Theming is the most important part of making your website. It's what your visitors will see, what they will interact with, and what they will remember. A good theme makes visitors feel comfortable, helps drastically improve SEO and makes your site accessible while remaining secure.
And I have a secret for you - it's also one of the easiest parts for Drupal beginners to learn! If you already know html and css, those same skills can be applied to your Drupal site. If you're scared of PHP, you'll be happy to discover just how intuitive Drupal theming can be. I didn't know PHP when I first started theming, but it's something that you learn naturally as you dip your feet in theming.
This two-day workshop teaches you to create your first custom theme from scratch. You’ll learn how well-built themes integrate seamlessly with the rest of Drupal. You’ll customize the basic look for your site by creating a basic layout, defining block regions and adding a custom style sheet. You’ll see how to override template files from Drupal core and contributed modules. As we explain how to work with PHP, we’ll also show you how to use Drupal’s internal functions to make your data safe for display.
- Creating a theme from scratch using Drupal best practices
- Including your own style sheets and Javascript files
- Overriding defaults HTML output using templates
- Overriding Drupal theme functions
- Changing template variable using preprocess functions
- Techniques for keeping your site secure
Here are the details: http://chapterthree.com/training/workshops/2012-jul-24
I'll be one of the trainers leading this workshop and I'm very excited for the opportunity to help you get to the next level of Drupal. Everyone has some bumps in the road starting out. Everyone tries Drupal and gets stuck at some point. We're here to help.
Please feel free to reply here with questions or comments or contact us directly.
Comments
I took your Drupal in a Day
I took your Drupal in a Day workshop last July. I have been site building since. I know the absolute basics of theming. I can't attend the first day. Is attending the 2nd day alone, even possible? What is the curriculum for the first versus second day?
Thanks,
Marc
I took your Drupal in a Day
I took your Drupal in a Day workshop last July. I have been site building since. I know the absolute basics of theming and can read my way through a PHP template or start a sub-theme from scratch if I need to. I am trying to figure out if this workshop is for me: I can't attend the first day due to a work obligation. Is attending the 2nd day alone, even possible? What is the curriculum for the first versus second day? Would it suit my background?
Thanks,
Marc
That might be a little
That might be a little tricky, but if you think it could work then we'll find a way to accomodate you. Honestly to me I think the first day is the most important, as most of the core concepts of Theming are introduced, but if you feel like you're pretty good with the basics, then the second day would still be huge benefit.
Here's a rough breakdown of the days.
Day1:
- Theming fundamentals (what is a theme, anatomy of a theme, etc)
- Template files (picking and overriding tpls, views template overrides, etc)
- Theme development process, tools, etc
- Advanced theming (intro to PHP, Drupal arrays, render / hide)
Day2:
- Controlling layout through configuration (site building, display suite, panels, context, etc)
- Sub theming / Base theming
- Responsive theming (tips, tricks, tools, etc.)
- Front end security and performance optimization
- How do you do THAT in Drupal?
Let me know if you think we can work something out and we'll get you in touch with our training coordinator. Thanks!
--
David Needham
Team Lead of Training at Datadog
Thanks! That breakdown is really helpful :)
It sounds like I'd definitely still benefit from some of the day one content. Will this class be offered again between now and New Year's, or is that not likely? I haven't seen it offered much here in DC, and I liked your last training so would like to be able to take the theming class through you if possible.
We will be offering the
We will be offering the theming course again on December 3rd (in San Francisco). We'd love to have you, but I totally understand if that wouldn't work out. There are some other trainings happening in DC listed on the Acquia website you could check out.
Honestly, I'd rather you attend BADcamp to take free courses / summits if you're looking for a good reason to visit San Francisco! :-)
--
David Needham
Team Lead of Training at Datadog