Drupal Cheat Sheet Desktop Wallpaper
In this post we release a yet another freebie: a Drupal Cheat Sheet Desktop Wallpaper, a desktop wallpaper that features most popular variables of the open source content management system Drupal. The wallpaper was created by Giovanni Scala for Smashing Magazine and its readers.
Download the wallpapers for free!
Features
This pack is a set of wallpapers for Drupal developers showcasing available Drupal variables and their descriptions in a compact overview.
Page.tpl.phpdefines the main skeleton for the page,Node.tpl.phpcontrols the display of a node, and a node summary,Comment.tpl.phpdefines the HTML for the comments block,Block.tpl.phpcontains theme implementation to display a block (left and/or right side of page),Box.tpl.phpprints a simple HTML box around a page element.
Behind the design
As always, here are some insights from the designer:
Web developers typically work with many windows and applications opened at the same time, so why don’t use a wallpaper background to help remembering most used variables without opening a yet another window? Many users have alrealdy appreciated the WordPress Help Sheet Wallpaper, so we hope that the Drupal theme developers will enjoy this one, too.
Thank you, Giovanni. We appreciate your work and your good intentions.
AeM
June 14th, 2010 11:28 amthanks ! \o/
decibel.places
June 14th, 2010 11:46 amWith about 60 desktop icons, the wallpaper would work much better if darker – or perhaps lighter – the default blue makes it hard to see desktop denizens
Brandon
June 14th, 2010 12:24 pmI like using Fences for that problem. It gives organization to your desktop icons while adding a backdrop to the icons so that they can easily be seen. Then, when you want to see your wallpaper, just double-click the desktop and they all disappear.
jp
June 14th, 2010 8:30 pmwhy in god’s name would you have 60 icons on your desktop.. ugh..
decibel.places
June 27th, 2010 3:43 pmI darkened the background and shifted the text right to leave room for desktop icons on the left
http://netsperience.org/sites/default/files/images/DrupalWallpaper1440x900DarkerShiftRight.png
(yes, a designer will see I scaled the bg to fill the left area, instead of tiling it – but I think that provides a smoother bg under the icon area)
@jp – normally I have 40-50 desktop icons (most are shortcuts to folders I drop files or open frequently) – then a few app shortcuts, some random downloads etc.
TheAL
June 14th, 2010 12:14 pmDrupal + Smashingmag = Win!
SlowX
June 14th, 2010 7:11 pmI vote with TheAL.
Lee Regan
June 14th, 2010 1:05 pmIs there a PDF version of this available?? I have a habit of putting them into a notebook of cheat sheets I have.
In any case, thanks for making this!
Vitaly Friedman (Smashing Editorial)
June 14th, 2010 2:19 pmI will ask the designer to create a PDF version, too! Please stay tuned.
Anja Schirwinski
June 21st, 2010 2:04 amHave you heard back from the designer yet?
Dimitris24sta23
June 14th, 2010 2:09 pmThaaaaaaaaaaaaaanks!
Helge-Kristoffer Wang
June 14th, 2010 3:36 pmAwesome! :-) Would have been fun with different color schemes tho’.
ivan mejia
June 14th, 2010 5:06 pmNice wallpaper. may be you want to see this Drupal Cheat sheet for beginner :) http://drupalmexico.com/drupal-cheat-sheet-para-empezar
zwie
June 14th, 2010 7:16 pmVery nice =) Big thanks!
Kevin Althaus
June 14th, 2010 8:15 pmI am working on a Drupal project now and this is perfect, thank you Smashing (and creator)! Please more Drupal articles and resources. PDF version++
Palash
June 14th, 2010 9:29 pmThanks so much for this! I use Drupal on a daily basis, and this will be a very handy reference sheet.
Could you by any chance make another version with the most common theme functions? That’ll be kickass for us designer-noob-programmers. Thanks! :)
Ron
June 14th, 2010 9:42 pmthis is awesome! I just started using drupal a crap ton, maybe ill make it a background on one of my spaces !
Thanks again
Cherenkevich Aleksey
June 14th, 2010 11:00 pmThank you for your work. Great idea!
But in my opinion the typography of this helper is not good. There are ways to improve it.
Michael
June 14th, 2010 11:29 pmI need a tuttotial how to make own design for drupal.
