Custom template

When the colour, fonts and logo from Site identity are not enough for you, create your own template. It is a folder with a few PHP files and one stylesheet. This page is meant for someone who knows HTML and CSS and is not afraid of simple PHP.

Do not edit the built-in templates classic-newspaper, modern-magazine and minimal. Every update overwrites them, and System status reports a change to them as a modified core file. A custom template in its own folder is never overwritten by an update.

Procedure

Copy the folder of the built-in template that is closest to what you have in mind into layout/ under a new name. The folder name: lowercase letters, digits and hyphens, for example layout/muj-magazin/.
In the copy of base.php fix the path to the stylesheet – instead of layout/classic-newspaper/style.css it must say layout/muj-magazin/style.css. Otherwise the template would keep loading the stylesheet of the original.
Change the name and description in info.php.
Look at the result at the address /?sablona=muj-magazin. The preview works only for a signed-in administrator; readers still see the original template.
Edit style.css and the templates. Keep checking the home page, a section, an article, a page and the search – in light and dark mode and at phone width.
Turn the finished template on in Appearance → Site identity. It appears there as another card.

A template shows up in the selection when its folder contains the file base.php.

Template files

File	What it is for
`info.php`	Returns an array with the keys `nazev`, `popis` and `rozvrzeni` (`tri`, `dva`, `jeden` or `plna`) – the layout that is set when the template is selected.
`base.php`	The skeleton of the page: `<head>`, header, block zones, content, footer.
`blok.php`	The wrapper of a single block.
`cla_standard.php`	An article in three modes: in a listing (`nahled`, `kratky`) and in full (`cely`).
`style.css`	The look.

A template file is looked for in your folder first and only then among the system ones in system/views/front/. With a file of the same name in your folder you can thus also replace the article listing (vypis.php), a page (stranka.php) or the content of a system block (blok_rub.php, blok_nej.php…). The fewer files you override, the less work you will have after updates.

What the template receives

base.php:

Variable	Content
`$web`	the site settings; only the methods `get('klic')`, `int('klic')`, `bool('klic')`
`$titulek`	the page title; empty on the home page
`$meta`	an array with `hlavni`, `popis`, `klicova_slova`, `obrazek`, `typ`, `noindex`
`$obsah`	the finished HTML of the content (listing, article…)
`$zony`	the HTML of the blocks: `hlavicka`, `leva`, `nad`, `pod`, `prava`, `paticka`; an empty zone is an empty string
`$rozvrzeni`	`tri`, `dva`, `jeden` or `plna`
`$rubriky`, `$stranky`	sections and pages for the navigation
`$url`	a function that turns a path into an address: `$url('rubrika/sport')`
`$kanonicka`	the canonical address of the page
`$jazyk`, `$jazyky_html`	the language code for `<html lang>` and the finished language switcher
`$hlava`, `$pata`	the system's tags for the head and for just before the end of the page

cla_standard.php: $clanek (the article columns plus tema_jm, tema_seo, autor_jm, and stitky for a full article), $rezim, $poradi (the position in the listing; 0 is the lead story), $url, $souvisejici. Just output the finished pieces of HTML shrnuti_html, faq_html, hodnoceni_html, komentare_html and reklama_html. Do not insert a <p> paragraph before the article text – the templates give the first paragraph a drop cap.

blok.php: $nadpis, $obsah, $typ (appearance 1–5; 5 means no heading), $sys (the short code of a system block) and $zona.

Helper functions

Function	What it does
`e($text)`	escapes text for output into HTML; use it on everything that is not finished HTML
`t('Text')`	translates a template text into the language of the site
`datum($d)`, `datum_slovy()`	the date in the format of the site language; the date in words
`cislo($n)`	a decimal number with a comma or a point according to the language
`slugify($text)`, `bez_diakritiky($text)`	converts text into an address; removes diacritics

Article templates

An article can have the Long read, Photo story or Interview template. They are variants: cla_standard.php gives the <article> element the class sablona-dlouhe-cteni, sablona-fotoreportaz or sablona-rozhovor, and image/web.css supplies the look. Your template must output this class too – in a copy of a built-in template it is already there.

If you want to give one of the variants completely different HTML, add the file cla_dlouhe-cteni.php, cla_fotoreportaz.php or cla_rozhovor.php to the folder. When it exists, it is used instead of cla_standard.php.

Shared styles and overriding them

The file image/web.css is loaded in all templates, after your style.css. It contains two groups of rules:

The basic look of shared elements – article tags, In brief, questions and answers, rating, comments, poll, advertising, block types. The rules are written in :where(), so they have zero specificity. Any rule in your style.css overrides them. Do not use !important.
Elements with an rs-… class – the photo gallery, the player, the article lock, the reader account, the language switcher. They have the specificity of one class; you override them with a selector one class stronger, for example .clanek-text .rs-zamek.

Write into style.css only what is to look different. Do not edit image/web.css; an update overwrites it.

Further rules:

Take the colour and fonts from the variables --rs-akcent, --rs-pismo-titulky and --rs-pismo-text with your own default value, for example --akcent: var(--rs-akcent, #326891). Only then will Site identity work.
Dark mode belongs at the end of style.css: @media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) { :root[data-tmavy] { … } }. base.php gives the <html> element the data-tmavy attribute according to the settings. Therefore write colours through variables.
No external fonts or scripts from a CDN.
The system adds image dimensions to the finished HTML by itself. For images with a fixed height in CSS, allow for the height attribute.

Permitted PHP syntax

A template is a presentation layer: it outputs the data it has received. PHP files saved through the Claude connection are checked by Core\SablonaKontrola, and a file that breaks the rules is not saved. The check is an allowlist – whatever is not explicitly permitted does not pass. The built-in templates pass it, so copies of them can be edited further. Keep to the same rules when working by hand.

Permitted	Forbidden
output `<?= e($x) ?>`, `if`, `foreach`, `for`, `while`, `match`	`include`, `require`, `eval`, backticks
closures: `$f = fn ($x) => …`, `$f = function () { … }`	named functions, `class`, `new`, `namespace`, importing classes through `use`
`$url('…')` and your own closures	calling another variable as a function, `$$x`, `${…}` in a string
`$web->get()`, `->int()`, `->bool()`	other object methods, class calls `Trida::metoda()`
functions for text, numbers, dates and arrays (`count`, `implode`, `mb_substr`, `number_format`, `date`, `array_map`, `preg_replace`…)	every other function: files, network, processes, database, reflection
a callback as a closure or `trim(...)`	a function name in a string (`'trim'`)
–	`$_GET`, `$_POST`, `$_COOKIE`, `$_SERVER`, `$_SESSION`, `$GLOBALS`, `$this`, `$app`, `$db`, `try`, `throw`, `exit`, `global`, `goto`, `clone`

The reason is security. A template runs on every page view with the same rights as the system. If it were allowed to read files or call the network, a single planted template would be enough to take over the site. The complete list of permitted functions is in system/src/Core/SablonaKontrola.php.

A stylesheet (.css) is checked only for the obsolete executable constructs expression( and behavior:. A single file may be at most 300 kB.

A template with the help of Claude

With the Claude connection extension turned on, Claude can create and edit a template through MCP – with an administrator account. For this it has tools for copying a built-in template, reading and saving a file, and switching the site to a template. It may write only into the folder of a custom template, only .php and .css files, and every PHP file goes through the check described above. After every save it receives the preview address /?sablona=…, which you open in your browser.

The setup is described on the page Claude connection. The rules for Claude working directly with the files are in layout/CLAUDE.md.