how many use the theme engines?
socialtalker - August 26, 2008 - 10:32
i have read the showcase section for sometime now, and no one seems to mention that they use the theme engines. i am embarrassed to say my attempts to design a layout have been a joke, i was hoping using the engine would keep me from breaking the code part, but even with reading the instructions i am absolutely clueless hard the darn thing works. i have not seen any screencast on it, not even on youtube.
Does everyone, or most people use it and dont bother to mention because its so easy, are hardly anyone except coding smartypants use it?
thanks
oops
i meant to say "OR" hardly anyone but coding smartypants using it?
i would think most people
i would think most people use the phptemplate theme engine-- most themes on the theme page seem to be phptemplate based themes.
===
"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." -- Lao Tzu
"God helps those who help themselves." -- Benjamin Franklin
"Search is your best friend." -- Worldfallz
i was assuming that most of
i was assuming that most of the themes given to the public are created by developers who i would assume know how to use these things. my question was to the general non developers who are putting up sites. i was hoping to hear from them directly if they actually use these engines.
by the way do you have a knowledge of a screencast that shows how to use these engine.
fyi, i'm not a developer.
fyi, i'm not a developer.
I'm not sure what you mean by "use these engines"-- you don't need bother with the engine itself at all if you don't want to. you just need to know what the conventions are for the theme you are using (which will change depending on the engine the theme was written for, but you don't actually have to know the engine itself). most people probably use phptemplate based themes because if you know a little php then you pretty much know how to edit phptemplate themes. You don't need to learn another templating language. It's just html interspersed with some php. It's also the best documented.
I would assume most non-developers (including myself), just pick an existing theme close to what they want, and just edit that rather than start from scratch. There's also several base themes (i.e. zen, framework, hunchbaque, etc) that are meant to serve as the starting point for customizing.
There are some themes that don't use any theme engine at all, but that's a lot more work for the themer (phptemplate automates much of the db interactions) and I don't think many users go that route.
as for videos there are several very good ones over at drupaldojo.net. The best way to search for them is to use google and search for "site:drupaldojo.net theming".
===
"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." -- Lao Tzu
"God helps those who help themselves." -- Benjamin Franklin
"Search is your best friend." -- Worldfallz
i have not explained myself well
I was not saying that i believe theme engines are needed to theme, i was just asking how many actually use theme engines, " use the theme engines, yes or no?" so far no one seems to at least of the three folks who have responded.
thanks for giving the search tip. but the result do not show how to use the "theme engines"
theoritically i would like to use them if i could because to my understanding it protect the code while working on the design. css is hard enought to debug, debugging php is beyond me at this time.
i don't know how else to
i don't know how else to explain it to you. You keep repeating the question saying you're not getting an answer-- we're trying to explain that the question itself makes no sense in relation to the way drupal works. You dont "use theme engines". You use themes. Most themes are written for the phptemplate engine, but as a drupal user or themer, you don't "use the theme engine".
This is incorrect. Theme engines don't protect anything. They are a convenience to make theming easier. period.
===
"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." -- Lao Tzu
"God helps those who help themselves." -- Benjamin Franklin
"Search is your best friend." -- Worldfallz
okay, "protect is the wrong word"
let me just use a direct quote.
this is from the download-theme engine section
thats all i was saying, i wanted to work with something that would do..... what the paragraph above said. "use" is the wrong word? what word is proper then? you are right, i dont understand why what i asked was such a silly question. if people dont "use, apply, refer, mess around, play with. etc" theme engines why are they in the download section of the drupal home site? i must have been one the rare people who downloaded it and tried to use one or two of them. i dont call myself a designer but i thought i could "mess around" with theme engines to help me modify my ideas for layout without "without having to worry about any PHP coding." its all i can do just working with the html and css coding.
i merely repeated my question in attempting to clarify my point and yes I do feel i have pretty much gotten my answer indirectly. most drupal users in the showcase section considered the question itself absurd and ignored it and now so will I....However thanks to all who did take the time to respond.
AH HA-- now I understand
AH HA-- now I understand what you're getting at better.
The simple answer to your question is that yes, i would say most people "use theme engines" since most people use phptemplate based themes (which require the phptemplate engine). There are other theme engines available if you prefer/know another theming language-- like the xtemplate one you mention, or the smarty one. You also don't have to use an engine based theme at all if you don't want to.
Theme engines are very much like car engines-- I don't actually use the combustion engine in my car i just use (drive) my car. I couldn't tell you the first thing about how combustion engines work, but i can tell you everything about how to drive my car. Some cars have automatic transmission engines (say xtemplate) and some have manual ones (say phptemplate).
Only in the drupal world, the manual transmission (phptemplate) would be far more common than the automatic. Because of that, there's not a lot of help in the forums for non-phptemplate themes.
The trade off is-- if you know xtemplate or smarty, you may not need help from the forums. However, it's been my experience (and i'm not a developer) that the amount of php you need to understand to be able to theme, is fairly small and easily learned (basically "print" statements and some if-then-else logic).
does that help more?
===
"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." -- Lao Tzu
"God helps those who help themselves." -- Benjamin Franklin
"Search is your best friend." -- Worldfallz
yes, thats explanation helps
thank you.
try this and tell us :D
http://drupal.org/project/atck
there is NO "engine" that opens up a 'template bit" in the browser for u to edit in WYSIWYG fashion. You need to open up the php files to edit manually in your favourite offline code editor LOL
so thats your task to try that module and tell us how u go :D it maybe able to change CSS and positioning.
Views module might be able to open up the php files for editing
noone using this?
http://drupal.org/project/atck
I had forgotten about the
I had forgotten about the ATCK. I think that's what the original poster expects theme engines to do.
Just for clarification to socialtalker, theme engines are the underlying code that makes it possible to build a theme and have drupal know what to do with it. They don't really help you create a new theme except in the way that PHP helps you create a new theme - can't do it without it (so all themes "use" PHP), but it's an underlying technology, rather than a helper technology.
Hmm.. As I reread that, I'm not sure it clarified anything!
Yosemite Explorer - hiking and climbing in Yosemite (drupal)
truth to tell
its one of those modules that got lost in the crowd for me. dont remember reading if many people say they use it. it works pretty good?
Hope...
(I'm hoping I don't confuse matters any more than they seem to be.)
I'm not a coder. Most would say I'm not a themer :) But I try.
I use the default phptemplate theme engine for a couple of reasons:
1. It's documented.
2. Since most people use it, I can get help pretty easily.
3. It does what I need it to do.
If you're having troubles with it, the problem may be with the theme's code - not the engine itself. You're entirely free to place elements anywhere - it's that flexible.
I was helping someone on these forums a while ago with their theme. After a day and a dozen posts, it was finally revealed that they were using an XTemplate theme. At that point I stopped helping because it's not really that well supported. I don't think anyone else came to help him, either.
I wouldn't use any other theme engine. Work with phptemplate, ask questions, and you'll find your way.
~silverwing
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zinzinny - more than tv (alpha)| MisguidedThoughts | showcaseCMS
cool
thanks for tips about phptemplate.
video
This video is from Drupal 5. However, it is still a solid overview of the phpTemplate engine, which will get you a better fundamental understanding.
http://drupaldojo.net/lesson/theming-like-a-pro
-Steven Peck
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Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide -|- Black Mountain
thanks!
thanks!