How easy is it to style/skin Drupal compared to styling vBulletin?
Brook - September 15, 2008 - 17:47
Just wondered how easy it is to create a skin/style for Drupal in comparison to how easy it is to do it in vB.
I've been using vB for a while now and find it pretty easy to do what we want with it, and wondered how the Drupal styling compares.
Your thoughts appreciated.
I never got too deep into
I never got too deep into custom theming in vB, so can't fully compare. However I find theming in Drupal to be a breeze (especially 6), once you understand the "template suggestion" system in Drupal. One thing I do remember on vB was having a massive hassle with the theme with every upgrade. Not the case with Drupal, since the theme layer is completely separated from core/functionality.
-- David
absolutecross.com
[new guide/lesson in progress: Creating a CCK and Views powered Drupal site - feedback welcome]
Thanks Keyz, so you think it
Thanks Keyz, so you think it will be easy in comparison?
Do you have any examples of Drupal sites you've designed?
Cheers,
Sure, these are my two best
Sure, these are my two best (at the moment... I have two more much more complex I'm working on):
http://www.aguaviva.com
http://www.firehousekidz.com
The hardest time I had with either of these was dealing with pre-existing code I didn't write and making it all work (aguaviva is based on top of the old version of Zen, and firehousekidz is based on GlossyBlue). In all current and future Drupal sites I make, the theme is from scratch, whereby I know every line of XHTML and CSS added, and don't have to pull my hair out wondering why various things are being affected by some hidden code in the theme I didn't even know about. I wrote a little article about it in case you're interested.
Yes I think theming the forum part of a Drupal site is "now" no more difficult than theming most any other aspect of Drupal (I hadn't tried, but understand it used to be a pain). At least so far as using Advanced Forum (which is a number of enhancements set on top of the core forum), as I gave installing and theming that a try myself last night: http://drupal.org/node/311238#comment-1022185
I haven't tried theming the core forum without Advanced Forum added on, but as it is nothing more than a forum node (similar to any other node) followed by comments (like comments on any other node), it should be no more difficult than theming any other page of the site (only more difficult to make it look/behave like a classic forum without AF's assistance).
At this point for me, whether theming vB is simpler or not in any respect is no longer important to me. Instead I've focused on only learning how to master Drupal theming (which of course I have to know anyhow in order to theme Drupal sites as a whole), and as a result now find it very easy, and I only have to remember how to theme a single system, not two.
-- David
absolutecross.com
[new guide/lesson in progress: Creating a CCK and Views powered Drupal site - feedback welcome]
Nice work Keyz :-) I keep
Nice work Keyz :-)
I keep meaning to set up a test Drupal site and have a play around - I guess that's the only way I'm really going to see how they compare.
I have some concerns about functionality too, eg what can Drupal really do with just the available modules here (all the best sites seem to have quite a bit of custom coded stuff as well). But I guess that's for the other topic I started!
Thanks again for your replies.
Aside from theming, there's
Aside from theming, there's hardly a single line of custom code on the above two sites. I am not a programmer, and rely on the great versatility of CCK and Views (and proper understanding of XHTML and CSS, along with my trusty Firebug extension) to make just about everything. I'd say 90% of everything on the sites mentioned are made with nothing but CCK, Views, and the standard CCK field sub-modules (such as Imagefield, etc). I also made light use of Panels module for the prayer support page (each entry is actually a node, making it easy for site users to create them... the green headings are taxonomy terms... and they get together on the same page through Panels). I used a very tiny bit of custom PHP to get the Gallery section the way it is. There are a few bits of premade jQuery effects which I manually added (search box, etc), though that's no different than you'd have to do on any site.
I'll continue in your other thread.
-- David
absolutecross.com
[new guide/lesson in progress: Creating a CCK and Views powered Drupal site - feedback welcome]