The only "global" vars you can use are:

'title', 'headData', 'language', 'pageBody', 'bodyClass', rendered in core html_document, but those are not really global vars

a) You need more than just php ;)

b) it is possoble to load components via smarty

I summarize it:
Each plugin (the system and the thirdpardy plugins) uses its own variables and templates.The only variables that can be used in the master templates are the ones I mentioned above. They cannot be inherited.
But You can load "some" components in Smarty via {component}

Eg:
{component class='BASE_CMP_MainMenu' responsive=true}
you can even include other smarty templates:
{include file="ow_themes/teaser.html"}

But those are some part that works, other components are not always working as they should.

Example: I am using a custom landing/registration page and was going implement the join component via smarty with BASE_CMP_SignIn.
The join form was displayed, but misses all the javascript code.

So i had to render it in the contoller. eg.

$join = new BASE_CMP_SignIn(true);$this->assign('join', $join->render());
There is no right way to use oxwall code, there are serveral ways to use them. The easiest way is just to check the components, controller or models/bols of the plugins.

hi mac sorry i thought i subscribed to this, sorry to reply so late.

the only globals i know about are here

https://developers.oxwall.com/forum/topic/35576

as far as building the template or theme if thats what you want to do, im not so sure about that im not really a template person however i do know that as far as the css goes you just put in your custom theme only the css that you want to change.  It all feeds from the simplicity template, so in your custom template or theme you just put the css you want to change and the simplicity theme will do the rest.

So basically think of your theme file as an override, whatever you put in there will override what the simplicity them has.  That way you dont have to copy and work with the whole simplicity them, you just work with your changes..

As far as any other shortcuts i am not aware of any shortuces,  we do use

$this->assign('value',$value);  in php to assign the vars to smarty but thats not a theme project

First i would download the plugin from your plugins list, then i would take the langs.zip file from the root of the plugin download and stick it into the update folder and also overwrite the langs.zip file in the plugin root on the server as well: geometry dash 2.0