Modifying an existing Template - 21.2.6

Joe R

Version 21.2.6

Hello,

One of the developers on the team wants to modify a Template to enhance row highlighting. It has always been my understanding that doing so would result in the changes being lost when updates/upgrades are applied and the Template would need to be updated again creating a maintenance nightmare. Not to mention if any error was introduced it would make the Template unusable.

The reply I got back was:

"Templates won't get overwritten when upgrading, they get converted to new release. References to files will not get overwritten."

So, is that true and it's ok to unlock and modify Templates and the changes are not lost?

Thanks,

Joe

InoL

If you are using the Universal Theme right now, you need to unsubscribe it from the theme repository before you can make any updates.

So, that is not a good plan. A better way is to create a copy of the UT, e.g. Theme 142 - Company UT.

Now you can make updates to theme 142 and leave 42 to APEX.

One of the developers on the team wants to modify a Template to enhance row highlighting.

It seems to me a really bad reason to modify a template for that. That seems like the XY Problem: you have a problem and you think changing the template is the only option. What is needed that cannot be done via the Theme Roller, custom CSS etc?

Joe R

Inol,

Thank you for replying.

I understand, but there are click events that are driving this Row Highlighting process that are exceptions to the normal Row Highlighting process. There is Javascript that is applied to achieve the desired results. So instead of using the Javascript he was wanting to change the Templates in 11 applications that are involved in this project.

I told him that modifying the Template was a bad idea for the reasons I thought. I wanted to check with the forum to see if my assumptions were correct or not.

Thanks,

Joe

fac586

Modifying an existing template would require unsubscribing the Universal Theme from the repository master and consequent loss of future upgrades. This is not recommended.

A less disruptive option would be to create a copy of the relevant template and modify it to meet the requirement. This would not affect theme subscription, but any future updates to the base template would not be applied to the new one during theme refreshes. With a single app I wouldn't hesitate to take this approach, but applying and maintaining it across 11 applications is much less attractive. If those apps are not already subscribed to a single master theme then this clearly shows why doing so is desirable when working with modular applications.

Joe R

Paul,

That's what I thought. I tried to explain that any future updates would not be applied and create a maintenance nightmare. I'm going to reply with your and Inol's explanation and see where he wants to take it.

Thanks,

Joe