Layout Builder
Use drag'n'drop technology to make your new layout in less than a minute!
Sparky's Layout Builder is where you create layout for your new website in few simple steps.
- Click "Add Row" button to make some rows.
- All module positions and special elements are represented as cells. Drag some of them into the rows.
- To resize the cells horizontally, drag their edges left and right. To move them within the row, use left and right arrow buttons.
- Remove cells from the rows by dragging them back to the container of the module positions.
- Change order of the rows by dragging the entire row up or down.
- Add specific name and/or class to any row to select it and style it through CSS.
- Delete rows by clicking the X buttons.
In the background, Sparky creates layout fully automatically according to the settings from the Layout Builder.
Flexible System
No predefined layout! Your site can have strict or unusual layout. You can set custom fixed width or use fluid width! You can set gutter value. Absolutely no restrictions!
Sparky is different from other frameworks because it doesn't limit you in any way. It's based on 12 columns grid, but you can select width of your website according to your needs. You can also select gutter size (margins between cells) as well as padding of the cells. This grid can also be flexible, if you are working on a website that has a fluid width (100% width).
Sparky also doesn't have a predefined layout like many other frameworks. Using the Layout Builder, you can create your own layout according to your design in less than a minute. This brings you freedom, but doesn't make things too complicated. If you use Sparky, your website won't look similar as all other Sparky users' websites. Sparky can follow your design guidelines in full.
Style Designer
Control of the most important graphic and text elements is integrated in Sparky.
CSS has hundreds of commands, so don't expect that you can control everything without writing the CSS stylesheets manually. However, if you need to edit the most common properties (such as color, font-size...) of the most common tags (such as H1, H2, H3, H4, p...), you can do it entirely through the Sparky's Style Designer.
Website's background is something that you'd probably need to define. Sparky allows you to pick a solid background color as well as background image. If you are about to use an image, several parameters such as repeating and centering can be controlled through the Style Designer.
Responsive
Sparky can create responsive websites. But you can also disable this feature.
As the percent of the mobile Internet users grows, you should consider making your website mobile friendly. Sparky is responsive, but this feature can also be disabled, if you want all users to see the identical version of your website.
Menu Control
Sparky "knows" what menus your site has. For each of them, you can assign various menu systems and then control the menu system's parameters for this menu.
Menus are collections of links used as a navigation throughout the website. Sparky helps you to make your navigation. It lists all the menus available in Joomla. For each menu, you can select whether to control its appearance through Sparky or not.
It's possible to select several menu types, such as drop-down, classic, accordion and horizontal menu. Each of those menu types has its own settings, so you can control everything under the Menus tab.
You can also control your menus yourself by writing custom CSS code. In this case simply select None for menu type. This option is selected by default after installation of Sparky.
Another interesting option regarding the menus is under the Responsive tab. If you have drop-down menu in your site, Sparky can convert it into the selectbox for mobile users (if it can't fit the screen size).
Cool Features
A handful of some interesting and useful features that you might need.
Sparky doesn't need any supporting extensions.
Install template and you have Sparky Framework 100% ready!
This is a collection of "toys" for your site that you might (or might not) find useful. In some occasions, they can save a lot of time.
- Type your textual logo and slogan and control font's appearance or select a logo image.
- Top panel converts the first row from Layout Builder into a button. Click on that button will show the content of the first row.
- Font resize allows users to change font size on website. To enable this feature, drag "fontresize" box into any row in Layout Builder.
- Google Analytics can be activated just by entering your account's id.
- Google Web Fonts tab is where you paste code snippets if you'd like to use specific non-standard fonts from Google.
- Scroll To Top button appears when user is in the lower part of your website.
- Equal Heights equalize heights of all modules within selected rows using JavaScript.
Valid, Optimized, Fast
Websites based on Sparky would have a valid code and would load fast.
The parts of the code that Sparky produces is valid, according to the W3C. Keeping your code valid is recommended for better indexing by search engines and consistent look of your website in all browsers.
Sparky loads only the features that you really use, not everything. CSS code that's dynamically generated has not been written on the page (inline). It's loaded from the dynamically generated CSS file. This file doesn't contain everything, but only the pieces of code that your site really uses.
Export Your Work
Another unique feature! Just think out the name of your new template... Sparky does the rest and creates the template for you!
This is the unique feature that only Sparky has! The Export tab has only one parameter. But, you'll love it because it allows you to export your work into the new installable Joomla template powered by Sparky, with all parameters and options kept.
You're just one click away from the new template for your website or your client's website.
Documentation & Tutorials
Learn how to create websites using Sparky
We prepared several written lessons and video tutorials that will guide you through the development of your website with Sparky. Everything will be covered, from the installation of Sparky to the export of your new template. You will finish this serie of tutorials with fully functional Joomla website.
The main aim of these tutorials is to show off the most functions of Sparky to you. After you accomplish this fast course, you would be able to create your own websites. Please keep in mind, it's assumed that you already understand Joomla and how it works, and that you have at least beginner knowledge of CSS.
- Lesson 1: Installation of Sparky Framework generic template
- Lesson 2: How Layout Builder makes the skeleton of your website
- Lesson 3: Set text styles and use Google Web Fonts
- Lesson 4: Configuration of top menu with drop-downs and classic menu
- Lesson 5: Adding some additional features to the website
- Lesson 6: Check how Sparky works on mobile devices
- Lesson 7: Exporting template
