Nova (admin theme)

Nova is a premium theme (addon code theme-nova, $29) for the admin area. It moves the admin menu into a dark left sidebar with folding groups, a find-a-page box and a narrow icon mode. It changes no feature: every page, form and permission stays as it is; only the frame around the page and the colours change. It is for administrators who work in the admin area all day. The free admin theme is Blend. The sister theme for your clients is Lumen; both are introduced in Nova and Lumen themes.

Free or premium

Premium. Nova is included in the Owned package; the monthly packages give a discount (see The licence key). Without the addon theme-nova on your licence, Use answers This is a premium theme and needs the "theme-nova" addon on your licence. If the addon runs out after Nova was in use, nothing breaks: the admin area falls back to Blend and the Themes page shows a warning naming the theme you chose and the one in use. When the addon is back and you press Check now on Setup → Licence, Nova returns by itself.

The plugin entry theme-nova on Setup → Addon Modules (category Themes) only lists the theme with its licence status. The theme files themselves live in the themes/admin/nova folder.

Switching it on

1. Buy the addon at license.faruk.bd and press Check now on Setup → Licence.
2. Open Setup → Themes & Appearance. In the Admin Area table Nova's Licence column says On your licence. If your copy has no nova folder, upload the theme ZIP from your account with the upload box under the table.
3. Press Use on Nova. The page reloads in the new frame.

The same choice sits on Setup → General Settings (the General tab, Admin Area Theme). That is the default for all administrators. Each administrator can pick their own under My Account → Theme; leaving it empty follows the default. So you can switch only yourself to Nova and leave the others on Blend.

What changes

• Folding groups. Click a menu group (Clients, Orders, Billing, Support, Reports, Utilities, Setup and any plugin group) to open or close it. By default only the group of the page you are on stays open, so a long menu stays short. Your choices are remembered in the browser. Collapse all and Expand all sit at the bottom.
• Find a page. A box at the top of the sidebar filters the menu while you type. The slash key puts you in it.
• Narrow mode. The Fold button shrinks the sidebar to icons and widens it again.
• Top bar. Keeps the global search for clients, invoices, tickets and domains, the notification bell and the account menu.
• Phones. The sidebar slides in from the left with the menu button and closes when you tap a page.
• Dashboard. The dashboard widgets remember whether you folded them.

What the menu shows still follows each administrator's role.

Options

Open the Admin Area table on Setup → Themes & Appearance and unfold Options of Nova. The options come from the theme's theme.json:

Save Options keeps your values; Reset to defaults clears the saved values of Nova only. Colours must be written as six hexadecimal digits with a hash, such as #1d4ed8; anything else is replaced by the default. Options are saved per theme, so Blend keeps its own.

Preview and going back

Preview opens the admin front page in a new tab. To go back, press Use on Blend, or clear your own choice under My Account. Nothing is deleted and Nova's options are kept.

Troubleshooting

• Use is refused: the addon is not on your licence yet. Press Check now on Setup → Licence.
• You chose Nova but see Blend: the addon is missing or expired; read the warning on the Themes page.
• Your own plugin pages look odd: a theme sets the frame, the shared components and its colours only. Test your plugin's CSS once under Nova.
• Colours do not change: the value was not six hex digits with a hash.

More in Troubleshooting.