By bvlaar on

Hey everyone,

So I've designed several websites in Photoshop. And then I eventually send them to friends to be coded. Or I can lightly code them myself. I've been looking for a CMS and most people point to Drupal. I've been reading some other threads and all most of the functions I need to be done in Drupal.

So I am curious to know, what I need to do different than a site is usually coded to make it drupal theme compatible? Is it hard to do? Is there any video tutorials on this? Or any tutorials?

Thanks!

⋅ Categories: Drupal 5.x

Comments

cayenne’s picture

cayenne commented

I did it and I am an idiot.

You can tweak the css files to your heart's content. You can completely restructure any theme by copying it over and moving all the elements. Simple, fun, a little more work than straight creation, but much more payback.

Oh and I am pretty sure there is a tutorial. Be careful not to confuse developing a theme (look and feel) with "theming" (substituting one php function for another.

Have fun.

:)

ThatPerson’s picture

ThatPerson commented

Hello, and I hope you choose Drupal for your website.

Unlike some other CMSs, Drupal is themed with PHP, but Don't panic! The only two things you need to understand about PHP in order to theme are the concept of variables and functions. The most important (and complicated) theming functions are already handled by the theme engine, PHPTemplate. Once you learn how to theme, you'll be amazed at how powerful Drupal's theming system is. Unlike most other CMSs or blog software, Drupal allows you to take control of almost every part of how the page renders. Any functions that control any part of the output can be easily overridden. For more info, I strongly suggest you read the theme developers' guide at http://drupal.org/node/509, and more specifically, http://drupal.org/phptemplate, where you will find the PHPTemplate developers' guide.

Some things I would suggest you do are to try porting an existing XHTML template (the ones you might find at OSWD or Open Web Design) to a Drupal theme. It's as simple as firing up a text editor and copying and pasting some parts of the code into the XHTML template, and you've got a Drupal theme. Next, you will want to look at overriding Drupal's output functions at http://drupal.org/node/55126.

styro’s picture

styro commented

You only really need the basics (a light smattering) of PHP for Drupal themes - eg way less than is needed for creating modules.

But it really does pay to have a good understanding of CSS. This includes understanding how selectors are inherited (the cascading part) and overridden. Also the Firebug extension for Firefox is incredibly useful (actually I'd say practically compulsory) for anyone working on Drupal themes.

--
Anton
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sepeck’s picture

sepeck commented

http://drupaldojo.com/lesson/lightning-lesson-dmitrig01-turns-psd-drupal...
http://www.blkmtn.org/Quick-and-dirty-OSWD-theme-to-Drupal

-Steven Peck
---------
Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide -|- Black Mountain

-Steven Peck
---------
Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide

jaredwiltshire’s picture

jaredwiltshire commented

You can make Drupal look like whatever you want. Its very themeable. It's one of the main reasons I chose Drupal.