Suitecrm: 7.11.8 removes ability to use custom _head.tpl file

Created on 17 Sep 2019 · 3Comments · Source: salesagility/SuiteCRM

Issue

Prior to 7.11.8 you could place a custom file custom/themes/SuiteP/tpls/_head.tpl and it would be used by the application.

Since the update, the path is hardcoded and does not check the custom directory.

This file controls the <head> section of the page. It was a nice place to add global javascript/css dependencies. (ie. bring in a third party library, etc).

Many platforms (ecommerce, website, etc) give folks a way to add scripts to the head - it's a common use case. So it's disappointing to have the feature removed.

Expected Behavior

A file placed in custom/themes/SuiteP/tpls/_head.tpl will be loaded by the app.

Actual Behavior

The path to the _head.tpl file is hardcoded in header.tpl and cannot be modified without overwriting core.

See #7591

Possible Fix

@connorshea suggested a plugin here

Steps to Reproduce

Add a file to the custom directory : custom/themes/SuiteP/tpls/_head.tpl. Let this file contain some custom javascript or something
QRR and see if your file gets loaded

Context

I was using _head.tpl to load Global javascript libraries from a cdn.

Your Environment

SuiteCRM Version used: 7.11.8
Browser name and version (e.g. Chrome Version 51.0.2704.63 (64-bit)):Chrome
Environment name and version (e.g. MySQL, PHP 7):LAMP
Operating System and version (e.g Ubuntu 16.04):LAMP

Important Fix Proposed Bug

Source

tsummerer

Most helpful comment

@Dillon-Brown and @connorshea,

I just came accoss this issue, because I wanted to create a custom version of the themes/SuiteP/include/DetailView/tab_panel_content.tpl template. This template is also included with a fixed path in the DetailView.tpl file.

Wouldn't it be much clearer, to look for a custom template file each time a template is included (as @pgorod suggested)? The current fix just solves the _head.tpl issue.

I propose to extend the Smarty.php function _smarty_include in include/Sugar_Smarty.php

/**
 * called for included templates
 *
 * @param string $_smarty_include_tpl_file
 * @param string $_smarty_include_vars
 */

function _smarty_include($params)
{
    $params['smarty_include_tpl_file'] = get_custom_file_if_exists($params['smarty_include_tpl_file']);
    parent::_smarty_include($params);
}

This leverages the get_custom_file_if_exists function and allows developers to customize all included templates. Currently it is necessary to copy all template files for the specific view, because it is only looked for a custom version of the view's base tpl file.

I moreover think that it would be good practice to slice the large SuiteP tpl files into more granular pieces. For example, the tab_panel_content.tpl file could be sliced into one file for the bootstrap grid, which includes a second tpl that produces a single field's html.

In combination with the above addition to the Sugar_Smarty.php file, this allows developers to more granually adjust the theme to individual needs in a more upgrade safe manner.

PS: Happy to provide the PR for the above extension and/or the split of the tpl files, if that's of interest...

HVStechnik on 13 Oct 2019

👍3

All 3 comments

Hmm, one fix I guess would be to replace { include file="themes/SuiteP/tpls/_head.tpl" } with this:

{{ if file_exists('custom/themes/SuiteP/tpls/_head.tpl') }}
  { include file="custom/themes/SuiteP/tpls/_head.tpl" }
{{ else }}
  { include file="themes/SuiteP/tpls/_head.tpl" }
{{/if}}

(I don't think file_exists is actually valid, we'd need to figure out whatever PHP function would work)

connorshea on 18 Sep 2019

Like José (@Abuelodelanada) suggested somewhere (on Gitter?) we should add a custom Smarty function to emulate our get_custom_file_if_exists PHP function, then we could use it anywhere in tpls.

Here is an example of such an addition, from a recent PR he made: https://github.com/salesagility/SuiteCRM/pull/7813/files

It doesn't look too hard to do...

pgorod on 18 Sep 2019