template

node.tpl.php in box_grey

We looked at page.tpl.php in box_grey which is a great, simple theme. It does have some limitations though:

• Tables are still used for visual Layout
• Structural tags are used strictly for clearing: <br class="clear" />
• Some static title and alt values are explicitly set

The default node.tpl.php mark-up on the other hand is quite usable. It's not nearly as complex as far as structure goes because it does not require any mark-up for layout. It is just the content after all:

Here's the official word from Drupal.org on node.tpl.php:

This template controls the display of a node, and a node summary.

View the Overview of node.tpl.php at Drupal.org

Node?

No really, what is a node? A node is an individual piece of content, so a blog post, a book page, a forum entry and an original CCK type entry are all nodes. So node.tpl.php is the template file that controls the display of nodes*.

Reviewing the box_grey page.tpl.php

We just looked at the the page.tpl.php file from box_grey. For the most part, the mark-up in the box_grey theme makes a very good base to build your theme upon. The file is not without it's faults though:

PROs

• External styles are used in lieu of Inline styles
• DIVs with logical ID and CLASS values are used for styling purposes
• PHP logic is used to show elements only if they are enabled

CONs

• Tables are still used for visual Layout
• Structural tags are used strictly for clearing: <br class="clear" />
• Some static title and alt values are explicitly set

We created box_grey_sans_tables or Sans to overcome some of the limitations of box_grey.