Making money using Template Framework or Base Theme for Drupal

"I just can't get a clear understanding of what the T3 does." - T3 is a free framework to help you building your own themes faster.

"Sells base themes? Provides code snippets?" - Again, you can use it for free, as long as you agree to GPL

@Jeff I think you get the GPL wrong.
Nobody is obliged to give away anything openly they create with Drupal and is free to charge whatever they want for it.

The thing is: once someone has downloaded or bought the Framework, they would be free to redistribute it from their site, so the second person buying Drupal Code would be silly because the could get it for free. So If say I buy the framework and redistrubute it from my site, the creator cannot sue me.

He also cannot put any other license onto it than the GPL.
All this may not apply to the T3 stuff, but I often hear this misunderstanding about GPL and how we are allowed to make money with Drupal.

Another thing is bad reputation in the Drupal community and bad press in consequence, so anyone trying to sell GPled Drupal code would be stupid, because he is sure to be exposed to so much negative feedback his business model would never take off.

@andrewlee

We are all here to contribute, help and learn but your comment did not help. We are eager to improve what is "not good" for the framework but you have to provide information on what is not good and in which way. We have learned a lot from this discussion and we are clean on our objectives. Please feel free to point out mistakes, we will improve on them.

T3 framework for Drupal or joomla or wordpress are totally different things and any comparison between them will never be conclusive as each of the CMS has its own qualities and values and we respect the same. This may not be the right place to compare them and we do not want any comparison. We appreciate your frank opinion, though we wish to work hard on it and improve upon any shortcomings pointed out.

How good JD T3 framework is? can only be judged by right feedback and our ability to standardize it upto Drupal standards, we are open for criticism, and improvements.

I couldnt get it to run (errors), there are no install instructions and the downloads page is confusing.

I'm not really seeing the point in using something unproven and not available on Drupal.org, you have stiff competition so why would I use this? You say its easier to build a theme and sell, well I couldn't even get it to run, so how is that easier than downloading Zen/Genesis/Adaptivetheme/Fusion/Framework/Basic/Omega etc and simply switch it on and away I go, and is guaranteed to work with every Drupal module available, I don't think you can say the same about T3, which is not even phptemplate afaict.

Actually you state quite clearly in the OP that using your framework for Drupal would reduce production time - which implies a cost saving. If that's not the case then fair enough, I take it back and accept that it will take longer, cost more and will not be easier to use T3 for Drupal.

Regarding installation and downloads, yes that was my experience. You asked for feedback and my experience was that it was difficult to install because there were no instructions and it was not clear which of the five archives were required.

And no, I am not claiming something that is untrue - the first time I followed your download links each time I clicked on a download button I was redirected to a payment page to sign up a subscription - that is what happened, simple as that. It appears that has changed now. To imply that I am lying is a fairly stiff accusation and actually quite offensive, all I wanted to do was download the theme and try it out.

I have downloaded what I believe is the right archive now, I'll give a review in due course.

Yeah Jeff is right, I also encountered an error when I install and tried the theme.

Fatal error: require_once() [function.require]: Failed opening required '/core/common.php' (include_path='.;\xampp\php\pear\') in D:\xampp\htdocs\jalenascorp\sites\all\themes\core_jdt3\theme-settings.php on line 12

OK, first impressions haven't changed, in the archive is a complete Drupal installation - most users won't want a complete site and will be immediately confused by this - whats normal is to just download a theme, maybe a base theme + a subtheme so the normal user expectations are not being followed. So again this is confusing - I have to manually copy out the theme from the theme folder, and the rather odd "images" folder in the sites/all directory and there is a module, which I am not sure if I need or not. Also there are copies of CCK and Views, which is kind of odd.

It seems like a rather interesting theme, but at the end of the day would present too much risk for me. Here's why - its too complicated. You have module-like-features built into the theme layer, whereas I would prefer a more simple theme that is just a theme - and let Drupal modules extend the features. That is ultimate flexibility. I would be very hesitant to put work into using this framework because I have no idea what is really going on under the hood, that could be FUD I suppose, but who really has the time to wade through thousands of lines of code? That is why I said earlier why use this when there are literally a dozen other very good starter themes for Drupal, including at least 3 that have proven track records in the commercial theme business - and when you boil it right down they all do things fairly similarly, but T3 is very very propitiatory and way out of line with normal Drupal themes - so that to me presents a large and insurmountable risk. Its just too strange and complicated to be bothered. A simple example of one weakness is having to place templates suggestions in a dedicated "tpl" directory - which is out of line with normal D6 theme practice, in D6 template discovery should find tpl files anywhere in the theme, but in T3 this does not work. That leaves me with many questions - including "what else does not work"?

At the end of the day it feels like a huge layer of abstraction that is not really necessary and in an unknown number of ways may reduce the flexibility of Drupal. I think those are valid concerns, and very real ones because having been the author of some of the most popular GPL themes for Drupal and worked on D7 core themes for the past two years I can tell you that flexibility and compliance with normal Drupal features and a very wide range of modules + following Drupal best practice are very high on the "concern" list of theme developers.

Hi webtomme
I did check T3 blank template. it is very promising.. will have to do some experiment.. to get a good control.. thanks