Theming
We've been hearing a lot about responsive design and the future of the web recently. At DrupalCamp Montreal this September, Jen Simmons and Jake Strawn talked about why responsive design is taking hold. I was inspired to try out some of the techniques they talked about, and decided to convert evolvingweb.ca to be more responsive.
DrupalCon offers lots of opportunities to learn about trends, new ideas, and new technology in the Drupal sphere. Here's a short list of the sessions from DrupalCon Chicago that we were most excited about.
We often define custom blocks in a site-specific module. Sometimes the markup in these blocks can start building up and we realize that it's time to create a template for the block. This is a good way to keep markup out of the module code. It's also a good way to practise writing cleaner and more themer-friendly modules.
CCK formatters are useful for theming content in a sustainable way. Instead of creating piles of template files to format content types, you can create re-usable CCK formatters and select how your fields are formatted using the "Display Fields" tab of a content type.
If you're building a large website in Drupal, you're likely to have a long list of views that you're using. Often, views require some custom configuration to match a given design or to provide the user with additional information. Sometimes you want to add dynamic text above or below the view, such as the number of results, or want to create a dynamic title beyond what views lets you configure through the user interface.
Evolving Web had an awesome time at Drupal Design Camp this weekend. It was a great success with hundreds of Drupal designers, themers, developers, and site builders in attendance from the northeastern states and beyond.
Building websites that are content-rich often means creating a user interface that displays lots of content on a single page. Sometimes it's hard to fit it all. Many designers turn to tabs to fit in all the content. In Drupal, there are several ways to implement tabs.