The Anatomy of a PHPTemplate Theme

Now that you’ve learned all about Theme Engines you can get used to PHPTemplate because that’s what we’ll be using.

You already know that PHPTemplate is Drupal’s default Theme Engine and it does not look like that will change soon in future releases. In fact, you’ll find that nearly all of the contributed themes at Drupal.org are available for PHPTemplate.

So why is PHPTemplate the de facto standard for Theme Development?

PROs

• Speed, PHPTemplate themes do not need to be processed by the theme engine, and as such execute a lot faster than most other template engines
• Flexibility, the advanced user can access any information / functionality available in the Drupal API, and is not restricted to what the template engine / language allows him to do

CONs

• Embedded PHP, some theme developers may find the embedded PHP more difficult to work around than the streamline tags in Smarty or XTemplate

More Thoughts on Theme Engines

If you would like to know more about Theme Engines from the creator of PHPTemplate and people who develop themes try this article out: http://drupal.org/node/7133

Themeing Resources and Tips:

• http://drupal.org/phptemplate