Question Creating own Kunena-Templates

Hi.

Is there any documentation or guidance available on creating your own Kunena (not Joomla) template?
So that it can also be installed/uninstalled/managed via the Kunena menu.

Global instructions (might not be 100% accurate) and you should be aware that custom templates need a lot of maintenance as some template files are subject to change with Kunena versions. You might want to check existing Kunena templates .

1. Understand Kunena Template Structure: A Kunena template is essentially a folder (e.g., my_kunena_template) within your Joomla components/com_kunena/template directory, containing CSS, JS, images, and layout overrides.
2. Start from an Existing Template: copy Aurelia as a base for modification.
3. Customize Files:
       CSS: Modify scss files in assets folder for styling.
       HTML/Layouts: Edit files in the layouts folder for layout changes (e.g., category/list/default.php, message/item/default.php).
4. Create or modify template.xml and kunena_tmpl_aurelia.xml (rename to your own template name): This XML file describes your template to Joomla (name, version, author, files to install) and is crucial for installation.
5. Package as a ZIP: Zip the entire template folder (e.g., my_kunena_template) into a single .zip file.

Pinkeltje wrote:

Global instructions

1. Create or modify template.xml and kunena_tmpl_aurelia.xml (rename to your own template name): This XML file describes your template to Joomla (name, version, author, files to install) and is crucial for installation.

Hello.
Does your guide on creating a template also apply to Kunena 7?
I haven’t managed to get my custom template to work on Kunena 7.0.3 and Joomla 6.0.4 (I tried Kunena 7.4, but ran into issues and reverted to 7.0.3).

I copied the Aurelia folder, modified the two manifests in it (template.xml and kunena_tmpl_mykunenat.xml), created a .zip file, and installed it, but I ran into problems again on my local WAMP server.

So I decided to conduct a clean experiment. I created a fresh Joomla 6 site on Joomla.com, installed Kunena 7.0.3 there and installed mykunenat.zip.
But I found that my template simply wouldn’t become the default.

Is there something wrong with my manifests, or is there something else that needs to be done additionally somewhere? Or is this a Kunena issue? 

template.xml:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE kinstall>
<kinstall type="kunena-template" version="4.0" method="upgrade">
     <name>mykunenat</name>
    <version>1.1</version>
    <creationDate>2026-04-19</creationDate>
    <author>author</author>
    <authorEmail>[email protected]
    <authorUrl> geschichte-chronologie.de
    <copyright>GPL</copyright>
    <license>GNU/GPL</license>
    <description>Useful Template for Kunena 7 (based on Aurelia)</description>
    <thumbnail>template_thumbnail.png</thumbnail>
    <targetversion version="7.0" />
</kinstall>
---
kunena_tmpl_mykunenat.xml:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE kinstall>
<kinstall type="kunena-template" version="4.0" method="upgrade">
    <name>mykunenat</name>
    <version>1.1</version>
    <creationDate>2026-04-19</creationDate>
    <author>author</author>
    <authorEmail>[email protected]
    <authorUrl> geschichte-chronologie.de
    <copyright>GPL</copyright>
    <license>GNU/GPL</license>
    <description>Useful Template for Kunena 7 (based on Aurelia)</description>
    <thumbnail>template_thumbnail.png</thumbnail>
</kinstall>Is there something wrong with my manifests, or is this a Kunena issue?



Thank you.

Hi @lemur,
If possible, please send me your custom template. I will help you edit it and possibly install it on the Kunena component. My emai: 9themestore[at]gmail.com

Kind regards,