TheAL
June 15th, 2010 12:05 am@Michael: Tutorial for making a Drupal theme? Try Drupal 6 Themes by Ric Shreves. 312 pages of Drupal theme goodnessed baked right in.
slegolego
June 15th, 2010 2:34 am@Michael : I’ve got this book from Ric Shreves and i agree with AL , it’s really useful and give a great insight of Drupal theming functions and other in depth features. I suggest you also to lurk around drupal.org, it’s full of guides and information. Plus the community is huge and really supportive.
SlowX
June 15th, 2010 4:27 amAnyone have a feel if this book and its info will be outdated w/ Drupal 7?
slegolego
June 15th, 2010 5:00 am@SlowX That’s an interesting question, but i’ve got a feeling that untill october ( as Michael says) this book will be one of the best guide available.
I’m sure as soon as Drupal go 7 there will be a spawn of new books and this one will be outdated, but in general I don’t know if the render engine will change , the basic theming structure looks pretty similar to me, even if , as you can see, there are a lot of improvements especially on the theming functions : http://drupal.org/update/theme/6/7. At the same time it gives you an in depth knolwedge of the whole theming structure in drupal and even how to create a theme form scratches.
Michael
June 15th, 2010 4:49 amthanks a lot!
I’ve found this book on amazon Drupal 7 Bible by Ric Shreves. Release date is 15 october 2010.
Michal
June 15th, 2010 2:28 amFinaly a smasmag, drupal article!
Sean
June 15th, 2010 6:04 amThanks for the Drupal support!
Mo
June 15th, 2010 8:15 amBrilliant!
Can we expect something similar for Joomla! use too? ;)
Mo x
SoFlaWeb
June 15th, 2010 9:28 amSmashing Drupal!!! :)
Sweefy
June 15th, 2010 9:58 amVery good idea, use on my desktop, thank you for sharing.
soren121
June 15th, 2010 11:24 amI whipped up a 1280×1024 version in Photoshop if anyone wants it:
http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/1197/drupalapi2.jpg
Adam DiCarlo
June 15th, 2010 11:31 amBlocks can appear in any theme region, not just in a sidebar. Cool reference having all of those variables and descriptions in one place, though if you’re building your theme off of Zen (which you usually should) there will be some other variables available and maybe some differences.
Why use Zen? As long as you follow its instructions (i.e. don’t completely butcher its CSS) you’ll have a muuuuch easier time getting your theme to work in many browsers.
Whether you use Zen or (e.g.) 960, please, please use a base theme, don’t code from scratch, and *don’t start from a copy of Garland*.
Sheena Donnelly
June 17th, 2010 11:05 amThere are tons of other great Drupal base themes besides just Zen. Zen (http://drupal.org/project/zen) is probably the best for beginners, but is a little restrictive in the regions and layout options out of the box.
Some other great base themes include:
NineSixty (based on 960.gs) http://drupal.org/project/ninesixty
BluePrint http://drupal.org/project/blueprint
and the two most advanced/flexible base themes:
Fusion http://drupal.org/project/fusion
Adaptive Theme http://drupal.org/project/adaptivetheme
Andy
June 16th, 2010 10:05 amSuck my node/1337.
Fire pits tables
June 16th, 2010 5:13 pmIs drupal really nice.???I would love to figure this out!
thanks
fire pit
Dave
June 16th, 2010 7:30 pmThanks for posting a Drupal article! I was shocked to see it come up on my RSS feed. Please, more Drupal stuff!
Kathryn
September 17th, 2010 7:47 amI would love to see more Drupal stuff, too!
Sid
June 17th, 2010 4:57 amWow .. Creative way to share cheat sheets .. Love this .. Thnx
Sid
Dijup
June 17th, 2010 11:41 pmWow ..Looks Good!
Ipads Tablet
June 21st, 2010 9:18 pma Drupal Cheat Sheet Desktop Wallpaper, a desktop wallpaper that features most popular variables of the open source content management system Drupal. The wallpaper was created by Giovanni Scala for Smashing Magazine and its readers.
ipad tablet
Matthe Winters
July 10th, 2010 10:53 amLove it! Every once in a while when its necessary to reference a theme variable, it’s nice to not even have to open a browser or look for notes.
edwardson sarenas
July 19th, 2010 10:54 pmhow to display the admin name or the user that is logged in?
is it included in the wallpaper?
Jane
October 5th, 2010 10:18 pmGreat one!
Giovanni Scala
January 29th, 2011 7:39 amUPDATE AVAILABLE FOR DRUPAL 7:
http://www.quicklycode.com/wallpapers/drupal-7-cheat-sheet-desktop-wallpaper