One of the problems is that most sites that use custom themes (that aren't from the download area) are heavily customized to their needs. On my sites, for example, I have custom content types and modules that are themed, but even if I zipped it up and made it available, it wouldn't mean much to most people.

Like VeryMisunderstood said in another of your threads, look at the documentation in the handbook for ideas. And feel free to ask specific questions. Someone will probably have an idea for you!

~silverwing - plus, theming a Drupal site is way more involved than theming a WordPress site, for example.

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Land of Midnight | MisguidedThoughts | showcaseCMS

...I think I see...

markgriffith - May 10, 2008 - 23:21

Thanks, silverwing - I realise I'm being obtuse, but why wouldn't the code mean much to an outsider? How can the documentation mean anything if I can't see the code?

I sense I'm asking an inappropriate question, but...

Isn't an example worth a thousand words? That's how I learned to write HTML. All the explanations about "dynamic content" or launching a database that generates a page sound nebulous to me still.

I want to _see_ this in action. I feel only then will I understand it. Documentation just seems abstract to me, with jargon terms being used to define other jargon terms. Is there nowhere I can see some code with explanations like "this bit makes this happen" and "that bit gets the pictures from here and puts them over there" and so on?

Perhaps I'll have to ask specific questions. Am worried about annoying people here or wearing through your patience though...

Mark

=-=

VeryMisunderstood - May 11, 2008 - 19:38

Drupal comments its code in the files. You can also use api.drupal.org to understand some of the PHP that is being used.

The snippets in the documenatation area, explain what they do. Though you won't get a line by line breakdown of what each string is doing. Just the overall function.

to understand PHP and what is going on, you may want to start purchasing books and reading documentation at php.net.

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My posts & comments are usually dripping with sarcasm.
If you ask nicely I'll give you a towel : )

I think what sliverwing

jmburnz - May 11, 2008 - 20:24

I think what sliverwing means is that it wouldn't make much sense in the context of another site/project.

I'm in the same boat, I have a tonne of code in my library and probably 30+ themes that I "could" release but it would be crazy for me to inflict them on unsuspecting users - why? Because they were all coded for a specific site & purpose - they just wouldn't work if you installed them on a default installation. You'd also need to know all the taxonomies, views, content types & full site configuration amongst other things.

At the end of the day, what you are asking for is a big ask - that a site developer basically open his books and show you everything. Nothing wrong with that, but its a lot of work to do so.

I think you can learn a lot from just getting on with it, build some sites, challenge yourself with "what if's" and "I wonder how I could do that" type of questions - look for code snippets to help you, study PHP and the Drupal API's.

Beyond drupal.org there are thousands of sites with video tutorials and code examples (lullabot springs to mind). I find its much more profitable to simply work through one challenge at time incrementally building your knowledge in both Drupal and PHP.

I can recommend this book "Programming PHP" by Ramus Lerdorf et al. by O'Reilly, its helped me out many times.

Look at the Installation

Wayne_Luke - May 11, 2008 - 19:35

Look at the Installation Profiles if you want downloads of code:

http://drupal.org/project/Installation+profiles

However I am not sure if this will help you learn the system. The best way to learn it is to install it and start playing with it on your local development server.

You can find themes to view their code and how they have done things here:
http://drupal.org/project/Themes

...

Michelle - May 11, 2008 - 19:55

No code here, either, but I like this for a showcase: http://buytaert.net/tag/drupal-sites

Michelle

[Edit: Oooh, I got comment #840,000 :) ]

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See my Drupal articles and tutorials or come check out life in the Coulee Region.

Thanks jmb, thanks Wayne, thanks Michelle...

markgriffith - May 11, 2008 - 22:55

Thanks, you're all being very kind and patient.

It sounds as if I'll have to learn to write PHP then. I have a PHP book, so here goes, I suppose...

Sad that code is effectively secret now - that used to be what was so good about HTML. Everyone's site was open for inspection. No longer, obviously.

I can't really agree with

jmburnz - May 11, 2008 - 23:34

I can't really agree with that, you make it sound like the code is being hidden deliberately (that may be the case for sites with NDA's), but for the most part code written for Drupal is open source and freely available for you to download or copy/paste and muck about with.

What you are asking for here is a bit beyond the pale - you are chastising developers for not making all their source files publicly available? Many of us do give away a lot of code, so that others might benefit, and so we can give a little back when so much has already been given. That said, most times clients expect ND and frequently this is written into contracts, so we can't give it away, even if we wanted to...

I think the issue is that

Wayne_Luke - May 12, 2008 - 01:31

I think the issue is that when Drupal builds a page it pulls PHP code from its core, the modules directory, the site directory. This code further pulls information from the database to retrieve settings, information about modules, user information and more. The code and database information is then mixed with HTML and CSS from the theme and the system outputs the page for the end user. The PHP never gets sent to the browser so its not really visible.

This doesn't mean that you need to learn PHP to use Drupal or start learning it. You can install the core and some useful modules like Gallery and go from there. The system provides screens that you access in your browser to add new content with and even create new types of content without ever touching the PHP code. If you want a new look, then you can download a theme, upload it to your server, and activate it without ever touching any code. You can even rearrange the blocks and how they are output to the screen without touching any PHP or HTML code.

With Drupal you don't have to code pages like you did with HTML. You create content. Want a gallery, then install a gallery module and upload all your pictures are once. It should handle everything else. The whole point is that you don't need to know the code to use the software. I think that is where you are falling short here. You are expecting everything in a neat package like an HTML and that links to another HTML. However dynamic sites don't work that way. One set of files can give the user thousands of pages of content without ever being touched.

The basic terms that you need to know to start using Drupal are these:
Core - Anything in the Drupal Download from this site.
Module - Packages of PHP and HTML code that add features to your site.
Theme - Primarily HTML and CSS that style and create the display for your site.
Region - Area defined by the Theme. e.g. header, footer, content, sidebar.
Block - Pieces of code that are used to build the user output. You place blocks in regions.
Node - Any content that will be shown on your site. This can be articles, blog comments, forum entries, images in a gallery, etc...
Taxonomy - Categories and Keywords used to classify your nodes/content.

From there, it just takes using the software and tweaking it. If you have specific questions like "How do I get the search box in the header region", then ask them.

I should add that I have been using Drupal 6.2 for about three and a half weeks now. I don't really use the documentation because every time I find something its outdated. Most of it applies to 4.7. I did buy a book and I read these forums and search Google quite a bit. I have my site almost ready to go with several complex content types. The system has custom blocks and I am building a few widgets to include tools specific to my site. I haven't touched any Drupal PHP code.

...gallery of examples?

..

Thanks, silverwing!

gallery plus code?

well...