By webchick on

Calling all designers!

Packt Publishing, who recently donated $5,000 to the Drupal Association after Drupal won the 2007 Overall Open Source CMS Award, announces a new book, Drupal 5 Themes by Ric Shreves. A description from the publisher:

This book is the ideal introduction to theming with Drupal 5. If you want to create a striking new look for your Drupal website, this book is for you. Starting from the basics of theme setup and configuration, you will learn about the Drupal theming architecture and the PHPTemplate engine, and then move on to modifying existing themes and building new themes from scratch. Included is a complete guide to the various style sheets and themeable functions in Drupal 5, making this book a valuable resource even to experienced theme developers. It covers:

  • Creating custom templates
  • Basics of theming in pure PHP
  • Modifying an existing PHPTemplate theme— a step-by-step guide
  • Creating a new PHPTemplate theme—a step-by-step guide
  • Working with forms

The main requirements to make use of this book are knowledge of HTML, CSS, and a touch of creativity! Although this book aims to make Drupal theming accessible to designers, theming in Drupal 5 involves writing some PHP code, and a basic knowledge of PHP will be helpful.

Packt Publishing will donate 5% of the proceeds of this book to the Drupal Association during the first 6 months, and 3% thereafter. The book will be released in December 2007.

⋅ Categories: Drupal 5.x

Comments

trogie’s picture

trogie commented

Ordered! :-)

kyutums’s picture

kyutums commented

I was looking for a book about Drupal Theming and this book just happens to come out! Definitely to be ordered. :)

samokhov’s picture

samokhov commented

I wonder if the book will be useful to someone waiting for Drupal 6?

JohnForsythe’s picture

JohnForsythe commented

The quote only mentions Drupal 5. Even book writers can't keep up with Drupal's rapid development pace ;p

--
John Forsythe
Need reliable Drupal hosting?

jacine’s picture

jacine
she/her
Location New York
commented

I ordered it too!

Tau’s picture

Tau commented

I am too interested in learning drupal6 themeing. It seems substantially different from drupal5 and won't pass much time for drupal6 to be released.

robomalo’s picture

robomalo commented

...for Drupal 6.

mxt’s picture

mxt
Primary language Italian
Location Milan
commented

I'm only interested in Drupal 6 theming.

jswaby’s picture

jswaby commented

... but I'm more interested in drupal 6 theme development.

======
Jason

soundsational’s picture

soundsational commented

Is this author Ric Shreves the President of the Mambo Foundation???

If so, just curious to know why he has written a Drupal book and not Mambo ???

Anyhow, will probably purchase it nevertheless...

Bevan’s picture

Bevan commented

I believe so. His drupal site features a lot of mambo content and links including two mambo books.

Interesting...

http://drupal.geek.nz/

Bevan/

adisetiawan’s picture

adisetiawan commented

just FYI, he's former president of Mambo Foundation

Adi Setiawan
--------------
http://ex3me.org

themegarden.org’s picture

themegarden.org commented

Yes, indeed. He is former president of Mambo Foundation.
On his personal web site, you can find a link to his LinkedIn page with some details about him.

It's interesting that former president of Mambo Foundation is using Drupal for his personal web site :-)

---
Drupal Theme Garden
Drupal Hosting Article

universeinside’s picture

universeinside commented

Ordered!!!!

Congrats on this needed book!

Cool 20% off by pre-ordering from PACKT.

What are you all Drupalers waiting for?? Order now!!! :)

BR,

Nicolás Amado

bambam-1’s picture

bambam-1 commented

ohh man this book is about 6-7 months late!!!! i needed this book back then not now, but i do need the drupal 6 version, a few things have changed about theming which makes this book obsolete... having said that, there are a lot free resources to learn about drupal theming, css, xhtml and php every where (not just on drupal handbook) a bit of digging will get you all of that and then some,

note to the author: if you can have a version 6 of book available soon, even the digital version, please bring it out soon for sale... sooner than version 7 release please!

kasperjames’s picture

kasperjames commented

Do I find out the extact date its being released? is their a reminder email flyer i can sign up for that will notify me when its released or has more detailed information, images, ect? Can you get a degital download? Because that would be more efficient when it comes to a side by side walk through of some of the things im trying to do. not to mention a better hands on approach. you ever tried to read a book while working on the computer? sheesh. seriously, folks. can someone send me a message about this?

kasperjames
Thanks for your help and support:
www.kasperjames.com/

ipwa’s picture

ipwa commented

There is a form to submit you e-mail here: http://www.packtpub.com/drupal-5-themes/book
I can't wait for the book!!

Nicolas
-------------------------
http://nic.ipwa.net

Nicolas
-------------------------

mortendk’s picture

mortendk commented

WTF! are people really bitching about a theming book?
It sounds like the theming will be a whooole different world in D6 - I guess there is a memo somewhere i have missed?
or is this really the *only* things thats gonna change -> http://drupal.org/node/132442 (i know im gonna get smacked for) this comment ;)

It looks like a really good book for new people to get into drupal and that wonderfull thing called theming.

