Understanding What a Drupal Theme Does & Doesn't Do
In the world of the Drupal content management system, a "Theme" is a set of parameters that determine how a Drupal site looks and functions. Within that broad definition, however, there are a dizzying array of themes, from bare-bones development platforms to turnkey designs that make almost all your decisions for you. Newcomers to Drupal need to understand the function of themes, and be aware of the things they need to do to complete a site design besides install a theme.
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Themes Control Look of Site
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The most important thing a Drupal theme does is determine how a site looks. Things like the number and size of available columns and headers, color palates, font defaults and the arrangement of content zones are all defined within the theme. Some themes include several options for each of these settings, while others leave much of the design set to default mode so you can code your own settings in the theme files without having to delete a lot of pre-existing code.
Themes Can Determine Which Modules Will Function
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Modules are chunks of third-party code that are installed as part of a Drupal site to add a variety of functions, from enhancing the administrator interface to allowing you to conduct e-commerce. Some modules are specifically designed to work with particular themes, and some themes are created for the deployment of particular modules. If a given module isn't supported by the theme you've installed, you will need to do quite a bit of reprogramming to make it work.
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Themes Can Help Control User Experience
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Drupal gives designers the potential to define many user roles and determine how the site behaves for each kind of user. Themes can preset many of these roles and permissions, given the kind of site they're designed for. For instance, a blogging theme might have already include roles and permission rights for multiple authors, comment rights for registered users.
Themes Don't Include Content
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When looking at Theme demos, it's often a little confusing as to how much of that great-looking layout actually comes with the theme. While themes may include background graphics, for instance, most images on the site are entirely up to you to load. Themes may also include generic copy on some kinds of pages, such as a Contact page, but it's usually pretty sparse. You still need to do plenty of your own copywriting.
Themes Don't Install Modules
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While themes may rely on or enable certain modules, they don't install them. That's why it's important to look at a theme's documentation and see which modules it needs to work, then check to see if those modules are compatible with your version of Drupal. You might find, for instance, that a popular theme relies on modules that exist for Drupal 6, but haven't been versioned for your Drupal 7 installation.
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