Syndicate
| Title | Hits |
|---|---|
| Theming the register form in Drupal 6 | 632281 |
| True or false in php | 409690 |
| Theming the contact form in Drupal 6 | 248237 |
| File download in Drupal | 212214 |
I’m currently working on a Drupal 6 theming ebook. The beta ebook attached to this posting is for Drupal 5.
— Update, March 29th, 2008.
I am in the process of writing a 50-and-some pages ebook on Drupal theming. I have an outline and a spiral book full of notes, and lots of sections are already written. My current draft (call that a beta-book) is 15 pages long and if you log in you may download it. I work slowly when it comes to writing. I would absolutely love that ebook to be ready by next week the end of the month year next year. It’ll be available in a PDF format, and as per my current outline, it should be 50 pages long — but as per my experience, it should be twice as long in the end (my biggest challenge when documenting anything is to be concise). Say, it will be 60 pages long.
Fortunately, the book will be searchable and have a TOC. However, it won’t have an index : indexing in InDesign is quite a task, as one cannot possibly automate the creation of a good index. The ebook will be illustrated. Attached is the cover of the book with its Table of content.
I need your help. I need questions. Send them by e-mail, private messages, or add them as comments to this topic. I have tried to find as many good questions as I could in Drupal’s forums, but I need more. I need hard questions. There’s already decent documentation on theming. I am motivated to write my own because I believe I’ll have a very personal and interesting spin on the whole subject.
![[]](/files/content.jpg)
April 12th update : Please do not post links to any web site on this page. I am giving a lot of my time — and some of my money (to buy all the fonts used on this web site and in the PDF documents, for instance) — to help people. I am helping people out my own free will, and it’s a pleasure for me. But I won’t offer free advertisement. Please, do not showcase your web site. In your own profile, you can put a link to your business or blog, so that people can look you up. Don’t treat me like a 10 dollar whore. I’m sorry that you had to read this, it’s extremely unlikely that this concerns you, at all.
| Attachment | Size | Hits | Last download |
|---|---|---|---|
| themingDrupal.pdf | 83.5 KB | 1169 | 12 years 9 weeks ago |
| themingDrupal_April18th.pdf | 436.53 KB | 1767 | 12 years 9 weeks ago |
Comments
Themeing ebook
Themeing, doesn't that word just look wrong?
Your Drupal ebook post led me here and I am looking forward to reading it having just started a Drupal based blog myself.
Congratulations on a great looking site, maybe I will be able to do something equally as pleasing when I've read your book!
Techjournal - The Random Blabberings of an IT Manager
It looks very wrong indeed
It was settled for me this morning while searching through a few books about blogging. Apress editors cannot go wrong, well they can. Theming it will be, will be. As in Drupal has a "theming engine". Drupal.org uses themeable as in a "themeable function" a lot; and many do use the same spelling elsewhere. However, Apress uses "themable". It’s confusing. But no big deal, assurément.
In Modern English
In Modern English any Noun can be used as verb, eg: 'penning'
I need your help. I need
I need your help. I need questions. Send them by e-mail, private messages, or add them as comments to this topic. I have tried to find as many good questions as I could in Drupal’s forums, but I need more. I need hard questions. There’s already decent documentation on theming. I am motivated to write my own because I believe I’ll have a very personal and interesting spin on the whole subject.
http://e-papierossy.com.pl/en/e-papierosy/101-e-papierosy-zerok-z22121.html
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http://e-papierossy.com.pl/en/e-papierosy/99-e-papierosy-gambit-1221.html
Stinky!
I think it stinks registration is required to download this book. It would make a lot more sense to require login to post. Oh-well... -Drue
Hello, I have browsed most
Hello, I have browsed most of your posts. This post is probably where I got the most useful information for my research. Thanks for posting, maybe we can see more on this. Are you aware of any other websites on this subject.
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Positive site, where did u
Positive site, where did u come up with the information on this posting?I have read a few of the articles on your website now, and I really like your style. Thanks a million and please keep up the effective work.
Galoor
Bravo!
That is great that you're taking the time to do this. It is very much appreciated. Will there be any content about themeing with Views?
