[themes] Workflow Question

[Farsheed]

I generally like Squiggy's approach in creating static html and then inserting Drupal after the fact.  My approach is slightly different though: 

1) take the Framework theme, rename it as a new theme (making sure to rename .info files and template.php function names)
2) comment out or remove all the content related drupal variables in page.tpl.php (sometimes i'll replace it with static dummy text)
3) this leaves me with a skeleton html tpl.php file but still loads in JS and CSS dynamically through Drupal
4) I'll build out the theme using style.css (again commenting or deleting when it is distracting) 
5) Then I'll replace the variables from #2 and continue styling those regions individually

I like Framework for this because it has a well structured CSS file and very basic tpl.php files, and minimum cruft to read through/delete. Readability is important for me.

I also prefer to not use subthemes because it seems less confusing, easier, and faster to just rename a downloaded theme as a new theme.

I like to leave the dynamic JS/CSS load because I want to know what kind of CSS or JS is coming down the pipeline from other modules that might potentially cause css class name or style conflicts with my own style.css. Nothing is more frustrating to me than thinking I'm done but then having a module conflicting with it.

I rely heavily on Webdeveloper & Firebug for Firefox, and Devel module for printing out variable content dsm($node) and clearing all caches quickly which is critical for theming advanced stuff in Drupal. Theme developer I'll use occasionally when battling strange bugs but it tends to slow down page loads, which reduces my productivity.

The important thing I think is to adapt Drupal to your workflow and not the other way around. It's helpful to play around with existing themes to learn how they work but despite what anyone says there is no real "right" or standard way of doing it.

zirafa





--- On Sat, 10/24/09, Mark Shropshire <mdshrops at shropnet.net> wrote:

> From: Mark Shropshire <mdshrops at shropnet.net>
> Subject: Re: [themes] Workflow Question
> To: "A list for theme developers" <themes at drupal.org>
> Date: Saturday, October 24, 2009, 3:21 PM
> Laura,
> Sub-themes outside of the the theme folder is
> very important. It has really helped me when I update the
> base contrib themes since the sub-themes no longer have to
> be a subfolder within the base theme as in Drupal
> 5.
> Thanks for bringing this up!
> Mark
> On Oct 24, 2009, at 12:34 PM, Laura
> wrote:
> Something others have not said, but is
> extremely important: Do not  
> modify a theme you download. Make your theme a sub-theme of
> the base  
> theme you select, and then just override what you want.
> More info on  
> that is here: http://drupal.org/node/225125
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> themes mailing list
> themes at drupal.org
> http://lists.drupal.org/mailman/listinfo/themes
> 
> 
> -----Inline Attachment Follows-----
> 
> _______________________________________________
> themes mailing list
> themes at drupal.org
> http://lists.drupal.org/mailman/listinfo/themes
>