The document discusses themes in Drupal, including what a theme is, the roles of different types of themers, and the typical components and files that make up a Drupal theme. It provides recommendations for software and modules that are useful for theming, and resources for themers to reference when working on themes. The document is intended as an introduction and overview of theming for Drupal.

1. Meg Frisch, Larry Miller, Theresa Summa, Mason Wendell

2. What's a Theme? A "theme" is a collection of files that define the presentation layer or "look and feel" of a Drupal site. Source: "About Theming" in the Drupal.org Theming Guide http://drupal.org/node/221881

3. Workflows and Roles

4. Diff'rent Strokes for Diff'rent Themers › What's a Themer? A Themer is someone who creates and/or customizes the user interface (UI) for a website in Drupal. We have different backgrounds: Visual Design Development Professional Wrestling others? different skill sets: what are necessary skills? different teams...

5. Diff'rent Strokes for Diff'rent Themers › A typical day in the life... We may work with several other designers, developers, and themers on our team (a large team of 10 or more) We may work with only a couple other players, sharing some responsibilities (a small team of under 10) We may work on our own, managing and coordinating entire projects (soup to nuts) We may work on a contract or for another group as a freelance themer (flying solo)

6. Diff'rent Strokes for Diff'rent Themers › On a small team... accountability / responsibility best practices & good habits

7. Diff'rent Strokes for Diff'rent Themers › On a large team... be aware of different skill levels & be prepared to educate stay involved in design and development process (if not already)

8. Diff'rent Strokes for Diff'rent Themers › flying solo account for other roles / team members stay organized!

9. Anatomy of a theme

10. What's in a Theme? Required mytheme.info Basic template.php .tpl.php files CSS, JS, images Rad Pre-process, overrides & API functions

11. What's in a Theme? › The .info file Necessary for Drupal to "see" the theme name, description, version and other information location of CSS & JavaScript files specify block regions theme options

13. What's in a Theme? › template.php stores theme (override) functions In Drupal 6, some functions, like drupal_add_js(), can be loaded from the template.info file instead. In Drupal 7, some functions will only be available from the template.info file. Preprocessing: function mytheme_preprocess_node() function mytheme_preprocess_page() use this when you want to simplify your workflow and create reusable parts.

14. What's in a Theme? › tpl.php files write markup for layout implement theme variables exercise caution - do not build templates of doom

16. What's in a Theme? › auxiliary files CSS, JS, images create folders in your theme directory e.g. /css, /js or /scripts, /img or /images be consistent as a general rule, you are adding or overriding not replacing

17. getting started, software recommendations, essential modules & resources

18. Themer's Toolkit › Software recommendations Your IDE of choice textmate (mac) / notepad++ netbeans (cross-os compatible) but we're not sure it matters. Firebug + Firefox Sass & Compass Adobe Creative Suite or Open Source graphics program (Inkscape, Gimp)

19. Themer's Toolkit › Essential Modules Imagecache Semantic Views Display suite Contexts Panels jQuery UI Simplemenu Menublock Devel + Theme Developer String overrides

20. Themer's Toolkit › Resources drupal.org/theme-guide blueprint.css / 960.gs (drupal.org/project/blueprint) (drupal.org/project/ninesixty) Zen theme (drupal.org/projects/zen) Subthemes (drupal.org/node/225125) Wireframe, Sketch, Plan Lullabot's Theming Best Practices (lullabot.com/articles/theming-best-practices-garland-gets-a-cleanup) When all else fails... ASK ON IRC! (drupal.org/irc)

21. › Happy Theming! Meg Frisch Twitter: @megfrisch [email_address] Larry Miller Twitter: @ldpm [email_address] Theresa Summa Twitter: @theresaanna theresaanna.com Mason Wendell Twitter: @canarymason canarypromo.com