-// $Id$
-
WHERE TO START
--------------
other themes.
Don't worry! You don't need to learn everything all at once in order to make a
-drupal theme. Zen will do the bits you haven't learned and patiently wait for
+Drupal theme. Zen will do the bits you haven't learned and patiently wait for
you to discover the documentation and inline comments about them.
+WHAT ARE BASE THEMES, SUB-THEMES AND STARTER THEMES?
+----------------------------------------------------
+
+Often the best way to learn a system is to take an existing example and modify
+it to see how it works. One big disadvantage of this learning method is that if
+you break something and the original example worked before you hacked it,
+there's very little incentive for others to help you.
+
+Drupal's theming system has a solution to this problem: parent themes and
+sub-themes. A "sub-theme" will inherit all its HTML markup, CSS, and PHP code
+from its "parent theme" (also called a "base theme".) And with Drupal themes,
+it's easy for a sub-theme to override just the parts of the parent theme it
+wants to modify.
+
+A "starter theme" is a sub-theme designed specifically to be a good starting
+point for developing a custom theme for your website. It is usually paired with
+a base theme.
+
+So how do you create a theme with Zen?
+
+The Zen theme includes the Zen base theme as well as a starter theme called
+"STARTERKIT". You shouldn't modify any of the CSS or PHP files in the zen/
+folder; but instead you should create a sub-theme of zen and put it in a folder
+outside of the root zen/ folder.
+
+
SUGGESTED READING
-----------------
If you don't know how to install a Drupal theme, there is a quick primer later
in this document.
-Building a sub-theme
+Building a theme with Zen
See the STARTERKIT/README.txt file for full instructions.
Theme .info file
CSS
Once you have created your sub-theme, look at the README.txt in your
- sub-theme's css folder.
+ sub-theme's css folder. Don't freak out about all the files in this directory;
+ just read the README.txt file for an explanation.
Templates
Now take a look at the README.txt in your sub-theme's templates folder.
--------------
Full documentation on the Zen theme can be found in Drupal's Handbook:
- http://drupal.org/node/193318
+ http://drupal.org/documentation/theme/zen
Excellent documentation on Drupal theming can be found in the Theme Guide:
http://drupal.org/theme-guide
1. Download Zen from http://drupal.org/project/zen
2. Unpack the downloaded file, take the entire zen folder and place it in your
- Drupal installation under one of the following locations:
- sites/all/themes
- making it available to the default Drupal site and to all Drupal sites
- in a multi-site configuration
- sites/default/themes
- making it available to only the default Drupal site
- sites/example.com/themes
- making it available to only the example.com site if there is a
- sites/example.com/settings.php configuration file
-
- Please note: you will need to create the "theme" folder under "sites/all/"
- or "sites/default/".
+ Drupal installation under sites/all/themes. (Additional installation folders
+ can be used; see http://drupal.org/getting-started/install-contrib/themes
+ for more information.)
For more information about acceptable theme installation directories, read
the sites/default/default.settings.php file in your Drupal installation.
- 3. Log in as an administrator on your Drupal site and go to Administer > Site
- building > Themes (admin/build/themes). You will see the Zen theme there
- with links on how to create your own sub-theme. You can optionally make Zen
- the default theme.
+ 3. Log in as an administrator on your Drupal site and go to the Appearance page
+ at admin/appearance. You will see the Zen theme listed under the Disabled
+ Themes heading with links on how to create your own sub-theme. You can
+ optionally make Zen the default theme.
4. Now build your own sub-theme by reading the STARTERKIT/README.txt file.
projects / project/zen.git / blobdiff