development

Last week I wrote about preprocess functions and wanted to do a little follow-up because I was having even more fun making changes, adjustments, and alterations. There is so much here for themers, there is an excess of options and they can be organized and structured very well. Again, as I often say, I do not profess to be a php-guy (I continue to get better, and using it daily now, someday I will be where I want to be with it...) so this structure and framework has been completely awesome for me. So what's next with preprocess...

The less tpl files the better. Don't get me wrong... LOVE the tpl file, can't live without the tpl file... If I need several tpl files, let's do it... but, in some cases, one tpl file can provide enough power and flexibility to handle several content types, and keep the job of a themer a little easier.. o.k., not easier, but a little cleaner for my tastes.

The magic is the preprocess functions. Here's a little about the preprocess function.

Last year I would have tried to approach this problem with some kind of image/text replacement... This year it's a whole new ballgame. The Drupal theming layer is like an onion and I continue to pull back the outer pieces and get to better and better stuff. Maybe it is more like a Parfait (thanks Donkey from Shrek) ;)

So here's what I wanted to do. Drupal gives us a teaser output with comment links.

3 comments | 2 new comments

Great, awesome, cool... great to have, now I want more... I want an image to replace the word "comments". I'm not going to rely on css alone... I'm not going to rely on some jQuery (which I love)... I'm going to use hook_link_alter and get it done in the code.

I came across this little extra nugget while looking for some stuff for preprocessing. How many times have I typed out base_path and path_to_theme... With this little gem I am just a few keys faster, and lovin it.



function themename_preprocess(&$vars, $hook) {
$vars['theme_path'] = base_path() . path_to_theme() .'/';
}




The user login block is one of the most common blocks on any Drupal site. It might be in this region, or that region, or this header, footer, or block... the idea of this post is that it is that you, at some point, you will probably want to theme it... and maybe you'll use this post to help you through. I have spent part to the day working with a flexible way to make the user login block a little cooler. Specifically, I wanted it horizontal, and I wanted to change some of the values, and finally some css to finish it off... and eventually some jQuery if I can find the time.

The Mother of Web Development Tools
FireBug

Firebug's untalented, odd cousin once removed by a second marriage...