5 Things Drupal Could Learn From WordPress About Themes
OK, so before everyone starts sharpening their knives I would like to make a couple of points:
- I am not a closet WordPress fanboy ;) I have just been playing around with WordPress theming a bit lately, and these are some (hopefully) fairly objective observations.
- Drupal is in competition with WordPress. If Drupal can learn from WordPress in areas where WordPress is superior, and improve upon and surpass WordPress in those areas, ultimately it will help Drupal kick some WordPress butt.
All that said, here goes:
1. Pictures sell
Start by looking at the main theme download page on WordPress and compare it to Drupal's main theme download page.
Which one of those do you think looks more inviting to a designer trying to decide where they should spend their time, or a new user looking to develop their first site?
It's true that Drupal's main theme page has a lot more technical and detailed information, unlike WordPress' which actually has none, but when choosing a new theme I'd reckon that the single most important consideration for the majority of people is what their new theme will look like. If they like the look of the theme, then they will be concerned with other factors like the number of columns, validation, cross-browser compatibility etc. A good number of the Drupal theme listings don't even have screenshots – why not?
My suggestion would be to do one of two things, either:
- put up screenshots for all of the themes, and leave the rest of the details to the individual theme listing pages, or
- if you still wanted to provide details on the main page then do it alongside the screenshots but in a more user friendly way.
For example, why not get all theme contributors to fill out a series of yes/no questions when they upload a theme to drupal.org - things like is this theme valid CSS? Then just display the results in an easily digestable table alongside the screenshot. So, for the CSS you would have a little CSS icon and then a tick or cross to signify validation.
This would create uniformity making it simpler for the user, and also potentially allowing for a WordPress style list of filter options to sort themes by - like 1 column, 2 column, white, blue, red etc.
2. The default core theme
WordPress' default core theme is Kubrick (on the left), and it's pretty uninspiring. In fact there are a number of things I don't like about it like it's pretty dingy, the links in the sidebar are too small, the sidebar background color is actually not controlled from the CSS but is instead a part of the main background graphic etc.
By contrast, I think Drupal's default core theme, Garland (on the right), is much nicer. And the included color picker is undoubtedly a bonus. But, have you tried theming Garland beyond the stage of just changing the color scheme? It is one tough mutha.
As a designer, the first thing I did with WordPress after having a look around was to try and theme it a bit by editing some of the core theme files. It was a relatively simple process, and one which would give me the confidence as a designer/themer that I could well do a decent job on some more advanced theming of WordPress.
It's not that I think Drupal should compromise on Garland, but what about offering a nice themer friendly core theme as well - which brings me on to point 3…
3. Other core themes
WordPress only ships with one other core theme - classic, whilst Drupal ships with three others - bluemarine, chameleon, and pushbutton. That said, with themes I think it should be a question of quality not quantity.
So…
Firstly - 'classic'. It's pretty dull.
Secondly - 'bluemarine', 'chameleon', and 'pushbutton' - also pretty dull.
I do get that bluemarine, in particular, is intended as a good base theme for themers, but come on – how long has this theme been released with Drupal?
Just because a theme is intended as a base doesn't mean that it need be ugly, or that it couldn't be updated. IMHO that is one old skool looking theme.
I think Drupal could really get a jump on WordPress here by refreshing these alternative core theme options, and impressing potential users right out of the box.
4. Theme editor
Now this is an interesting one.
In WordPress there is a theme editor which allows you to edit a theme's files (like page.tpl.php, style.css etc. in the case of Drupal) from within your admin panel. No need to make a change to a file on your local machine and then re-upload the file, or even to change the file on your server and then re-save.
The flip side is that you could quickly get a version of your site on the server which is different from the version on your local computer, and you have a good potential for conflicts.
Whilst I'm not convinced that I'd necessarily use this theme editor for general editing, over the short period of time that I've been using WordPress I have liked this feature, and I could see the benefit for making minor theme alterations.
5. A note to the WordPress admin
And finally…I couldn't find a point 5 (sorry - I am a Drupal themer after all ;) ).
Anyway, luckily at the time of writing this post the main theme download page of WordPress looked like this in Firefox
Note to the WordPress admin:
Check the page, then write the headline ;)
Bookmark/Search this post with:
Hi, I'm Laurence and this is my Drupal blog.
Don't Make Me Think!
Pro Drupal Development
PHP Cookbook
Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?
Have you looked at the Zen theme before? I think that theme would be a very good one to include in the default installation of Drupal, if we're going for a nice-looking theme that's easy to customize.
This is a good commentary. I think that most will agree with what is wrong. The issue is that no one has stepped up to implement what needs to be changed (myself included!). There have been planning steps taken towards changing the look of the themes area on drupal.org (see http://groups.drupal.org/drupal-org-redesign-analysis to be sure...).
If I were to have a vote, I'd say that all of the themes except Garland are taken out of core immediately for Drupal 6. Not offering other options is better than the bad impression that the out dated themes give. Hopfully new themes hit Drupal 7 core. I know that there is a talk of a theming contest coming up.
From 4.6 -> now I've seen increasing amounts of design centric types begin to use Drupal. I do think that there is a shift taking place towards making Drupal pleasurable for designers. D6 will be a HUGE boon to themers, especially those with little or no PHP knowledge. Good things will come to those who wait...
