[themes] php and learning to theme

[Laura Scott]

My feeling is that it depends. Some things, like user tests, can be  
very expensive resource-wise, and there are other ways to achieve  
that result. But other things can be quite easy and not the kind of  
thing you find in modules.

For example, one thing I often do is use a conditional to display  
different information in the node teaser vs. full node display.

I consider the theme to be precisely where what gets displayed where  
is determined. The more hard-coded and/or pre-formatted content is  
from the CMS, the more challenging I find theming to be.

Laura

On Jul 19, 2006, at 12:15 PM, Michelle Cox wrote:

> Personally, I wouldn't put that sort of thing in the theme. There  
> are modules available to access control and you and do a lot of  
> showing different things in different sections right through the  
> interface.
>
> Michelle
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "brendan carney" <info at fresh- 
> off.com>
> To: "A list for theme developers" <themes at drupal.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, July 19, 2006 10:35 AM
> Subject: Re: [themes] php and learning to theme
>
>
>> thanks Laura!
>> thats exactly the type of feed back i was looking for.  i was  
>> assuming that the conditional arguments would be of particular  
>> importance in directing which users see what, depending on where  
>> in the site they are. and i've already started poking around  
>> different themes trying to get some clues as to the way different  
>> people have approached things.
>>
>> so, thanks again for your response!
>> ---------------
>>
>>
>> Laura Scott wrote:
>>> As someone who learned (and is still very much learning) PHP to  
>>> work with Drupal, my recommendation is to focus on first things  
>>> first: Basic syntax. Basic commands. The various conditionals  
>>> arguments, especially. (if, elseif, case, switch)
>>>
>>> You can gain a lot of understanding, potentially, by going  
>>> through some of the existing contributed themes and see how they  
>>> approached different things. That's a start.
>>>
>>> Then maybe going into the theme snippets and php snippets in the  
>>> handbook would be next. Refer to your textbooks for background  
>>> and deeper understanding. (There are many online resources and  
>>> books out there. I've used the O'Reilly and Visual Quickpro Guide  
>>> books, both titled "PHP and MySQL".)
>>>
>>> I hope this helps. My philosophy is it's best to learn by doing,  
>>> whenever possible.
>>>
>>> Laura
>>>
>>>
>>> pingVision, LLC
>>> 4450 Arapahoe Ave, Suite 100
>>> Boulder, CO 80303
>>>
>>> www.pingv.com
>>> 303.415.2559
>>> inquiry at pingv.com
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Jul 14, 2006, at 12:40 PM, brendan carney wrote:
>>>
>>>> hello! my first post in this list..
>>>> what areas of PHP should i get familiar with (first) in order to  
>>>> really customize themes?
>>>>
>>>> a little background:  i've been poking around drupal for a  
>>>> while, and am starting to get a feel for it.  i consider my  
>>>> knowledge of modern table-less xhtml/css practices to be  
>>>> somewhere between intermediate and advanced.  my knowledge of  
>>>> PHP (and programing in general) is very limited.  i've made it  
>>>> through a few tutorials, and parts of a rather poorly written  
>>>> php book.  in short, i know enough about php to be willing to  
>>>> experiment, but it's still a little scary. (but only a little) =)
>>>>
>>>> i love xhtml/css, falling hard for drupal, and am excited to  
>>>> start learning PHP.  as i'm a graphic designer, being able  
>>>> really customize themes is of extreme interest, and an area of  
>>>> the community i'd like to be able to contribute to in the near  
>>>> future.
>>>>
>>>> i'm planing to start going through online php tutorials more  
>>>> regularly in order to become more familiar with php in general,  
>>>> and specifically so that i can customize and develop drupal  
>>>> themes to my heart's content.
>>>> so again, what areas in php should i particularly focus on with  
>>>> regards to themeing?
>>>>
>>>> thanks!
>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>> themes at drupal.org
>>>> http://lists.drupal.org/mailman/listinfo/themes
>>>
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>>>
>>>
>>
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