Creating an custom theme

The user interface is styled using bootstrap v5. All variables documented at https://getbootstrap.com/docs/5.2/customize/overview/ are available to you to design your look and feel.

Proceed with the following steps to compile a custom theme:

1. Install node.js:

   Download and install the node.js javascript runtime environment from https://nodejs.org/en/.

   The installation also makes the npm command available which we’ll use in the following steps.
2. Install grunt command line tools:

   Grunt is a javascript task running utility.

   Install it with the command:

   npm install grunt-cli -g
   

3. Install the javascript dependencies:

   Compiling the frePPLe and bootstrap styles requires a number of javascript libraries. Install these with the following command:

   npm install
   

4. Design the LESS files:

   The styles are defined in the following files. Check out http://lesscss.org/ to learn more about the Less syntax used in these files.

   • freppledb/common/static/css/frepple.less:

     Defines the frePPLe specific CSS styles.
   • freppledb/common/static/css/THEME/variables.less:

     Defines the configuration of bootstrap for each of the themes. The value of the variables is what a theme unique.
   • freppledb/common/static/css/THEME/frepple.less:

     Optionally, you can create files with theme-specific styles that can’t be expressed as variable values.

5. Compile the LESS files:

   The less files need to be compiled into a CSS stylesheet for each theme. Edit the gruntfile.js file to include your theme in the list of themes, and then run the following command:

   grunt less
   

   In each of the theme folders the file bootstrap.min.css and bootstrap.min.css.map will be generated.

6. Update djangosettings.py file:

   New themes are only shown in the user interface when the theme is configured in the setting THEMES.

   You can also edit the setting DEFAULT_THEME to make your theme the default one.