How can I forget Views?
Views is the module. I will cover that too. I will cover how to theme a particular page view (with a list of nodes, or list of comments...).
Looking forward to it.
Looking forward to it.
"I would absolutely love that e-book to be ready by next week."
Ooooh! Me too! Me too! Really looking forward to this.
The TOC looks very thorough. I'm particularly interested in finding out the minimum requirements for a template, as I'm concerned that by hacking existing templates I'm keeping a lot of stuff in that I don't need.
All the best with it :)
M.
Minimum
My mouse is defective now and it makes it so hard to get work done in InDesign. I have to make 5 different attempts at selecting text on screen before it gets selected, and oftimes I create text areas just with a click (the mouse captures a drag). And then I have to delete these text areas that I never intended to create... by selecting the frikin shit, which is hard. It is driving me crazy. I have to buy a new mouse. Shit.
Back to theming. I have attached my current draft that explains the basic requirements for a theme to "exist". There are 2 aspects to what's minimal I guess : the minimal requirements as far as the PHPTemplate engine goes (that's covered in my current draft), and the minimal requirements that you will have to determine by yourself for your theme as far as WHAT you want to show.
To determine what's minimal for yourself you need pen and paper, and probably a long hard look at the Garland theme, which shows it all. For example, do you want a breadcrumb ? Do you really need 4 regions for blocks ? (top, left, right, bottom). Do you want to display a slogan ? Things like that.
Then you have to decide where all this content will go. Again, you need pen and paper. With a grid. Then you need to build a skeleton in XHTML (table or tabless design), then you plug your stuff in. Plugging in your content is VERY easy. The hard part is XHTML, it's layout, i.e. CSS. Which I will cover.
What's your favorite theme-to-tweak that doesn't use a table? I still can't believe that the only theme shipped with Drupal that does not use a table is Garland/Minnelli. It's surreal.
It's the second mouse that gets the cheese...
[responding to "Minimum" (Caroline Schnapp)]
...or so I heard, anyway. Not that that's at all relevant. (webpage on ancient mice on the way, now the kids are back at school, and Dad's back at work ;P )
My definition of minimal would be something like "implements everything that the core drupal install can offer, in a very simple way, with the fewest files and least/cleanest code." It will also rock from the point of accessibility, usability, tidiness and SEO.
So far, I've not found a Drupal theme that really does this for me. But I'm starting to roll out Drupal sites for my living, so I really need there to be one. Hence, a project I'm gonna get on with this week is to create the first draft of a really simple Drupal theme that scratches my itch.
But I mustn't forget about your mouse, either ;)
Theming Question
Hi Caroline,
I'm also looking forward to your ebook, thank you.
I have decided this morning to learn about theming from scratch, so, I made a folder called 'scratch' in sites>all>themes and into this I put an empty text file called page.tpl.php.
As a programmer/designer, the first thing I want to do is make page.tpl.php a "Reference File" that prints a list of all available variables and their values, i.e., $language = 'en'.
Without peeking at other themes' page.tpl.php files, I'd be interested to know what object or array might contain all available variables/arrays/objects? (I'm also just beginning to learn PHP.) So far, I know how to print_r($node), and I'm thinking there's probably some other object to print like this to see all page variables/arrays/objects.
Anyways, that's the question in my mind as a theming beginner and I'm off to the drupal handbook to see what I can hunt down.
Take Care,
Ray
Hi Ray
The variables that are made available to page.tpl.php in Drupal 5 are all passed through this function defined in phptemplate.engine :
<?php
phptemplate_page($content, $show_blocks = TRUE)
?>
If you take a look at that long function you'll see what I mean.
The $variables are sent to the template through this call :
<?php
return _phptemplate_callback('page', $variables, $suggestions);
?>
The $suggestions (and these are new to Drupal 5) allow for the creation and recognition of different page templates. For example, we can create a page-node-44.tpl.php to theme just the page that shows the node 44 in full view (where the page IS the node 44).
