I was very proud to participate in the official DrupalCon Pre-Conference Training again this year. I decided to repeat my Intro to Drupal Theming class, especially since drupal 7 was such new territory. Our class size was limited to 20 students, which sold out in advance of the conference.

After reviewing some of the material in the slide deck, we attacked a fresh Drupal 7 install and quickly moved into template files in the Zen theme, which is a great tool for teaching. Next, we reviewed. some of the basics of Drupal template files, theme function overrides, and variables in tpl.php files. Our morning ended by creating a sub-theme of the Zen using the Zenophile module.

In the second half of the day, we looked at a flat image mock up I was handed for a recent theming job, and covered how to apply the styles and images to a Drupal 7 theme. After reviewing some concepts for theming Views output, we ended the day with a discussion and hands-on implementation of the 960 grid system in Drupal.

On the day of the class, Mike and I set up most of the students with a sandbox account on WebEnabled, (who is a sponsor of our podcast), giving them a quick way to follow along with the examples in class. Students all have the ability to access a carbon copy of the site through a WebEnabled account afterwards.