/morten.dk *king of Denmark*

/morten.dk
http://geekroyale.com | http://morten.dk

Freso’s picture

Freso commented

Also, while D6 is almost ready for an RC release... it's not there yet. And from the first RC to the final D6.0 and to have (D5 or less) modules ported and generally be ready for public consumption... we won't see that 'fore a while into '08. So there's plenty of time for the D6 book to be written and published. (To the complainers - go help port a module/translation/theme while you wait or help out in the general Drupal development to get D6 out sooner!)

--
Frederik 'Freso' S. Olesen

ToshoFreny’s picture

ToshoFreny commented

Will this be of any use to me to learn how to theme for drupal 6? I know it sounds awkward to ask such a question when the book title says Drupal 5, but that's the point I want to stress. While Drupal 6 is close by its release date, I wont bother to buy this one as there are major changes in theming between drupal5 and 6.

Loving Life,
Tosho Freny,
Reading How to Sex Your Life Passionately | Osho Explains and Sex and the Osho at belovedosho.com

styro’s picture

styro commented

changes a bit, but the main principles are still pretty much the same.

If anything Drupal 6 theming will get easier as there are prebuilt templates to copy for nearly all theme functions. But if there is no template, the fallback techniques from Drupal 5 are mostly still there.

IMO a book on Drupal 5 theming will still be valuable for understanding the rationale behind Drupal theming. That understanding will make the transition to Drupal 6 theming easier than picking up Drupal 6 theming from scratch without a book, as the update documentation will make more sense to you. After all the rationale hasn't changed, just some of the details.

--
Anton
New to Drupal? | Troubleshooting FAQ
Example knowledge base built with Drupal

kasperjames’s picture

kasperjames commented

i just tricked around the net looking at the logs about the books out there. boy, they sure go out of date fast dont they. im going to make sure i read every single one of them. mark my words, ill be contributing to drupal faster then you can say. boy...now he actually runs drupal.org/ haha..just kidding. anyways.

theming 6:
Book of the future? Or just a volume of the month? Because its already behind schedual!
What, with the new theme developers module and information being shared so fast, and things changing so fast. is their a book in the works for this yet? becuase honestly, before you can finish it, and i can get my hands on it...your gonna be done with 6 and i wont be able to keep up with the installations and modules. but...
i am anxious. i just want to keep on a secure and reasonable 5.6 untill i can get up to speed, im only 5 weeks into this stuff.

but man, i know alot already. hey, can anyone please let me know about this? and what about drupal module's? is their gonna be a book about the whole world of module making? the ways to add and modify hooks, back up, configure, update, contribute, and code? huh? huh? please.....get to writting.

Thanks,

KJ
Thanks for your help and support:
www.kasperjames.com/
Check www.skybus.com/ for rates to DRUPALCON 2008, MARCH 1ST-3RD, rates of this day are:
AROUND 45$ ONE WAY! seriously!!!

aozuas’s picture

aozuas commented

Well, he already stated in his site he will update the book for D6:

http://ricshreves.net/?q=node/33

[...] As for D6, yes, there will be a D6 version. Just got the green light on that from Packt, although the publication date is still up in the air.

Aleph Ozuas
http://www.ciberarte.com.br
http://www.dzo.com.br

nimazuk’s picture

nimazuk commented

Thought it is for D5 and I already have done a lot about D5 themes, I order this.
I am sure I will find new things.

N.Mehrabany
Baruzh web design & programming

Nima

SkippyMcGee’s picture

SkippyMcGee commented

I have high hopes for this book.

I have enjoyed "Pro Drupal Development" and hope that these books get enough support from the Drupal community to make it worthwhile for authors to take the time and write. Ideally, this will help shorten the window between a version release and quality books about it.

therobyouknow’s picture

therobyouknow commented

Well it's December now, so is it out yet?

Have you actually got a copy of the book?

themeartists.com’s picture

themeartists.com commented

Any word from the author about Drupal 6 version?

Theme Artists - Professional Drupal Themes

ricoflan’s picture

ricoflan commented

I am informed by my editor that the proposal has been put before the editorial review board. i am now waiting to hear back from them with The Final Word. Stay tuned!

ric shreves - water&stone
http://www.waterandstone.com

marcrobinsone’s picture

marcrobinsone commented

Here's my personal, unadulterated, not-so-techie book review.

I find the book very handy. However, I do use the online themes handbook while flipping the book.

Morten_P_Andersen’s picture

Morten_P_Andersen commented

Great book
I´m from denmark and my english reading isn´t that good. But I think it is a well written book
:)
Morten
www.lille-web.dk