I'm fairly new at drupal, although I'm starting to get to dig around, and need some help. I'm trying to create either a blank page with all blocks, heading, and footer, etc. so I can create custom login stuff. I tried search and found results but everyone is doing something different. Should I create a .tpl.php file; if so, where do I find the docs on how to do this? I know someone would point me to use cck and flexinfo, but I can't get it the way I want to look. All help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Greg

Comments

VM’s picture

http://drupal.org/handbooks the customizing a theme section has quite a few pointers.

dfwgreg’s picture

The above resource is great but the information is way over my head. This is how much I've got done
=====================
I'm using the switch mode:

/**
* This snippet loads up different page-type.tpl.php layout
* files automatically. For use in a page.tpl.php file.
*
* This works with Drupal 4.5, Drupal 4.6 and Drupal 4.7
*/
if ($is_front) {/* check if it's the front page */
    include 'page-front.tpl.php'; /*load a custom front-page.tpl.php */
    return; }
if ($node->type == 'book') {/* check if it's a book page */
    include 'page-book.tpl.php'; /*load a page-book.tpl.php */
    return; }
if ($node->type == 'blog') {/* check if it's a blog node */
    include 'page-blog.tpl.php'; /*load page-blog.tpl.php */
    return; }
if ($node->type == 'image') {/* check if it's an image node */
    include 'page-image.tpl.php'; /*load page-image.tpl.php */
    return; }
if ($node->type == 'forum') {/* check if it's a forum node */
    include 'page-forum.tpl.php'; /*load page-forum.tpl.php */
    return; }
include 'page-front.tpl.php'; /*if none of the above applies, load the page-default.tpl.php */
    return;

How do I design a page to point to the above settings. What I want to do is keep everything my site has: headings, side bars, footer, etc, and then I create the pages I want individuality. Is this the way to go or am I in the wrong direction.

Thanks,
Greg

sodani’s picture

So you want to keep the headings, sidebars etc. for the new pages?

dfwgreg’s picture

Yep. What I want to do is create blank pages with all the blocks, navagations, header, footer, etc. I want to create blank pages but not use the page.tpl.php.

Thanks,
Greg