[opencms-dev] Guidance needed: Mercury template vs. Custom template

[niveditasheoran]

Hi,

I followed the step-by-step instructions provided in the link and successfully
created a template of my own. As shown in the attached pictures, our firm used
to manage a site with a headquarter and around 900–1000 sub-sites for individual
schools.

I am planning to develop something similar. Since the headquarters website is
already in place, my idea is to start by building the homepage for one school
and then replicate it for the others. These individual school sites will be
linked from the headquarters site.

However, I’m not sure where to begin—particularly when it comes to creating the
homepage, which should include sections like a banner, About Us, statistics,
Chairman's message, etc.

Could someone please guide me through the process?

Best regards,

 Nivedita


On July 17, 2025 at 5:53 PM Michael Emmerich via opencms-dev
<opencms-dev at opencms.org> wrote:

> 
>  Nivedita,
> 
>  I would suggest to use the Mercury template for this task. Making your own
> template from scratch without any OpenCms experience can be a bit challenging,
> I would only do this if there very special design requirements that cannot be
> made with Mercury.
> 
>  In the Mercury template you have different content types that should provide
> everything that is needed for a school website.
> 
>  Some time ago, I made a beginners  step-by-step instruction how to start a
> complete new website with Mercury, you can fin it here:
> 
> 
> https://www.opencms.org/en/article/How-to-create-a-new-website-using-the-Mercury-template/
> <https://www.opencms.org/en/article/How-to-create-a-new-website-using-the-Mercury-template/>
> 
> 
> 
>  A place to look is the general OpenCms documentation here:
> https://documentation.opencms.org/opencms-documentation/
> <https://documentation.opencms.org/opencms-documentation/>
> 
>  You find an explanation of the OpenCms workplace and several more technical
> infos for developers.
> 
> 
> 
>  There is a very detailed documentation of the Mercury template, explaining
> all the content types, their options etc. It can be found here:
> https://mercury-template.opencms.org/ <https://mercury-template.opencms.org/>
> 
>  This one is only available in German, so you would need some online
> translation of it, for example the build in translation of Chrome.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>  Kind regards,
> 
>  Michael
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>  Am 17.07.25 um 13:04 schrieb niveditasheoran via opencms-dev:
> 
>      > >      Hi,
> > 
> >      I’m totally new to OpenCMS and have been tasked with creating a website
> > for a school. I’m exploring whether I should use the Mercury template or
> > build a custom template from scratch.
> > 
> >      Could someone guide me on what would be the recommended approach for a
> > school website?
> >      Also, are there any step-by-step guides or documentation available to
> > help with either option — especially for beginners?
> > 
> >      Any suggestions or resources would be really appreciated.
> > 
> >      Thanks in advance!
> > 
> >       Nivedita Sheoran
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
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> > 
> > 
> > 
> >  > 
>  --
>  Michael Emmerich
> 
>  -------------------
> 
>  Alkacon Software GmbH & Co. KG - The OpenCms Experts
> 
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