Introduction
The templateDetails.xml file is the file that Joomla! looks for when installing the template. It tells your Joomla! installation what files are part of the template, what positions are in the HTML and what parameters are available.
Code
The templateDetails.xml file looks something like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE install PUBLIC "-//Joomla! 1.5//DTD template 1.0//EN" "http://dev.joomla.org/xml/1.5/template-install.dtd">
<install version="1.5" type="template">
<name>joombt</name>
<creationDate>November 2008</creationDate>
<author>Your Name</author>
<authorEmail>email@email.com</authorEmail>
<authorUrl>http://www.your-url.com</authorUrl>
<copyright>Your Website</copyright>
<license>GNU General Public License, v2</license>
<version>1.0.1</version>
<description>Joomla Blank Template</description>
<files>
<filename>index.html</filename>
<filename>index.php</filename>
<filename>templateDetails.xml</filename>
<filename>changes.txt</filename>
<filename>css/reset.css</filename>
<filename>css/template.css</filename>
<filename>css/ieonly.css</filename>
<filename>css/index.html</filename>
<filename>images/index.html</filename>
</files>
<positions>
<position>breadcrumbs</position>
<position>footer</position>
<position>left</position>
<position>right</position>
<position>search</position>
<position>top</position>
</positions>
<params>
</params>
</install>
Code Explained
- name is the name of your template.
- creationDate is the date of the creation of the template. If you like, you can update it every time you create a new version.
- author is the author's name.
- authorEmail is the author's e-mail address.
- authorUrl is the authors web site or blog. It can be a personal blog or a company web page.
- copyright is the copyright of the template.
- license is the license of the template.
- version is the version of the template. This can be updated every time you make changes on the template.
- description is the description of the template.
- files is the container tag for all the template's files.
- filename is the tag used to describe the template's files names. Note that you must mention the folder in which the files are stored.
- positions is the container tag of all the template's positions.
- position is the tag used to describe the template's positions names.
- params is the container tag of all the template's parameters.