Drupal 8 Theme Development

Course Overview

In this course, you will learn to build your own custom themes for Drupal. The class covers Drupal 8 theming: using the Twig templating language and other Drupal theme features to implement responsive designs from HTML/graphic templates. During this course, you'll develop themes step-by-step, while following best practices to ensure maintainability and interoperability with Drupal module updates. This course is taught by a practicing Drupal developer and themer and will take a pragmatic approach to theming based on real-world experience.

Who is it for?

This course is for anyone who wants to create their own Drupal themes or customize existing themes. It targeted a web designers, system integrators, and anyone who want to tweak Drupal's look and feel to meet their needs.

Pre-requisites: This course was designed for those who have experience with Drupal site building and knowledge of HTML and CSS. Those without Drupal experience should take Building Websites with Drupal 8.

How is it taught?

The class will consist of four weekly video lessons, each around 3 hours long, and four weekly live Q&A sessions with the instructor. The lessons will cover the topics listed below and can be watched on-demand, anytime that is convenient for you. At the end of each lesson, you will be given an assignment to practice what you've learned. (We will provide web hosting for your practice work, so you don't need to worry about setting that up.)

The weekly live sessions will be conducted online, using the webinar software GotoMeeting. During the sessions, the instructor will answer all your questions from and will help troubleshoot any issues you have doing the assignment. (GotoMeeting allows us to view your computer, and take control of your keyboard and mouse if needed. So, we can see any error messages that you're seeing and figure out how to fix it right on the spot.) In addition to the live sessions, you will have access to an online forum to discuss assignments with other students and ask the instructor questions during the week.

After the course is over you can continue to access the lesson videos, free of charge, forever. There are no monthly subscription fees. Just come back and watch the lessons whenever you want. They are a great reference when you forget how to do something.

Topics Covered In This Course

The Drupal Theme System

• Creating new themes
• Integrating standard Drupal elements (navigation menus, content, blocks)
• Adding CSS and Javascript libraries
• Creating and overriding template files
• Declaring custom theme regions
• Overriding CSS and Javascript from Drupal core and contributed modules.

The Twig Template Language

• Overriding Twig template files
• Rendering and debugging content variables
• Formatting content with filters and functions
• Using conditionals and loops
• Combining template files together by including and extending

Advanced Drupal Theming

• Theming Views
• Adding custom javascript to themes
• Using preprocess functions
• Creating custom templates
• Implementing responsive designs
• Using the Responsive Images module

Turning a HTML/Graphic Design into a Drupal Theme

• How to decompose a static design into Drupal components
• Implementing a grid system like Bootstrap to create responsive designs
• How to theme components to build the design from the ground up in Drupal

Instructor

Wayne Eaker is the director and chief developer of Zengenuity. He's a Drupal expert with years of experience building highly-customized Drupal websites. He is also a seasoned trainer, having taught professionals, corporate clients and high school computer science students.

Cost

The cost for this course is $399. This includes:

• 14+ hours of video lessons and 4 weekly live sessions with your instruction.
• Permanent access to the recordings of the lessons and live session recordings. Watch them again anytime you need them!
• A local development environment and web hosting account for your practice Drupal site and custom themes.
• Access to an online forum to ask questions of the instructor and discuss with other students.