question Better to Create New Theme or Modify the Existing EC Theme in Employee Slate and Employee Center forum

Better to Create New Theme or Modify the Existing EC Theme

Justin21 — Wed, 05 Apr 2023 03:49:46 GMT

Is it better to modify the existing EC theme if we are just changing the colour of a few things?

Or is it better to do an insert and stay on the EC theme and modify the new record? I notice though with this option things look weird in Employee Center after I replace the OOTB EC theme with the modified theme.

Any one have suggestions?

Re: Better to Create New Theme or Modify the Existing EC Theme

Mark Roethof — Wed, 05 Apr 2023 04:21:21 GMT

Hi there,

Personally in general if it's small changes, like changing the value for $background-primary, then I update the existing theme record. If it's about additional turning the theme completely up side down, I would consider creating a new one (do be aware, insert and stay: existing CSS Includes or JS Includes are not copied with that > that might also be the issue you are referring to). If it's about adding additional CSS, I'd rather use CSS Includes.

Kind regards,
Mark

Re: Better to Create New Theme or Modify the Existing EC Theme

JD Barlow — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 15:22:35 GMT

Hi Mark - I too have this same question and it sounds like if we're just changing colors/fonts/font sizes then modifying the OOB EC Theme is ok. My concern is, will this file be overwritten with ServiceNow upgrades?

When should we consider creating a custom theme file? If we do, would it be best practice to copy the contents of the OOB EC Theme and re-associate all of the OOB CSS or JS includes?

One last question - do you know if there is a "cheat sheet" that further describes what the variables in the EC Theme file control?

Thank you!