sustainable theming

Sustainable themingIts actually not just about theming.

What is it?

Sustainable Theming is...

developing a site that does not rely on you. You being the key word.

process for multi-person development teams.

keeping the team healthy.

streamlining your business processes.

patience.

It is not...about you.

It is not...CSS built before data architecture plan or development

CSS built before content types

CSS built before Views

CSS built before proliferated content

CSS built before fiddling with the TPLs

About writing HTML

Limited to theming

It’s about relying on what’s there

The markup structure that is coming from the system.

Using the markup provided by modules like Views and CCK.

And if you have a problem with the markup, get involved in making it better, in core, and not rewriting it yourself.

It may not be for...

a solo web developer

a person who will never update a site.

mortendk ;)

unless we can get him drunk enough

Who is it for?

And it’s not about the technique

So why should you do it?

So You Don’t Get Burned!!!

So you can take a vacation!

and...

Avoid having to start from scratch every time.

Easier to work in parallel with other teams.

So the client/maintainer can extend the site...without you, or a developer, or CSS additions, or HTML modifications, or TPL tweaking.

Why can’t we...put the power in the hands of the user?

make ourselves replaceable?

make things easier on the maintainer?

Palantir’s Approach

Palantir’s ApproachThere is no stylistic approach to HTML or CSS

Re-arranging markup first, rarely removing or modifying markup

Admin before TPL

Consider ease of workflow over ease of theming

Why we use ZenBecause we have commit access

CSS broken out by task

Semantic markup

Paint by numbers CSS

Logic based CSS classes

Layout method for markup source reordering

Common starting point

Flexible and complex designs, predictable markup and CSS

Why we transitionedSo we could support sites 6+ months after release.

So our clients could extend their own sites.

So our clients could adopt their sites as their own.

So we could have multiple themers on a project.

So we could streamline our process.

Streamline yourbusiness process

design process

development process

Q/A

knowledge transfer

Drupal is not a website.

Drupal is a content

management system

Just because it works doesn’t mean it’s right.

http://thereifixedit.com/2009/08/17/epic-kludge-photo-now-with-twice-the-windows/