A Zen Grid bridge (ZGB) theme makes it possible to move templates built on the Zen Grid Framework for use in Joomla 3. This document explores how these themes are made, intended to be used and how they work.
No the Zen Grid Bridge themes are built as stand alone themes and do not require extra plugins to work.
The Zen Grid Bridge theme is designed as a way for users of older Zen Grid Framework themes to move across to Joomla 3 without losing their existing customisations. The Zen Grid Bridge framework has been created as an easy way to move our previous work into the Joomla 3+ stream.
It provides common markup and structure that makes it easy for the assets of the older themes (namely css, js and images) to be dropped into Joomla 3. These themes are not complete rebuilds of the design and do not utilise Bootstrap or less technologies.
Common Overrides - ZGB based themes are a hybrid of the Zen Grid Framework and the One Web framework from Seth Warburton (Zen Grid Bridge themes use Seth's html overrides).
Interface - ZGB themes use the standard Joomla interface in the administrator and no longer sports the zgf interface that you will have used in Joomla 1.5 and Joomla 2.5.
Logo control - ZGF themes use a module position called "logo" and do not provide any other control of the logo position except for font control. The font used for the logo module is set via the template admin while the content of the logo position is entirely set via what ever is published to that position. See below for more information.
Advert1 to advert6 modules no longer available - The Advert1 to 6 module positions have been replaced by the above and below module positions.
Layout control uses new settings - Please see below for a description of how layouts of modules can be set.
jQuery is loaded via Joomla - ZGB themes use the standard Joomla 3 method of using jQuery on the page.
Compression for JS and css is done by a 3rd party extension - More information soon.
While this is technically possible it is really designed to be used in Joomla 3. So while in theory it will work and we have tested it in Joomla 2.5 but there are some slight differences in functionality that may cause conflicts or issues if used in Joomla 2.5.
Yes this is certainly possible however there are a number of things to bear in mind:
Installation of a ZGB theme is the same as installing any other Joomla template or extension. Please read this document on how to install a Joomla template for more information.
The following instructions are designed for users who want to move an existing Zen Grid Framework theme to Joomla 3 using the Zen Grid Gridge version of the same theme.
1. Download the ZGB theme from your selected theme's download page.
2. Extract it on to your desktop.
3. Download your current theme (ZGF theme) to a new folder on your desktop.
4. Copy the entire contents of the css folder from your original theme to the css folder in the bridging theme. It's ok to overwrite the bridging theme's files with your own files.
5. Copy the contents of the template image folder from your original theme into the bridging theme image folder.
6. If you have added any javascript to the template append it to the js/template.js file - before the closing bracket. Otherwise leave this file as is.
7. Then re-zip the ZGB theme files so that your css and image files are in the new zip.
8. Install the newly zipped file via the Joomla installer.
9. Go to the template administrator and edit the template parameters to reapply your desired layout, appearance and other settings.
10. Save your changes and set the template to default.
11. Go to the plugin manager and ensure that the T3 and zgf plugins are disabled if you have them installed.
12. Go to the front end of the site to check the layout and appearance of the themes.