Out of the Box Theme Overview
- Melissa Chavira
After you request a new site and have completed the mandatory training, you will be added to a new site sandbox. Please note that your new site may not be enabled for publishing at this time. For new sites, you must submit a go-live request before the necessary transports are added and mapped to your site domain name.
Table of Contents
Default Site Asset Tree
The default site asset tree on the left displays includes 6 main elements. It includes:
Site Name - This will include your site name or domain name.
_assets folder - This folder contains all of the primary assets for your copy of the theme. Do not delete this folder. View more details regarding the _assets folder below.
_Site Configuration folder - This contains all of the blocks needed to configure your site. For example, your Masthead Setup and Footer Builder blocks are located in this folder. Do not delete this folder.
images folder - an empty folder created for you to use as a location to keep your image assets. You can delete or rename this folder if needed.
Primary Blocks - The _Navigation Builder and _Theme Customizer blocks are two of the most important site blocks. Do not move or delete these blocks.
Read Me Block - This block is meant to be used as a guide to get started in configuring your site. It includes all of the necessary steps to set up your configurations. You may delete this block at any time.
Contents of the _assets Folder
Do not delete the _assets folder. Doing so will remove important files and needed configurations for your site to work properly.
The _assets folder contains all of the primary assets for your copy of the theme. It includes:
_cascade folder - This folder is the most important folder in the _assets folder collection. It contains all of the necessary files to keep your theme functioning properly. Details regarding the contents of _cascade folder are below.
demo - This folder includes various images used in the demo pages.
img - this folder includes various images bundled with your theme for your use such as backgrounds and campus beauty shots.
svg - this folder includes various SVG graphics that are bundled with your theme. Inside this folder is where you will find a copy of the social media icons used to build your footer.
Contents of the _cascade Folder
The _cascade folder contains all of the relevant files and folders needed for your site configurations to work properly.
About Primary Blocks
The _Navigation Builder and _Theme Customizer blocks are two of the most important site blocks. Do not move or delete these blocks.
One of the biggest updates to the new theme, is the creation of a Navigation Builder. This was created to streamline the process to maintain and update site navigation using the Cascade CMS interface. This allows site editors the ability to customize navigation without needing to touch HTML code.
The _Theme Customizer block is similar to the setup block from the legacy theme. The role of the _Theme Customizer block in Theme 4v1.1 is to set the Masthead and Footer builder blocks, set up your site breadcrumbs, and add any custom CSS or JS files.
The Masthead and Footer blocks are pre-configured in the out of the box theme. If you create a new masthead or footer block and would like to apply them site-wide, you would use the _Theme Customizer to apply those changes.