By silverado on
Hello,
I'm a newbie and I'm developing a new Drupal site (5.1). I would like to customize a theme, maybe Zen. My question is:
1. Do i first enable all the functionalities of the site, and when everything works, then customize the theme?
or
2. Do everything at the same time?
What is the opinion of the experts out there?
Thanks
Comments
I won't call myself an expert
But I am a professional project manager. Personally I would recommend that you get things working, especially as a newbie. Get to know Drupal. Then worry about the theme. You will learn things as you go along that will help you build the theme. Also keep in mind that the themes that exist have a lot of room for customization that may not be apparent at first; it may be easier for you to use one of them than to start with Zen.
It is impossible to do everything at one time, unless you have an army of people to help you. Plan and prioritize the work, then tackle it one thing at a time.
Nancy W.
Drupal Cookbook (for New Drupallers)
Adding Hidden Design or How To notes in your database
NancyDru
Do it as two steps - Learn then Theme
As a basic implementation strategy you always want to do things in discreet steps and not all at once, especially when learning. Even if you are an expert things can go wrong when installing multiple modules. If you are making Theming updates at the same time, you will have a hard time figuring out if the error you see is from the new module having a bug/quirk or if you screwed up the theme. If you do each one separately, at least you know where to direct your debugging energy.
Plus as you install modules you will find that they might give you additional options to use in creating your theme. If you do both at the same time, you might find yourself redoing parts of your theme as you discover these options made available by your new modules.
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Thanks to both of you
Thanks to both of you.
Your suggestions make sense. I'm not in a hurry so I'll do things step by step.
Is there any theme better for a newbie to start 'playing' with theming? I've read that Zen is a good one.
Any good starting tutorial?
nancyw what do you mean when you say: "it may be easier for you to use one of them than to start with Zen"
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zen is becoming to Drupal 5 what bluemarine is to Drupal 4.7 a good foundation for a theme to build off of and manipulate.
If you aren't very familiar with CSS you can use and manipulate the bluemarine theme, however, I suggest not wasting that time and if Zen is the direction you want to go, than by all means start there. Zen is documented throughout the theme itself, inperticular in the template.php to give you an idea of how themes can be manipulated and theme functions can be manipulated.
As far as a tutorial on themeing, there is a plethora of information in the handbook on themeing and customizing. You may also want to look into the Drupal Dojo where they have been working on some fantastic tutorials. There is also a screencast/videocast area of the handbook that provides quite a few videos to help you get started.
If one chose they can also convert any of these themes found here: http://www.oswd.org/ using this : http://www.blkmtn.org/Quick-and-dirty-OSWD-theme-to-Drupal as a guide to help you along.
Very very good
Very very good advice!
Thanks
Well...
I have used both Bluemarine and Garland quite successfully. BM is tables driven; Garland is pure CSS.
Nancy W.
Drupal Cookbook (for New Drupallers)
Adding Hidden Design or How To notes in your database
NancyDru