Shondalai Templates Documentation
Shondalai Templates is a collection of seven commerce-ready Joomla templates, all built on the shared Template Studio framework. This documentation covers choosing a template, installing it, configuring it visually, building custom pages, and managing your licence.
The collection at a glance
Every template in the collection is a complete storefront design for Joomla. All seven run on the same Template Studio engine, so once you have learned to configure one you can configure any of them. Your custom pages and your configuration workflow carry over when you switch templates.
Each template installs as a single Joomla package containing:
- The site template itself
- The shared Template Studio framework
- The Studio Pages page builder component
- The Shondalai License Manager plugin
- A system plugin that powers the live preview
- A sample data plugin that builds a full demo store in a few clicks
What Template Studio gives you
Template Studio is a visual configuration app that opens when you edit your template style in System → Site Template Styles. Instead of long plain forms, you work in a tabbed app with a full-screen live preview of your site.
| Area | What you can do |
|---|---|
| Design presets | Pick a ready-made colour and typography preset, then override the accent colour, font pairing, corner radius, and light or dark colour scheme |
| Brand | Set your store name, tagline, logo, and a separate logo for dark surfaces |
| Layout | Choose a header style, sticky header, top bar with announcement text and social icons, boxed or full-width layout, and product grid density |
| Navigation | Build mega menu panels with links, categories, products, banners, HTML, or module columns, and attach icons to menu items |
| Modules | Arrange your template's module positions on a 12-column layout grid |
| Storefront home | Let the template take over your home page with hero, trust bar, featured products, category tiles, story, and newsletter sections |
| Footer | Build footer link columns, legal links, a brand blurb, and payment method badges |
| Studio Pages | Build custom pages such as About, FAQ, and campaign landings from ready-made sections, themed automatically by your active template |
| Advanced | Add custom CSS, head and body scripts, an analytics ID, and extra body classes |
| License | Activate your Shondalai licence to unlock automatic updates through the Joomla updater |
The template lineup
| Template | Personality | Presets | Demo store |
|---|---|---|---|
| Forge | Precision workshop with editorial monochrome restraint | 2 | Forge Works, workshop-grade hand tools |
| Pulse | Energetic, conversion-forward direct-to-consumer style | 2 | Pulse Supply, street-ready activewear |
| Kaffa | Specialty coffee roastery on a warm paper canvas with serif headlines | 3 | Kaffa Roasters, specialty coffee |
| Meridian | Warm editorial commerce with a cream canvas and rounded cards | 4 | Meridian Living, handmade homeware |
| Basket | Bold big-box retail with deal chips and a departments mega menu | 4 | Basket, everyday-low-prices superstore |
| Mercantile | Warm editorial ivory paper with coral, lime, and lilac accents | 3 | Mercantile & Co, curated everyday goods |
| Shondalai | Professional software marketplace with navy, blue, and coral branding | 5 | Shondalai, extension marketplace |
Every template ships several design presets, and each preset can be adjusted further with your own accent colour, fonts, and corner radius. See the template gallery for a closer look at each design.
Requirements
| Requirement | Minimum |
|---|---|
| Joomla | 5.4 or newer, including Joomla 6 |
| PHP | 8.1 or newer |
| EasyCommerce | Optional, see the note below |
Every template works as a standard Joomla template without EasyCommerce. You need EasyCommerce installed and enabled for the store features: the storefront home page, cart and account actions in the header, shop category columns in mega menus, the demo store sample data, and the Product grid section in Studio Pages.
How this documentation is organised
| Section | Start with | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Getting started | Installation | Installing a template package, activating the style, and loading the demo store sample data |
| Templates | Template gallery | Each of the seven templates, their presets, and how to choose between them |
| Configuration | Template Studio overview | Every tab of the Template Studio app, from design presets to the footer builder |
| Pages | Studio Pages overview | Building custom pages from sections and publishing them with menu items |
| Licensing | Activation | Activating your licence and receiving automatic updates |
| FAQ | Frequently Asked Questions | Quick answers to the most common questions and gotchas |