---
title: "Feature: Header variants"
manual: "Frontend Theme for Extension Development"
version: "main"
source: "Changelog/2.0/Feature-HeaderVariants.rst"
rendered: "2026-09-28T12:50:34+00:00"
---

# Feature: Header variants {#feature-header-variants}

## Description {#description}

The site header comes in four arrangements, selected by the **site setting**
`theme.header.variant`:

| Value | The header is |
| --- | --- |
| `simple` | Title, navigation and controls in one row. **The default, and unchanged from before.** |
| `centred` | The title centred on a row of its own with the controls at the end of it, the navigation centred below. |
| `actions` | The title, a call to action and the controls in the first row, the navigation on a second row below. |
| `two-tier` | A tinted meta row carrying the controls, above a row with the title and the navigation. |

Each variant is a Fluid partial of its own below
`Resources/Private/Partials/Page/Header/` and a modifier class on
`.theme-site-header`, not a set of conditions inside one template — a site
package overrides the one it uses, or adds a fifth, without touching the other
three.

### The call to action {#the-call-to-action}

The `actions` variant takes two more settings:
`theme.header.actionPage`, the uid of the page it leads to, and
`theme.header.actionLabel`, its text. **Both are required**: with
one of them the header would carry a button with no destination, or a button
with no name, and it renders nothing instead.

The destination is a page uid and **not a link field**. A link an integrator
can type would accept a scheme, and the value goes straight into an
`href`; an integer can only ever resolve to a page. The deliberate cost
is that the call to action cannot leave the site.

### Settings and constants {#settings-and-constants}

All three are TypoScript constants of the same names and the same defaults as
well, so the arrangement can be configured on a site that takes the theme
through the classic static template rather than the site set. Where both
exist, TYPO3 lets the site setting win. See [Site settings](../../Configuration/Index.html#configuration-site-settings).

## Impact {#impact}

**A site that does not touch the setting is unaffected.** The default is
`simple`, its partial produces byte for byte the header that shipped before,
and it carries no modifier class at all.

A site package that overrode `Partials/Page/Header.html` keeps working —
the file still exists and is still what the layout renders — but it now
contains the switch rather than the markup. The markup moved to
`Partials/Page/Header/Simple.html`, with the brand, the controls and the
call to action in `Brand.html`, `Controls.html` and
`Action.html` beside it.

The styleguide gained a section **Page chrome** showing all four.