Thanks for your reply Sebastian!

The Path module had previously been installed, and after reading your post I installed PathAuto.  But the Theme Developer still isn’t giving me any better candidate file choices. 

For example, I  have a "Services" page, and using PathAuto have it set so that all the sub pages of "Services" to  automatically come out with nice URLS (e.g. "services/print").

But I'm still getting candidates like these:

"page-node-2.tpl.php < page-node.tpl.php < page.tpl.php"   (services)

"page-node-72.tpl.php < page-node.tpl.php < page.tpl.php" (services/print)


from the Theme Developer.  You also said to make sure I am linking to the page by its human name  - not sure what you mean.  Pages are linked to by human names in my navigation and Path Info,  but its human names I’m hoping the Theme Developer will give me for candidate files.

I tried creating a custom content type for all my Services pages, but that doesn’t seem to have provided any additional candidates.

Regarding your #2 suggestion I understand the CSS part, but the Drupal part is beyond me.  Wouldn’t I need a node variable to appear somewhere in the Body tag, or perhaps a wrapper div of some sort to make that work

It doesn’t seem like maintaining readable naming conventions for complex themes should be this difficult there must be some basic concept Im missing? 

But Ive been working on it all evening and Im stuck!

Brendan

P.S. Ill probably try out your theming views suggestion for the blog entries.  As for Panels, I was hoping to do all the theming by hand and keep the markup as concise as possible but if it keeps taking this long, I may have to use the Panels Module

-----Original Message-----
From: themes-bounces@drupal.org [mailto:themes-bounces@drupal.org] On Behalf Of sebastian
Sent: Wednesday, November 25, 2009 10:35 AM
To: A list for theme developers
Subject: Re: [themes] How do i theme blog entries by content type?

Hi Brendan,

1. If you are using pathauto, or url names that are more legible than

node/47 etc. then you should also get better theme template suggestions.

Make sure that you are linking to the page by its human-name, not its ID

number.

Some possible other solutions:

2. User devel to find the $node->type variable, and populate that in one

of your div tags id or class name at a high enough level, that you can

then detect and then theme just that page (or group of pages by type),

this would be done in your main page.tpl.php [and then you don't even

need a separate tpl.php files...]

3. Use Views to make a blog view that you like, and then you can theme

just that View [with however many 'pages' you make of that view as

daughters]

4. Use Panels with Views, and then theme on the Panels level.

I'm sure there are others I am forgetting [there is always more than 4

ways to skin a...]

brendan, fresh-off.com wrote:

> *Hello Themers!*

>

>

> */How do I theme a page based on content type?/*

> I’ve got a site with a few different custom pages and separate .tpl.php

> files for their custom layouts and CSS/XHTML.  The “Blog” page is a View

> with a list of teasers.  How do I create a custom .tpl.php file that

> only targets the “page” (and layout) that the individual/full blog

> entries are displayed on?

>

>

> The Theme Developer list these as the candidate files: 

>  *page-node-#.tpl.php *<* **page-node.tpl.php *<* **page.tpl.php.  *

>

>

> But I don’t want to use “page.tpl.php” as its too broad in its reach and

>  I may decide to add other pages non-blog pages in the future.

>

>

> I’ve tried “page-blog.tpl.php” – but it broke my layout.  I still have

> some unresolved CSS/XHTML issues, so I’m wondering if

> “page-blog.tpl.php” is the correct  naming convention, but  I just have

> a few bugs in my code to work out?

>

>

>

> /A second (less important) question: /

>

> Keeping track of all those .tpl.php files is getting confusing!  The

> Views pages are easy (“page-blog.tpl.php”  or “page-work.tpl.php”  for

> example), but Theme Developer is telling me that for all pages using the

> “page” content type, that I have to style them by their ID

> (“page-node-1.tpl.php” for the “about” page).  Is there any way to name

> a .tpl.php file for a page content type in a more semantic/meaningful way?

>

>

> Such as “page-contact.tpl.php” instead of “page-node-392.tpl.php”

>

>

>

> Thanks!

>

>

>

>

>

> *brendan, fresh-off.com*

>

> Creative Direction & Consultation: Web | Print | Brand

>

>

> http://fresh-off.com

>

> hello@fresh-off.com <mailto:hello@fresh-off.com>

>

> 206.328.1067

>

>

>

>

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>

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