Customizing Blesta

[Cody]

You can customize just about anything you'd like in Blesta, including language, look & feel, and much more very easily. Below you will find a few hints and tips for customizing your copy of Blesta. The possibilities are endless!


Language

Thinking of translating Blesta into another language, or do think the default wording is a little too confusing? The default language file is en-us.php, located in the /language/ directory. It is recommended that you first make a backup of this file before you edit it. If you're creating a new language file, copy en-us.php and open it up. Be sure to save this file in UTF-8 encoding. If you do not save this file in UTF-8 your language file will not work correctly.

Below is an example of a line from the language file:

PHP Code:

define("_TT_PACKAGES_INSTANTACT", "Set this to \"True\" to allow clients to add services using this package, otherwise set to \"False\"."); 


Notice each line has the syntax: define("_DEFINE_NAME", "Text");

All you need to edit is the "Text" portion. It is important that each line be formated exactly as above. Also be sure that any double quote (") marks, or dollar signs ($) must be escaped by backslashes (\). You may also add HTML in your language as well such as the <br /> tag.

TIP: Each constant contains an underscore (_) as its first character (with some exceptions). This allows constants to be clearly visible within the code, as well as prevents future versions of PHP from conflicting with them. It is recommended that you follow the same naming convention when creating your own language constants.

TIP: Do you want to become famous? Help contribute to Blesta by submitting your translated language file in our Template Creation forum.


Look and Feel

Customizing Blesta to match your website is an important factor in user experience. So you'd like your client control panel to match your existing site, right? Not a problem. The easiest, and most highly recommended, way to do this is to simply edit the CSS and images included with Blesta. Here's how to do that:

1. Copy the default directory in /templates/
2. Rename this directory to something like "backup" (we'll need it just in case we screw up).
3. Open the CSS directory in /templates/default/css/. You'll want to edit master.css, and maybe calendar.css if you feel the urge.
4. While editing the CSS you may wish to play around with the images as well. They're located in /templates/default/images/.

If you REALLY want to get your hands dirty you can work on the actual template files as well. It's best to read up on the template listing before you get started on this.

TIP: Unless you really have it, it's best to only edit the CSS and images as updates to Blesta often heavily modify the templates and going back and fixing these can be a pain. If you feel to must modify the templates try sticking with the client templates only, as these will not likely be updated as frequently as the admin templates.


Modules & Gateways

Creating your own Modules & Gateways is relatively simple if you're an experienced PHP programmer. Read up on the Module and Gateway documentation and look at the existing modules and gateways included with your installation to learn how to create these.


Using the API

The Blesta API allows you to perform many different operations easily. To learn more about the Blesta API read the API documentation.


Creating Your Own Pages

Interested in adding your own custom pages to Blesta? Contact us and we'll send you an example page with detailed comments that will help get you started.