Plus you have these variables available to all templates :
$directory which is the value returned by path_to_theme();
$is_front which is the value returned by drupal_is_front_page();
$directory will give you theme/scratch
So you get these variables in page[-something].tpl.php:
[How to invoke from the template] : [where the variable comes from, FYI]
$sidebar_left : theme('blocks', 'left');
$sidebar_right : theme('blocks', 'right');
$base_path : base_path()
$breadcrumb : theme('breadcrumb', drupal_get_breadcrumb())
$closure : theme('closure')
$content : $content
$feed_icons : drupal_get_feeds()
$footer_message : filter_xss_admin(variable_get('site_footer', FALSE)) . "\n" . theme('blocks', 'footer')
$head : drupal_get_html_head()
$head_title : implode(' | ', $head_title)
$help : theme('help')
$language : $GLOBALS['locale']
$logo : theme_get_setting('logo')
$messages : theme('status_messages')
$mission : isset($mission) ? $mission : ''
$primary_links : menu_primary_links()
$search_box : (theme_get_setting('toggle_search') ? drupal_get_form$search_theme_form') : '')
$secondary_links : menu_secondary_links(),
$site_name : (theme_get_setting('toggle_name') ? variable_get('site_name', 'Drupal') : '')
$site_slogan : (theme_get_setting('toggle_slogan') ? variable_get('site_slogan', '') : '')
$css : drupal_add_css()
$styles : drupal_get_css()
$scripts : drupal_get_js()
$tabs : theme('menu_local_tasks')
$title : drupal_get_title()
You get of course the $node if the drupal internal path is node/x. You get this extra bit thanks to these lines of code in the phptemplate.engine phptemplate_page() function :
<?php
if ((arg(0) == 'node') && is_numeric(arg(1))) {
$variables['node'] = node_load(arg(1));
}
?>
For starters
I would check my theme's name :)
Then get some basic information, then some content.
<?php print $directory ?>
<?php if ($is_front) : ?>
This is my front page.
<?php endif; ?>
I forgot something important :
You can have something like this :
<?php if ($layout == 'left' || $layout == 'both') : ?><?php endif; ?>
Found It!
I found the print_r(get_defined_vars()) suggestion here: http://drupal.org/node/11812. Your TOC looks great. I'll probably be using this to learn a lot & will give you good feedback.
Please let me know
If some other variable is showing up that might be particularly interesting to the page (the template page that is), let me know :)
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So cool
Caroline you rock! Since I'm just learning PHP it's a blast to actually 'get' most of what you've written. Reminds me of the time I was in Italy and a dinner table conversation slowly morphed from sound into language. I'm very thorough and methodical when it comes to learning stuff so I'll certainly check back in later... Take Care, Ray
I just uploaded an updated draft
Thank you so much for the encouragement, Ray. :)
It will be a long book
I still have to add 2 pages to Exercise 3 before I get to the trivial and humoristic "themeable or themable" and then dive into "What is a themeable function".
Theming e-book
Hi Caroline,
I'm very much looking forward to the completion of this e-book (in your own time of course).
There is definitely much need for such material.
From what I saw in the pdf previews, it'll look really great. And it's probably going to be long, too, as I read in one of the comments.
Congratulations on this great initiative !
Great stuff
This is looking very good, Caroline. Maybe something that we could do some short run printing of as well? I'd love to help promote this more widely. Well, I did add you to Planet Drupal, so that should send some more folks wandering over... :P
Thank you Boris Mann
For adding me to the Planet Drupal list.
A short run printing may not be such a swell idea. I have an uncle that has liberal access to equipment to print magazines. Even if it wouldn’t cost so much to print this book, that is, even if I was allowed to print almost at cost price, it would still be expansive to ship the book. I am not sure that people are willing to pay for that.
I do have a fetish for the printed book. But that’s me. I love to hold books in my hands, and love their chemical scent lol... And I love to read from them, of course.
I make sure that the document prints well with laser printers. I don’t use CMYK black just for that reason, I use RGB black. And these days, it is easy to convert RGB to CMYK at the print “shop”, unlike a couple of years ago. So the document is regular-laser-printer-friendly, while not print-shop-unfriendly.
