For those who are interested, I wrote a developer blog post on the fallback theme architecture: https://developers.suitecommerce.com/fallback-themes-architecture.html

Nice post @Steve Goldberg. I actually migrated our existing theme over to that architecture for the 2024.1 release and HIGHLY recommend this method of theme customization over the more traditional way.

I am pleased to see you highly recommend it!

Just a quick few notes and tips off the top of my head.... • Start Fresh ◦ DO NOT try to migrate an existing or legacy theme to this new architecture by updating/editing the manifest. ◦ Create / use a new "name" and "fantasyname" for this theme. ▪︎ Example. I use precious stones to name major versions of our theme. The old one was "Company Theme - Amber" and the new one is named "Company Theme - Topaz" • Take your time ◦ Do not do a blanket copy and paste of old theme files to the new architecture ◦ Migrate customization in sections or 1 Module at a time. Do not try to move everything at once then test or deploy • Be comfortable with a DIFF UI program. ◦ Very helpful to compare old customization to new Base Theme and move changes accordingly • Keep 1 or MORE backup copies of you current theme files in another directory outside your project area. • become comfortable with the command

gulp theme:local

◦ You may and most likely will need to cancel and restart this utility as you work I could probably add 10 more points if need be 🤪 One last note. I will say with this new architecture, the number of files in our themes Modules folder to manage and work with went from about 1,150 to 238. Basically I now only have 238 files that are customized in some way that overrides the base theme

Great write-up, Steve! We see many positive aspects of this approach. Thank you to all the developers who helped make this update possible. However, we've noticed that when running local, you seem to have to restart local when editing template or sass files.

Anytime you add a new file to the custom theme you MUST restart local for the local process to see it. There was the occasional time I would have to restart to see changes but most of the time the gulp local command would catch and re-render output when editing css or template files. UNLESS you had bad syntax which would crash the process. Which I don't mind.

This is great @Steve Goldberg for those that use the Base Theme. Unfortunately, my theme is a customized version of the Threads Theme. Any timeline on other bundled themes?

@Eric Schultz Thanks for the tips. Really helpful for others and us to get your perspective

Cool. Thanks Steve!

the article says only the base theme is supported? any eta on the other themes?

Soon ™️

Sorry .... couldn't resist .....