Gallery2:Themes:Developing:Overview

With a bit of HTML and CSS knowledge, you can customize how your Gallery theme appears. Add some PHP and Smarty Template knowledge and you can change a theme’s functionality or create a new theme.

Before beginning to edit or create a theme, get familiar with Gallery 2’s theme elements. Theme developers should also be familiar with the Smarty template engine.

• Anatomy of a Theme - Learn how Gallery themes are constructed

• Colorpacks - Gallery's color scheme manager
• ImageFrames - Customize albums and images by framing them

• Editing an Existing Theme - Customize a theme to meet your needs
• Create a New Theme - Learn how to create your own theme. This tutorial takes an HTML/CSS theme mockup and converts it to a Gallery theme
• How to Copy an Existing Theme - Learn how to copy an existing theme before making extensive modifications
• Theme Template Reference - A quick reference of theme components (tags, blocks, callbacks, etc)
• Gallery 2's Theme API - Code documentation for developers

• Usability Issues - Creating themes with users in mind

Note: Be sure to disable template caching when editing templates (.tpl files). Else you need to clear your template cache to see the change taking effect. Site Admin -> Performance - The template cache was introduced in Gallery 2.3.