Talking about Zen and Theme Settings API
I was just interviewed by Jeff Robbins for Lullabot podcast #55. I’ve listened to this Drupal-lovin’ podcast since its inception, so it was pretty cool to be asked to do an an interview.
We mostly talked about the Zen theme, which I’ve put a lot of work into and, if you don’t already know, is a fantastic foundation from which to build your own custom-designed Drupal theme.
Listening to the interview, I realized a flubbed the explanation of the Theme Settings API. So let me clarify…
Drupal themes have always had the ability to change their settings by going to admin/build/themes/settings/MYTHEME. You can toggle the display of the Logo and site slogan for example. But what was broken in Drupal 5 (and 4.7) was that phptemplate themes couldn't add their own custom settings to that form. For example, the Zen theme uses the Theme Settings API to add some settings that allow the user to hide/display the breadcrumb, include/exclude the "home" link at the start of the breadcrumb, and change the breadcrumb separator from “›” to anything you want. I hope that makes more sense. If you are using Zen or a theme developer whose comfortable with PHP, you definitely need to check out that module.
Great work
If you are building a site, and not working with Zen, you're working too hard. The comments and notes throughout the files save a great deal of time, especially for those new to drupal.
Zen Drupal theme and Theme
Zen Drupal theme and Theme Settings API is really powerful Combination.
Zen is very flexible "base" theme, easy to modify.
And Theme Settings API gives posibility to make it convigurable.
Really great!
I just wanted to let you
I just wanted to let you know that I thoroughly enjoyed the podcast. It helped me get through the arduous task of the yardwork that I've put off for a few months this weekend. I learned a whole lot about the Zen theme, and I'm very excited to dive right in.
And yes, I was initially discouraged by the screenshot on drupal.org. However, the podcast shed light on the fact that Zen is something that I've been looking for all along.
Thank you for all of your hard work that you have put into the Drupal community.
- Joel
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