PolyCMS Theme Management

Theme System Overview

Themes control the entire frontend appearance and layout of your PolyCMS blog. Navigate to Blog > Themes to manage installed themes.

Theme Listing

The Themes page displays all installed themes in a grid layout:

• Theme name, version, and author
• Theme description
• Active/Inactive status indicator
• Activate/Deactivate toggle
• Theme Options link (for the active theme)

Installing a Theme

ZIP Upload

1. Navigate to Blog > Themes.
2. Click Upload Theme.
3. Select a .zip file containing the theme package.
4. The system validates the ZIP contents, scans for security threats, and extracts the theme to modules/polycms/themes/.
5. After installation, click Activate to enable the theme.

Manual Installation

Upload the theme folder directly to modules/polycms/themes/ via FTP or file manager.

Theme Security

When uploading themes via ZIP, PolyCMS performs security scanning:

• Strips potentially dangerous PHP functions
• Validates file extensions within the archive
• Uses polycms_validate_file_path to prevent directory traversal attacks

Theme Options

Active themes can register a Theme Options settings panel accessible from the Themes page. Theme Options allow administrators to configure:

• Site logo and favicon
• Color schemes and layout preferences
• Header and footer settings
• Social media links
• Custom CSS injection

Theme developers define available options using the Theme Options API. See Building a Custom Theme for implementation details.

Bundled Theme: Head Random

PolyCMS ships with the Head Random theme, providing:

• Modern, responsive layout built with Bootstrap 5
• Dark header with logo and search integration
• Mobile-friendly hamburger navigation
• Sidebar with widget support
• SEO-optimized markup
• Clean post and page templates

For detailed configuration, see Theme: Head Random.

Template Hierarchy

Themes follow a standard template hierarchy. PolyCMS looks for template files in this order:

single.php      → Individual post view
category.php    → Category archive
tag.php         → Tag archive
page.php        → Static page
archive.php     → Date-based archives
search.php      → Search results
index.php       → Fallback for all views

Themes can also provide custom page templates (e.g., page-contact.php) that become selectable in the page editor.

Related Documentation

• Building a Custom Theme — Developer guide for creating themes from scratch.
• Theme: Head Random — Configuration guide for the bundled default theme.
• Widgets & Sidebars — Configure widgets within theme-defined areas.