Introduction to BIG DADDY

BigDaddy is not a ready-made theme but only a good basis for theme developers. BigDaddy will facilitate your theme development and give you an optimal start to have a good rendered HTML output and clean CSS declarations. It's up to you to add templates, theme functions or CSS to adapt it to your Web project.

I concentrate myself to create CSS as clean as possible with optimal typography rules to enlarge legibilty.

I recommend to read the sources listed in the typography.css file to understand what web typography is and adapt the rules to your theme.
I few settings will help you to achieve this like Syncotype for vertical rythm.

I created a SUBTHEME LittleGirl to show you how to create a subtheme based on BigDaddy but you can work directly in the BigDaddy theme and rename it (for this option, follow the instructions listed in the 'Installation' section).

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Installation

- Download BigDaddy from http://drupal.org/project/bigdaddy
- Unpack the downloaded file and place the BigDaddy folder in your Drupal installation under 
  one of the following locations:

    * sites/all/themes
    * sites/default/themes
    * sites/example.com/themes 

- Log in as an administrator on your Drupal site and go to 
  Administer > Site building > Themes (admin/build/themes) and make BigDaddy the default theme.

- if you want to change the name of the theme from 'bigdaddy' to another name like 'mytheme',
follow these steps (to do BEFORE enabling the theme) :

	- rename the theme folder to 'mytheme'
	- rename bigdaddy.info to mytheme.info
	- Edit bigdaddy.info and change the name and the description
	- In bigdaddy.info, template.php and theme-settings.php, change each iteration of 'bigdaddy' to 'mytheme'
	
__________________________________________________________________________________________

What are the files for ?
------------------------

- bigdaddy.info => provide informations about the theme, regions, css, settings, js ...
- block.tpl.php => template to modify the blocks html structure
- maintenance-page.tpl.php => template modify the maintenance page html structure (maintenance = when your site is offline for big updates)
- node.tpl.php => template modifify the nodes html structure
- page.tpl.php => template to modify the pages html structures (most important template, here you can add/remove regions to define your information architecture. Don't forget to add/remove this regions in the .info file)
- template.php => used to modify drupal's default behavior before outputting HTML through the theme
- theme-settings => used to create additional settings in the theme settings page

The /styles folder
------------------

- reset.css => stylesheet based on Eric Meyer's browser resets with a few specific resets for Drupal
- master.css => define default classes for your content, define global layout of your Website and regions layouts.
- typography.css => contains font styles, font line-heights and margins and link style. Here you can redefine your vertical rythm.
- master-print.css => define the way the theme look like when printed
- ie.css => used to debug IE. You can add other stylesheet to debug specifig IE versions. Follow the instructions in the ie.css file.
- settings.css => theme settings styles. If you renamed your regions and their IDs or add regions, you must modify this file to add the new changes to the wireframes styles (feel free to change the colors).
__________________________________________________________________________________________

Changing the Layout

The layout used in BigDaddy is a very classic and standard HTML output. It has been tested on all major browser including IE (7 & 8), Opera, Firefox, Safari, Chrome ... 
=> IMPORTANT, NOT FULL TESTED ON IE6! Up to you to make debugs if your site must works under this version.
The purpose of this method is to have a minimal markup for an ideal display. The regions name are in adequacy with the variables names in Drupal 7 to prepare a possible update of your Drupal version:

	1. HEADER
	2. SIDEBAR FIRST
	3. CONTENT
	4. SUB-CONTENT
	4. SIDEBAR SECOND
	5. FOOTER
	
You're free to change order and add/remove regions. Don't forget to modify the .info file with the new changes.
__________________________________________________________________________________________

SKINR OPTION

BigDaddy is ready to work with the Skinr module (http://drupal.org/project/skinr). You can already in the block administration add specific classes to your blocks. In the .info file, you can add more skinr settings.

To learn more abour skinr
------------------------- 
Skinr presentation: http://drupal.org/node/578552 
Documentaion: http://drupal.org/node/578574

__________________________________________________________________________________________

PANELS OPTION

If your site is using panels (http://drupal.org/project/panels), BigDaddy has already add a custom layout for you in the "layouts" folder. This is a good thing if your want to create your own panel templates and their CSS. If you want to create your own layout, duplicate the folder "customlayout" and rename it with your name. Don't forget to change each iteration of 'customlayout' to 'myname' in the files.


To learn more about panels layouts
----------------------------------
Panels 3 - Creating a custom layout in your theme: http://drupal.org/node/495654
Multiple custom layouts work slightly different: http://drupal.org/node/514646

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Thanks for using BigDaddy, and remember to use the issue queue in drupal.org for any question
or bug report:

http://drupal.org/project/issues/bigdaddy

Current maintainer:
* Maxime Rabot - http://drupal.org/user/429474 (maximer)