Methods for customizing T3 framework & template

[name7]

I built a site on T3 + t3_bs3_blank.

Step 1 - I made a few clones of the base t3_bs3_blank template, named the clones and assigned them to different menu items, and then gave each its own unique layout.

Step 2 - I copied a few of the LESS files from ../templates/t3_bs3_blank/less into the ../templates/t3_bs3_blank/local/less folder, and then I made all my style customizations to those 'local' less files.

Everything worked as expected until I loaded the JoomDonation extension.

The JD extension functions all worked properly except for the JD secondary functions, such as the Thank You landing page that should display after a transaction success, or the customer Thank You + Receipt email that should be sent after a transaction success. These didn't work at all. The template sent the user back to the purchase page, and no email was sent.

I consulted with JD developer, he said it was a template problem and showed me that the extension was working properly in Protostar. I consulted with JoomlArt, they did not help at all.

I read posts on this forum and decided that my best hope may be to start over with a fresh joomla and fresh t3 and fresh JD install, then test the JD extension, then if it works, use my personal site-build documentation to re-do my customizations in stages, testing at each step to see which customization (if any) breaks the JD functions.

I have now finished all of this work up through the red-letter stage above, and the JD extension is working perfectly! I was happy about that!

So now I am ready to begin re-doing my customizations.

Finally - my question:

Rather than adding 5 different less files to the local folder and making various customizations within each of those files,
can I simply create 1 less file called mycustom.less, and save the empty file to both:
../templates/t3_bs3_blank/less/
and also
../templates/t3_bs3_blank/local/less/

and then add [ @import "mycustom.less"; ] to the template.less file in the
../templates/t3_bs3_blank/less/ folder?

I assume if I do this, then i will have to add the import call back to templates.less after each update because template.less is not 'local'.

If I put the mycustom.less import call at the bottom of template.less, will the customizations reliably overwrite the declarations in all the preceding less files simply because the mycustom.less file is called last?

My objective is to have all of my less customizations in one file instead of spread across 5 files.

I know I can find the answer myself by experimenting and testing, but I am short on time and also leary of breaking T3 again, and so I would be grateful for thoughts from joomla experts on why or why not this method of customizing t3 less files is a good idea.

Thanks!

[CyrusXxX]

To my knowledge T3 will disregard any less files except of its own.
You have noticed that folder named extra?
Less files which you put in there will get called and you can compile them. For example in any t3 joomlart commercial template which uses some third party component for example Virtuemart in many cases you have that tab in template settings for loading extra styles which are located in that extra named folder.

Create a folder named: less/extras, put inside your.less,
compile less to css,
your.css is created inside: local/css/extras/your.css
and for the last declare your.css inside etc/assets.xml

Or you can simply create custom.css file and put all of your customization's there and they are gonna be safe when updating and get called.

Also I need to mention that when I used this method it was 2-3 years back and not sure if it will work now with latest t3 version.

Hope it helps.

[name7]

Thanks for the tip Cyrus, I will try this out and see if it still works!

[CyrusXxX]

Thanks for the tip Cyrus, I will try this out and see if it still works!

You are welcome name7, let me know if it is still valid.