Create a folder called 'mytheme' in the themes folder of your Drupal local installation. Open the Joomla! template folder, you have index.php, template.css/php inside the folder 'css', 'image' folder and an xml file named template details. Copy the image folder, index.php and template.css to 'mytheme'.

Rename index.php to page.tpl.php and template.css to style.css.

Open the page.tpl.php in your favorite editor. Replace the following:

  1. HTML head

    Joomla!

    <?php
defined( '_VALID_MOS' ) or die( 'Direct Access to this location is not allowed.' );
$iso = split( '=', _ISO ); echo '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="'. $iso[1] .'"?' .'>';
?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">//
<head>
<?php if ( $my->id ) { initEditor(); } ?>
<?php mosShowHead();?>
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="favicon.ico" />
<link href="<?php echo $mosConfig_live_site;?>/templates/bt_musemix/css/template_css.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />

</head>

    Drupal

    <?php
// $Id:$
?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="<?php print $language->language ?>" lang="<?php print $language->language ?>">//.
<head>
<title><?php print $head_title ?></title>
<?php print $head ?>
<?php print $styles ?>
<?php print $scripts ?>
<!--[if lt IE 7]>
<?php print phptemplate_get_ie_styles(); ?>
<![endif]-->
</head>
  2. Body tag

    Joomla!

    <body>

    Drupal

    <body<?php print phptemplate_body_class($left, $right); ?>

  3. Site name

    Joomla!

    <?php echo $mosConfig_sitename; ?>

    Drupal 

    <?php if ($site_name): ?>
<h1 id='site-name'>
<a href="<?php print $base_path ?>" title="<?php print t('Home') ?>">
<?php print $site_name ?>
</a>
</h1>
<?php endif; ?>

    Additionally you may add site slogan and logo:

    <?php if ($logo) { ?><a href="<?php print $base_path ?>" title="<?php print t('Home') ?>"><img src="<?php print $logo ?>" alt="<?php print t('Home') ?>" /></a><?php } ?>

<?php if ($site_slogan) { ?><div class='site-slogan'><?php print $site_slogan ?></div><?php } ?>
  4. Pathway/Breadcrumb

    Joomla! 

    <?php mospathway() ?>

    Drupal

    <?php print $breadcrumb; ?>
  5. Main body/Content

    Joomla!

    <div class="mainbody"><?php mosMainBody(); ?></div>

    Drupal

    <?php print $content ?>
<code>

Add these variable before the $content. This is not available in Joomla!. 
<code>
h1 class="title"><?php print $title ?></h1>
<div class="tabs"><?php print $tabs ?></div>
<?php print $help ?>
<?php if ($show_messages) { print $messages; } ?>

    And site feed any where on the site but usually the content variable.

  6. Left Sidebar

    Joomla!

    <?php if (mosCountModules('left')>0) mosLoadModules('left',-1); ?>

    Drupal

    <?php if ($sidebar_left): ?>
<?php print $sidebar_left ?>
<?php endif; ?>
  7. Right sidebar

    Joomla!

    <?php if (mosCountModules('right')>0) mosLoadModules('right',-1); ?>

    Drupal

    <?php if ($sidebar_right): ?>
<?php print $sidebar_right ?>
<?php endif; ?>
  8. Primary links

    Joomla!

    <?php if (mosCountModules('user3')>0) mosLoadModules('user3',-1); ?>

    Drupal 

    <?php if (isset($primary_links)) : ?>
<?php print theme('links', $primary_links, array('class' => 'links primary-links')) ?>
<?php endif; ?>
  9. Search

    Joomla!

    <form action="index.php" method="post">
<input class="inputbox" type="text" name="searchword" size="15" value="<?php echo _SEARCH_BOX; ?>" onblur="if(this.value=='') this.value='<?php echo _SEARCH_BOX; ?>';" onfocus="if(this.value=='<?php echo _SEARCH_BOX; ?>') this.value='';" />
<input type="hidden" name="option" value="search" />
</form>

    Drupal

    <?php print $search_box ?>
  10. Footer

    Joomla!

    <?php mosLoadModules('bottom', 0); ?>

    Drupal

    <?php print $footer_message ?>
  11. Body close

    Joomla!

    </body>
</html>

    Drupal

    <?php print $closure ?>
</body>
</html>

Drupal 6 only
And finally, if you using Drupal 6 create a text file called mytheme.info and copy the below code to that file, replacing "mytheme" with the name of your theme.

; $Id:$
name = mytheme
description = CSS and. XHTML Strict/Modular layout theme
core = 6.x
engine = phptemplate

In case your Joomla! template is version 1.5, the variables names are slightly different, but similar to the above hence you won't find any difficulty there.

Comments

borazslo’s picture

borazslo commented

Is there any suggestion for Drupal 7 vs Joomla! 1.5?

basvredeling’s picture

basvredeling
Primary language Dutch
Location Amsterdam
commented

I've been considering creating a drupal theme that mimics the joomla html output. It's ugly but it makes the conversion process a lot easier because it removes the need to change the joomla css files. Is anyone aware of such a theme?