Where is the $content variable in the page.tpl.php template created for the front page?

If you want to theme the front page content, you can do it through the phptemplate engine without touching content.

Basically, if your frontpage is a single node you want to go to the node.tpl.php and manipulate the output conditionally.

if ($is_front)  {
  //theme this way}
else  {
//normal
}

another method is to just supply a different page.tpl.php for your front page, as outlined here http://drupal.org/node/46017

good luck

Sam Tresler
http://www.treslerdesigns.com
-------------------------------------
"A list of common problems and their solutions can be found in the Troubleshooting FAQ."

I would add an argument to include page-front.tpl.php, or really whatever name you want, and theme the output there. Here is a nice little Lullabot article, its for 4.7 but should help to get you started regardless of your drupal version.

If you need more info than that just hit me up.

Peace,
-mpare

www.paretech.com

Every place on the internet that I have seen this question asked, it always gets the "Don't hack the core" lecture instead of getting answered. To better my own understanding of Drupal, is there anyone who does know Where the $content variable is created in Drupal? I have a custom node (an Openresort business) where there are several things that get lumped into the content, not all of which I want to be there. It would be a tremendous help in figuring out how to achieve the modifications I want if I knew where and how drupal creates the $content variable. Is this such dangerous knowledge that it must be kept a secret? I think I will try hacking the core just to see if my computer blows up or the Drupal police come to arrest me :-).

If someone can enlighten me regarding the $content variable, that would be great, but please no more "Don't hack the core" lectures. It is a free world (sort of) and Drupal is open source, so I will hack whatever I please.

I believe that $content is created in node.module (line 1010), using the drupal_render function.

Here is what I did to accomplish what I think most people are trying to do when they want to alter the $content variable.

First I'll explain what I needed to do:
I was developing a site for an agency in drupal. I wanted to create the most intuitive way to edit page content as possible. It was pretty much a brochure site so I needed a way for the site admin to add/edit pages of the site. Rather than using a bunch of blocks and/or views and then requiring him to edit these individual pieces to effect change on the site I created a new content type called SubPage as this was going to be the format for nearly all interior pages. I used CCK and added all the fields that would be required to the SubPage content type.

Next, I copied the node.tpl.php file in my theme folder. I created a new file named node-sub_page.tpl.php and put it in the same directory. I pasted the code from node.tpl.php into this new file. I did this because drupal is apparently smart enough to see if there is a matching template file (node-.tpl.php) before loading the default.

Using this fresh template file I would be able to apply my css selectors around the field values. Or so I thought...
That's when I realized that drupal just outputs the $content variable. I needed to be able to add some <div>s around and within the output from content.

So what I did was:
Rather then try and hack into the core and create a custom function that would create the output the way I needed it I deleted the $content variable from my custom node-sub_page.tpl.php file and replaced it with this:

print_r($node);

That told me all of the available information in the $node object. Using this I was able to create my own <div>s with my own selectors and then just output the exact field value I needed.
For example to put the image on the page I put:

<div id='sub_page_img'>
echo $node->field_image[0]['view'];
</div>

This allows you to access each component of the $output to accomplish what you were probably after in the first place.

If someone is still looking for a way to do this, you can modify individual components of the $content variable using hook_nodeapi, with $op = 'view'.

Here's an example:

<?php

function my_module_nodeapi(&$node, $op, $a3 = NULL, $a4 = NULL) {
  switch ($op) {
    case 'view':
      if ($node->type == 'my_type') {
        // Modify body field on node view for this node type
        $node->content['body']['#value'] = 'New content';
      }
      break;
  }
}

?>

You can also access CCK fields and other components that end up on the $content variable. Try print_r($node->content) there to see all of them.