How can we divided joomla template file in two sections?

Question

We are devloping a website in joomla 1.5 version and we have a html desgin for this, the problem is that home page design is different from other inner pages in width and left and right part. I am not getting the right way for this because in the template folder there was a only index.php file and whole website is based on this index.php file. So please tell me the right way for me to integrate the website in two section one for only home page and other section for all inner pages.

Answer 1

I usually use the countModules() function to figure out what divs to display in the template and make it adapt dynamically. I've found it the simplest method and it means that you don't have to deal with multiple templates, e.g.

<?php if($this->countModules('left')) : ?>
    <div id="divLeft">show some stuff</div>
    <div id="divContent">show some stuff</div>
<?php else; ?>
    <div id="divContentWide">show a wider version of the content area</div>
<?php endif; ?>

So now the look is decided in the module manager. The left hand side column will appear on all pages that have a module published in that area. To have a full width content area on the front page one just needs to ensure that no modules are published in "left" position on that page. That's just a simple example, but using "if" in conjunction with "countModules" can help to make your design adapt well to different situations (based on modules).