme editor settings view on the frontend.

Edited October 19, 20232 yr by TSP

3 hours ago, TSP said:

Yeah, I have to say I'm also worried about ad placement. We need a lot of control over how and where they are included. For example we have some ads which should display as a "horseshoe" around the content. To achieve this currently we have our own wrapper class around the necessary elements etc. 

Current goal with ad placement is to implement additional locations where they make sense, and to make the existing ad locations a little more flexible. That said, we're open to suggestions. Can you elaborate on what your custom ads look like? 

On 10/19/2023 at 4:46 PM, opentype said:

Real-world example:
for my many Pages databases, the output of the database relationship field as comma-separated list is usually insufficient, so I would replace what’s in cms -> front -> global -> basicRelationship and add record images, grid views and so on. How would I do that now? From what I understand from the article, I would only be able to add stuff at dedicated locations, not replace anything. 

I think this is a very important question, and it seems to have been left without an answer?

I also do a lot of changes to the core functionality when playing around with the templates, and I would like a run-down on how we will work with Pages specifically in the new editor?

@Matt@Ehren I have not seen anything about Pages yet. Is that because you are saving the best for last? 😉

Will these template changes also impact templating for Pages, and if so, could you show a little of how that would work? For example, how do we create templates from when we link databases and how we can customize forms?

We will of course blog about this once we are ready 🙂 

What’s the reason direct template editing is no longer possible? 

5 hours ago, Matt said:

Speed, efficiency, reduced storage needs and no rebuilding as we now compile templates at the time we build a new version and store into a new /static/ directory which will not change for the lifespan of that version.

The ability to edit core templates is probably a bad idea as it can break a lot of functionality.

You can insert HTML before/inside before/after/ inside after via the template hook system as above. You can still add custom CSS and JS too.

Thank you. 

With the template hook functionality, am I able to do a search/replace function? Or can I only insert?

@Ehren @Matt How does one use if logic when they want to make an option selectable (i.e. a bottom border to ipsBox__header) This would look good on table and grid mode but not feed mode.

Edited October 17, 2025Oct 17 by Sinistra Sensei

Most things like that can be achieved with CSS. There are lots of helpful classes within the code which you can target like so:

/* Add a border to table/grid categories */
.ipsData--forum-category:is(.ipsData--grid, .ipsData--table){
    border-top: 10px solid red;
}

You could say forum style creators have been deprived of their hands...alas, but it's become very inconvenient without a standard code editor.

My hands were untied, I could paste whatever I wanted anywhere. Now I'm within the constraints.

Perhaps there will be some guide on creating themes using developer tools? Thanks in advance.

Edited November 16, 2025Nov 16 by Andrey S

12 hours ago, Andrey S said:

You could say forum style creators have been deprived of their hands...alas, but it's become very inconvenient without a standard code editor.

My hands were untied, I could paste whatever I wanted anywhere. Now I'm within the constraints.

Perhaps there will be some guide on creating themes using developer tools? Thanks in advance.

Sorry to hear you feel your hands are tied there. Indeed, this is somewhat intentional. Being able to change core templates is simply a bad idea for various reasons. Performance due to eval code, people simply being able to break things without the ability to recover, and more.

This said, as mentioned by my colleague the post above yours, most things can indeed be achieved through use of CSS. You can read more about how to use the theme tools here

While you cant change our code, you can certainly write your own in the new editors, as shown. You can hide any of our code using CSS, add your own html, js etc at template hook points, and of course make use of the theme editor itself to quickly change the core colors and settings. I encourage you to give it a go. You will probably be quite surprised what you can achieve

On 17.11.2025 at 11:24, Marc said:

Сожалею, что вы чувствуете себя связанными по рукам и ногам. Более того, это сделано намеренно. Возможность изменять основные шаблоны — просто плохая идея по ряду причин. Производительность из-за eval-кода, возможность сломать что-то без возможности восстановления и многое другое.

Тем не менее, как заметил мой коллега в посте выше вашего, большинство задач действительно можно решить с помощью CSS. Подробнее об использовании инструментов темы можно прочитать здесь.

Хотя вы не можете изменить наш код, вы, безусловно, можете написать свой собственный в новых редакторах, как показано ниже. Вы можете скрыть любой наш код с помощью CSS, добавить свой HTML, JavaScript и т.д. в точки подключения шаблона и, конечно же, использовать сам редактор тем для быстрого изменения основных цветов и настроек. Рекомендую вам попробовать. Вы, вероятно, будете удивлены результатами.

On 17.11.2025 at 11:24, Marc said:

Хотя вы не можете изменить наш код, вы, безусловно, можете написать свой собственный в новых редакторах, как показано ниже. Вы можете скрыть любой наш код с помощью CSS, добавить свой HTML, JavaScript и т.д. в точки подключения шаблона и, конечно же, использовать сам редактор тем для быстрого изменения основных цветов и настроек. Рекомендую вам попробовать. Вы, вероятно, будете удивлены результатами.

This was all in the standard style settings in the admin panel. Now it's on the main page in online mode. Basically, they changed the editing option. And most importantly, the fact that I can sculpt whatever I want, like a designer, has been removed. I could do whatever I wanted.

Now I have to write hooks and hacks in JS... I guess this is for beginners, since I always saved the original templates in the editor. I always made copies...