Rick
Drupal 6 core is actually a lot more themer friendly. It doesn't have a true "easy to mod" theme, but it solves that problem in a different way. "Unskinned" Drupal is now a LOT more themer/CSS friendly. Themers can mix and match templates to override, or even just start throwing CSS on top of the existing HTML to get a variety of really nifty designs. The default look is no longer tables from 2001. It's just begging to be skinned. :-)
That said, a slimmer demo theme in core is a good thing. It's just not as much of an issue as it once was.
I agree with the internal editing of CSS and getting rid of Bluemarine (I quite like Chameleon) bur most of that is just the surface. Drupal is still much easier to theme if you want total control - and it's getting easier. The thumbnails in the Theme directory would be nice but they are largely the responsibility of maintainers. But I will take Drupal's repository with a proper release system over Wordpress any time. The 'test run' feature is a lot more interesting, though. BTW: A lot can be accomplished with Contemplate. There used to be a module to edit theme files in Drupal 4.7 but I could never quite get it to work.
However, there are lots of other things Drupal could learn from Wordpress. Well, one thing really. Content and comment management. Try weed out spam from a hundred comments on Drupal and Wordpress and you'll see what I mean. (Sorry, for being slightly off-topic, but this is a bugbear of mine and the only reason I have switched one of my main blogs to Drupal, yet.)
I used SMS forums before and its okay, if not extremely customizable like Drupal is, but it has a couple of really cool features.
1. You can upgrade the entire website from the admin panel without downloading or uploading any files.
2. You install packages by uploading the archived file and it handles the placement of the code and the archiving of the code.
3. You can apply a patch to the core code or a module code, again without uploading a file.
It was pretty cool. Some of these improvements are a good idea for Drupal. The repository/distribution model that Linux uses is quite a good one, and although I see it exists in CVS, it's a very manual process still. An apt-get for Drupal would be a good idea.
Dave
The Zen base theme is quite scary to look at for a beginner. There are almost *too* many files in there to do everything.
Editing a themes files like Wordpress can be done in Drupal, although the project is stuck in v4.7 land - http://drupal.org/project/theme_editor
I use Drupal and Wordpress and I disagree.
Wordpress and Drupal serve different purposes and therefore are not in competition with each other.
Drupal has basically become a CMS framework where as Wordpress is an out of box Blog CMS.
I think Drupal and Wordpress are both just as easy to theme its just that Wordpress has more documentation, the documentation is easier to find, and its organized logically. Drupal theming documentation is hidden away and its organized like mud thrown against a wall randomly.
Thats makes it easier for designers to learn the Wordpress theming engine.
So Wordpress is more likely to get all the hot designers while Drupal gets the sucky designers - developers moonlighting as designers.
You look at all the Drupal themes and they look like they've been designed by coders/programmers/developers and that's because they have. No one else can figure out the documentation.
Thanks for this well balanced review!
My vote goes to WordPress for all my blogs (on different subjects) mainly because it just feels good.
On one side, admin-wise, I have my blog entries which instantly display correctly and on the other, I have a collection of pages which contain rather static information.
It just works better (sorry, Drupal).
Also, Drupal needs to find a wy to attract more "pro" designers so that complex menus and commercial-grade themes become available.
Drupal is gaining ground but WordPress is still the clear leader, from a web publisher's standpoint.
Wordpress is the best cms system I've ever used. But also Drupal is coming into prominence. Thanks. My WP websites: karakalem : )
I agree 100%. Drupal's theme are a more dull shade of blue... I don't like it at all.
I would like to give a vote to Drupal.
Yes, maybe Drupal has much work to do in the theming field.... but this situation has a reason: Drupal had been focused in more important things: those that give drupal its superiority over other cms. It is just a matter of time that more and more designers start working with drupal.
I thing this is the right approach: firstly, architechs work freely, then designers present their nice work in a prettier fashion ;-).
They both have advantages and disadvantages. A rookie php coder can easily use both of them. By the way ; thanks for the text and pictures.
I have used Wordpress in the past and have transitioned to Drupal - Drupal is a much, much better system, though I have to say that the theming is a bit of a nightmare to get into.
I think I just hacked away and got a Wordpress theme working in a couple of hours, whereas Drupal is taking a lot of messing about to get working. I know it will be worth the effort once I learn it but for most people it is currently too inaccessible for a quick website.
Has anyone noticed how many Drupal based blogs/websites just use the default Drupal themes? I think that tells you something in itself.
Good write up and a good overview.
Rick
try roopletheme. they have some quite nice themes.
I think the people behind drupal want to keep it developer centric. too bad because there are more designers who build more popular websites than developers who build ugly sites. wordpress is mainstream while drupal is just catering to programmers and coders, who tend to build sites for clients.
drupal documentation sucks and their forum ignores newbie questions - questions that warrant some decent explaining - such as the different ways to build a site structure (books, pages or taxonomy).
theming needs to be accomplished from a designers view, not what a programmer thinks is the best way to theme. i think drupal refuses to acknowledge the creative types who design instead of develop. in their minds only coders should be building websites.
until drupal opens up to the creatives and designers, it will just be a tool to build a site for someone other than yourself.
I think I just hacked away and got a Wordpress theme working in a couple of hours, whereas Drupal is taking a lot of messing about to get working. I know it will be worth the effort once I learn it but for most people it is currently too inaccessible for a quick website.
Has anyone noticed how many Drupal based blogs/websites just use the default Drupal themes? I think that tells you something in itself.
Good write up and a good overview.
Very good post, I do hope Drupal does adopt some of these ideas.
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