Hi Rolf

Thank you for sharing your solution. It is clear that we need to find a better solution to handle this. From where Joomla loads extension assets can be a bit confusing and can depend on a number of different factors (eg. Joomla version, child templates etc.) It might be best for us to create an option to set the asset source, overriding Joomla with a setting in the template style options. What do you think?

Ciaran

Hi Ciaran

Even that may be a little bit tricky. What about existing installations on template or Joomla updates? Can you check for existing custom.css in the two (or more?) possible locations? Can you copy an existing custom.css to the "old" location and force using it? What happens, if a custom.css sits in both locations?

I'm not sure whether you can figure out all possible variants. Maybe it's better to give clear advice in a tutorial what the webmaster should do. Similar to what I wrote in my post.

Rolf

Hi Ciaran

I plan to report this as a bug against J4.3. If I have done that, I will edit this post to include the issue number here.

Rolf

Update:
I will not report a bug against J4.3 for the moment. Maybe it would be better to follow your idea of offering one (or more) template options for the location of custom.css.

Hi Ciaran

I have investigated a little bit further:

I installed a site (updated.rolfdautrich.de) using Joomla 4.0.6. For Cassiopeia, I built a very basic user.css (body background in yellow) and copied it to /templates/cassiopeia/css (s. updated_J4.0.6_Cassiopeia_User.css.jpg).



In frontend, I checked whether the CSS was used (s. updated_J4.0.6_Cassiopeia_Frontend.jpg).



I also installed Skylar_J4 with a similarly simple custom.css in /templates/j51_skylar/css (s. updated_J4.0.6_SKYLAR_custom.css.jpg), and checked in frontend (s. updated_J4.0.6_SKYLAR_Frontend.jpg).





Afterward, I updated the site to the current Joomla 4.3.2.

Analysis of Cassiopeia's template files revealed that during the update process, the user.css was moved to /media/templates/site/cassiopeia/css (s. updated_J4.3.2_Cassiopeia_User.css.jpg).



On contrary, the custom.css in Skylar's template files remained in its previous place. Therefore, it was not used anymore: in frontend, the background didn't show any yellow. Only after moving it into the /media directory structure, it was used.

Remark: I did not encounter a 404 error, if there was no custom.css in the /template directory structure.

What I didn't test: Since I updated directly from 4.0.6 to 4.3.2, I don't know which update made the switch from the /template structure to the /media structure.

Later, I installed another site with the most recent Joomla version. It showed that the behavior of the site was identical to an updated site. user.css or custom.css must be placed in the /media directory structure to be used.

Regards

Rolf

Hi Rolf

My apologies for putting this topic on a very long finger. :/

Considering your detailed analysis of this topic, I believe the best option is to include a second with the option to enable the loading of a custom.css. This option will allow you to select between the following...

1. Default - Let Joomla decide on where to load template assets (current)
2. Template - Load the custom.css from the template folder (regardless of Joomla 4 version)
3. Media - Load the custom.css from the media folder (regardless of Joomla 4 version)
4. URL - Load from a URL of the users choice

Do you think this will cover all scenarios? If you believe so, then I will add the change to the Skylar template as a POC.

Ciaran

Hi Ciaran

This sounds like a solid solution. You might add some inline comments on typical scenarios:

• - Template: Typically correct for sites updated from "early" Joomla 4 versions.
  
• - Media: Typically correct for sites created from 4.3 (?) or later.
  

Regards

Rolf

Hi Rolf

I have created a new update of our Skylar template with the feature added. I will document with a further update. A few further options that might help...

- Allow the naming of the CSS file (eg. mycustom.css?
- Allow the addition of multiple files?

Ciaran

Hi Ciaran

I've downloaded V1.1.10 of Skylar_J4 and will test it starting tomorrow. Pls be aware that this download still incorporates the old version Call-to-Action 1.0.0.

About your ideas for potential further options:

• I've not seen many templates up to now, but all of those use either user.css or custom.css.
  
• It has always been obvious to me: If I use a template from Joomla51, I have to use custom.css.
  
• I don't see any added value in offering the option to use a different name for the CSS file.
  
• Allowing multiple files leads to an additional level of complexity. IMHO this only makes things more complicated: In which of my CSS files did I change the appearance of the login form? In which sequence will my CSS files get applied? ....
  

In short: I don't think that those options would really add value to your templates.

Rolf

Hi Ciaran

I have done some testing today. Here are my results:



I got the impression that there has been some change in behavior between Joomla 4.3.1 (which I used, when I posted in your forum) and 4.3.3 (which I used for today's tests).

The tests revealed positive results. IMHO, you can use your approach for your templates. However, in my opinion you should use "Default" for the button instead of "Asset Manager".

Rolf


Update: I also installed the new template version on one of my "real" sites (as opposed to the test sites mentioned above). This is an old site, migrated from J2.5 to J3 and finally to J4. Here, the default (or "Asset Manager" ) setting was wrong. I had to use the "Template" setting instead. This worked as expected.

Hi Rolf

Thank you for your detailed analysis and suggestions. It is very much appreciated.

I have just created a new update to the Skylar amending the button label from 'Asset Manager' to 'Default' as per your suggestion. Your points on adding options for naming and multiple sources are valid so for now I will leave it as is. In time I will apply this feature to all templates that allow the loading of a custom CSS file.

Ciaran