Theming Forms
ten steps to beautiful Drupal forms
emma jane hogbin
emma@hicktech.com
www.emmajane.net

About this talk
● Matt Haughey (MetaFilter) once said, “Forms are tedious, confusing, often
poorly designed, and most people equate their use with things like paying
taxes.” Forms are often overlooked by themers because the code seems
complicated and the forms are good enough that the hassle of learning the
code does not seem to be worth the trouble. But in Drupal 6 theming forms
has gotten a WHOLE LOT EASIER!
● In this session you will learn how to make your forms look the way you want.
We'll start by looking at some great helper modules you can install to make
forms a little sleeker. And then we'll move on to the basics of using the
developer module to identify, and theme, form components. We'll specifically
look at altering CCK forms although the techniques will apply to other Drupal
forms too!
● If you've had tears of joy or tears of frustration from theming forms in Drupal 6,
please bring your experiences to share with others.
● This talk is based on content from Front End Drupal—a Drupal theming book
published by Pearson Education. You can read it in draft format at
http://safari.informit.com/9780137007752. The print publication should be
available Spring 2009 ish.

documentation
author

documentation team

Drupal
drupal.org/user/1773
Photo: morten.dk
Legs: walkah

FAPI: Form Application
Programming Interface

1. Prepare
2. Build
3. Posted (“submit”)
4. Validate
5. Render
6. Save
http://drupal.org/node/165104

Drupal­specific functions:
drupal_
Module­specific functions
that you customize: hook_
Variables that you can set:
#variable_name
http://drupal.org/node/165104

http://drupal.org/node/165104

Most of your attention
will be spent at the
“Render” part of this
flow chart
http://drupal.org/node/165104

Confusing?
http://flickr.com/photos/sherwinh/1354201451/

What modules can do
!=
What themes can do

Custom Forms in 10 Easy Steps

1
What do you need to change?

add new fields, form layout, order
of fields, hide the hard stuff, add
visual cues, hide the secret stuff,
make it prettier, make “required”
more obvious, rich text editing,
changing some forms, changing
all forms, changing display text,
changing button text, the height
of a textarea, multiple page forms

2
Drupal 6 is slick.
Make your changes from the GUI.

3
Use helper modules and themes.

Vertical tabs

Node form (Garland only)

4
Make changes with CSS.

Make fun, and useful changes.

Make fun, and useful changes.

5
Three golden rules to theming forms:
1. http://api.drupal.org/api/group/themeable/6
2. Drupal stores form information in an array that
can be manipulated with functions in #1.
3. Register unique forms to make unique changes.

6
“Themer Info” in Developer
Module is your friend.

http://flickr.com/photos/7891209@N04/2951368555

http://flickr.com/photos/lecrapo/2124686412/

7
Identify the unique ID for the form.

8
In template.php create:
function THEMENAME_form_id ($form) {
// stuff goes in here
}

Alternate
(register your own form)
function THEMENAME_theme() {
return array(
'your_specific_form_id' => array (
'arguments' => array ('form') => NULL),
),
);
}

9
Reset (or unset) form values
function THEMENAME_form_id ($form) {
// set your new form data/values/text/etc
$form['buttons']['submit']['#value'] = “YARR”;
$form['title']['#title'] = t('New label text');
// put the values back into the Drupal form
return (drupal_render($form));
}

10
API.drupal.org is also your friend.
http://api.drupal.org/api/group/themeable/6
http://api.drupal.org/api/file/developer/topics/forms_api_reference.html

Thank you!
emma@hicktech.com
Read the draft text at:
http://safari.oreilly.com/9780137007752
Book release date: Spring 2009 ish