Table of Contents for
Magento 2 - Build World-Class online stores

Version ebook / Retour

Cover image for bash Cookbook, 2nd Edition Magento 2 - Build World-Class online stores by Jonathan Bownds Published by Packt Publishing, 2017
  1. Cover
  2. Table of Contents
  3. Magento 2 - Build World-Class online stores
  4. Magento 2 - Build World-Class online stores
  5. Credits
  6. Preface
  7. 1. Module 1
  8. 1. Magento Fundamentals
  9. XAMPP installation
  10. Magento
  11. Summary
  12. 2. Magento 2.0 Features
  13. An introduction to the Magento order management system
  14. Magento 2.0 command-line configuration
  15. The command-line utility
  16. Summary
  17. 3. Working with Search Engine Optimization
  18. Store configuration
  19. SEO and searching
  20. SEO catalog configuration
  21. Google Analytics tracking code
  22. Optimizing Magento pages
  23. Summary
  24. 4. Magento 2.0 Theme Development – the Developers' Holy Grail
  25. Magento 2.0 theme structure
  26. The Magento Luma theme
  27. Magento theme inheritance
  28. CMS blocks and pages
  29. Custom variables
  30. Creating a basic Magento 2.0 theme
  31. Summary
  32. 5. Creating a Responsive Magento 2.0 Theme
  33. Composer – the PHP dependency manager
  34. Building the CompStore theme
  35. CSS preprocessing with LESS
  36. Applying new CSS to the CompStore theme
  37. Creating the CompStore logo
  38. Applying the theme
  39. Creating CompStore content
  40. Customizing Magento 2.0 templates
  41. Summary
  42. 6. Write Magento 2.0 Extensions – a Great Place to Go
  43. Using the Zend framework
  44. Magento 2.0 extension structure
  45. Developing your first Magento extension
  46. The Twitter REST API
  47. The TweetsAbout module structure
  48. Using TwitterOAuth to authenticate our extension
  49. Developing the module
  50. Summary
  51. 7. Go Mobile with Magento 2.0!
  52. Adjusting the CompStore theme for mobile devices
  53. The Magento 2.0 responsive design
  54. The Magento UI
  55. Implementing a new CSS mixin media query
  56. Adjusting tweets about extensions for mobile devices
  57. Summary
  58. 8. Speeding up Your Magento 2.0
  59. Indexing and caching Magento
  60. Indexing and re-indexing data
  61. The Magento cron job
  62. Caching
  63. Fine-tuning the Magento hosting server
  64. Selecting the right Magento hosting service
  65. Apache web server deflation
  66. Enabling the expires header
  67. Minifying scripts
  68. Summary
  69. 9. Improving Your Magento Skills
  70. Magento knowledge center
  71. Improving your Magento skills
  72. Summary
  73. 2. Module 2
  74. 1. Magento 2 System Tools
  75. Installing Magento 2 sample data via GUI
  76. Installing Magento 2 sample data via the command line
  77. Managing Magento 2 indexes via the command line
  78. Managing Magento 2 cache via the command line
  79. Managing Magento 2 backup via the command line
  80. Managing Magento 2 set mode (MAGE_MODE)
  81. Transferring your Magento 1 database to Magento 2
  82. 2. Enabling Performance in Magento 2
  83. Configuring Redis for backend cache
  84. Configuring Memcached for session caching
  85. Configuring Varnish as the Full Page Cache
  86. Configuring Magento 2 with CloudFlare
  87. Configuring optimized images in Magento 2
  88. Configuring Magento 2 with HTTP/2
  89. Configuring Magento 2 performance testing
  90. 3. Creating Catalogs and Categories
  91. Create a Root Catalog
  92. Create subcategories
  93. Manage attribute sets
  94. Create products
  95. Manage products in a catalog grid
  96. 4. Managing Your Store
  97. Creating shipping and tax rules
  98. Managing customer groups
  99. Configuring inventories
  100. Configuring currency rates
  101. Managing advanced pricing
  102. 5. Creating Magento 2 Extensions – the Basics
  103. Initializing extension basics
  104. Working with database models
  105. Creating tables using setup scripts
  106. Creating a web route and controller to display data
  107. Creating system configuration fields
  108. Creating a backend data grid
  109. Creating a backend form to add/edit data
  110. 6. Creating Magento 2 Extensions – Advanced
  111. Using dependency injection to pass classes to your own class
  112. Modifying functions with the use of plugins – Interception
  113. Creating your own XML module configuration file
  114. Creating your own product type
  115. Working with service layers/contracts
  116. Creating a Magento CLI command option
  117. 3. Module 3
  118. 1. Planning for Magento
  119. Technical considerations
  120. Global-Website-Store methodology
  121. Planning for multiple stores
  122. Summary
  123. 2. Managing Products
  124. Managing products the customer focused way
  125. Creating products
  126. Managing inventory
  127. Pricing tools
  128. Autosettings
  129. Related products, up-sells, and cross-sells
  130. Importing products
  131. Summary
  132. 3. Designs and Themes
  133. The concept of theme inheritance
  134. Default installation of design packages and themes
  135. Installing third-party themes
  136. Inline translations
  137. Working with theme variants
  138. Customizing themes
  139. Customizing layouts
  140. Summary
  141. 4. Configuring to Sell
  142. Payment methods
  143. Shipping methods
  144. Managing taxes
  145. Transactional e-mails
  146. Summary
  147. 5. Managing Non-Product Content
  148. Summary
  149. 6. Marketing Tools
  150. Promotions
  151. Newsletters
  152. Using sitemaps
  153. Optimizing for search engines
  154. Summary
  155. 7. Extending Magento
  156. The new Magento module architecture
  157. Extending Magento functionality with Magento plugins
  158. Building your own extensions
  159. Summary
  160. 8. Optimizing Magento
  161. Indexing and caching
  162. Caching in Magento 2 – not just FPC
  163. Tuning your server for speed
  164. Summary
  165. 9. Advanced Techniques
  166. Version control
  167. Magento cron
  168. Backing up your database
  169. Upgrading Magento
  170. Summary
  171. 10. Pre-Launch Checklist
  172. System configurations
  173. Design configurations
  174. Search engine optimization
  175. Sales configurations
  176. Product configurations
  177. Maintenance configurations
  178. Summary
  179. Index

