Understanding Drupal 6 Themes

Drupal 6 is a powerful system that has a steep learning curve for those new to it. The included theme system is no exception to this. As with any complex system, the key to using it effectively is to understand it. The purpose of this session is to increase your understanding to get you on your way towards creating a look all your own.

The purpose of this session is to provide that understanding how how to use it and why it functions the way it does. We will start by looking at the Drupal theme system with a high level overview. I will provide a quick and simple illustration of the flow of data through Drupal to the theme layer and then detail the process after that point.

After the overview, there will be a demonstration on creating a custom theme based on existing, simple markup and CSS. This will entail the creation of all key parts of a theme, adding CSS files and altering markup where needed. Although not every piece of the theme will be covered in detail, there will be information provided to show you how to find more on your own.

Prerequisites:

• Knowledge of Markup and CSS
• Basic knowledge of PHP or an openness towards using it

Subjects to be presented:

Structure of Drupal themes

Provide a summary of the concept behind Drupal themes and how they are constructed.

Useful tools

A list of modules and tools that will make theming easier and smoother.

Creating a .info file

This file is the one required piece of any theme and provides key information to the system.

Change default markup with template files

Finding the origin of markup in Drupal and how to change it so that it works for your design.

PHP functions template.php

Not every piece of markup in Drupal is accessible via a template file and we will have to get or hands dirty with code.

The slides from the presentation are available as a Google Doc here.