Previously I found the solution to theming a search form by using the search-block-form.tpl.php template file and thought there would be one for the feed icon too. I found the solution to this in the function reference in the form of a theme hook.

theme_feed_icon($url, $title)

This function is internally called by drupal to generate the feed icon in the Syndicate block. Our Job is to override this function.

Customizing the feed icon

We cannot redefine the same function in our theme so we must define a phptemplate function to override the default implementation.

function phptemplate_feed_icon($url,$title)

What It Must Do?

This function must return the code of the feed icon. Therefore instead of using a image, you may also use a text link as well as hard code a few options such as Subscribe via Twitter and E-Mail.

Therefore, to use your own subscribe by RSS icon, you may use a function similar to the following:

function phptemplate_feed_icon($url,$title)
{
	global $base_path;
	$path = path_to_theme();
 $feed_icon = '<a href=" '. check_url($url).'" class="feed-icon"><img src="'. $path.'/images/rss-header.png" /></a>';
        return $feed_icon;
}

This function is very simple . It just returns a image which is linked to the $url parameter of the function. This function is to be placed in the template.php file.

Summary

• Syndicate feed icon is customized using the theme_feed_icon template function.
• We use phptemplate_feed_icon($url,$title)  in our function to customize the syndicate feed icon block.
• The function should return the code of the syndicate feed block. This code may also include links to other services such as twitter and subscribing by e-mail.
• The function should be placed in your template.php file.

Step 1: Download And Extract Drupal From Drupal.org

Go to the drupal download page and download the latest version of drupal. Extract the file to a local folder.

Step 2: Upload the files to the server.

Use a reliable FTP client like FileZilla to connect to your shared hosting server. On your browser, browse to the directory which is the root of the domain name. If you are installing in a subdirectory or in a subdomain switch to the directory that corresponds to the subdomain. Upload the drupal files to the said directory. For illustration, I am going to use the domain name http://www.droople.com. This maps to /public_html/droople.com in the FTP directory where I am going to upload my drupal files.

So I will see my drupal site at http://www.droople.com

Step 3: Creating a mysql user and database.

1. Go to http://www.droople.com/cpanel or whatever your hosting provides for administering your server.
2. Go to MySQL databases.

   

3. There create a new database.

   

4. Create a new user (remember the password, you will need it). Make sure you don’t use a password that you use for sites or your email accounts. This will be stored in a text file in the server. If you later hire a programmer to do something on your site, they can see the password.

   

5. Add full permissions to the database to the database user you just created.

   

   

Usually shared hosting servers prepend your hosting’s user name to the database name. So if you create mysite. The cpanel will create white_mysite. If ‘white’ is your username of the hosting server. The same goes with the username of the databse server.

Enter the address of the directory/domain name in the browser.

http://www.droople.com

You will see the following screen:

Click on “Install Drupal in English”. You will see the following screen:

Don’t be alarmned! Seeing this is normal. Use your ftp client to switch to sites/default directory in your drupal installation directory (on the server). Download the default.settings.php file to your computer. Rename it as settings.php and upload it to the same directory. Now refresh the page showing the error above. Now you will see the following page:

Enter the database username and password you just created at the MySQL Databases section of the control panel. The form shown below follows:

Fill up the form with the necessary details take particular care in enering the Adminstrator’s account email address by making sure its a real email address and use a password you can remember as you will needed it to administer the website. You will see the following message with or without the error message depending on your server’s configuration.

Click on “your new site” and go to the newly installed drupal site!