Two important settings for controlling custom layouts are the "Default Layout" and "Base Layout"
settings in the Look and Feel Settings ->
Advanced Display Settings screen of the administrator.
The "Default Layout" setting tells SoftSlate Commerce which layout to give users by default, if the layout is
not specified on the URL. Initially, it is set to "custom", meaning that fresh visitors coming
to site will get the templates in the /WEB-INF/layouts/custom
directory, if they exist. However, since the custom directory is
empty when SoftSlate Commerce is first initialized, in effect visitors see the templates in
the "Base Layout" directory when the store is first installed. For implementations initally installed before
version 2.3, the "Base Layout" is /WEB-INF/layouts/default.
For implementations initally installed with
version 2.3 through version 3.3.1, the "Base Layout" is /WEB-INF/layouts/default-xhtml.
For implementations initally installed with
version 3.3.2 or later, the "Base Layout" is /WEB-INF/layouts/default-html5.
To clarify, here are the steps SoftSlate Commerce takes to determine which JSP template to use for a given user:
- SoftSlate Commerce first looks for a request parameter on the URL or posted in a
form named
layout. If this parameter exists, its value is placed in the user's session and is carried with the user until the session expires. - If the user's
layouthas been set, SoftSlate Commerce looks for the JSP template under a directory of the same name, inside the/WEB-INF/layoutsdirectory. In other words, if the user'slayouthas been set tospecial, the system uses the JSP templates inside the/WEB-INF/layouts/specialdirectory. - If a given template does not exist under the directory defined by the
layoutparameter, the system next looks inside a directory of the same name as the Default Layout setting defined in theLook and Feel Settings -> Advanced Display Settingsscreen. By default, this would be the/WEB-INF/layouts/customdirectory. - If the template still cannot be found, the system uses the
directory of the same name as the Base Layout setting to find the
template (
/WEB-INF/layouts/default-html5if after version 3.3.2).
![[Tip]](images/tip.png) | Tip |
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For complete details on how to set up multiple custom layouts, refer to the Multiple Custom Layouts section. |