Staff replied Templates

Moving a Helix template to a different site (dev to live)

Asked by Chad Criswell 1 year ago Last activity 9 months ago

Maybe I am overthinking this... We have a site that we are wanting to put a new pre made helix template on. However the live site is pretty busy with new articles being posted every day. Putting on the template and customizing it, moving modules, and testing is going to take a week or two at least. We can't leave the live site static for that long in order to do the work on a dev account and then move it over.

Can a Helix template be moved from one site to another? Or how can I get around this problem? I can't stop posting and allowing comments, etc. for two weeks while the new layout and styles are customized.

3 replies

Paul Frankowski Senior Staff

1 year ago · edited

Hi Chad.

Do we talk about template itself or whole website? Yes, a huge difference!

Helix Ultimate is Joomla Template, like Casiopea template. And only website contains text, images, modules, users, comments, etc.

Each template has (or may have) different module positions. But in general, anytime you can install a new template and set it as default only for selected submenu items, to test & preview what more you have to do to make perfect design. It means that you can make changes without worring that something may be broken for viewers. If older template is also based on Helix Ultimate, switching from template A to B, is very easy process. In other cases it will time more time & efford.

Chad Criswell Asked this

9 months ago

Just now getting back to this... If I could ask for a bit more clarification...

I understand that the site I would be moving the template to would need the modules created and images moved, etc. but for the template itself is there a way to copy over all the layout, custom css, etc. (everything that you see when you go into Template Options)?

Or is it where I will have to just install the base template then copy/paste everything over, modify the layout, etc.

Paul Frankowski Senior Staff

9 months ago · edited

In theory yes.
If both templates are based on Helix Ultimate - there is possibility to Export & Import template settings, read more in Helix documenation. After all you can have the same settings (layout, logo, custom css) on second site. Of course all files like custom.css or logo files you have to transfer manually. Then you have to set all modules etc. About content (articles, menu) this is a different story.