creating a new theme

docs/themes/create.rst

@@ -1,11 +1,61 @@
 Creating a new NodeBB Theme
 ===========================
 
+NodeBB is built on `Twitter Bootstrap <twitter.github.com/bootstrap/>`_, which makes theming incredibly simple.
 
-testing
+Packaging for NodeBB
+=====================================
 
+NodeBB expects any installed themes to be installed via ``npm``. Each individual theme is an npm package, and users can install themes through the command line, ex.:
 
-testing
+.. code:: bash
--------
 
-testing
+    npm install nodebb-theme-modern-ui
+
+The theme's folder must contain at least two files for it to be a valid theme:
+
+1. ``theme.json``
+
+2. ``theme.less``
+
+``theme.less`` is where your theme's styles will reside. NodeBB expects LESS to be present in this file, and will precompile it down to CSS on-demand. For more information regarding LESS, take a look at `the project homepage <http://lesscss.org/>`_.
+
+**Note**: A *suggested* organization for ``theme.less`` is to ``@import`` multiple smaller files instead of placing all of the styles in the main ``theme.less`` file.
+
+Configuration
+=====================================
+The theme configuration file is a simple JSON string containing all appropriate meta data regarding the theme. Please take note of the following properties:
+
+* ``id``: A unique id for a theme (e.g. "my-theme")
+* ``name``: A user-friendly name for the theme (e.g. "My Theme")
+* ``description``: A one/two line description about the theme (e.g. "This is the theme I made for my personal NodeBB")
+* ``screenshot``: A filename (in the same folder) that is a preview image (ideally, 370x250, or an aspect ratio of 1.48:1)
+* ``url``: A fully qualified URL linking back to the theme's homepage/project
+
+Child Themes
+=====================================
+
+If your theme is based off of another theme, simply modify your LESS files to point to the other theme as a base:
+
+topic.less
+----------
+
+.. code: css
+
+    @import "../nodebb-theme-vanilla/topic";
+
+    .topic .main-post {
+        .post-info {
+            font-size: 20px;  // My theme specific override
+        }
+    }
+
+As ``topic.less`` from the theme ``nodebb-theme-vanilla`` was imported, those styles are automatically incorporated into your theme.
+
+**Important**: If you depend on another theme, make sure that your theme specifically states this in its ``package.json``. For example, for the above theme, as we depend on ``nodebb-theme-vanilla``, we would explicitly state this by adding a new section into the ``package.json`` file:
+
+.. code:: json
+
+    "peerDependencies": {
+        "nodebb-theme-vanilla": "~0.0.1"
+    }