Create Custom Theme Layout Components for Communities

Create a custom theme layout to transform the appearance and overall structure of the pages in the Customer Service (Napili) template.

A theme layout component is the top-level layout for the template pages (1) in your community. Theme layout components are organized and applied to your pages through theme layouts. Theme layout components include the common header and footer (2), and often include navigation, search, and the user profile menu. In contrast, the content layout (3) defines the content regions of your pages, such as a two-column layout. Template page with theme and content layouts, numbered 1-3

A theme layout type categorizes the pages in your community that share the same theme layout.

When you create a custom theme layout component in the Developer Console, it appears in Community Builder in the Settings | Theme area. Here you can assign it to new or existing theme layout types. Then you apply the theme layout type—and thereby the theme layout—in the page’s properties.

1. Add an Interface to Your Theme Layout Component

A theme layout component must implement the forceCommunity:themeLayout interface to appear in Community Builder in the Settings | Theme area.

Explicitly declare {!v.body} in your code to ensure that your theme layout includes the content layout. Add {!v.body} wherever you want the page’s contents to appear within the theme layout.

You can add components to the regions in your markup or leave regions open for users to drag-and-drop components into. Attributes declared as Aura.Component[] and included in your markup are rendered as open regions in the theme layout that users can add components to.

In Customer Service (Napili), the Template Header consists of these locked regions:

search, which contains the Search Publisher component
profileMenu, which contains the User Profile Menu component
navBar, which contains the Navigation Menu component

To create a custom theme layout that reuses the existing components in the Template Header region, declare search, profileMenu, or navBar as the attribute name value, as appropriate. For example:

1<aura:attribute name="navBar" type="Aura.Component[]" required="false" />

If you create a custom profile menu or a search component, declaring the attribute name value also lets users select the custom component when using your theme layout.

Tip

Here’s the sample code for a simple theme layout.

1<aura:component implements="forceCommunity:themeLayout" access="global" description="Sample Custom Theme Layout">
2    <aura:attribute name="search" type="Aura.Component[]" required="false"/>
3    <aura:attribute name="profileMenu" type="Aura.Component[]" required="false"/>
4    <aura:attribute name="navBar" type="Aura.Component[]" required="false"/>
5    <aura:attribute name="newHeader" type="Aura.Component[]" required="false"/>
6    <div>
7        <div class="searchRegion">
8            {!v.search}
9        </div>
10        <div class="profileMenuRegion">
11            {!v.profileMenu}
12        </div>
13        <div class="navigation">
14            {!v.navBar}
15        </div>
16        <div class="newHeader">
17            {!v.newHeader}
18        </div>
19        <div class="mainContentArea">
20            {!v.body}
21        </div>
22    </div>
23</aura:component>

Mark your resources, such as a component, with access="global" to make the resource usable outside of your own org. For example, if you want a component to be usable in an installed package or by a Lightning App Builder user or a Community Builder user in another org.

Note

2. Add a Design Resource to Include Theme Properties

You can expose theme layout properties in Community Builder by adding a design resource to your bundle.

This example adds two checkboxes to a theme layout called Small Header.

1<design:component label="Small Header">
2    <design:attribute name="blueBackground" label="Blue Background"/>
3    <design:attribute name="smallLogo" label="Small Logo"/>
4</design:component>

The design resource only exposes the properties. You must implement the properties in the component.

1<aura:component implements="forceCommunity:themeLayout" access="global" description="Small Header">
2    <aura:attribute name="blueBackground" type="Boolean" default="false"/> 
3    <aura:attribute name="smallLogo" type="Boolean" default="false" />
4    ...

Design resources must be named componentName.design.

3. Add a CSS Resource to Avoid Overlapping Issues

Add a CSS resource to your bundle to style the theme layout as needed.

To avoid overlapping issues with positioned elements, such as dialog boxes or hovers:

Apply CSS styles.

1.THIS {
2    position: relative;
3    z-index: 1;
4}

Wrap the elements in your custom theme layout in a div tag.

1<div class="mainContentArea">
2    {!v.body}
3</div>

For custom theme layouts, SLDS is loaded by default.

Note

CSS resources must be named componentName.css.

Lightning Components Developer Guide

Create Custom Theme Layout Components for Communities

1. Add an Interface to Your Theme Layout Component

2. Add a Design Resource to Include Theme Properties

3. Add a CSS Resource to Avoid Overlapping Issues

See Also