The concept of theme inheritance

A very important aspect of Magento theming is the fallback model. Theme inheritance in Magento 2.x has been completely redesigned. The primary upshot of this is that unlimited fallbacks are supported and the default directory is no longer a part of the fallback mechanism.

The fallback order is slightly different for static assets (JavaScript, Less CSS, CSS) and templates, so we'll review both of these cases in detail. Before we explain the fallback order though, we'll need to begin with how parent themes are established in theme.xml.

Configuring a parent theme in theme.xml

This is new and central to the new theme fallback model. In any given theme, you have the option of identifying the parent theme. This is done in the theme.xml file, in the root directory of the theme. The following is an example of what text from a sample theme.xml file might look like:

<theme xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="urn:magento:framework:Config/etc/theme.xsd">
     <title>Vendor Theme</title>
     <parent>Magento/luma</parent> 
     <media>
         <preview_image>media/vendorpreview.jpg</preview_image> 
     </media>
</theme>

As you can see, the parent theme is specified explicitly, and in this case it's the Magento Luma theme. That means that any files not found in the "Vendor Theme" theme will be pulled from the Luma theme. Any files not found there will, by default, be pulled from the Magento "Blank" theme, and if they're not found there, they'll be pulled from the module theme files.

Overriding static files

Static assets are content such as JavaScript files, CSS, images, fonts, and Less CSS files. Even though Less CSS files are not, technically speaking, static files, they produce the final CSS, so are categorized as such:

  1. If the module context is not defined for a file, Magento will begin by checking the current theme's static files, in the web directory, <theme_directory>/web/imagename.jpg.
    • If a match is not found there, it will recursively check the ancestor theme's static files until a theme with no parent is found.
    • If there is still no match, Magento will check the library static view files in lib/web/.
  2. If there is a module context established for a static file, the fallback is a little different. It will start with the current theme module's static files.
  3. After this it will search for ancestors, again recursively, until a theme with no parent is found. Magento will then search module static files for the frontend area: <module_dir>/view/frontend/web/.
  4. And finally the base area, <module_dir>/view/base/web/.

Overriding theme files

The fallback mechanism for theme files is simpler, because the module context is always known for them.

  1. Magento starts by looking at the templates for the current theme in <theme_dir>/<Namespace>_<Module>/templates.
  2. Next, Magento checks for ancestor templates until an ancestor with no parent is reached: <parent_theme_dir>/<Namespace>_<Module>/templates.
  3. Finally, the module templates: <module_dir>/view/frontend/templates.

Here's a pictorial representation of the new fallback model in Magento 2.0. It's a little bit tricky, so we'll walk through each scenario represented here:

  • In the case of Vendor_Theme_1, there is no parent declared in theme.xml, and there are no module_override files and there are no static override files. In this case, requests to the theme will fall back to the module theme files.
  • In the case of Vendor_Theme_2, there is a module override, but no parent has been declared. Requests to the theme here will fall back to magento_blank, and subsequently the module theme files.
  • Vendor_Theme_3 and Vendor_Theme_4 both have Vendor_Theme_2 identified as a parent in the theme.xml, and have CSS overrides. In these cases, requests to the CSS will fall back to Vendor_Theme_2, and then Magento_Blank:
Overriding theme files

The fallback model is a tremendous shortcut for developers. When a new theme is created, it only has to contain those elements that are different from what is provided by the Parent or Module package files. For example, if all parts of a desired site design are similar to the Parent theme, except for the graphic appearance of the site, a new theme can be created simply by adding new CSS and image files to a new theme. Any new CSS files will need to be included in the local.xml file for your theme (we discuss the local.xml file later in this chapter). If the design requires different layout structures, only the changed layout and template files need to be created; everything that remains the same need not be duplicated.

If you're careful not to alter the magento_blank theme and default module theme files, then future upgrades to the core functionality of Magento will not break your installation. You will have access to the new improvements based on your custom design package or theme, making your installation virtually upgrade proof.