Assets | BigCommerce Developer Center

Each Stencil theme’s assets/ directory contains CSS, JavaScript, and image assets that help create the design of storefront pages. A minimal assets/ directory contains the files and subdirectories that you can view on the Cornerstone GitHub Repository.

In parts of your theme’s directory tree where you are free to add new subdirectories and files, be sure to:

Set newly added directories to permission 755 (drwxr-xr-x).
Set newly added files to permission 644 (rw-r--r--).
Without these permissions, running your theme locally will fail, with multiple error messages. Bundling your theme will also fail, blocking its upload to a store.

Cornerstone assets directory

Directory: assets/

File Path	Description
assets/fonts	The `fonts/` subdirectory contains local versions of theme-specific fonts.
cornerstone/assets/icons	The `icons/` subdirectory contains .svg files for icons used within a theme.
cornerstone/assets/img	The `/img/` subdirectory contains images used in the theme’s display – background images, sprites, and other images not related to store content. You would typically reference these image assets using Stencil’s `cdn` Handlebars helper. For example, generically: `<img src="{{cdn 'assets/img/image.jpg'}}">` Or, with a realistic file name: `<img src="{{cdn 'assets/img/size-chart.png'}}">`. To avoid unexpected 404 errors on your production store, we recommend that you use short relative paths in your SCSS to reference images in your `/img/` subdirectory. So, for example, use references of the form `background: url('../img/header-bg.png');` rather than references of the form: `background: url('/assets/img/header-bg.png');`
cornerstone/assets/js	The /js/ subdirectory contains general JavaScript files used in the theme.
cornerstone/assets/scss	The /scss/ subdirectory contains theme-specific CSS resources.
cornerstone/assets/layouts/	The `<theme-name>/assets/scss/layouts/` subdirectory contains `.scss` files that provide default styling for major layout components of theme pages. You can see the `/layouts/` subdirectory’s internal structure on the Cornerstone GitHub Repository.
cornerstone/assets/settings/	The `<theme-name>/assets/scss/settings/` subdirectory contains SCSS variables for your framework. Files here map directly to components. If present, these variables override defaults in consumed libraries. The /settings/ subdirectory’s internal structure can be viewed at the Cornerstone GitHub Repository. The nested subdirectory for your chosen framework contains a file that includes that framework’s variables. For example, in the default Stencil theme, this file is: /settings/foundation/_foundation.scss. Within each subdirectory nested at the ultimate level is one primary file, `_settings.scss`, that imports all other variables that have been broken into logical files, such as `_colors.scss`, `_typography.scss`, and `_z-index.scss`.
cornerstone/assets/utilities/	The `<theme-name>/assets/scss/utilities` subdirectory contains mixins and tools, beyond the Citadel library, that help create UI’s. You can apply these CSS snippets to your HTML for quick prototyping when you need a unique, yet repeatable, style. Every utility in this subdirectory will have both a class and a mixin. For example, consider the utility truncatedText: You can use it by applying the class `.u-truncatedText`, or by applying the mixin `@include u-truncatedText;`.
cornerstone/assets/scss/components	The components subdirectory contains the 4 following subdirectories: `/citadel/` `/foundation/` `/stencil/` `/vendor/`
cornerstone/assets/scss/components/citadel	Read about the Citadel directory below.
cornerstone/assets/scss/components/foundation	The /components/vendor/ subdirectory contains the consumed version of framework components from your chosen provider. There is some renaming of these components to match Stencil naming conventions.
cornerstone/assets/scss/components/stencil	Read about the stencil directory below.
cornerstone/assets/scss/components/vendor	The /components/vendor/ subdirectory contains the consumed version of framework components from your chosen provider. There is some renaming of these components to match Stencil naming conventions.

