multiple layouts or multiple themes?

Yii 1.1 General Discussion
1

Hello!

I’d like to make a different style and structure for my FAQ and help site for my website. So it would look like pretty different then the rest of my website. I was looking for a solution and found 2 ways.

  1. multiple layouts

  2. multiple themes

I’ve tried to generate multiple layouts but when I try to render it without the layout of the rest of the website it doesn’t work (renderPartial(), when I use render() the view with the different layout is shown in the “original” version of the layout, looks a bit funny ;) ). So I thought using different themes. But before I start trying to implement it I thought it would be good when I ask which solution would be the best one. Do I have make a mistake or is it not possible to render a view completely with a different layout.

Thanks for any tip and help :)

Greetings, capo

2

No one has a tip or idea? Can anybody say for which scenarios multiple themes are the best solution and for which scenarios multiple layouts are the best solution?

3

Layouts are more for variations on your current theme, such as a 2-column layout, fixed-width, variable-width, one central column. All these are layouts of the same theme, just variations.

A whole new theme is an entirely separate look and feel in comparison to other themes, which is what I think you’re looking for.

I’m not quite sure I understand the problem you’re describing with the rendering issues, but below is a quick snippet on how to change layouts.

If you want a separate layout for the entire controller, do


class MyController extends Controller {

public $layout = '//layouts/my-layout';

Otherwise, if you’re in an action




public function actionMyAction() {

$this->layout = '//layouts/my-layout';

}

Hope that helps

4

Tank you for the answer.

I think you are right that a new theme is what I’m looking for. That could be the reason why changing the layout doesn’t work the way I want.

Greetings, capo

5

‘themeManager’ => array(

'class' => 'vendor.schmunk42.multi-theme.EMultiThemeManager',


'rules' => array(


    '^p3(.*)'                   => 'backend',  // use backend theme for all routes starting with p3


    '^user/default/index'       => 'frontend', // use frontend theme for several routes of the user module


    '^user/login/(.*)'          => 'frontend',


    '^user/profile/(.*)'        => 'frontend',


    '^user/registration/(.*)'   => 'frontend',


    '^user/recovery/(.*)'       => 'frontend',


    '^user/activation/(.*)'     => 'frontend',


    '^user/(.*)'                => 'backend',  // use backend theme for user module


    '^rights/(.*)'              => 'backend',  // use backend theme for rights module


)

),