How to create custom theme in Liferay with default theme as parent?

Question

I want to figure out some things about creating and changing Liferay themes. Now I want to make few changes to default theme. I created project from maven archetype for liferay themes. Set a default theme as parent, copied all files to my /webapp folder. Here my pom.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
     xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
<parent>
    <artifactId>theme</artifactId>
    <groupId>by.velcom</groupId>
    <version>1.0.0</version>
</parent>
<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
<artifactId>sample-theme</artifactId>
<packaging>war</packaging>
<name>sample-theme Theme</name>
<build>
    <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>com.liferay.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>liferay-maven-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>${liferay.maven.plugin.version}</version>
            <executions>
                <execution>
                    <phase>generate-sources</phase>
                    <goals>
                        <goal>theme-merge</goal>
                        <goal>build-css</goal>
                        <goal>build-thumbnail</goal>
                    </goals>
                </execution>
            </executions>
            <configuration>
                <autoDeployDir>${liferay.auto.deploy.dir}</autoDeployDir>
                <appServerDeployDir>${liferay.app.server.deploy.dir}</appServerDeployDir>
                <appServerLibGlobalDir>${liferay.app.server.lib.global.dir}</appServerLibGlobalDir>
                <appServerPortalDir>${liferay.app.server.portal.dir}</appServerPortalDir>
                <liferayVersion>${liferay.version}</liferayVersion>
                <parentTheme>${liferay.theme.parent}</parentTheme>
                <pluginType>theme</pluginType>
                <themeType>${liferay.theme.type}</themeType>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
            <artifactId>maven-resources-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>2.5</version>
            <configuration>
                <encoding>UTF-8</encoding>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>
    </plugins>
</build>
<dependencies>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>com.liferay.portal</groupId>
        <artifactId>portal-service</artifactId>
        <version>${liferay.version}</version>
        <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>com.liferay.portal</groupId>
        <artifactId>util-bridges</artifactId>
        <version>${liferay.version}</version>
        <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>com.liferay.portal</groupId>
        <artifactId>util-taglib</artifactId>
        <version>${liferay.version}</version>
        <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>com.liferay.portal</groupId>
        <artifactId>util-java</artifactId>
        <version>${liferay.version}</version>
        <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>javax.portlet</groupId>
        <artifactId>portlet-api</artifactId>
        <version>2.0</version>
        <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
        <artifactId>servlet-api</artifactId>
        <version>2.4</version>
        <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>javax.servlet.jsp</groupId>
        <artifactId>jsp-api</artifactId>
        <version>2.0</version>
        <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>
</dependencies>
<properties>
    <liferay.theme.parent>_unstyled</liferay.theme.parent>
    <liferay.theme.type>vm</liferay.theme.type>
</properties>

Then I changed something in styles and templates, deployed sample-theme.war. New theme was added to Configuration->Display Settings (sample-theme). But when I choose it and apply, I don't see any changes I've made. Can someone say me what I do wrong?

This should be a good start: dev.liferay.com/develop/tutorials/-/knowledge_base/6-1/… — Marco Mercuri

jstuartmilne jstuartmilne · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-07T15:41:26

If by default you mean the classic then you have to change

this

<liferay.theme.parent>_unstyled</liferay.theme.parent>

for this

<liferay.theme.parent>_classic</liferay.theme.parent>

And run the maven task so that it applies it, remember you'll have to copy only the files you want to modify.

How to create custom theme in Liferay with default theme as parent?

1 Answers