Advanced Customization

Child Theme

Croster supports WHMCS child themes so you can customize templates without editing the core Croster theme files. This keeps your changes safe when Croster is updated.

Why use a child theme?

• Keep customizations separate from the main Croster package
• Safer upgrades — your overrides stay in the child theme
• Override only the files you need

Create a child theme

Create the child theme folder

/templates/your-child-theme/

Example:

/templates/my-croster/

Add theme.yaml

  Create theme.yaml inside your child theme folder: 

parent: croster is required.  

Copy croster.tpl

After copying croster.tpl: “Do not delete or rename this file.”

Copy the assets Directory (required)

The child theme uses its own assets directory to load CSS, JavaScript, fonts, and images. Copying this directory ensures the child theme functions correctly without modifying the original Croster assets. after a Croster update, re-copy /assets/.

Activate the child theme

WHMCS Admin → System Settings → General Settings → General → System Theme.

Override Template Files

  Copy only the .tpl files you want to change from Croster into the same relative path in your child theme.

Example:

Any file not present in the child theme is loaded automatically from Croster (and then Twenty-One if needed).

Note: When overriding template files, your child theme must use the same folder structure as the Croster parent theme.

Croster sections

Croster is designed to be flexible and easy to customize without modifying the original theme files. All section template (.tpl) files are provided unencoded, allowing you to review the available variables and understand how each section is structured.  

To ensure your customizations remain update-safe, we recommend using Overrides instead of editing the original template files directly. This approach allows you to customize individual sections while preserving compatibility with future Croster updates.

Using Overrides

To customize a section, create an override by following these steps

Copy the section file you want to overwrite.

For example, to overwrite for the FAQs section

{whmcs root}/modules/addons/adminpanel/core/front/faqs.tpl

Paste the file in

{whmcs root}/templates/{active-theme}/overwrites/front/

Examples:

• Theme is Croster → /templates/croster/overwrites/front/faqs.tpl
• Them is a child theme → /templates/your-child-theme/overwrites/front/faqs.tpl

If you wish you can also change per page, like if you want use different style of web-hosting page not globally- you can use lie below:

For example in web-hosting page different styled FAQs,

If Friendly SEO URLs is enabled.

If Friendly SEO URLs is disabled.

You can now customize the copied template file safely. Your changes will remain intact during future Croster updates.