Starting to learn drupal theme-ing
Hi All,
Ive got some spare time in the upcoming days and I thought of brushing up a little bit my knowledge on Drupal. Currently, Ive been using just the stock theme Garland that comes with Drupal core and would like to spend the time learning some basic tweaks and/or modifications to themes. Simple things like changing colors, modifying the main window width and block widths, adding some basic cliparts (like borders, bullets, etc) to the theme.
Browsing thru the internet, I gather that playing around with the Zen theme is the way to go for beginners. However, I am having difficulty finding step-by-step tutorials or basic explanations.
Could themers point me to the right direction on where a non-programmer like me could get started in learning how and what to modify to do theme changes?
Difficult but Easy
Theming is not rocket science as one would imagine.
It's the typical path of enlightenment via HTML, CSS, PHP and other interface technologies. Finding "Zen" in the art of theming means finding your own way of comprehending and mashing all the concepts of these technologies into one tangible theme.
Learning how to create Drupal themes is fairly easy once you get the basics of "Overriding" and "Intercepting".
You may want to check out these resources to hasten your progress:
I personally don't use Zen now because I find it full of cruft. But when I began Drupal theming, Zen paved the way for a good start.
Find your path. Good luck.
-- Marcky
Thanks Marc on the
Thanks Marc on the resources. Now Ive got homework ... 8-)
Zen is not just for beginners
Zen is not just for beginners, in fact http://w3.lullabot.com/search/node/zen has made a lot of discussion regarding zen and we're really impressed and stick on it. If we really want to be a themer we should embrace Zen theme garden besides, it saves us a lot of time and effort dealing with css and browser compliances.
Check out http://matthewjamestaylor.com/blog/ultimate-3-column-holy-grail-pixels.htm and start digging Zen CSS. I believed in less than an hour you'll come out with the same layout using Zen.
It means shorter turn around time and we have more time with drupal not with css.
Regarding drupal theming, Since most of our content is in the node I strongly suggest start theming using node-nodetype.tpl.php . U can get the node variables by using print_r(($node); or install http://drupal.org/project/devel and enable it. This is a must have module for someone really interested in theming and how API are querying...
Drupal doesn't require us to know PHP, But to be a Themer we have to learn a liitle bit ot it.
http://w3.lullabot.com/search/node/zen
I don't see anything about drupal theming information in this links? Please give us more definite links for us to able to go with themes.
Thanks in advance.
don't forget
Don't forget that Zen is just one of a few more awesome starter themes.
Here is the page that compare all of them in one comprehensive table. Kudos to AdaptiveThemes for building this page.
Danreb
@Merto - http://matthewjamestaylor.com/blog/ultimate-3-column-holy-grail-pixels.htm thanks for this links, it is a very good starter and resources for newbie.
@marc - keep up the good work, you help us a lot!
I used Admire Gray most of
I used Admire Gray most of the time. I once explored Genesis theme but I am more comfortable working with Admire Gray. You can also try it out.
You probably read their book and view their video
http://www.lullabot.com/search/node/zen, The original creator of Zen, You probably read their book and watch their videos.