I am scrapbooking design ideas for a theme tonight, so I have not done much work on the book itself. Tomorrow is still a holiday, I intend on updating the book tomorrow with at least 4-5 other pages.
Thank you for your kind encouragement. Long live bryght DOT com.
Grander ideas
OK, OK, I admit it. I had some grander ideas than you just selling the printed book directly. I think this is something that would go great with theming tutorials, and might be a nice hand-out at the Drupalcon Barcelona this September. With compensation to you, of course.
We can talk more once you've finished :P
Use POD...
... (Print On Demand) and you will not have to put a penny in advance. If people wish to have it in a paper book they will gladly pay for it.
Check it at:
About it
A few considerations
A blog on Self Publishing
A supplier
Another one
Best and thanks.
Lopo
Oh I see
[In response to Boris Mann]
Seems like a very good idea for the book to be handed out in that context, indeed.
thank you
Appreciate your effort. I have no problems tweaking CSS but theming-functions are still a head scratcher. I hope you will make me see The Light…
Great work
I'm having a glance at the pdf and it looks great. I've just started working with drupal, and I think this book is perfect for starters: nice structure, easy reading and good content.
I can't wait for the whole book get finished :-D
Thank you for helping the community.
Greetings from Spain
Gracias
Gracias infinitamente, sus palabras son muy alentadoras.
Good work!
Thanks a lot for the pdf!
Hope to meet you here in Barcelona for the drupalcon.
Thank you!
O this is really nice article! It will help my to create my ULTIMATE theme ;)
My God
I was just freaking out at Drupal for having terrible documentation and was about to start out on a project to learn the damn thing inside out and write a decent tutorial that isn't a> abstract as hell with lots of theory and code out of nowhere or b> code snippets. More along the lines of "How to think in Drupal".
Oh how I do wish your book was available now now now! I'm actually really needing it right now. It still astounds me that the community is so big, yet the gap between Drupal Ninja (usually a developer of some sort) and absolute Newbie is SO WIDE and the inbetween almost doesn't exist?!
Anyways, looking forward to it! Good luck!
Is it really all that bad?
Hey Hapworth :)
I've been really impressed by the Drupal documentation so far. But then my previous CMS hacking experience was with Mambo, so perhaps therein lies the secret ;)
After a day's study...
I've just managed to digest the existing draft preview. It's looking really good, and has already been a great help.
Take it easy :)
A side effect of "The Trick"
I thought it would be worth posting this small warning about "The Trick" you talk about in the book - where you hack
includes/theme.incso that HTML comments are inserted in your pages to highlight the various themeable functions.This hack will cause an HTML comment to be inserted before the DocType statement - something that will kick Internet Explorer 6 out of "Standards Compliant Mode" (know your oxymorons!) into "Quirks Mode".
You really don't want to debug CSS in Internet Explorer while it's in Quirks Mode! I lost a lot of time yesterday figuring out why IE was even more buggy than normal :D
So it might be worth putting a note in the book to warn people to return
includes/theme.incto its original state before they do any CSS development with Internet Explorer.THAT is CORRECT!!!
Thank you!! :-)
(There is comment added with BEGIN_phptemplate_page... something like that...)
I think I will just modify the code as not to insert the 'phptemplate_page' comment... with the note!
Cheers :)
Internet Explorer, huh?! Ya gotta love it :S
Hello, looks like a great
Hello, looks like a great initiative, but how to get access to the draft? I registered, but can not login afterwards. Is there a secret handshake I don't know about? :-)
I have been neglecting
I'll take care of this in a moment... sorry! :-)
Perfect
Looks like a wonderful start that will fill a large gap. I bought Pro Drupal Develpment and found it all over my head. I was afraid of buying Drupal: Creating Blogs, Forums, Portals, And Community Websites as reviewers posted it was simply a rehash of material available online.
The preview of Theming Drupal is luring me in a little deeper. Difficult enough to keep me motivated and written in relatively plain English considering the topic.
Thanks,
Paul
Good stuff!
Hey Caroline...this is excellent! When can we expect the final documentation?
can't log in
Tried to register to download the guide, but after registering, my user account hasn't been activated. (It's now about a week later). Can you help please?
