Use different sets of template files, e.g. based on hostname
Problem
You want to use a different location than site/templates when storing your template files - or use different sets of template files in parallel, based on a certain switch.
Solution
You are able to overrule this setting from the site/config.php as follows
$config->urls->templates = $config->urls->site . 'mytemplates/';
$config->paths->templates = $config->paths->site . 'mytemplates/';A trick one can use when developing in a live site is to duplicate the template folder and rename the copy to templates-dev. Then make sure have an other domain (or subdomain) pointing to the hosting, for example dev.domain.ext and for the live site on www.domain.ext.
With the following code you can access the development templates while normal visitors keep getting the default templates.
/**
* Development example: Alias for template-dev access
*
*/
if($_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] == 'dev.domain.ext') {
$config->urls->templates = $config->urls->site . 'templates-dev/';
$config->paths->templates = $config->paths->site . 'templates-dev/';
$config->debug = true;
}You can make up all kind of ‘rules’/conditions to go by when overruling the templates folder with php from the config.php file.
For example serving the same site with different layout and code for mobile on m.domain.ext:
/**
* Mobile example: Alias for template-mobile access
*
*/
if($_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] == 'm.domain.ext') {
$config->urls->templates = $config->urls->site . 'templates-mobile/';
$config->paths->templates = $config->paths->site . 'templates-mobile/';
}