How are the Homepage About, Contact and other page contents edited? Text can be highlighted but not deleted. user@example.com login appears to only give student access, even though staff.
I am using the Bitnami cloud stack created server and not familiar with how to access files using the Bitnami Console.
Hi @ChaucerUniversity, welcome to the forum!
Probably the most common way to do this is via “comprehensive theming”. In short, you can override any template by creating a new file with the same name in an external theme package, then rebuilding the instance. Many of these pages, such as About and Contact, are in the edx-platform/lms/templates/static_templates folder.
Unfortunately, though, to do this you will indeed need direct access to the instance files and command line. I’m not familiar with Bitnami, so I can’t help you there. Maybe someone else here in the forum will be able to.
What is the full pathway address of the default About page which is linked from the Homepage, so that an edited or new customised version can be created to overwrite the default page?
I can access the instance and use the nano command line editor but not sure of the file pathway.
The about page path is likely specific to the Bitnami images (which I have no experience with). If you can find the “edx-platform” directory, it would be in the “static_templates” folder inside it, as I mentioned earlier.
Thank you for your replies. Pathways from the edx-platform should suffice. Bitnami include prefix folder names before the edx-platform folder, which I can add if needed.
What is the name and location of the homepage which shows when the Open edX instance starts?
What is the name of the default edx template, to copy and custonise?
That would be lms/templates/index.html.
Do you mean the landing page and layout of edx.org? To the best of my knowledge that was never released publicly.
But if you want something different and can afford to wait, I’d keep tabs on the work OpenCraft is doing with its new Open edX theme, which unless I’m horribly mistaken, will likely be released publicly with an open source/creative commons license. Looks like that will be a nice change from the default!
Is the following pathway the one you meant, as there seem to be several similar folder names:
./edx/app/edxapp/edx-platform/lms/templates/index.html .
Are there any other files needed to enable the About, Blog, Contact and Donate button names and links in the footer of the Homepage to be edited and additional buttons and links added?
The Open edX default homepage looks best for my purposes,.compared to proposed themes from OpenCraft unless the Open edX default homepage is also included free and fully editable.
Yup, that’s the one!
I’m not sure I understand your question. Are those links not there by default?
Yes, you’re allowed to edit and use the Open edX default theme as you see fit.
I want to change the button name of some, for example Blog to Latest Articles; and add others.
Is the scripting language Python? Command line editing of Instance applications is new to me and there seems to be an absence of documentation for beginners who are not at intermediate level.
Most of the existing docs are targetted at using or, at most, installing Open edX. There is indeed precious little documentation on modifying the codebase, as Open edX is a large, complex project that has even trained Python developers (yes, that’s the language of the backend) taking months to understand.
If you find the prospect daunting (as most of us do 
) allow me to suggest you contact one of the community’s many customization providers. I’m sure they’ll be able to help you better than I can.
What is the detailed file tree structure associated with the homepage? For example, footer.html has a class and container named “About” but there is nothing specifically named “Blog” etc . Button names and url details are held elsewhere but where?
Reply still awaited to my post nine days ago please.
You can take a look at these four files for a starting point. These files will point you towards the context variables that are referenced in the template files.
Please take a look at how Django works to understand the file structure better. Django at a glance | Django documentation | Django
Thank you for the reply. Unfortunately, the python or html page I am lookng for could not be found.
I am interested in contributing to improving the documentation in this largely uncovered area but first need to teach myself how to make the code changes I need to customise the default settings.
Hi Richard,
I’m facing the same issue. Did you ever figure out how to change those links? Thanks in advance!
Not yet. There is a known lack of documentation on how to configure the site email features.