Drupal Theme Development
Happy to see there are more Drupal users out there. One of the common hurdles we may all face is customizing themes to meet strategic computing header/footer requirements for all websites. I've been working on this, trying to find the best method to incorporate the material available at:
- http://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/_includes09/UTSC_header.html
- http://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/_includes09/UTSC_deptfooter.html
* I'm at UTSC, so if someone would post the options for UT StG and UTM, would be great.
An additional requirement I had for selecting a theme is the need to create common layouts and allow enough low-level customization that users using the different centres would know they were within CTL sites, but had shifted from one sub-centre to another (from the CTL main site to the writing centre, for example). We purchased a copy of Artisteer, which answered that need.
Digging a bit further into the Drupal block option, I discovered this page - http://www.kristen.org/content/custom-drupal-theme-block-regions - explaining how to enable different block regions in a Drupal theme. This makes it very easy to add a block above the Drupal theme header that would present the mandated UT header (same for the footer, using the Copyright block).
Since, I've been working to figure out how to properly edit a theme to add the block without causing any rendering errors in the browser.
If anyone has any experience or info, let's compile it here. I'm guessing that if we can create one successful theme, it should be fairly easy to replicate to all the Drupal users at UT
Thanks,
Daryl
Fusion core subtheme!
I've played around with modifying Garland or other built in themes, tried building a theme from scratch, and all were very difficult.
My preferred method of theming now is to start with the fusion core subtheme. It does some of the basic things for you, i.e. 2 or 3 column, fluid or fixed, and also has many block areas already mapped out. Many of these can be setup at the browser level, without cracking any css or dealing with tpl.php files.
What I've recently found very useful is the fixes for IE and preinstalled CSS files for i.e.
It also makes it easy for you to override any of the default CSS in one file, local.css in your new theme's css directory.
Watch the demo on the page above to see how easy it is to move items within blocks.
My latest side (non-work) project where I've used this subtheme can be seen at http://chiyopia.com. :)
edit: Thanks to Greg for help with views_slideshow! :D
Balance of easy customization and time
Mike, thanks for the reply. I looked at fusion core and it does have some great features. The Drupal community really does seam to have developed a nice range of methods and free themes.
I searched through a lot of them, trying to find something that just worked. In the end, Artisteer seemed like such a great value to save further time. Each person will have their own method for maximizing time/results, which is great.
I'm thinking we might start out with a basic solution to adding the headers/footers to themes and then working forward on more specific solution (fusion core instructions, Artisteer instructions, modifying existing Drupal themes, etc...)