Beginner Theming

Session Description

Believe it or not, Drupal makes theming easy!

Drupal provides the themer with a system of overrides that allows you to change literally anything on your site. Themers decide what gets printed to the screen and what doesn't - essentially what lives and dies. For this and some other reasons, themers have ultimate control.

Don't let it get to your head though. Before you can make Drupal bend to your will, you have to introduce yourself via the .info file. From there, you can control style with the CSS we've all come to love. Want to add in your own divs, regions, classes, etc? That will require copying and tweaking one of Drupal's template files (a super easy process).

Following this easy pattern, you can get most of the way there without writing PHP. Even if you need to extend the way that breadcrumbs, pagers or other Drupal elements work via the template.php file, you can usually find a friendly companion on Drupal.org who has code you can copy and use without having to fully understand it.

By the end of the session, you'll be able to create your own themes, sub-themes and rock Drupal's world like you never have before - all while fulfilling the mantra of a themer: "Make it pretty."

[The techniques you learn in this session will apply to both Drupal 6 and Drupal 7, however I will be leading the session in Drupal 7.]

Resources During / After Drupalcon

• Follow along with slides online
• Leveling Up Your Themer blog series
• More information about hekyll presentations

Intended audience:

Beginners who want to learn the basics of theming without knowing PHP.