PSD to Drupal - Introductory Drupal Theming

Introductory Drupal Theme Development by Sheena Donnelly DrupalCamp Atlanta September 18, 2009

Introductions I am… You are… I. Graphic Designer & Front- I. Front End Developer End Developer II.Intermediate-level II.10+ mos. Drupal HTML/CSS skills Experience III.Basic Familiarity with PHP III.Co-organizer of triDUG IV.Bonus Points: Familiar IV.Lead Web Designer with Drupal Admin at Coalmarch

Part I Introduction to the Drupal Theme Layer

What is a Drupal Theme? I. HTML, CSS and PHP II..info File • Basic Settings of Theme III. .tpl.php Files • Templates IV. .css and .js ﬁles • For spice and everything nice V.Template.php • For advanced stuff

Where the Theme Lives

.info I. Holds basic information about the theme. • Name • Drupal Version and Theme Engine • Declares base theme (if applicable) • Declares Regions • Declares CSS ﬁles • Declares JS ﬁles

Regions I. Main page-layout elements II.Blocks are Placed into Regions • Blocks are pieces of content generated by various modules III.Provides a variable of the same name in the page.tpl.php ﬁle IV.Use fewest Regions needed to avoid performance issues

CSS Files I. Declared in the .info ﬁle or added by drupal_add_css() • Drupal core organizes the cascade of CSS ﬁles • Drupal can compress CSS for faster load II. Style.css automatically declared for every theme III.Conditional Stylesheets can be added w/ help from Conditional Stylesheets module • Some themes support this feature natively

Javascript Files I. Declared in the .info ﬁle or added by drupal_add_js() • Drupal can compress javascript for faster load II.Drupal Core includes JQuery III. script.js automatically decalred for all themes

page.tpl.php I. HTML template for all pages II. Receives and displays content from Node, Regions and some modules III. Requires a basic understanding of PHP to read

Other Templates I. node.tpl.php • Becomes the $content variable on node pages • Speciﬁcity: node-type.tpl.php II.block.tpl.php, comment.tpl.php, etc. III.Copy any .tpl.php ﬁle from a module into your theme to customize the HTML output of the module

Theme Settings Page I. Toggle use of certain variables • Customizable per theme II.Toggle use of post information by node type • Global Only III.Upload $site_logo and favicon images

Site Information Page I. Input site information • $site_name • $site_slogan • $mission • $footer_message II.Set which node is displayed as the Homepage

Part II PSD to Page.tpl.php

Basic Page Variables I. Regions III. Important System • $header, $left, $right, Variables $content, $footer • $head, $head_title, II. Theme Settings Variables $styles, $scripts, $title, $tabs, • $site_name, $messages, $site_slogan, $logo, $feed_icons, $primary_links, $closure $secondary_links, $mission, IV. Most of these variables $footer_message, are HTML strings $search_box

Additional Page Variables I. Utility Variables • Let you check for some state of the current page • Ex. - $is_front is used to check if the current page is the homepage. II.Metadata Variables • Ex. - $body_classes sets classes on the <body> like is_front, page_node, node_type_blog, etc.

Relating Elements of a Design to Page Variables I. Isolate elements that III. Create new regions are unique to each in .info ﬁle if page from elements necessary that will be shared between pages IV. Finally, format the HTML layout of II.Determine which elements in shared elements will page.tpl.php to be blocks and which reﬂect your site blocks share a region design

Isolating Elements - PSD Comp

Isolating Elements Regions and other Variables

Isolating Elements Blocks within Regions PSD Comp Blocks Admin Page

Using Variables in page.tpl.php

Part III Tools, Tips and Recommendations

Popular Base Themes I. Zen - http://drupal.org/ project/zen • The best “starter” theme. • Very well documented and supported • Fluid and Fixed layout options • Development Options

Popular Base Themes II. Blueprint - http://drupal.org/ project/blueprint • More advanced base theme • 24-column grid system • Widths of various regions can changed based on other regions • Those settings contained in template.php

Popular Base Themes III. NineSixty - http://drupal.org/ project/ninesixty • Based on Popular 960.gs grid system. • 12 or 16 column layout • Widths of various regions can changed based on other regions • Uses ns() function in page.tpl.php to acomplish this

Ready-to-Use Themes I. www.drupal.org/project/Themes II. www.topnotchthemes.com III. www.adaptivethemes.com IV. www.themeforest.com V. www.templatemoster.com

Essential Modules I. Admin/Development III. Taxonomy • Admin Menu • Taxonomy Image • Devel • Taxonomy Menu • Conditional IV. Images Stylesheets • Imagecache II. Menu Help • Imagecache Crop • Menu Icons • Galleria • Menu Block • Thickbox • Menu Trails V. Other • Pathauto • Block Class • Nice Menus • Dynamic Rendering

Getting More Help I. drupal.org theming guide • http://drupal.org/theme-guide II.irc.freenode.net • #drupal-themes • #drupal-design • #drupal-support • #drupal-nc III. http://mustardseedmedia.com/podcast IV. http://boston.design4drupal.org/sessions

Thank You! I. Check these sites for slides, links and more information later today! • www.coalmarch.com • www.sheenadonnelly.net

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PSD to Drupal - Introductory Drupal Theming

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