Installing a new theme in Magento

If you want to install a new theme or template for your store in Magento , two solutions are possible:

• You find a theme available on Magento-connect and use it to install it (see our article: Installing an extension with Magento-connect ).

• You manually copy the theme files that you want to install Magento in the corresponding directories. The latter solution, we will discuss.

How Magento handles themes (or templates):

Management themes in Magento is special, because when you start your store, load the Magento default theme and then loaded on top, the theme that you defined. Unless you've replaced the default theme, the theme of your shop.

This way of working, enabling you to modify very simply, your theme. Simply create or create only part of the theme you want to change, to define in the administration of Magento and it will be loaded over the default start your shop, in order to replace the part of the default theme.
Three files are used by Magento for the management of these topics:

• The template folder contains all HTML elements of your theme (app / design / frontend / default / le_nom_de_votre_theme / template)
• The layout file contains the XML configuration and positioning of the elements of your theme (app / design / frontend / default / le_nom_de_votre_theme / layout)
• Finally, the skin folder contains several subfolders with images, style sheets and javascript files in your shop (skin / frontend / default / le_nom_de_votre_theme)

In our case we will install the theme called "Linen", which is free and you can find here: http://www.magthemes.com/free-themes/Linen-Theme_1.php. But the principle remains the same with any other theme.

Once the zip file Magento theme downloaded, unzip it. Open the folder: "LinenTheme_2.0", you will find our folder: "app" and "skin".

Simply copy these files to the root of your Magento website.

If you return to our two records storage issues, you will notice a new folder was created: app / design / frontend / default / linen and skin / frontend / default / linen.

We just create our new theme in the administration of Magento.

How to define our new theme in the administration of Magento

Go in the administration of your Magento website in the menu "System> Settings> Design.

You must specify first on what store you want to work, just choose it in the box at the top left: Scope of the current configuration. If you leave the default configuration, all your sites (if you have several) will be affected by your new theme.

Once the site is chosen, it must indicate your new theme in the right part:

Simply indicate the fault zone, the name of your new theme: Linen.

How to refresh the cache of your Magento store:

Now you need to update the cache of your Magento store:
Go to the menu "System> Cache management"

In the first field: All the cache, choose: Cool.

The cache of your shop is well maintained and the new theme of your shop may appear.
That is, your new Magento theme is now completely installed. You can use this relatively simple method with any other theme.

Here is the result!

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