A theme is a collection of styles that you apply to some of all of the pages on your store, in all or specific locales on your store. Themes not only control what styles or content layouts are used by pages and locales, but they also define whether the "Continue Shopping" button appears in the Shopping Cart, where it goes when clicked, and the technical support email address shoppers see on your store.
Note: Themes and styles are not available for stores that use the Headwater template. This means that if your store uses the Headwater template, you will not see the themes and styles options in the Store Builder menu as these Help topics indicate. To find out what template your store uses, contact your CMM.
Creating Themes
When you create a theme, the name and description you enter are only used internally in the Command Console to identify the theme and are never seen by shoppers on your store.
There are two tabs that are used to define how the theme will change the appearance of your store and be used across locales. A summary of the two tabs is given below, with more information about each tab on the following pages.
- Apply Styles Tab – Shows a list of all your supported locales and the pages within each locale that appear on your store. Pages include standard product and category detail pages, as well as pop-ups, the shopping cart pages and so on.
- Apply Settings Tab – Shows which locales are using the default settings for the Shopping Cart options. Used to indicate whether the "Continue Shopping" button appears in the Shopping Cart, and where that button takes the shopper when clicked. Also used to customize the technical support email address by locale.
To create a theme, you must first create the styles you want to be used in that theme. Once the styles are created, you simply create a theme and choose which styles will be applied to pages on your store and in what locales, thus defining the theme.
Making a Theme the Default
When you create a theme, you can indicate that you want the theme to be the default for your store by selecting the Use as Default Theme check box. When a theme is the default for your store, it will be used unless another theme is activated via a theme ID in the URL, such as when using a link created by the Storefront Links feature that uses a specific theme.
The Apply Styles Tab
The Apply Styles tab is where you define the theme by choosing which locales and pages should use styles (or content layouts, see Using Themes to Apply Content Layouts to Pages) you have created for your store.
When you create a theme you can have the theme use any style created for your store and apply that style to any individual page, page group, or locale on your store. For example, you can have a style apply to an individual page (such as the Product Detail page) or to a group of pages (such as the Shopping Cart pages).
When you choose which pages or page groups you want to apply the style to, you also choose in what locale the style should be applied. This means that you can have one style for one locale and a totally different style for another locale. In this sense, localizing your theme is already done if you set up the theme completely.
Applying Styles to Pages
To apply a style to a page or group of pages, you simply select a style from the list in the "Applied Site" column. The "Applied Site" column contains a list that shows all the styles created for your store. When you select a style from this list, it is then considered part of the theme.
When the "Applied Site" column says "Inherited" it means that the page (or group of pages) will use the style set for the locale or page group, whichever comes next higher up in the hierarchy for that store. The image below shows how styles are applied to various levels of pages on your store.
Applying Styles to Product and Category Detail Pages
When you create a theme and choose which styles in the theme will apply to certain pages, you can have a specific style be used for the Category Products List page or the Product Detail pages and choose the specific categories or products you want to use the style, or have the style used on all those pages.
The Apply Settings Tab
The Apply Settings tab is used to set up the "Continue Shopping" button and technical support email address for locales supported by your store.
When you are viewing this tab you will see the locales supported for your store, as well as options you can enable or disable in those locales. If a locale has the "Use Defaults" option selected it means that locale will use the Continue Shopping and technical support options defined in the default locale for the store. You can tell which locale is set as the default for these options in the theme by checking the "Default Settings" column.
Continue Shopping Options
The "Continue Shopping" button appears in the Shopping Cart for your store. You can choose to hide or show this button in any or all locales supported by your store. By default, the button will take the shopper back to where they were when they entered the Shopping Cart but you can choose to customize this location as needed.
Technical Support Email
The technical support email address is used by stores that provide their own technical or customer support. You can customize this email address to be specific to one or more locales supported by your store.
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