Answers.Body: <p>Am sure others will provide a more substantive answer but going to start just with a link to this <a href="https://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC/Directories" rel="nofollow">wiki page</a> since I had it handy</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2016-05-01T04:49:08.430Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2016-05-01T04:49:08.430Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: petednz - fuzion
Answers.Body: <p>The 'Civi approach' towards customising templates and php files would be to create an extension with your customizations. How to do that can be read on this <a href="https://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC/Create+an+Extension" rel="nofollow">wiki page</a></p>
  
  <p>An extension is basically an additional bit of software that you switch on in CiviCRM and adds stuff to CiviCRM or customizes parts.</p>
  
  <p>That is the recommended approach. You can also customize core templates and put them in your customized directory as the link from petednz explained (and the same for php files). This is however an approach that can throw up problems when upgrading. Extensions might not be compatible with upgraded versions either, but can simply be switched on and off.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2016-05-01T08:36:45.903Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2016-05-01T08:36:45.903Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: ErikH - CiviCooP
Body: <p>What is the 'civi' approach to customising templates and php files? (if this question is a duplicate very happy to remove. I just searched for one after reading <a href="https://civicrm.stackexchange.com/questions/11521/error-message-customization">Error Message Customization</a></p>
  
Tags: <php><custom-templates>
Title: How to add custom templates (tpls) or php files
ThreadText: # How to add custom templates (tpls) or php files
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2016-05-01)
  
  What is the 'civi' approach to customising templates and php files? (if this question is a duplicate very happy to remove. I just searched for one after reading [Error Message Customization](https://civicrm.stackexchange.com/questions/11521/error-message-customization)
  
  **Tags:** php, custom-templates
  
  
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  ## 2 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_0 on 2016-05-01. Score: 2
  
  Am sure others will provide a more substantive answer but going to start just with a link to this [wiki page](https://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC/Directories) since I had it handy
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_1 on 2016-05-01. Score: 2
  
  The 'Civi approach' towards customising templates and php files would be to create an extension with your customizations. How to do that can be read on this [wiki page](https://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC/Create+an+Extension)
  
  An extension is basically an additional bit of software that you switch on in CiviCRM and adds stuff to CiviCRM or customizes parts.
  
  That is the recommended approach. You can also customize core templates and put them in your customized directory as the link from petednz explained (and the same for php files). This is however an approach that can throw up problems when upgrading. Extensions might not be compatible with upgraded versions either, but can simply be switched on and off.
  
  
  ---
  
  