PSD to Drupal - Introductory Drupal Theming
- 1. Introductory Drupal Theme Development by Sheena Donnelly DrupalCamp Atlanta September 18, 2009
- 2. 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
- 3. Part I Introduction to the Drupal Theme Layer
- 4. 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
- 5. Where the Theme Lives
- 6. .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
- 7. 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
- 8. 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
- 9. 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
- 10. 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
- 11. 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
- 12. 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
- 13. Site Information Page I. Input site information • $site_name • $site_slogan • $mission • $footer_message II.Set which node is displayed as the Homepage
- 14. Part II PSD to Page.tpl.php
- 15. 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
- 16. 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.
- 17. 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
- 18. Isolating Elements - PSD Comp
- 19. Isolating Elements Regions and other Variables
- 20. Isolating Elements Blocks within Regions PSD Comp Blocks Admin Page
- 21. Using Variables in page.tpl.php
- 22. Part III Tools, Tips and Recommendations
- 23. 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
- 24. 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
- 25. 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
- 26. 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
- 27. 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
- 28. 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
- 29. Thank You! I. Check these sites for slides, links and more information later today! • www.coalmarch.com • www.sheenadonnelly.net
Editor's Notes
- #3: smile, relax, slow down. you&#x2019;ll be fine!!
- #6: place contrib themes and modules in /sites/all to keep them separate from core. makes updating drupal core a much easier process!
- #8: whether or not variables are called on the page template, they will be loaded, so even if you don&#x2019;t use regions, they will cause a db query
- #12: Mention how the general template (node.tpl.php) must be included in the theme if a specific template is used (node-type.tpl.php), even if the general template is unchanged.
- #16: Some System Variables are special. Removing them may seem to make no difference, but they are important for Druapl functionality. $closure, $messages, $tabs and $head should always be included.