Hello,
I am a designer working on a site which is being developed in Drupal. The site is more or less complete except the developer has not implemented the design very well and has not created the grid (i.e column widths) to the exact dimensions I specified (which has repercussions both aesthetically and practically). In my usual experience whereby I would create the html/css and then hand over to the developer, this would be very easily resolved by adjusting these values in a css document but he is telling me that this will be now very time-consuming to alter. I know that he has used a theme to begin the build with, but I just wanted to check that he is in fact being truthful (and not bloody minded) - is Drupal really this inflexible?
Thanks
Bev
Comments
Hi there, I think it depends
Hi there,
I think it depends on the site complexity. Drupal is one of the most flexible systems I've seen. You don't have to hack into system module in order to modify basic stuff like padding, colors... So, if you're good in HTML/CSS you already have good foundation. You can dive in and define blocks etc.
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This is my first experience
This is my first experience of working with a developer using Drupal. So changing the column widths is actually a straightforward process (as I am used to) and not complicated (as he is telling me?)
Thanks
Drupal can pretty much be
Drupal can pretty much be made to do anything.
Generally most theme development does start with a base them (such as Zen or 960gs), but these themes can be made to bend to the designer's will without too much issue.
To answer your question, though, it really depends on what you're asking and how the design is implemented. For example, if you're asking for column widths and gutters that are not factorable, and the designer is using 960gs, he will most likely have to modify the widths slightly. That being said, if you can come up with the HTML and CSS in a standard HTML document, he could probably work from that.
Good luck.
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Hi, I'm not sure what you
Hi,
I'm not sure what you mean by factorable? I haven't based the layout on the column widths defined in the 960gs (I assume you are talking about the css framework here?) but it is actually a pretty straightforward 3 column layout which totals 960 (as standard to most web site design). I would be happy to create the html/css for him but i was told that this was not the way Drupal worked (this is my first experience of working with a developer using Drupal) so I have been sending him just visuals which he's not implemented very well (which is understandably riling me) So, from your answer I gather that it is in fact very easy to adjust the columns to the dimensions that are required and not some long arduous task that he is saying it is?
Thanks
Bev
With a grid system such as
With a grid system such as 960gs you can adjust the width of the columns and even the width of the entire site (so it doesn't have to be 960px wide). The width of the columns, number of columns and gutter widths all have to add up to the width of the site, though.
However, if you are sending him HTML/CSS, he should be able to implement that.... though it can get very complicated quickly. Anything is possible though Drupal theming though. Drupal gives you the ability to modify all of the output to whatever markup you want.
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Short answer, no, Drupal is
Short answer, no, Drupal is not this inflexible. It's usually just a matter of changing / overriding the values in the stylesheet of the theme.
I obviously can't speak for your developer, but as someone who does Drupal theming for a living I can tell you what I like to see delivered from a designer is a visual mockup (psd) and a spec sheet which includes what widths, colors, fonts, etc. should be. I think the spec sheet is especially important because it's easy to make mistakes if you're just going off the mockups alone.
Typically, html/css isn't a favorable deliverable from a designer in the Drupal world. The main reason why is because there's generally a difference in approach. Typically, a Drupal themer will start with a base theme... which is a theme that has the html structure in place but very minimal css applied to it... and from there, the themer will use CSS and make any necessary overrides in template files to make the theme match the design. This is different than the approach that most designers take when they deliver html/css versions of their mockups. Usually, a designer starts from an empty html file, and structures their html the best way that they see fit to display their content and then theme accordingly. What this means is that typically, the HTML that the designer delivers and the HTML that's in the base theme that the themer has is radically different and the CSS files that the designer delivers are only useful in as much as using them as a spec sheet for how wide things are supposed to be and what colors they are, and the CSS has to be rewritten to accomodate the markup of the base theme.
So, the synopsis of all that is that in general, html/css delivered from a designer is generally a waste of your effort and it's much faster for you to deliver a graphical mockup and a spec sheet, and that's much easier (in my opinion) to intrepret and make into a working theme.
But... that doesn't explain why your developer is telling you what he's telling you.