Citadel subdirectory

Stencil themes include an internal pattern library called Citadel, which consumes the ZURB Foundation framework. Foundation provides the basis for creating responsive themes. Citadel extends the Foundation framework’s mixins and components to provide Stencil’s own mixins, extensible components, and utilities. The designstyle language underlying these Citadel resources is the Sass/SCSS preprocessor. Citadel resources are named according to BEM and SUIT CSS conventions. Classes are named functionally, rather than based on visual presentation or content. Citadel is based specifically on Foundation 5.5.3, which installs with the Stencil framework. We do not support Foundation 6.x, due to breaking changes introduced between versions 5.x and 6.x.

Citadel design patterns reside in cornerstone/assets/scss/components/. Citadel assets bundled with Cornerstone are located in the following subdirectories:

cornerstone/assets/scss/settings/citadel/
cornerstone/assets/scss/components/citadel/

The components/citadel subdirectory contains Citadel-specific resources. The resources are named according to our style guide, which follows BEM and SUIT CSS naming conventions. Class names are structured, and hyphens are meaningful (that is, hyphens are not used merely to separate words). Here are some prototypes and examples:

Citadel Component Name Design Pattern	Class Name Example
componentName	.dropdown or .buttonGroup
componentName—modifierName	.dropdown—dropUp or .button—primary
componentName-descendantName	.dropdown-item
componentName.is-stateOfComponent	.dropdown.is-active.
u-utilityName	.u-textTruncate

Components vs utilities

Our naming scheme makes an architectural distinction between components and utilities. Components are defined as custom elements that enclose specific semantics, styling, and behavior. Component names are in camel case. Our syntax for naming them is as follows:

Component Name Design Pattern	Component Name Example
componentName[—modifierName	-descendantName]

Utility classes are defined as low-level, structural and positional traits. Utilities can be applied directly to any element. Multiple utilities can be used together, and utilities can be used alongside component classes.

To make HTML patterns as reusable as possible, we have used utility classes sparingly, reserving them for component-level styling.

Our syntax for naming utilities is camel case, prefixed with a u- namespace:

Utility Name Design Pattern	Class Name Example
u-utilityName	u-navigationBar

Variables and mixins

Citadel variables and mixins follow similar naming conventions.

Variables are things that can change over time. Their names are in camel case, and show context.

Variable Name Design Pattern	Variable Name Example
[componentName[—modifierName][-descendentName]-propertyName-variablename[—modifierName]	-

Mixin Name Design Pattern	Mixin Name Example
Mixins follow regular camel-case naming conventions. Namespacing is not universally required for mixins. However, where a mixin has been created for a utility, its name matches the utility’s name, including u- namespacing	@mixin buttonVariant; @mixin u-textTruncate;

Stencil subdirectory

The /components/stencil/ subdirectory contains CSS files unique to Stencil themes, which are used to create specific page elements within the themes. You can view this subdirectory and all its children in the Cornerstone Theme GitHub Repository.

This subdirectory’s children contain CSS for the following page elements.

Subdirectory	UI Element/Purpose
account	Customer account details
addressBox	Customer shipping addresses
addReturn	Add a product-return request
banners	Banners displayed across storefront’s top and bottom
blocker	Position .blocker element above another element, to prevent a user action
compare	Layout for product-comparison table
facetedSearch	Faceted-search toggle (on/off), navigation list, and filters
facetLabel	Labels for faceted-search display
heroCarousel	Carousel of prominent (“hero”) images
navPages	Styles for page navigation, with responsive layout
navUser	Styles for cart counter, quick search
productCarousel	Carousel of product images
productReviews	Styles for product reviews
productView	Product display (with thumbnails suppressed for mobile/tablet), product details, product options (size, color, etc.), product sharing
quickView	Quick-view modal window for a selected product
ribbon	Top-right text badges, for messages like “On sale”
socialLinks	Styles for social-media links
tags	Styles for blog-post tags
toggleLink	Styles for collapsible/expandable components
writeReview	Styles for product-review submission form

Resources

Sample apps

Cornerstone GitHub Repository (BigCommerce GitHub)

Additional resources

Getting Started With Foundation 5 (Zurb)
BEM (Get BEM)
SUIT CSS (GitHub)
Customizing a Theme (Assets Directory) (YouTube)
BigCommerce Sass Styling Guide (BigCommerce GitHub)