Stylesheet Global Variable¶

The stylesheet global variable is meant for generating URLs for use when linking to stylesheets. The basic syntax is this:

{stylesheet='template_group/css_template'}

Make sure you substitute “template_group” and “css_template” with the name of your actual template group and CSS template.

The stylesheet variables is used exclusively in the CSS declaration in your pages. It must contain the template group/template name where your stylesheet is located:

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="all" href="{stylesheet='channel/channel_css'}" />

In many respects, this variable works much like the {path=''} global variable. However, there are some special considerations for the stylesheet variable:

• Pages that are linked through the stylesheet tag will not be parsed as normal Templates. ExpressionEngine Tags and PHP inside the Template will not be parsed. The Template will be sent exactly as it is stored. This means that your CSS files will be much more light-weight as they do not require the use of ExpressionEngine’s template parser.
• When the stylesheet tag is used, “text/css” MIME headers will be sent to the browser. Some browsers will not treat the CSS file as such without these headers.

Triggering a Stylesheet Via the URL¶

It is also possible to point to a stylesheet templates by directly adding a “css” trigger word in the URL. For instance, if your stylesheet is the “channel_css” Template of the “channel” Template Group, you could point to it using the URL:

http://example.com/index.php/css/channel/channel_css/

Using Tags and PHP in a Stylesheet¶

Additionally, you can allow your stylesheets to run through the full template parser so tags and PHP can be used. To do so, just use a normal path variable to access your stylesheet. If you specify a template this way make sure that it is set to “CSS” as the Template Type.