In this video we cover a new Drupal 7 feature which lets us create suggestions for theme functions, in addition to suggestions for templates. We'll use this to modify the tags displaying on a node in our site.
Notes:
In the example: $item['#options]['attributes'] += $variables['item_attributes_array'][$delta]; += is a shortcut for array_merge. So it is ensuring the contents of $variables['item_attributes_array'][$delta] are included in $item['#options]['attributes'] so that any class, rdf info or other html attributes are appropriate applied to the tag links. It's possible for any number of modules to set HTML attributes on the tags field in the theme we need to make sure that they get printed out appropriately.
Additional resources
This chapter gives an introduction to how you work with Drupal's renderable, form arrays by adding an image button to the search form. It also walks through the process of adding the necessary classes to a form element so that the image button is properly aligned. The Forms API reference document is a pretty essential reference document for creating and editing forms in Drupal.
Although we use the function dsm() in this video, this should probably be dpm() as that's the preferred function name. The functions dsm() and dpm() are identical.
Additional resources
You can use custom image sizes for automatic display in your Views!
We already know that being able to set a standard for image display creates consistency and a better user experience. It also makes it for easier site administration because you don’t need to cut all of you images before you upload them. Drupal does all the work for you!! Not only can we specify what the image will look like at the node-level, we can also specify what the image will look like in Views.
I am assuming that you already know how to create custom image style presets, and are familiar with the Views module.
For this tutorial, you need to make sure the Image module that comes with Drupal Core is enabled and that you have already downloaded and enabled the Views module along with its prerequisites.
We will use the example of a blog, where we add our scaled images to display in the listing.
Walks through the process of enabling the theme developer module and showing the themer info, which is like Firebug for Drupal theming. You can choose specific elements on the page to see what Drupal template files or theme functions were involved with outputting it to the screen. You can easily look at the candidate template names that are available, as well as see all of the variables that are available from that template file. A list of documented variables can be found within the node module's node.tpl.php file, but sometimes there are undocumented variables that are coming from contributed modules or elsewhere. It's a super handy tool to have available, but only enable it when you really need it since it can adversely affect the mark-up on your page and cause some wonky behavior.
Additional notes:
The Theme Developer module is on Drupal.org at http://drupal.org/project/devel_themer. Once you find a module on Drupal.org, you can see the "machine name" for the module in the URL (it is the same name as is used to for the module's .info file as well). That is the name that Drush uses. So, in this instance, Drush is looking for "devel_themer".
drush dl devel_themer
Additional resources
Shows how to create a theme template suggestion for a specific node type. In this chapter, we create a dynamic template for the article node type by copying the node.tpl.php into a node--article.tpl.php where the 'article' is the machine-readable name for the article content type. We add some specific styling to the node author submission information as well as the date. We also discuss how Drupal looks for the most specific template suggestion (i.e. the node id), then moves to more and more generalized template files like the content type, and then the node.tpl.php as the most general. The Drupal.org documentation page that we look at can be found at http://drupal.org/node/1089656.
Additional notes:
The field_tags variable relates to the corresponding tags field on the article content type. For every field you have on your node the $content variable will contain the rendered content of that node in a key that is the name of the field. So in this case $content['field_tags'] contains all of the tags applied to the node.
Additional resources
This chapter walks through how you can conditionally add either JavaScript or CSS to a content element as well as how to cache the content with Drupal's caching system. Additional notes: The cache will clear the first time cron.php is run AFTER whatever time you've specified as the cache expiration date in your code. Which you could easily calculate to be 30 seconds in the future and then store that timestamp in the database. However, you would also need to make sure that cron was running frequently enough to clear the cache every 30 seconds.
Additional resources
Render Arrays overview (Drupal.org)
In this video we'll look at adding yet another field handler, but in this instance we will be adding a Views field that does not directly map to an actual field in the database. Instead we will be creating our own variation on some data and adding it as a field that can be used in our views — a field that shows the percentage of page views as a black bar graph.
One of the most common things to do with Views is export a view from your site and store it in code as a default View. This is what Features module does when you create a feature with a view in it. In this lesson we'll export our sample site's view and add it to our module with hook_views_default_views().
In this video Joe will walk through writing a custom field handler for views. Demonstrating how to extend the set of handlers that come with the views module in order to provide new functionality or for dealing with new types of data. In this case we'll look at how to treat the numerical values in the databasics module as percentages in views. The method used to write a field handler in this video is similar to overriding other handlers like filters and sorts that will be discussed in coming chapters and provides some important foundations for understanding how to work with all views handlers.
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In this video Joe looks at using hook_views_data() in order to describe a database table to views such that views is capable of making queries to that table. We’ll talk about describing the table itself, and how to get it to appear in the views UI as an option that can be used as a base table.
Additional resources
Modules Needed
This video continues the process of adding a custom field handler started in the previous chapter.
Additional resources
This chapter goes through the minimum steps for registering a theme within Drupal by creating a .info file. It also shows the syntax for a theme to be able to add custom CSS to your site as we start to implement our example design.
Additional resources
Theming Basics for Drupal 7 will provide a solid foundation for translating designs into Drupal themes. You'll learn to work with .info and tpl.php template files, how to add CSS and JavaScript, how to work with the render system new in Drupal 7, how to override templates, create regions, and use the Theme Developer tool. You'll start with the original HTML, CSS and JavaScript template files that were provided by the designer so that you can follow along in translating the design into a Drupal 7 theme. The video explains Drupal's design vernacular, concepts, and special needs. We'll show you how to associate the proper CSS & Javascript files, add all of the necessary regions, and control the HTML output through page and node-specific templates. You'll learn about the best tools and strategies for controlling the look and feel of your Drupal website.
This series will cover the basics of Drupal theming while the more advanced theming topics of working with the template.php file will be covered in the Advanced Theming for Drupal 7 series. These videos pair with each other, and will finish the complete implementation of the 960 Robots theme used in both videos. You can download the theme we're building from Drupal.org: 960 Robots.
Examples in this video are based on Drupal 7 and its variants.
In this introduction video, we set the stage for the Theming Basics series. We give an overview of what Drupal theming is, the common files we will work with, and the overall steps involved. Then we start off by defining and taking a look at the .info file and HTML template (tpl.php) files. We talk about regions and theme features, introduce the render() function, and explain dynamic templates. While we are teaching Drupal 7 theming, we also make sure to point out the important differences between Drupal 6 and 7.
Additional resources
In this video Joe continues the discussion of using hook_views_data() to describe a module's table to the views module. Building on what was covered in the previous chapter we now deal with exposing one of the individual columns from our table as a field that views can use for filters, sorts, and to display.
Additional resources
Modules Needed
In this chapter Joe will take a look at where to get a copy of the databasics code and what it does already. Throughout the rest of this series we will be working towards replacing functionality from the databasics modules with views integration in order to allow for greater flexibility in the ways that our module can be used. We'll talk about each of this pieces of functionality in this chapter.
Additional resources
Databasics module on GitHub
Overview of the Database Layer in Drupal 7
To get things started, in this lesson we'll create a new module, and use hook_views_api() to let Views know we want to use its API.
In this video we introduce the template.php file and create our first preprocess function. We explain what the preprocess hooks are and how to name the function properly, then we show a list of existing variables, and how to modify one of those existing variables.
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In this lesson, we give a brief overview of utilizing a very important feature when it comes to working with Drupal and that's Drupal.org. We show you how to get to the Views API documentation that is now part of Drupal's API documentation and teach you how to use the search function for finding particular function.
Additional resources
