Drupal Learning Journal 13. "Using Drupal" – Chapter 11 – Theming

Chapter 11 of Using Drupal, is ab out theming which assumes working knowledge of PHP and CSS. I have the former, but not the latter (yet). This the time, when I wish I could keep this library book longer. But somebody has it on reserve, so I had to relinquish it in 3 days. As I didn’t have time to play with what I learned form this chapter and because this is the chapter that contained the most newish information I am afraid I may forget. Nevertheless here are the notes that may or may not trigger my memory later when needed.

• List of variable available for templates is at: http://drupal.org/phptemplate (Page 397)
• The Devel module has a “Theme Developer” segment. (Page 398) (D7 versions exists.
• The code example on page 399 shows where the breadcrumb is in the page.tpl.php file and how to move it.
• The code example on page 401 explains where the the “submitted by” and “taxonomy” info is and how to move it on the node.tpl.php or node-story.tpl.php files.
• To understand how to override variables and functions in the theme’s template.php file read this page. (page 405)
• All variable go through the preprocess function. One can crate a mytheme_preprocess_page function. Here is the info on how to override them. (page 406/7)
• “Snippets” are bits and pieces of Drupal code that people have found useful and wish to share with the community. They are available here. (page 411)
• Theme snippets are here and mini modules for D6 are here.