Theme designer glossary
This page is for theme designers who want a quick definition of a word. It adds the terms used in the theme designer pages that the Design glossary does not already cover. For attribute, block, cascade, class, datatype, design, node, object, override, packer, pagelayout, siteaccess, token, view mode, zone and the other core words, read that glossary first.
Contents
Content and templates
Field description. A short text per field of a content class, shown next to the field in the edit form. A place for guidance to editors. See Designing for editors.
Information collection. Fields of a content class that collect input from visitors, which is how feedback and contact forms are usually built. See Designing forms.
Locale. The language and regional format of a siteaccess, which decides how dates and numbers are printed. See Dates, numbers and l10n.
Preview siteaccess. A siteaccess that serves the live content with a design under development, at its own address. See Previewing a design on a siteaccess.
Remote id. A text identifier of an object or node that stays the same when content is installed elsewhere; used to match overrides to one specific page. See Override a single node.
Section. A label on a part of the content tree, used for access rights and for overrides by area. See Override by section.
Template path comments. HTML comments around every rendered template, naming its file, switched on with
ShowTemplatePathComments on a development siteaccess. See Template path comments.
Template part. A small template included by others, the usual home of a component's markup. See Component inventory.
Layouts
Block type. A kind of layout block (text, list, gallery, hero ...), defined in the layouts settings with its handler and view types. See Block definitions.
Collection. The content a list-like block shows, picked by hand or found by a query. See Layouts for designers.
Container block. A block that holds other blocks in named places, such as two or three columns. See Designing layout blocks.
Layout type. A page skeleton with named zones, chosen when a layout is created. See Layout types and zones.
Shared layout. A layout whose zones are linked into many other layouts, often for header or pre-footer content. See Shared layouts and linked zones.
View type. One of the looks a block type offers; editors choose it per block. A template and a settings line, no PHP. See Designing layout blocks.
Images and media
Art direction. Showing a different crop or image at different screen widths. See Designing image crops and art direction.
Image alias. A named, generated variant of an uploaded image, made by filters such as "scale down to fit". See Image aliases.
Open Graph tags. The og:* tags in a page's head that social networks read to build a preview card. See
Social share and metadata images.
Safe area. The central part of a share image that survives any crop a network applies. See Social share and metadata images.
Skin (newsletter). The pair of templates (HTML part and text part) that gives newsletter mails their look in the CJW Newsletter extension. See Designing newsletter emails.
Design system
Brand matrix. A table of what varies per brand in a multi-brand installation. See Designing for several brands in multisite.
Component inventory. The table of every reusable piece of a theme with its variants, states, tokens, template and class. See Component inventory.
Ramp. A brand or neutral color in about ten lightness steps, from which role tokens are picked. See Color palettes and ramps.
Role token. A token named after its use (--site-ink, --site-accent) rather than its value. See
Design tokens.
State matrix. A table of the interactive states of each component, drawn in light and dark. See Designing interactive states.
Type scale. The short list of font sizes a theme uses. See Type scale.
Process
Handoff. Giving a design to the people who build it, with everything they need written down. See Handoff checklist.
Mapping sheet. The table that connects each element of a mockup to a class, field and view. See Mapping a design to content classes.
Stress set. Test objects with extreme content that every design must survive. See Designing with real content.
Style guide page. A page of the site that shows every token and component drawn by the theme's own code. See Building a style guide page.
View matrix. A table of content classes against view modes, marking which combinations need a design. See Designing view modes.
Exponential Platform DXP
Design (DXP). An ordered list of themes; the first theme that has a template wins. See Twig templates and the design engine.
@ibexadesign. The Twig namespace through which DXP templates refer to theme templates, resolved by the design engine. See Themes for Exponential Platform.
Theme (DXP). A folder of Twig templates under templates/themes/<theme>/. See
The standard design and your theme.
Related pages
- Design glossary
- Theme designer FAQ
- Theme designers: start here
- Free documentation: this page is free to copy, translate and improve under the GNU FDL 1.3.
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