theme

I looked for this a few times and didn't find it so I decided to write a quick blog post for future themers to discover. You see Drupal is full of forms and fields. There are any number of reasons that you may want an element on a form to be identified by a unique class or ID. I ran into this today when I wanted to theme a fieldset, provided by a module, that didn't have a class on the fieldset. Now there are many ways to theme a fieldset by using the divs that contain the fieldset.

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.

Sometimes... most of the times... I don't want the "split summary at cursor" option on the sites I develop. There are any number of reasons I don't want it. Most of the times, it just isn't relevant and others... I just don't want the users asking a milion quesitons.


And inevetibally, there is more stuff I don't want in my forms, want differently, or want moved.


My solution has been that on all the sites I develop I have a custom module. In this modules is one of my most used hooks... form alter. I have it all set up and commended out some of the lines but leave them in for quick reference...


I'll show it to you, then explain a little more....My module name is theme_thingee, and here's how I have it set up.

A Themer's Solution....

I have in my theme a directory called plugins.
in there I have layouts and styles
in styles I have a folder called thintop
and... in there I have 2 files (tho I have commented out the template file in favor of this fancy rendering which gives me admin links and extra stuff in my pane...
thintop.inc and THEME-NAME-thintop.tpl.php
(based on http://drupal.org/node/495654)
good info at http://drupal.org/node/427192

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() .'/';
}




Imagecache

project page
the world is a better place because of imagecache, imageAPI, and filefield image. Imagecache has more and more contributed/add-on modules... it is without a doubt the premier image handler in Drupal

Imagecache Profiles

project page
this little gem has saved me from delving into php code on so many occasions.

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.

My goal is to continue my work exploring the 960 grid system. I ‘mostly’ like the mark-up, and I really like the visual representation. The classes and id’s seem to fit my style. I have an awesome “Mothership” (morten), and developing some very cool subthemes for a client that will allow them some incredible flexibility and the ability to add new themes (colors, images, shapes) pretty quickly without losing the overall look and feel...

In an effort to continue adapting themes for Drupal. I came across several themes at Design Disease. This theme is GPL (no documentation, but it is listed as so in their site). I am asking for clearification to see if they will allow me to post it on Drupal.org, until then it will be available at ThemeThingee. It was created back in February of 2008. Now it is available for Drupal. The sidebars are really cool in blue, yellow, and pink.