This post may be a bit premature as I am still trying to get my head around Drupal in general...
I wish to create a customized theme that looks somethink like this. (logo and navigation, secondary nav and graphic/photo/flash box, and content below in three columns.)
http://www.nvision-ny.com/temp/example_template.jpg
I think where I am stuck is how to control the structural parts of layout of the home page, secondary pages and back pages within a theme.
First is it possible to create this kind of layout? Most drupal templates have a real community (portal / blog) look and feel -- I am not building a community website, its more of a corporate brochure site. To that end, do I design the site first or do I really have to consider Drupals functionally first?
Second, how do you specifiy a different sub template for various back pages?
Third, when setting up the 3 columns in the lower 3rd of the example page - I am guessing these would be the left, content and right blocks? or is there another way to insert content into specific areas?
Comments
What you show is possible
Below I describe one way of doing what you want but a final solution depends on how other pages look and what causes them to vary.
Looking at the pieces left to right, top to bottom
logo) logo :)
horizontal menu) Primary links
vertical menu) region with menu block
lighten up your life) region with block
three horizonal "blocks") region with 3 blocks
remaining part) panel module (for the three column and views module for each of the lists)
Blocks Q.
I looked at the block module but I was confused because there are only Left or Right column options.
When you say "region" do you mean DIV layers?
Thanks for the feedback,
Regions are more than a div
Using PHPtemplate in 4.7 one can define regions beyond the standard ones. These regions typically are used to place blocks in. You can read more about regions at http://drupal.org/node/29139.
Blocks
It's hard to give you a specific answer without knowing how the inside pages look like, but usually you have 2 options:
(1) Create new regions, so besides header, left, content, right, footer, you could have extra choices on the block configuration page.
(2) Sometimes it's possible to do it without new regions. Go to admin>blocks, add 3 new blocks, put them in the main content area, then click on "configure" and tell Drupal to show these blocks only on the front page (or wherever). Each block will have a unique CSS selector, so you can line them up nicely by giving them a limited width and a float.
Which option to use mainly depends on how your inner pages are structured. But this kind of layout is absolutely possible in Drupal. Until recently the big problem was not the layout but organizing your actual content into a hierarchy. The Category module solved that problem, but it's a relatively new module, so that's why you don't see many corporate brochure sites built on Drupal.
sure
For instance, this site: http://new.savannahnow.com/ is Drupal
http://drupal.org/node/71654
As is : http://www.mtv.co.uk/
and this one as well: http://www.theonion.com/content/
As to design... well, yousort of need to do both. You should be able to achieve the layout. Check out the podcast about how this site was done: http://www.twit.tv/ podcast interview: http://www.twit.tv/itn25 for some ideas on various considerations. It really only touches on it but may help you get your approach together. I mention that some of the fancy stuff relies on Views module so you should definitly check that module out and also the panels module.
http://angrydonuts.com/the_dashboard_revisited
http://angrydonuts.com/views_and_front_pages_a_short_dr
-Steven Peck
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Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide -|- Black Mountain
-Steven Peck
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Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide