Installing the Georgia Tech Theme

You will need to download both the current Georgia Tech Drupal Theme package, and the GT Tools module.

1. Install the GT Tools module into your sites/all/modules directory, and the Georgia Tech Drupal Theme package into your sites/all/themes directory.
2. Log into your site with administrative privileges and enable the GT Tools module.  Please note that you do not have to enable the GT Content Types or GT Directory sub modules that come with GT Tools.
3. Go to the Appearance administration page and enable the "Georgia Tech - Drupal 7 Theme" and make it the default theme.
4. After enabling the new theme, follow the Settings link shown below its name to configure the theme's settings, using our GT Theme Settings Guide as a reference as needed.

Extending the Georgia Tech Theme

The recommended way of extending the Georgia Tech Theme to meet your unit's special needs is to create a sub-theme instead of modifying any of the files in the Georgia Tech Theme.  This way, when new versions of the official theme are released, you can just drop them into place and not have to figure out all the different things that you customized.

As a way to get started quickly, there is an unofficial GT Sub-theme package that you can use as a base for your own custom sub-theme.

An important hint for those new to sub-themes:  on your Appearance administration page, you set your sub-theme to be your enabled and default theme.  It will then include everything that it needs from your base theme (the official Georgia Tech Drupal Theme).  For this reason, you must leave the Georgia Tech Drupal Theme installed on your site, and it's a good idea to leave it enabled as well.

For advanced developers, there is also a Sass based version of the official Georgia Tech Drupal Theme.

Upgrading the Georgia Tech Theme

It is highly recommended that you first test any new version of the official Georgia Tech Drupal Theme against a copy of your website to make sure you fully understand the effect it will have on your pages and content.

If you have done all of your customizations in a sub-theme, then upgrading the official Georgia Tech Drupal Theme is very easy:

1. Download the latest version of the Georgia Tech Drupal Theme
2. Backup the existing files in your sites/all/themes/gt directory and then remove the directory.
3. Remove the sites/all/themes/gt directory.
4. Install the Georgia Tech Drupal Theme package into your sites/all/themes directory.
5. Log into your site with administrative privileges and flush all of the caches.  This can be done on the Configuration -> Development -> Performance administration page, or via the 'Home' menu if you have the Admin Menu third-party module installed.
6. Go to the Georgia Tech Drupal Theme settings page and verify that all of the available settings are correct.  Note: it has been observed that sometimes after upgrading the theme, you will find all of the settings fields blank the first time you visit the settings page.  If this happens, simply switch to the global theme settings page and the go back to the GT theme settings page, and your old settings should be restored.

Please note that a new version of the Georgia Tech Drupal Theme could cause conflicts with custom CSS and template code in a sub-theme, so you'll have to watch for these issues and update any custom CSS/template files accordingly.

The GT theme version 2.x offers a variety of settings options.

How to Manage Theme Settings

To manage these options:

• Go to: yoursite.gatech.edu/admin/appearance/settings/gt_subtheme
• Use the Appearance link if using the Administration Menu module

Description of Theme Settings

These include:

Georgia Tech Logo Options

Select the default GT logo, or go with one of the college logos. You can also upload a file to use, but it must be a transparent .png, and be within the specified dimensions -- plus be an official logo approved by Institute Communications! Contact Institute Communications if you need assistance getting a logo generated in the proper format.

Styling Version

This setting (only available in versions 2.5 through 2.7) configures which CSS/styling is applied to the GT website.  It allows you to switch to the new layout/style treatment (2.5) or stay backwards-compatible with previous styling. This is to help avoid "breaking" any styling folks may have done via a custom subtheme. The version 2.5 styling option also includes support for a couple of block classes that are added through the GT Tools module (/admin/config/system/gt):

New CSS styles for adding icons to block titles:

• icon-institution (displays: http://fontawesome.io/icon/university/)
• icon-mortar-board (http://fontawesome.io/icon/graduation-cap/)

New CSS styles for adding colored backgrounds to block titles:

• block-title-bg-gt-blue - GT Navy blue background w/ white text
• block-title-bg-gt-gold - GT "Buzz" gold background w/ white text
• block-title-bg-gray - "Dark" gray background (#646464) w/ white text

Site Header

These settings configure site header actions.

1. Site Header Title: Same as the previous theme. The text provided here will appear in the site header, to the right of the main logo. The text will be set in "Buzz" Gold.
2. Hide Home Page Title: Check this box if you want the default page title text to NOT appear on your home page. Note that this is NOT the Site Header Title (as mentioned above,) but the node title of your home page for your site.
3. Search Options: (Removed in version 2.7) Select to have your search be the built-in Drupal search, the campus Google appliance, or user choice.
4. Breadcrumb Options: By default the breadcrumb will list a link back to the main Georgia Tech site homepage first. If you'd like to have another default link always appear after the Georgia Tech link use these fields.

​Super Footer

These settings relate to the superfooter at the bottom of each page.

1. Remove Superfooter: (Added in version 2.7): completely hide the superfooter
2. Super Footer Menus Setup: The Full Georgia Tech Default option will give you the exact same set of super footer menus that appear on the home page of www.gatech.edu. The Georgia Tech Minimum option will give you just the menu from the left column in the super footer of the home page at www.gatech.edu, but the menu will be broken up into two shorter menus. The Configurable option allows you to have three fully configurable menus in your site's super footer.
3. Collapsed Super Footer: Check this option if you would like to have the super footer collapsed by default. If this option is checked a "Resources" tab will appear above the lower footer, which serves as an open/close trigger for the super footer.
4. Campus Map Image and Custom Street Address: By default the site super footer area will show an image of the campus map plus link to the map site, and the official GT mailing address. You can opt to upload your own map image, and have it link to where ever you'd like, plus enter your address.

Footer Login

These settings configure site footer login actions.

1. Show a login link in the footer.
2. Redirect to current page: (Added in version 2.7) instead of being redirected to homepage after you log in.
3. Alternate Login URL: (Added in version 2.7): If you use a different URL to log in to your site, provide that full URL (i.e., http://editor.mysite.gatech.edu).

The GT Tools module is required when using the GT Theme and should be installed before the theme on your Drupal 7 site.  It provides some additional functionality that Drupal doesn't support directly in a theme package, so this functionality had to be provided in a separate module.

GT Tools includes a sub-module called GT Content Types, which provides three new page layouts via custom content types: "Horizontal Landing Page", "Vertical Landing Page", and "Multipurpose Page".  If you want to use this sub-module, you must install the 2.2 version (or newer) of the blockreference module (older versions 2.0 and 2.1 don't work).