Advanced Settings: Getting Started with Theme Variables

/* * These styles apply ONLY to the header and footer assets. */ * { padding: 0; margin: 0; box-sizing: border-box; } .footer { background: #f5f5f6; color: #555a62; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5; padding: 18px 0; } .footer-wrap { padding-left: 18px; padding-right: 18px; max-width: 1236px; margin: 0 auto; } .footer a { color: #0291db; } .footer a:hover { color: #0276b3; } .footer-row { display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; justify-content: space-between; align-items: center; margin: -3px; } .footer-col { padding: 0 3px; } .footer-col-copyRight { justify-content: flex-start; } .footer-col-logo { justify-content: flex-end; } .footer-col-copyRight, .footer-col-logo { flex: 1; display: flex; } .logo { width: 120px; height: 28px; opacity: 0.6; } @media screen and (max-width: 768px) { .footer-row { display: block; } .footer-col { width: 100%; text-align: center; margin: 6px 0; } .footer-col:first-child { margin-top: 0; } .footer-col:last-child { margin-bottom: 0; } .footer-col-copyRight, .footer-col-logo { justify-content: center; } .logo { margin: 0 auto; } } /*# sourceMappingURL=styles.css.map */

Advanced Settings: Getting Started with Theme Variables - Vanilla Success

Overview

The "Advanced Settings" section of the theme editor brings a JSON variable editor and inline documentation for hundreds of variables that are not currently included in the visual user interface.

Using theme variables requires a fairly technical resource and an understanding of basic CSS and JSON formatting.

You can find documentation on specific theme variables here:

https://success.vanillaforums.com/kb/articles/370-theme-variable-reference

The Advanced Variables Panel

Open the variables panel by clicking on the new "Advanced Settings' button at the bottom of the theme editor.

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The content in this file will depend on the settings you have already changed from the defaults and will automatically be updated in both places whenever a change is made.

Previewing Theme Variables Changes

Changes made in this new menu will sync back and forth between the visual editor and the advanced editor and when adding a theme variable in the menu you should see it immediately in the preview to the left:

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Inline Documentation

Inline autocomplete and documentation has been added for the following sets of variables:

banner
titleBar
userContent

By typing any of these you should see the full set of documented variables for those components appear inline:

_0U8RV6tdehWE8QwR2V_gMUNUHTpfAX_zEEDC9NbsWRmy2nsF-UkYZI7VodlCCsQJJzd5r66-Wyu8UI-0BWL7MYmFDIFi-2bquO5FDwcqVH5aWE69ivfV7agJfIngQzWeZmTWF32

Updating Theme Variables using the API

For some use cases, it may make sense to have a technical resource update theme components using the API. All theme variables can be updated this way.

For more information, see that section of the API docs:

https://success.vanillaforums.com/kb/articles/202-apiv2-reference-endpoints#/Theme%20Assets/get_themes__themeID__assets_variables

Using Theme Variables with File Based Themes

See developer documentation:

https://success.vanillaforums.com/kb/articles/278-common-theme-components

Troubleshooting

If you are getting an invalid JSON message, you may be missing a quote (“) or a comma somewhere. Every line except the last must finish in a comma.

Missing Variables?

Wish there was a theme variable to do something but can’t seem to find one? Tell us about it by submitting an idea in the success community