Changing Elgg 1.7 Profile Layout

If you work with Elgg 1.7, you know that in default Elgg profile page, the Profile Fields extend into the middle column. No matter what theme you use (Elgg default or third party theme) this is the default layout that is coded in Elgg core Profile plugin files. This has changed quite a bit in new Elgg 1.8 due to file and folder structure and with our latest Elgg Profile plugin Facebook style, you can get Facebook style profile layout with cover image upload and more. One of our clients wanted to have the Elgg Profile table in one single column with Profile Info Fields below the Profile Icon so other widgets can be flush on the top of middle and right columns with the Profile in EWlgg 1.7. To make these sorts of changes you need to get familiar with Elgg’s view system.

This is not easy to achieve as it is controlled by Elgg core/plugin files (even though in this particular project, code was done in such way that layout is controlled by the theme itself – photo above) The layout of the profile widgets and dashboard widgets is handled in: /views/default/canvas/layouts/widgets.php Right now it is using tables to display profile. With some css styling and php coding this can be achieved for unique, single column user profile view.