The following files are necessary when creating your own Joomla template:
index.php - your main template file that is the heart of every joomla page created. templateDetails.xml - allows Joomla to recognize the template style.css - your Cascading Style Sheet component.php - a smaller version of the index.php file, used primarily for when a page is being printed.
The standard templateDetails.xml file contains the following code:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <!DOCTYPE install PUBLIC "-//Joomla! 1.5//DTD template 1.0//EN" "http://dev.joomla.org/xml/1.5/template-install.dtd"> <install version="1.5" type="template"> <name>mynewtemplate</name> <creationDate>2008-05-01</creationDate> <author>John Doe</author> <authorEmail>john@example.com</authorEmail> <authorUrl>http://www.example.com</authorUrl> <copyright>John Doe 2008</copyright> <license>GNU/GPL</license> <version>1.0.2</version> <description>My New Template</description> <files> <filename>index.php</filename> <filename>component.php</filename> <filename>templateDetails.xml</filename> <filename>template_thumbnail.png</filename> <filename>images/background.png</filename> <filename>css/style.css</filename> </files> <positions> <position>breadcrumb</position> <position>left</position> <position>right</position> <position>top</position> <position>user1</position> <position>user2</position> <position>user3</position> <position>user4</position> <position>footer</position> </positions> </install> The main framework for the index.php file (which can be added to):<?php defined( '_JEXEC' ) or die( 'Restricted access' );?> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="<?php echo $this->language; ?>" lang="<?php echo $this->language; ?>" > <head> <jdoc:include type="head" /> <link rel="stylesheet" href="<?php echo $this->baseurl ?> /templates/mynewtemplate/css/style.css" type="text/css" /> </head> <body> <jdoc:include type="modules" name="top" /> <jdoc:include type="component" /> <jdoc:include type="modules" name="bottom" /> </body> </html>This is your framework, customize the layout for your site and see what happens.
More information is available on the Joomla documentation site.