In working at some length with the overrides setup I am wondering if it can be made simpler? A basic definition of 'override' is:
The act of nullifying; making null and void; counteracting or overriding the effect or force of something
As v1.3.5 and greater allows for override setup, I presume there is a programming flow similar to:
if override =yes
then follow path to override files and apply
else use basic/default setup
If the above is true, it means the "if loop" is applied in every instance where the possibility of the overrides setup is being used. It should also mean the override file replaces, or makes null and void, the default file. Ergo, when overrides are being used there should be no need for the default file to be used or even be there. This would help to prevent confusion when editing files.
Trial & error has shown that in some cases, files can be safely deleted and in some cases they cannot.
Example 1
file 1 default - includes/languages/english/meta_tags.php
file 2 custom - includes/languages/english/custom/meta_tags.php
If the second file replaces the first file and makes it null & void, why is it that removing the first file causes problems? (cannot login to Admin for example)
A zero byte default file is all it takes to prevent the above error. This means no programming within the file is required, simply that a default file with that name be there. So why then, is there a need for a file by that name?
Example 2
file 1 default - includes/languages/english/html_includes/define_main_page.php
file 2 custom - includes/languages/english/html_includes/custom/define_main_page.php
In this case, removal of the first file does not cause any problems within the Admin section. But, the "Tools > Define Pages Editor" feature cannot access the files within the 'custom' directory.
This means someone can be using overrides exactly as they should but are not editing files within the 'html_includes/custom' directory. Therefore, next update their customized files are overwritten and all previous work to those files is lost, possibly making a site look really bad and/or some pages not to work properly.
It could also be, I'm totally off base and need some further guidence.
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