Leveraging Drupal®: Getting Your Site Done Right

Chapter 7. Becoming an Expert Drupal Themer

One of the compelling reasons for using Drupal is that it allows you to cleanly override the layout and look and feel of your website, a practice generally referred to as theming. This chapter explains how to do this by following "The Drupal Way." By understanding how Drupal renders a page, how the content is passed to the theming component of the system, and exactly where and how developers and specialized graphic design people can conveniently affect the final outcome, you can become an expert Drupal themer.

However, our emphasis on theming doesn't mean that we are concerned with graphic design in this chapter. You are not going to come out with a shiny new theme for Drupal here. But you are going to learn how to use existing themes, even bare-bones skeleton themes, and how to use the Drupal theming system to your best advantage.

On to Theming

So where are we? So far, the following two iterations have been completed:

1. Prototype

   • A Workshop Leader can approve applications to join the workshop.

   • A Workshop Leader can suspend members and publishers.

   • A Workshop Leader can manage affinity groups.

   • A Workshop Leader can broadcast messages to members.

   • A Workshop Leader can do everything Workshop Members and Publishers can do.

   • Clean URLs and automatic generation of SEO friendly paths

2. Beta

   • A Workshop Member can post literary pieces.

   • A Workshop Member can make any post public, private, or visible to an affinity group.

   • A Workshop Member can critique public posts. ...