This document discusses Drupal theming and provides an overview of theme engines, basic theme requirements, regions, common core templates, overriding template files, global template variables, and creating a subtheme in Drupal. It explains that Drupal's default theme engine is PHPTemplate and describes the benefits it provides. It also lists the nine default regions in Drupal themes and common core templates that can be overridden.

1. Drupal Theming
by
Arshad Vayani

2. Theme Engine
• Drupal’s theme directory also has an engines
directory that contains a theme engine called
PHPTemplate.
• Theme engines provide an easy way to separate
themable output into template files as opposed to
plain old PHP.
• The main benefit of using the PHPTemplate engine is
that separating logic from presentation is simplified.

3. Theme Engine
• While other theme engines such as
Smarty, XTemplate, and PHPTal may be used.
• PHPTemplate is Drupal’s default theme engine and is by
far the most popular theme engine used by Drupal
themes.
• It is also possible to write pure PHP Drupal themes. See
the Chameleon theme for an example of a pure PHP
theme at http://drupal.org/project/chameleon.
• For a full listing of available theme engines, visit
http://drupal.org/project/theme+engines.

4. Basic Theme Requirements
• A new folder with theme name under
sites/all/themes .
An .info file with following contents
name = Theme Name
description = Some description here
core = 7.x

5. Regions

6. Regions

7. Default Regions
• Drupal core defines nine regions for themes to utilize
programmatically by default.
• Until a theme defines its own regions, Drupal will use
the defaults.
• This means that if the default regions are sufficient
for your design, you will not need to define regions in
your theme’s .info file.

8. Default Regions
regions[page_top] = Page Top
regions[header] = Header
regions[highlighted] = Highlighted
regions[help] = Help
regions[content] = Content
regions[sidebar_first] = Sidebar First
regions[sidebar_second] = Sidebar Second
regions[footer] = Footer
regions[page_bottom] = Page Bottom

9. Default Regions
; CORE REGIONS - DISABLED
;regions[highlighted] = Highlighted
;regions[help] = Help
;regions[header] = Header
;regions[footer] = Footer
; CORE REGIONS - REQUIRED
regions[page_top] = Page Top
regions[content] = Content
regions[page_bottom] = Page Bottom
; CORE REGIONS
regions[sidebar_first] = Sidebar First
regions[sidebar_second] = Sidebar Second
; CUSTOM REGIONS
regions[my_custom_region] = My Custom Region

10. Default Regions

11. Common Core Templates

12. Common Core Templates

13. Overriding Template Files
• Find the original template file by browsing through
code or checking http://api.drupal.org
• Copy and paste it into your theme directory.
• Clear the site cache and reload!

14. Global Template Variables

15. Global Template Variables

16. Subtheme
• Start by creating the shell of a new theme. Create a
directory for it, and create the .info file containing at least
the name and core properties.
• In the .info file, add the “base theme” property containing
the name of the theme you want to use as a base, like so:
base theme = basethemename
• If the base theme has regions and/or features defined in
the .info file, you’ll need to copy those to the subtheme as
well.