DrupalCon Vienna 2017: Drupal 8 Front-End: Theming vs. Configuration Conundrums
Channel: Drupal Association
Date: 2017-09-28

In Drupal 8, we have a very flexible theming system that allows you to override the front-end output of your site. At the same time, we have site building techniques and modules that give us lots of flexibility over the display of content, forms, navigation, Views, webforms, layouts and other components. Sometimes, it’s easy to know when site building stops and theming begins, but other times we have to decide which approach is the best.

In this session, we'll walk through a number of the tough choices you might face as a themer/site builder. Should I use view modes or configure the fields in views? Should I display an image using an image tag or a background image? Should I use a custom formatter or override a theme template? We’ll discuss how to decide which approach makes the most sense given your requirements and your project workflow.

Here are some example of the conundrums we'll discuss:

Using view modes vs. fields
Overriding HTML output in Views config vs. overriding a template
Using a view with a contextual filter vs. theming a field
Adding background images through CSS vs. displaying image tags
Creating regions vs. theming individual blocks
Configuring a layout plugin vs. using a template
Using a slideshow or overlay module vs. theming it yourself
Configuring vs. theming the output of webforms
This talk is designed for themers and site builders who are familiar with Drupal and want learn new techniques and best practices.