Guide

Hands-On Theming

  
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Guides > Hands-On Theming
Drupal 9Drupal 8

What will you learn

  • How the Drupal theme layer relates to the rest of the system
  • Common theming terminology and processes
  • How to override any of Drupal's HTML output
  • How to discover which templates are being used on a page
  • The relationship between base themes and sub themes
  • Everything you need to know about Twig when working with Drupal templates
  • How to add both custom and third-party CSS and JavaScript libraries
  • Tools for introspecting and debugging a theme

Overview

Get started with Drupal theming in 1 hour a week for 7 weeks. Based on our popular Drupal Theming Workshop featured at DrupalCon.

In this 7-week beginning Drupal theming course, we'll walk you through creating your first theme in Drupal. Each week consists of tutorials containing all the information you'll need to complete the hands-on exercise at the end of each section. It should take approximately 1 hour to go through each week's lessons.

When you have completed this guide, you will be ready to tackle any concept in Drupal theming, having attained a good foundation to build your knowledge. You'll also have a sandbox Drupal site to use to continue your theming journey.

If you want to own this course permanently, without needing a membership, you can purchase Practical Drupal Theming on Thinkific.

What about Drupal 9?

Long story, short: the vast majority of Drupal 8 tutorials will work on Drupal 9 sites. Due to how innovation now works in Drupal, new features are released in minor versions. Major releases, like the release of Drupal 9, contain all the features of Drupal 8, but with deprecated APIs removed, and some 3rd-party libraries updated. Learn more about Drupal 9 and what it means for your learning journey in our Guide to Drupal 9.

Tutorial
Upgrade to Drupal 9
More information

There's no one-size-fits-all path to upgrade from Drupal 8 to Drupal 9, but there is a set of common tasks that everyone will need to complete.

In this tutorial we'll:

Hands-On Theming

Prerequisites

HTML and CSS
More information

HTML and CSS are the foundational languages for how browsers display web pages.

This topic page contains links to Drupalize.Me and community resources.

Get started with your first Drupal theme

Based on our popular Drupal Theming Workshop, this 7-week course of tutorials and hands-on exercises will get you up and running with your first Drupal theme. Each week contains tutorials surrounding a key concept in Drupal theming. At the end of each week, you'll have an opportunity to put into practice what you've learned in the related tutorials with a hands-on exercise. By the end of this course, you'll have a working Drupal theme ready for you to further explore and learn concepts in Drupal theming.

Collection
Week 1: Setup
1 tutorial
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Collection
Week 2: Create a New Theme
5 tutorials
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Week 3: Add an Asset Library
4 tutorials
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Week 4: Configure Your Environment for Theme Development
2 tutorials
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Collection
Week 5: Override the Main Page Template
4 tutorials
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Collection
Week 6: Set Variables, Use Filters, and Add Classes in Templates
14 tutorials
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Collection
Week 7: Learn about Preprocess Functions
8 tutorials
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Continue your theming journey

The tutorials and exercises in this guide should give you a solid foundation upon which to build upon your knowledge of Drupal theming. There's much more to learn! Dive into Twig, JavaScript, React, responsive images, and how they can be used in Drupal. Check out our guide, Theme Drupal Sites to find the tutorials that interest you the most.

Testimonials

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"Drupalize.Me has trained thousands of Drupalistas. Their video lessons help to address our constant need for more Drupal talent. Drupal needs training like this to support its growth."

Dries Buytaert
Drupal Founder and Project Lead
Roger Carr

"They’re easy to understand. They’re thorough. They’re funny. They’re always entertaining, and it makes it easy to learn parts of Drupal and how you can integrate it into your workflow and learn more and have a good time doing it."

Roger Carr
Drupalize.Me Member
Roger Carr

FAQs

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Am I required to sign a contract?

No. You can purchase a membership and/or cancel any time. Drupalize.Me is a pay-as-you-go service.

Can I preview tutorials before joining?

Yes! Just navigate to our tutorial library. Our free tutorials are labeled with a green "FREE" tag.

Can I watch videos on my mobile device?

Yes! Drupalize.Me is a responsive site and can be accessed in the browser on any mobile device.

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