How to create a new Drupal theme using Adobe InDesign CS2 and Packaging it for GoLive?
Hello Everyone,
I am moving forward with Drupal and I really like to contribute more to the community of Drupal users.
I have been discovering the power of Adobe CS and have recently updated the Photoshop and Indesign to the CS2 versions.
When designing with InDesign you can package page templates for Go Live.
I have been editing logos and colors in the theme folders but as we learn we yearn to achieve more with this great Drupal software.
So has anyone out there ventured down this Drupal road using Indesign to create a theme or a more elaborate Style Sheet for a current theme?
Please let me know as I am educating myself as fast as I can research & absorb all the design possibilties with the outstanding Drupal software.
let me hear from you,
Johnny
Not really...
Johnny, I'm not sure if it works like that. If GoLive in CS2 is anything like Dreamweaver's templates, then templates are static HTML files in which there are special tags that these editors recognize as "editable regions". So when you pull this up as a template and publish it to site, let's say 100 pages, you end up with 100 static HTML pages.
When it comes time to edit the template after these 100 static pages are published, DW or GL will actually search/replace/save 100 files based off of the revisions you did in one template file. It's a real poor way of doing templates, assuming I have the concept right.
With a true content management system, like Drupal, a template is a dynamic (usually PHP file) that pulls content in from a database. Changing a template is changing one file and/or the CSS around it or even how it pulls data from the database.
I would really suggest taking a look at a few themes and seeing for yourself. Hope that helps.
Golive CS2
Hi,
What is the difference between typepad.com and an open CMS like drupal ?
Golive CS2 integrate a support for typepad.com to creat and edit pages using GL editing features.
I mean, typepad.com is using a database too, I think that it may be possible to create a plug-in for GL to edit templates and upload it directly inside Drupal's server.
Any Progress on Exporting from Indesign into Drupal?
Hello,
We use Adobe Indesign CS2 on a Mac to do layout on our print publication, and are trying to figure out a better way to export the content into our drupal based website.
Right now, I export the stories to RTF, but Indesign exports RTF with all sorts of nasy hidden codes that need to be stripped out before they can be imported into drupal (I can't just export as plain text because then I lose the itals and bolds and such within each article), and each story has to be imported into drupal one by one to create the nodes, which is laborious.
If aplym's method worked, as far as I understand it, we could package the publication for GoLive, and then export it from GoLive into our Drupal template format.
Or does anyone have other ideas?
In Peace,
Sam Diener
Co-Editor, Peacework Magazine: Global Thought and Local Action for Nonviolent Social Change
American Friends Service Committee - New England Regional Office
www.peaceworkmagazine.org
pwork@igc.org
Exporting from InDesign and what my new road with Drupal is.
After a year with Drupal and much growth with how web development is evolving I am leaning on learning more about the CSS that is the back bone of the themes or labels that present the mechanics of our websites. I am using Style Master, Mac Rabbit, Go live, and Photoshop for all my web creation. There is also a book out there called "CSS in Ten Minutes" - that you need to read for about 1000 minutes if you don't understand CSS. The Drupal Theme Garden has had a world of improvement over this growing very quickly year. After dealing with many new clients since my start of representing Drupal. I have discovered what really needs to be to developed in a theme which will make Drupal stand completely in front of the pack as CMS is a universal theme with an admin area that is more elaborate than the new Garland Theme. I have a new client that has requested a theme that changes background colors with every page so that every node can be published in a unique color scheme - tall order or what!
It's as though the theme should have settings that interact within the publishing of the node -seems possible. As everything depends on the right mind writing the code. But most importantly to show the true strength of a CMS like Drupal you should be able to decide if new nodes can be fluid or Fixed, a choice on how many columns and blocks are going to be set when the node is published, if you want your header or footer to change and resizing of logos as well. It is as though you would have to meld a WYSIWUG editor with what work was done with the Meta Theme and then push that development to yet another level. If you catch my drift this is what my clients are pushing for of how much layout control is desired when publishing any new content. I am also thinking the permissions would have to be set as what type of node designs users would be able to published. Sounds like a pretty hot CMS that would be almost as large as Gallery2
!
Thats all I have for now. The first step is nodes that can choose color schemes...
Johnny