Thank you!
This is exactly what I was looking for. I am looking forward to reading it this weekend.
All eyes are on you Carol
Hello Carol,
All eyes are on you concerning the new Theming E-Book.
I waonder how you are able to sleep with the this whirl-wind of anxiety from the
small world of Drupallers.
It is ain't a holiday yet: We all love you and your posts especially your sleepless dedication of an evangelist.
Can't wait to see the book.
Cheers.
Euresol(Samson)
unable to login
please enable the accounts
Will do
Sorry about neglecting that.
Cannot log in
Hi, i registered, but i cannot log in. Can YOu help me?
Best Regards - chris
Account activation
I can't seem to log in. Can somebody please activate my account? Thanks!
Account is not activated yet
Would you please activate my account.
Regards,
Bassel
Your accounts have been activated
Sorry for the delay in making it happen.
I registered a few minutes
I registered a few minutes ago but I can't login. Would you please activate the account? thanks,
raph
Your account has been approved
... have fun
Thank you for this!
I've used Drupal for several years, but have resisted the urge to build a theme from scratch - until now. Thank you for the effort, and for sharing this!
Activate my account
Hi,
I got the password just few min.before.but i couldn't able to activate the account.would you please activate my account...............
activate the account
Hi,
I registered a few minutes ago but I can't login. Would you please activate the account? thanks,
Thanks!
Hello
Looking forward to reading your ebook on theming!
Thanks a lot
Paul
great work
thank! your work is great for me!
i waiting for full your ebook
Account log-in
Hi,
I registered a few minutes ago but I can't login. Would you please activate the account? thanks, xxx
unblock account
When you get a chance could you unblock my account
thanks
nickoma
blocked here too..
just registered but cannot login...thanks!
complete TOC , i wish i read it
Would you please activate my account.
Regards,
cubic
I would love to download and
I would love to download and the PDFs and make donations but I've tried over the months to get an account that's enabled and never do. Why that setup for accounts? Looks like great info here but.. blocked by this registration process.
Me too...
Yet another who would like to download the pdf but can't login. I am in the process of making a theming diagram for myself - since i am a visual thinker - and would like to use your guide as a guide. My username is Hunabku.
-thanks
Yet another needs to login
please help - registered but can't login.
Username: Hunabku
Are you requesting donations?
Thank you for your hard work
This sounds like an excellent e-book, could you please activate my account so that I cant download it.
Thank you,
Romeus
Great Job & a Couple of Questions
Hi Caroline!
First of all, let me tell you that you did a great job so far with the Theming e-Book and I simply can't wait to read on. It's got lots of great info - thanks a lot! There really should be more people like you - people who believe in helping others.
I've only recently started learning Drupal and PHP, and using various articles I found on the net, I managed to make a template for my website. I have some knowledge of CSS that gets me from A to B, so after I placed all of the PHP snippets correctly into my XML design, the pages started looking like I wanted fairly quickly.
Today, I decided to tweak my custom theme to look good on the administrative pages. Since my website will be more like a Blog/Gallery, it is not very important how they look, but still, working with nice-looking pages is much more pleasant. So, after some time, I got to editing the styles for the 'Submit Page' section. Here's the trouble I ran into while doing it.
This might be a really silly thing to ask, but I am a little stuck. I would like to have the 'Title' and 'Body' text in normal font-weight, not bold. No matter what I do to my .css file, unless I comment out the bold font in system.css like this, the text is remains bold:
(system.css, line 90)
.form-item label {
display: block;
/* font-weight: bold; */
}
It's not a deal of great importance, I just would like to know the reason. I have checked and I have no conflicting attributes in the style.css file. Any help will be appreciated. Whew, this was a long post.
Cheers,
-Victor
How can login and download thanks
How can login and download thanks
Finish the book, please
Part of the book you actually wrote is truly best text on Drupal theming I've read.
It is focused and up to the point. Great book design too.
Why don't you upgrade it to Drupal 6, finish it and publish the book? If it matters at all, I bet you could make decent money out of it.
--
Lupein
Drupal themes - themeartists.com